Gove in court

Councils defeat government over school buildings, says BBC News education reporter Hannah Richardson, with a picture showing a prefab with doors with flaking paint.

James Forsyth calls it A win for Gove.

Michael Gove has won on the substance in the judicial reviews of his decisions on Building Schools for the Future. The judge has rejected the claim that Gove acted irrationally and found that he has the authority to make the decisions he did.

There will have to be reviews of six of the decisions because of a failure to consult fully and a full equalities assessment will have to be done - yet another example of one of the traps that Labour has left behind and that the coalition needs to scrap as soon as possible. But this is hardly the victory that it is being portrayed as by some.

Crucially, the judge has ruled that “the final decision on any given school or project still rests with him [Gove]. He may save all, some, a few, or none. No one should gain false hope from this decision.” This means, in effect, that Gove’s original decisions can stand.

The BBC may wish Gove had lost on the substance. But he didn't. The programme was hugely expensive and inefficient. And in any case new buildings do not a school make. That requires good teaching to motivated pupils.

But how much easier for activists to draw up shiny schemes for spending other people's money rather than get on with the necessary but unglamorous work.