102 Quotes by Dawn Foster

Public opinion isn't formed independently, but driven by narratives from the political class and the media.

The academisation of schools under New Labour helped the Conservatives bring free schools into being. They said the new model would allow enthused parents to open schools. Instead, most free schools and academies are run by large chains that can outsource their IT facilities, cleaning services and other non-teaching jobs.

For children with special educational needs to receive the help they need to thrive in education, councils need targeted funding that properly addresses the costs of including children in mainstream classrooms with support, or creating space in specialist schools.

Hospitals are often grim places: being stuck on a ward is excruciatingly boring, especially when you're too ill to follow the plot of a book, and struggling to sleep through the guttural cries of people writhing in agony in adjacent beds.

Exceptional teaching requires more time and space for teachers to address the differing needs of a classroom, with assistance in staffing and funding.

The luxury of time to write, and the confidence to do so, make it easier for the more affluent and when the most decorated novels all begin to resemble each other the tacitly accepted view of what a good novel must be (and must be about) shifts imperceptibly.

Disasters can also be averted, which is why the rigorous approach after Ronan Point was the correct response.

That 'woman becomes a mother' still makes a headline in 2015 reminds women that, for all their personal and collective achievements, society is still more interested in the limitations of biology, and rapt at the fact that women can - and do - make a wealth of choices about if and how they become a parent.

Renters didn't used to be cursed: social housing offered millions of people a steady, safe and secure home for an affordable price.