I argued constantly with my colleagues and bosses. Often, I won and, almost as if they were inextricably linked, as the innate liberalism within people waned, the department or the school would improve. In every instance, I could see for myself that a move away from liberalism was a step in the right direction, a step that brought calm out of chaos, learning in place of trendiness, and success instead of failure. 

At first, I had no idea that my natural inclinations were "right-wing". I just argued for what I knew would work to improve schools. But at the start of 2007, I began to blog anonymously about my experiences, and people unknown to me, from around the country and indeed the world, would comment on my thoughts. The left-wingers insisted that I was bitter and twisted, that I hated children and was clearly disillusioned, while the right-wingers tended to support my natural inclinations. Writing my blog was a kind of therapy and I never sought to publicise it. I loved writing it because it allowed me to vent my frustrations. What I didn't know at the time was that it did far more than that: my blog and its respondents taught me that my thinking was right-wing. 

Eventually, the 2010 election came. While Labour's education manifesto had a tone which reminded me of the "all-prizes" culture I had come to despise, the Conservatives were promising to abolish the 24-hour rule for detention (one cannot give a lengthy detention without 24-hour prior notice to parents). So I did the unthinkable: I voted Conservative and never told a soul.

Why did I choose to stand at the Conservative Party Conference and announce to the world that I voted Conservative? Because October 5, 2010, was the day I threw off the weight of the leftist ideology that had weighed me down for so long and shouted, "Free at last! Free at last!" The law says we have the freedom to think as we please. Social conformity says we do not. For more than a decade I have been fighting for my freedom and I have finally taken it back. 

Back at the café, my Calcutta friend and I laugh at the absurdity of neither of us feeling comfortable enough to tell the other that we voted Conservative. She turns to me and says: "But just because I voted Conservative this time does not mean I will do so in the next election. These politicians need to earn my vote."

Quite right. If only all of us, especially those of us in the teaching profession, could be free to think, how much better our schools would be.