That is not the view of Ferris Lindsay, who has e-mailed me this afternoon to say:

“This chapter of the Bill was specifically drafted with one aim in mind. It was added to the Bill very late and prejudged the findings of the Consultation, which supposedly “justifies” it. We have letters from Jacqui Smith (2004) and Lord Adonis (2007) to our own MP Stephen Timms stating that Tyndale was the only establishment that the Department has come across which has not registered as an independent school when asked to.”

I feel that there is some persecution of that school. I have not seen it and I do not know what it is like. However, I wanted to air the strongly held views expressed to me and others by the academy about the clause and the activities of the Department over the last couple of years, which seem to have been over-zealous and officious towards the school. It is in a deprived part of London and is providing a much higher quality of education in that area than is being provided currently by the state system.