revolution that's now underway. The Harris Academy in Peckham has increased the number of students getting five good GCSEs -- from 12 percent when it was under local authority control to almost 90 percent now. The transformation has been astonishing -- and the methods have been Conservative. Smart uniforms, teachers in suits. Children taught physics, chemistry and biology not soft options. Children set by ability -- with excellence applauded, extra resources for those most in need but no excuses for slacking. When you see a school like that succeed it prompts the question: Why can't every school be that way? Why can't every child have those chances? It's not because parents aren't ambitious enough -- most of these schools are massively over-subscribed. It's because the old educational establishment -- the left-wing local authorities, the leaders of the teachers unions, the Labour party theorists -- stood in the way. When we saw a badly failing school in Haringey and wanted to turn it into an Academy, the Labour authority, the Labour MP and the teaching unions said no. When inspirational teachers and parents -- in Hammersmith, in Norwich, in Bristol and in Wigan -- wanted to open free schools, the left-wing establishment said no. When we proposed: More pay for good teachers... Getting rid of bad teachers... ...Longer school days to help children learn... Flexible school hours to help parents work... When you ask them: why is a school failing? Why aren't the children succeeding? You hear the same thing over