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Hello and welcome to Political Thinking with me, Nick Robinson.

Well, nothing much for me to talk about is there, except maybe that historic bi-election

defeat for the Tories, a massive parliamentary revolt, and growing tension between the chief

medical advisor and his critics on the Tory benches who blame him for forcing us into

another Christmas lockdown this time, by stealth.

But I'll come to all that in just a moment.

I guess this week will not be reflecting on the current highly transmissible and super-infectious

panic setting in the Tory party.

She is someone though who may shape our political thinking a whole lot more than many ministers

who appear in front of cameras and microphones reading out the line to take.

She is the new chair of the Social Mobility Commission, Catherine Burball saying who's

been called the strictest head teacher in Britain.

A teacher who argues that the state education system is broken because it has a culture

of excuses, low standards, and permits chaos in the classroom.

There's lots of elephants in the room that we never want to talk about.

We don't want to talk about the importance of culture, the importance of small, sea conservative

values, expecting children to take personal responsibility, having a sense of duty towards

others, understanding the importance of family.

All of these things are pushed under the carpet these days and we never talk about them.

More from Catherine Burball saying in just a few moments, first though, the people have

spoken.

...