IF education minister Charles Clarke thinks he knows more than our struggling head teachers about how to run Swindon's schools we have news for him.

We hope that when he keeps his promise to meet them face to face they will paint a stark picture of how bad things have become here as a result of more than 20 years of under-funding.

His apparent belief that Swindon is looking for favouritism and special treatment is insulting.

Keith Defter, head of Commonweal School, put it in a nutshell when he said today that Swindon merely wants the same treatment as other authorities.

Instead it has been consigned to the bottom of the heap by successive governments because of an ill-conceived funding system that is simply not fair.

Mr Clarke might lack the power to overhaul radically the way in which the Government allocates money to local authorities. But he should have the good grace to acknowledge publicly that in spending terms our pupils are considerably worse off than those in nearly every other authority's area.

We believe he made a good point, however, in telling Swindon Council to get stuck in and issue more Anti-Social Behaviour Orders.

The crime and disorder team is pussy-footing around if it believes that the gently gently approach will be more successful than ASBOs in curbing the louts who terrorise communities.

The education minister deserves at least one mark out of ten.