Like the late lamented Audit Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) works by making comparisons and asking why there is disparity. Instead of councils, it subjects national governments to trial by league table.

The other day the Paris-based think-tank ran the numbers for Sweden’s schools through its mixer and what emerged didn’t win the international bake off. They are in a bad state.

In the election din, few drew an obvious inference. Michael Gove got it wrong. The former Tory education secretary had travelled to Sweden and said: ‘I have seen the future’. When OECD inspectors went to Sweden they found a school system in deep disarray.