I find myself agreeing with the Independent:
Delegates at the NUT’s annual conference voted unanimously to send a team of union representatives into areas where new academies are planned to persuade parents and teachers to stop any new scheme from getting off the ground. The three main teachers unions are now opposed to the scheme. A leader in today’s Independent argues: “That the teachers’ unions have taken against city academies is not necessarily a bad sign. Indeed, it could be interpreted as a perverse kind of recommendation. At best, it is an indication that such schools are starting to offer parents a real alternative to failing establishments and that unionised teachers, notoriously averse to change, fear the competition for pupils from more innovative institutions”
From Reform’s daily newspaper summary. The Reform website is here.