ROW OVER COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION from Tom Nicholis A major rumpus has been caused in Bristol by the disclosure by a Gitizen (Tory) member of the council of what is alleged to be part of the Labour Group's plans for extending comprehensive education. This is that the local authority should not take any free places in the city's seven direct grant grammar schools after this year. The result would be that these fee paying schools would feel the pinch, and some of them might even be forced to close after a time.
Bristol has a good record on comprehensive education and when Labour regained control two years ago the Education Committee was given the job of drawing up plans for the extension of comprehensive education to cover practically the whole of secondary education in Bristol. These plans were due to be made public in September, but following the present disclosures the remaining stages of discussion are bound to take place in the full glare of publicity, and the Labour Group will be subjected to strong pressure from a number of directions. The local Evening Post, following its self-styled policy of impartiality, has already come out strongly on the side of the Tories, One can only hope that the forces of the Left will rally to meet this challenge, One big mistake of Labour Councillors in all this seems to be that they regarded their Citizen opponents as gent= lemen to be trusted,
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