'Why the hell have you come to a place like this?'These are the words of a twelve-year-old pupil upon meeting one of the Prime Minister's key strategists in the playground. Why has Peter Hyman, the Prime Minister's chief speechwriter, swapped the corridors of power for the corridors of a tough inner-city comprehensive? And would ten years at the heart of Westminster politics be adequate training for a new life in the classroom? Peter is thrown in at the deep end. He has to cope with a child trying to escape out of a sixth-floor window, a detention room full of disruptive children and a staff room of teachers hostile to many of New Labour's reforms.

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