This is Iain Martin’s weekly newsletter, exclusively for Reaction subscribers. In 1891 a parliamentary bill received Royal Assent, abolishing fees for primary education. The Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, had suggested to the cabinet that the best way to encourage labourers to send their children to school was to pay parents ten shillings if their youngsters attended class 300 times. This early attempt at creating, in effect, a voucher system was not taken up by the rest of the cabinet. Nonetheless, the Education Act did extend access to schooling.
Sunak’s Japan trip could have gone a lot worse – just ask his predecessors
Japan is a cursed destination for prime ministerial trips. An awkward question about Suella Braverman shouldn’t have rocked the boat.
