ABSTRACT
Like London, the cities of Manchester, Bristol and Leeds had strong local Labour Party organisations, which actively promoted comprehensive education. The experience of London and these three cities provides strong support for the argument that the comprehensive movement was an urban movement, led by the Labour Party. In Manchester, the ideology of Socialist politicians did little to challenge the scepticism of the Local Education Authority administrators, but in Bristol, it was the Chief Education Officer himself who should be seen as the progenitor of educational radicalism. Accordingly, in March 1964, the reorganisation sub-committee was requested to approve an additional plan which would permit comprehensive schools to operate as soon as possible. Labour's political opponents in Bristol, the Citizen Party – nominally independent, but Conservative in all but name – were quick to capitalise upon the ambiguity which had been exposed by central Bristol remaining selective.
