Reds in the flower bed

Does the boyish exterior of shadow education and employment spokesman Stephen Dorrell conceal an enthusiasm for the ideas of the late Chairman Mao? Speaking on Conservative education policy in Blackpool this week, he let the phrases "Great Leap Forward" and "Let a thousand flowers bloom" fall in the space of little more than half a hour. Suspicion will harden into certainty should the Conservatives start to advocate bussing academics into the countryside at harvest time.