Well I don't know whether they would have introduced a policy of taking money out of poor schools that need it and giving it to schools that are already doing great, making them unaccountable, and giving them a veto on whether to accept excess pupils.

The consequence, poor schools with less resources functioning in dilapidated buildings, taking on the burden of their quota of excess pupls plus the extra quota of pupils rejected by the exempt schools.

While this is going on, close down a few new playgrounds and pretty soon kids in poor areas have shit schools and nowhere to play.

Good old big society!

And thats before we get on to the new schools created by bored housewives with no experience in education or schools management and spending, who get to design their own curriculum, their own lessons, and to decide how money is used (money that was being used to rebuild poor schools in deprived areas).

Of course these too will be unaccountable, so when they have utterly misspent the money they never needed on overpriced tat with questionable educational value, (money that was taken out of the rebuilding program as part of a "value for money" analysis), there will be noone to regulate them.

Education is my area of concern. Children are the most vulnerable sector of society and the one sector that we owe the most to.

Poor chidren are being punished in this budget.

It is extremely worrying.