ABSTRACT
On 16 March 1976, Harold Wilson announced his resignation as Prime Minister, for reasons that at present still remain obscure, despite the efforts of numerous journalists to uncover the secret of this sudden departures 1 . On 5 April, James Callaghan, who had been Foreign Secretary since February 1974, was duly elected the Leader of the Labour Party and became, therefore, the new Prime Minister. This was followed shortly by the Easter break during which Bernard Donoughue, whom Callaghan inherited as his Senior Policy Adviser, drafted an important memorandum suggesting, among other things, that it would be appropriate, given the widespread interest in the subject, for the Prime Minister to make educational standards an important feature of his new administration. In Donoughue’s view, this was an area where the Prime Minister might well reveal his personal concern and commitment:
