No question about it: when a frontbencher breaks ranks flagrantly, a party leader who hopes to be seen as strong must sack him. Many people agreed with Howard Flight’s remarks about tax cuts in 2005, but Michael Howard had no option but to fire him. So it was only a matter of time before the bell tolled for Graham Brady, the Tory Europe spokesman, who has rebelled passionately against David Cameron’s line on grammar schools. Mr Brady was breaking every rule of party discipline. He was also, as it happens, completely in the right. So Mr Cameron has shown he means business. But he has upped the ante spectacularly and made Mr Brady the martyr of meritocracy. Who would say with any confidence now that the war of the grammar schools is over?
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