ABSTRACT
With these words in October 1997, the recently elected ‘New’ Labour government aligned the English education system for the first time with the international movement towards inclusive education. This was, in many ways, a remarkable move. Not only was the language of ‘inclusion’ a relatively new phenomenon in England, but also it is rare for English governments to align themselves with principled international declarations – particularly in the field of education, or even to look abroad for models on which to develop policy. The government therefore positioned itself at – or at least close to – the forefront of thinking in the field and all seemed set fair for the rapid development of an education system that would be a world leader in terms of inclusion.
