Tim Leunig, the brains behind some of the biggest education policies of the past decade, knows that some of the opinions he’ll be sharing in his new role as an FE Week columnist will raise some eyebrows. But he has never been shy about courting controversy.
We meet at Westminster Abbey, where Leunig gives me a tour of its memorials to the people who have created ripples on the tide of British history, before we sit down to discuss the ripples that Leunig himself has created over the years.
The setting enables him to indulge in his love of history and politics. He has just stepped down after 25 years as an associate professor in economic history at the London School of Economics. He is a director at the policy and research consultancy Public First and has just started as chief economist at the centre-right think-tank Onward.
But it is the 12 years which Leunig spent as a senior civil servant that I am interested in.
