Turning off the lights

摘要

On Tuesday, in the rarefied, oak-pan-elled atmosphere of committee room 9 at the Palace of Westminster, the Education Bill completed its House of Commons committee stage, after 22 meetings, the longest of which stretched to six hours.The dubby dialogue between coalition MPs and those of the Opposition seem a very long way from the reality of the situ-ation in local authorities, communities and schools, with budgets for 2011 set and starting to come into effect.