DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Lucy Powell's disgraceful plan to dumb down schools will deprive Britain's young of the education she was lucky enough to enjoy

There is something deeply disquieting when someone who has enjoyed the very best of British education trumpets the benefits of dumbing down.

But it shifts into the realms of the disturbing when that same individual has the final say on what is taught in our schools.

In her infinite wisdom, Education Secretary Lucy Powell wants to overhaul the curriculum by putting speaking skills on a par with reading and writing. Other proposals involve more 'practical' assessment and sending fewer children home for bad behaviour.

The happy-clappy soundbites trotted out by Ms Powell yesterday included 'inclusion not exclusion', while she also vowed to 'widen the narrow view of what good is'. Most cringe-inducing of all was her insistence that she is leading the 'Department for Hope'.

It is hard to know where to begin in some respects. Even the least pessimistic analysis of Ms Powell's remarks points to a race to the bottom and a lowest common denominator model of learning. We should probably be relieved she hasn't unveiled plans to start throwing books out of the classroom.

There is a grim irony here. Judged solely on the academic institutions she attended, Ms Powell - daughter of a headteacher - has an impressive CV. She went to a secondary school that has since been dubbed 'the new Eton' and, following a spell at a Catholic sixth-form college, won a place studying chemistry at Oxford University.

Although she left Oxford within a year after deciding she didn't fit in, Ms Powell completed her degree at the prestigious King's College, London (another member organisation of the elite Russell Group of universities). Yet for all the educational opportunities she had, her poorly formed masterplan is set to deny the same to future generations.

No one disputes that our children should be capable of holding a conversation and communicating effectively, but it should not be at the expense of traditional learning and knowledge.

For all that she would most likely deny it, Ms Powell's proposals sound like an ideologically motivated drive to rid our schools system of its most laudable elements. That she is prepared to sacrifice our children's futures in the name of faddish, ill-conceived notions of 'education' is the only logical conclusion.

Shame on her for drawing up a reckless blueprint capable of causing untold damage to the nation's young. And shame on her similarly well-educated boss, Cambridge graduate Andy Burnham, for making such a misjudged appointment in the first place.

Shameful NHS delay

That the NHS has taken so long to ban transgender women from female wards is an utter disgrace.

It is a full 18 months since the Supreme Court's landmark judgment declared that being a woman is defined by biological sex. That ruling was effectively ignored across the spectrum of public bodies as Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson delayed publishing guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission until earlier this year.

Yet there has been no lack of clarity - and therefore no excuse for NHS managers - since the new protocols on same-sex spaces were published last May and came into effect in early August.

Whether the rules will be obeyed by staff in the many hospital trusts festooned with rainbow emblems and LGBT flags remains to be seen. But given the way they've seen their bosses dragging their heels, we can probably guess the answer.