One of the more interesting things in the morning is to wander around the garden and see where the buzzard has caught the rabbit, or where badgers have been digging.I always listen to the Today programme on Radio 4, and I find I’m often dashing out of the shower in indignation at or with enthusiasm for something I’ve heard. There are days, however, when I refuse to have anything to do with the news, and I will listen to a local radio station which has nothing but music. I very rarely read newspapers first thing in the morning, too, because newspapers are only delivered a third of a mile away at the bottom of the lane, and it requires quite an effort to go and get them.If I’m going to be at home all day, just before lunchtime I may go to the gym, or for a run, and so I shall be putting on a track suit when I dress. On the other hand, if I’ve got to go into London, as I do very frequently, I will dress differently, trying to decide if I’m being a semi-political figure that day, or an author – whether I should be wearing a suit, or something rather more colourful.As soon as I’ve come downstairs, I will go through the post, which is usually a foot high. I wear a number of different caps – I have a political hat, and I do a lot of public speaking, as well as being an author – and so the post can comprise a number of different items. But if I’m working on a book, I don’t want to be disturbed with that, so I will get straight into my office and start writing. I will have gone to bed the previous night thinking of what I will be writing the following day, and so the only thing that really matters to me is getting to the computer and getting it done.

But, at around 11am, it becomes very important to me to take a break, and go through the whole process of making a good cup of tea. And, by that stage, I reckon I ought to have done at least half a day’s work.Michael Dobbs’s latest novel, `Goodfellowe MP’, is published by HarperCollins, price pounds 16.99.Interview: Scott Hughes. `New Labour: old school tie.” The Prime Minister’s crude and personal attack on Tony Blair is a better guide to the election battle over education than any waffle about “super-schools” which may emerge from today’s all- day Cabinet thrash on the Tory manifesto. The Government purports to be concerned with parental choice and standards, but the party’s instincts are altogether cruder.

In the election campaign we will be presented with Honest John from Brixton, who wants educational opportunity for all, against a Labour leader who enjoyed the benefits of an elite education himself, but who wants to confine them to a hypocritical, middle-class minority. This plays on some of Labour’s more visible inconsistencies. But will it work? We hope not, because it is a debased distraction from the real issues. And we do not believe that it will, because the dissonances in Mr Major’s position are too deafening.
First, he hated school himself and left at the age of 15 without an O- level to his name.

If he is to use his own humble origins as a model, his manifesto should propose correspondence courses in banking for all.Secondly, he sent his son and daughter to private schools, which is rather more relevant than where either he or Mr Blair went to school themselves. Mr Blair’s choice of school for his sons is controversial only in relation to Labour policy; in relation to responsibility for the state schools used by nine-tenths of the population, Mr Blair and his colleagues are rather better placed to preach about “opportunity for all”.So let us hope that the education debate in this election will not be about motes, beams and intermediate-sized pieces of wood in the eyes of politicians. Unfortunately, today’s discussions on the Tory manifesto seem unlikely to take us further forward.Gillian Shephard’s plan for “super schools” is simply an old, unfulfilled Tory pledge dressed up, that popular schools ought to be able to expand. No one has an ideological objection to this, but there are practical difficulties in allocating more money to successful schools and taking it away from sinking ones.Her other suggestion for the manifesto – the present draft is a rather thin document, if this is any guide – is to get round the problem of parents who persistently vote against schools opting out of local council control. She wants to copy Labour’s plan for “foundation” schools, a half- way house between autonomy and direct rule by education authorities.This should prompt us to ask more fundamental questions. The truth is that both the Conservatives and Labour are incoherent on the subject of parental choice. The Tories have little to say to the parents of children who are likely to be rejected in a more selective system, while Labour has a strangled message for parents whose children currently enjoy the benefits of partial selection.