There is no higher calling than teaching. How highly a society values teachers is a good indicator of its health and future prospects. Armstrong & Miller's parodies of the recruitment ads for teachers tell you (most amusingly, but also very sadly) just how healthy our society is not.

The real question is; how to rebuild the reputation of teachers? I am not sure firing them for not being leftist enough, while forgiving them for being prostitutes much helps. Nor does the fact that the bureaucracy of the ex-profession has only ever detected unacceptable incompetence in one of them!

It's a serious issue and is not being addressed. I am horrified, for example, at the treatment of Katharine Birbalsingh. I can't see how it's compatible with a free society for a teacher to be fired for expressing political views contrary to those of her management team. I know what would happen if I fired any of my leftist employees. Why isn't it happening here?

The Labour Party and its fellow travellers in academia made this mess, but I will never forget that it was a government with alleged Conservatives in it that failed to defend Ms Birbalsingh's freedom of speech. "Failed to defend?" - I make myself laugh. The Conservative Party used her for its own political ends and then cast her aside.