The Math Wars have been raging since the 1990's in the United States, where the world of mathematics education has become polarised into two camps: the reformers and the traditionalists. In this article I explore the background to the Math Wars, with specific reference to conflicting ideologies of mathematics education. I draw parallels with similar, albeit less public, tensions and power struggles amongst policy makers and practitioners in England. I conclude by highlighting the danger of allowing increasing levels of politicisation of the education agenda to subsume the need for reform of the curriculum highlighted by the mathematics education community.