Why Ruth Kelly is different

Margaret Thatcher was education secretary in Ted Heath's government and sent her children to private schools. No one turned a hair. Today, left wing Labour backbencher Dianne Abbott sends her child to a private school - "I lost my nerve" she told me" - and she's been more or less forgiven.

But Ruth Kelly was a Labour education secretary. She was put there by a Party dedicated to making state education as good as private education, and she was given the power to achieve it. As Jack Straw put it when he was shadow education secretary, Labour's job is to make state education so good that only a fool or a snob would want to go private. That applies to all children, including those with learning disabilities.

She did the job, and moved on. Now she has told us clearly that the system she left behind her is good enough for others, but not good enough for her children.

I can forgive Thatcher. I can even forgive Abbott. But I'll never forgive Kelly.