Undoubtedly Mrs Thatcher did have a low opinion of the Department ofEducation and Science (DES). On her appointment as Secretary of State by Edward Heath in June 1970 she had presented officials with a list of eighteen demands, of which the most urgent was the withdrawal of circulars issued by Labour to enforce the comprehensive system on local authorities. Although she was acting in accordance with the party manifesto, DES officials seemed reluctant to comply. Tempers rose, and Heath had to invite Mrs Thatcher and her Permanent Secretary to Chequers for a meeting which established an armed truce. Before the fall of the Heath government Mrs Thatcher had driven through significant improvements to nursery and primary education; the conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) had given her a warm ovation; the Guardian had applauded her progress towards “a respectably socialist education policy”; she had fought tenaciously in defence of her Departmental budget; and a record number of schools had turned comprehensive. But her respect for DES civil servants remained roughly on a par with her feelings towards student unions, several of which burned her in effigy in response to her suggestion that they were ripe for reforms.1