years in private schools, so the availability of schools of private school standard that were "free" to the user did open up a path to social mobility for many bright children from poor families. And many of the leading figures in British life to this day are products of a Grammar School education.

Access to a State Grammar school was via the "11 Plus" examination. It was an academic ability test heavily loaded with IQ. Pupils sat the exam at age 11 to determine their educational path through their teenage years. Probably correctly, only the brightest quarter of the population were deemed able to cope with the demands of the sort of education that had long prevailed in Britain's private schools.

And the Grammar schools were a great success inenabling social mobility. A Grammar school education was rightly regarded as close to a private school education in excellence and, even though they came from impoverished backgrounds, Grammar school graduates had almost the same easy path through life that had always characterized graduates from the great private schools. Many Grammar school graduates made it to Britain's leading universities, Oxford and Cambridge. Grammar schools were the main path upwards for able people from humble backgrounds. Equality of opportunity for the whole English population was greatly enhanced by them.

So what objection could there be to that? There was a BIG objection: the recognition in the form of the "11 Plus" exam that some people are brighter than others. That offended greatly against the "equality" mania of the Left. So except