HAS the long-running political row over funding for Worcestershire schools turned nasty?

Peter Luff could certainly have been forgiven for thinking so.

Things had been hotting up nicely, with Education Secretary Charles Clarke trying to shift the blame for any job cuts to County Council finance bosses.

He published a dossier showing £3.7m earmarked for schools by the county had gone "missing in the system".

And, in a fairly blunt letter, he asked where this money had gone. He also questioned the council's decision to hold back £4.6m for building work which could have gone direct to headteachers.

Out of courtesy a copy of this letter was sent to Mr Luff by a Department of Education official, Rachel Jones.

Or was it? Peter could open some attached tables on cash for schools over the past six years but not Mr Clarke's letter - on account of it containing a virus. Thoughts of dirty tricks sprung to mind and he wrote back to Ms Jones.

"I am sorry to say that my Hotmail account has found a virus in your document named Worcestershire.doc," he said.

"I am anxious to read this, so please could you send it to me again, without the virus!

"I know I've been a bit of a thorn in the Department's side over the unfair funding for Worcestershire schools, but it does seem a bit rich to send me a virus!"

Peter couldn't resist a quick dig, adding: "I am grateful for the information I could read, which proves that Worcestershire has done much worse than the national average when it comes to increased education spending.

"It's good to have official confirmation of what we've been saying locally - Worcestershire's deal has got worse under this Government. Many thanks!"

The contents of Ms Jones' reply remain unknown, but Peter did eventually let her off the hook. Referring to the virus threat, he said: "Only joking - these things happen."