Given how incredibly serious the issue of extremism is, the public is right to want to know that the Government is calm, level-headed and getting the job done. Action is being taken, as indicated by Mr Gove seeking new powers to exclude religious radicals from schools. But that certainty of purpose is clouded by unfriendly briefings and political manoeuvring. The speculation that the story has encouraged about potential leadership bids is a far cry from the important, real business of finding out what went wrong in those Birmingham schools and making sure that it never happens again. Rooting out that sort of extremism is in the interests of children of all faiths: there is no place for 18th-century Wahhabist values in 21st-century secular schools.