Ed Miliband's speech on the economy

Above:  I was in Guilford Street recently and saw this memorial to Sir Charles Parsons, inventor of the steam turbine (it is set in the wall of a wonderful Sir Herbert Baker stripped-classicist Wrenaissance building).  The United Kingdom has always excelled at innovation and discovery (including digital computers, the World Wide Web, and joint mapping of the human genome).  This innovation has been in spite of, not because of, the British education system.

At lunchtime I watched (despite warnings that it would give me indigestion) Ed Miliband's speech on the economy, broadcast live on BBC News 24 earlier today.

It was an excellent speech and condemned the predatory Kraft takeover of Cadbury, stressed the need for more vocational training of young people, and even hinted that schools were not equipping their students with the right skills.

This last point, mentioned sotto voce by Ed Miliband, was one of the most important things he said.  Among the most intractable vested interest groups in the country are the unionised teaching professions who refuse to allow effective management of teachers and refuse to countenance any suggestion that a large number of teachers may be lazy and incompetent.  The Labour Party's Academy School's programme and the Coalition's Free Schools programme are convoluted and expensive ways of trying to get round the fact that teachers in the state schools cannot be managed in the normal process of performance appraisal (and certainly cannot be dismissed).