A long time ago I got involved in a battle to help a school leave council control and become an academy. This was shortly after Michael Gove, as education secretary, continued the reforming efforts of his Labour predecessors to inject more choice and freedom into the state education sector.

The local council, faced with losing the money and jobs supposedly necessary to oversee the single school under its control, embarked on a campaign of such fierce resistance that the police ended up being involved in a saga that included allegations of espionage, intimidation and corruption.

That was........

© City A.M.