They do not doubt that Saddam is a brutal dictator, but they are not persuaded that he is a clear and present danger to Britain. The longer that I have served in this place, the greater the respect I have for the good sense and collective wisdom of the British people."On Iraq, I believe that the prevailing mood of the British people is sound. I must confess that I had forgotten how much better the view is from here. Be that as it may, Cook, as his friend and former Cabinet colleague Frank Dobson put it, put his money where his mouth was.Cook was renowned as a parliamentary debater and an example of his elegant language came in his resignation speech:"This is the first time for 20 years that I have addressed the House from the back benches. His dignified resignation speech prompted the first standing ovation in the history of the House of Commons and marked the end of the ministerial career, at least temporarily, it seemed, of one of Labour's most significant politicians.Some of us had hoped that he and Clare Short would join the 122 members who voted against the Iraq war that February; and that, had they done so, British forces would not have been committed to the mire of Mesopotamia, with the possible consequence that America, standing alone, might have had second thoughts. We can only think of what might have been. On 17 March 2003, Cook, as Leader of the Commons and former Foreign Secretary, resigned from the Cabinet in protest against the coming war in Iraq.

I believe that Cook, who was my parliamentary neighbour in West Lothian for more than 20 years and friend ever since the 1960s, had a significant role to play in the next decade. Premature, unexpected death has been cruel to the Labour Party since the Second World War - Evan Durbin, Aneurin Bevan, Hugh Gaitskell, Gerry Reynolds and Brian O'Malley (the last two potential leaders who died in their early forties), Anthony Crosland, John Mackintosh, John Smith, Donald Dewar and now Robin Cook have gone to an early grave. But before a rise last year of 3 per cent in English and 1 per cent in maths, results had stagnated since 2000.. Robert Finlayson Cook (Robin Cook), politician: born Bellshill, Lanarkshire 28 February 1946; Tutor- Organiser, Workers' Educational Assocation 1970-74; member, Edinburgh Corporation 1971-74; MP (Labour) for Edinburgh Central 1974-83, for Livingston 1983-2005; PC 1996; Chairman of the Labour Party 1996-97; Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 1997-2001; Leader of the House of Commons and President of Council 2001-03; married 1969 Margaret Whitmore (two sons; marriage dissolved 1998), 1998 Gaynor Regan; died Ben Stack, Sutherland 6 August 2005. When Labour came to power, only three out of five youngsters reached the required standard in either subject. There were big improvements in the first three years, after introduction of a compulsory literacy hour and daily maths lesson for every primary.

There is concern among parents that we are spending too much time before the tests on teaching to them and education is suffering as a result. There is support in this country for the Government to follow the same route as Wales and abolish the national targets and tests."Most local authorities that replied to the survey indicated their figures were provisional and could be altered on appeal by schools. The Government may say these are aspirations rather than targets but I don't think anybody is convinced by that change of language."Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, added: "We as parents want to know our children are improving but we would like less emphasis on targets. These results make the targets for next year look totally and utterly inappropriate. The fact that primary schools might only be reaching the targets three years down the track is not a criticism of the primary schools; it is a criticism of the targets the Government set."The Government should ask itself whether its targets were right. The failure to reach this was a factor in the resignation of Estelle Morris as Education Secretary.David Hart, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "These figures prove conclusively that the government targets ought to be torn up and consigned to the waste-paper bin The targets were plucked out of the air in the first place.

The figures leave it open to question whether the Government will reach the famous target it set for 2002. Most local authorities already have provisional figures for the results.The survey, completed by 32 local education authorities, shows that, on average, schools have improved their performance in the English test by 1.6 per cent In maths, the improvement is just under 1.3 per cent. They show that if ministers are to meet what was once a target for 2006 but is now only an aspiration, drastic action must be taken to improve standards.Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Education, has already announced an inquiry into the way the national literacy strategy is taught. She charged its chairman, Jim Rose, with considering more wide-spread use of synthetic phonics in the teaching of reading in primary schools.The results of this year's tests, to be announced by the Government on 23 August, appear to indicate more drastic action is needed to improve standards in maths. This year's test results, to be announced in a fortnight, will show a slight improvement in both maths and English this year. But they will be far short of the Government's "aspiration" of getting 85 per cent of youngsters to reach the required level in each subject next year. The improvement of about 1.3 per cent in maths and 1.6 per cent in English make it touch and go whether the Government will even meet the target it set for 2002 of 80 per cent in English and 75 per cent in maths.These are the findings of an exclusive survey of English education authorities by The Independent. Ministers are nowhere near their goal of 85 per cent of 11-year-olds leaving primary school able to read, write and do their arithmetic to the required level by next year, national curriculum test results will show.