The UK does averagely in the ‘Pisa’ tables, comparing student performances around the world. Michael Gove (our minister) blames the lack of progress on the previous Labour government. Sweden does disastrously, plummeting in all subjects. People there blame it on the present ‘Moderate’ government’s ‘Free Schools’ system, pioneered in Sweden recently, and being copied avidly (and ideologically) by Gove.

When the Moderaten came in their Education Minister (an ex-Army officer) promised that in a few years Sweden would boast ‘the world’s best schools’. In fact the ‘Free Schools’ have been beset with scandals; prompting STV to put out a programme a few months ago actually entitled ‘Världens bästa skitskola’. (For English-speakers, ‘sk’ before an ‘i’ is pronounced ‘sh’.)