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The year 2009 witnessed the publication of a themed edition of "Research in Drama Education" on disability (vol. 14, no. 1). This is a "first", and the author comes to this review as a disability studies academic with no background in writing on drama or the arts more generally, and this was the preferred approach to reviewing expressed by the journal editor. In presenting a fresh gaze on the themed edition the author hopes to better open up the work on drama and disability to wider scrutiny, to transcend shibboleths, to offer a reflexive account back to the contributors. There are as might be expected from a collected edition of this kind very disparate ideas presenting in the 12 papers in the themed edition. In this article, the author draws out what seem the most important messages in the themed edition. (Contains 1 note.)

The era of New Labour government has witnessed unprecedented growth in inclusive education policies. There is, however, limited evidence that policies have increased disabled children's inclusion. This article explores reasons for this contradiction. Drawing on sociological insights, it is argued that New Labour policies on inclusive education take their cues from wider neo-liberal constructions of social exclusion; ideas that point to the personal deficits of the excluded rather than social barriers and inequalities that systematically exclude. Increasingly narrow definitions of educational success are likely to add to this exclusion. This mirrors New Labour's broader social inclusion agenda in emphasising "conditional" inclusion and an increasingly utilitarian approach to social policy. New Labour, it is argued, needs to review the lessons of history in reducing disabled children's educational exclusion if real progress is to be made. Warnock's recent attack on the principle of inclusive education makes this review all the more urgent. (Contains 2 tables.)