CHRIS WOODHEAD, scourge of the left-wing education establishment, has decided he would rather kill himself than endure the final agonies of motor neurone disease, he discloses today.

Woodhead, 62, a Sunday Times columnist and former chief inspector of schools, was diagnosed with the muscle-wasting illness nearly three years ago but has not revealed it publicly until now.

“I am clear in my own mind that it is better to end it than continue a life that is extremely frustrating for me and onerous to others who are involved with me,” says Woodhead in an interview in News Review. “The quality of one’s life is more important than its quantity.”

He said he would rather drive his wheelchair off a cliff than succumb to the total paralysis and suffocation that waits sufferers of motor neurone disease. Already, it has advanced so far that he can walk only with difficulty and depends heavily on his wife, Christine.

Appointed chief inspector by John Major’s government, Woodhead was kept on by Tony Blair but resigned in 2000. Despite his illness, he has written what he says is his last book, renewing his attack on educational “progressives”.

Although he intends the book as his swansong, he is not ready to put his intention to end his life into practice.

“I have no immediate plans to kill myself,” he says. “The progress of the disease has been mercifully gradual. I hope I have several years of reasonable life left.

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