British economy to leave European rivals in its wake

BRITAIN will be the fastest growing major economy in Europe over the next two years – leaving Germany and France trailing.

In a boost for Theresa May ahead of the election, experts today predict that output in the UK will rise by 1.7 per cent this year and 1.9 per cent next year. That is faster than the growth expected across the eurozone and in the biggest three countries in the single currency bloc – Germany, France and Italy.

But the report, by the respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research, also warns that household spending will ‘stall’ next year as rising prices put pressure on family finances.

The think-tank says the markets view Mrs May’s decision to call a snap election ‘positively’ – ‘perhaps based on polls which suggest the Conservative Party would be returned to government with an increased majority, strengthening the position of the Prime Minister as the country embarks on a negotiated withdrawal from the EU’.

THEIR names read like a roll-call of the gilded Left: Melissa Benn, daughter of Tony and sister of Viscount Stansgate; Michael Morpurgo, millionaire author; Michael Rosen, novelist and poet; Fiona Millar, Guardian journalist and partner of Tony Blair’s liar-in-chief, Alastair Campbell…

These are the men and women, backed by prominent members of the education ‘blob’, who are hoping to scupper Theresa May’s plan for new grammar schools to give a leg-up in life to bright children, particularly those from poorer homes. But the Comprehensive Future campaigners have something else in common, apart from backing a crowdfunding drive to finance propaganda against selective education.

Isn’t it striking how many enjoyed every educational advantage their parents and the system could shower on them?

Take Miss Benn, whose father moved her from a private school to the ‘socialist Eton’, Holland Park comprehensive – a byword for selection by postcode, with one of the richest catchment areas in the country.

Or consider Mr Morpurgo – an old boy of the elite independent King’s School, Canterbury – who sent his own children to boarding school.

As for Mr Rosen and Miss Millar, both went to grammars, though they now seek to pull up the ladder behind them.

Yes, this paper shares the group’s reservations about the old 11-plus exam. Indeed, we have often argued that the test divided children into academic successes or failures at too young an age, before latedevelopers’ abilities could emerge.

But the Prime Minister has made clear her new grammars will be much more flexible, allowing entry at later stages.

After decades in which the blob has piled all its eggs into the comprehensive basket – while Britain slips relentlessly down the international exam league tables – the time to bring back grammars has surely come.

Meanwhile, isn’t there something unseemly about privileged Left-wingers seeking to deny others the advantages they themselves enjoyed?