Never let the facts stand in the way of a good argument. That certainly seems to have been the motto of some Labour backbenchers during the row on the future of our schools system.

Suggesting that local authorities were being written out of the education and schools script was always faintly ridiculous, given that there was a whole chapter of the White Paper devoted to defining and expanding local authorities' educational functions. Now the education and inspections Bill has been published, the arguments of the Labour rebels are, at least on this score, shown to be even more threadbare.