To really dislike Bridget Phillipson?

My comment applied to all Tory voters complaining bitterly about three months of a Labour government when some of us suffered for 14 long, miserable years under their favoured regime. That was obvious.

Then state schools users to pay to lift state schools! Don’t using equality to decorate robbery act!

Honestly, I reckon I can.

There are over 10 million school kids in the UK. There are about 1000 at Eton, which is 0.01% of kids. Even if you were to say that Eton is significant/a source of inequality, it's balanced out by state schools like Hills Road Sixth form college and Brampton Manor Academy - who send more to Oxbridge than Eton do. There are plenty of big name state schools, eg London Oratory - which notably Tony Blair used for his kids. And this is really what I'm saying - the Labour govt are apparently fighting inequality, whilst ensuring that their own children receive the very best education our nation offers - as long as it's under the "state" banner and they can pretend they are just like normal people in run down towns that have poorly performing comps (I live in one such place).

This is what makes me so irate. People who have access to excellent state schools berating those of us who don't - and have broken ourselves paying to make the situation better. My DCs achieved better GCSE results at their private school than any child at our local comp - because it's really not great. My DCs worked their guts out til midnight revising and they are just written off as rich bastards who bought their results. If I had access to the school that Reeves went to or Blair's kids went to, then I'd have sent my kids there.

Why are we pretending all state schools are the same? It's a major reason why people turn to private schools - because they don't have access to the great state schools.

There are around 2,600 private schools. 1 of which is Eton. Very very few are anything remotely like Eton. That’s like saying that the very best state school, or the very worst, are representative of the state system. The difference between the bottom and top state schools is far wider than the difference between the average private and average state school.

@edwinbear private schools' charitable
contributions are, in the overwhelming number of cases, nugatory.

I don’t think you can possibly look at Eton and the fanciest private schools and say the real inequality is in the state sector.

Not saying that all private schools are like Eton, but that Eton is a private school.

@MoneyNeverSleeps did you have a thread on the NHS? Why would that be against guidelines, it seems to be disappeared

You do realise that the greatest inequality is between fabulous state schools and terrible ones. I'll give you a good example of someone who is extremely privileged but flies under the privilege radar due to the fact that everyone ignores the differences between state schools and other state schools:

Rachel Reeves' parents were teachers and they were sharp elbowed enough to get her bussed off to a lovely all girls state secondary school. She is extremely privileged having parents that were invested in her education, finding her a great school, supporting her and getting her to the University of Oxford.

Nobody is going to address this - we're playing this silly game of messing with private schools when the real inequality is within the state sector.

On the charity point, Labour are also removing private schools charitable business rates relief. So there will be absolutely no benefit from them being registered as a charity. At that point, if they are legally able to, I imagine many of them will voluntarily drop their charitable status, so there will be no requirement for them to offer any bursaries/scholarships, or loan out facilities.

Labour did look at removing charitable status for PS, but quietly dropped it when they realised it was essentially impossible from a legal perspective. But PS will no longer receive any benefit at all from being registered charities so there are no 'threats' that can be leveraged against them if they drop any charitable activities.

yes it is, but VAT on education will only serve to make it worse.

Nobody, in any forum of debate, has ever been able to explain how making independent education more expensive, available only to an even smaller and wealthier section of society, is a good progressive policy, or how it will do anything to redress wealth inequality.

She is wonderful. We need more policies coming from an ideological standpoint to help transform this country and reduce inequality. The wealth divide in this country is appalling.

What an absolutely stupid petition.

Just in case you are horrified by this woman and her posts.
www.change.org/p/request-the-removal-of-bridget-phillipson-from-the-position-of-secretary-of-state-for-education?recruited_by_id=56fc3d40-84f5-11ef-8090-bb49c1fe9757&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share.initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_medium=whatsapp

Anyhoo, to continue.

Evidently, a number of posters know nothing about markets, or finance/economics, but pretend they do (y’all know who you are - we know who you are…)

Curlew!

Where have you been? Presumably busy on others threads?

We missed you.

@oldwhyno "Then there are others in the cabinet that are just plain old fashioned thick as mince like Cooper, Miliband, Lammy "

It's so lazy to dismiss as thick people who are objectively not thick. It means you don't formulate objective reasons for your dislike/disagreement.

The whole education system is a mess to be honest. Schools are either struggling to get teachers with full classrooms or closing because there are not enough children to fill them leaving teachers running around trying to find jobs. Schools can't afford to pay experienced teachers what they are worth so more teachers are leaving the profession or expensive places to live like London.
There just needs to be more money and investment and there is none.

We had our NHS which was the envy of many countries, people sent their children here to be educated because our education system was seen as the best. These are very different times and no quick fix will repair either of them. I just hope that they can be repaired over time into something we can be proud of once more.

Most private schools are charities. As such, they are not businesses. A charity cannot make a profit unlike a business. They do not have shareholders. Any surplus is held in reserve or re invested in the school. This legislation will however make them more business like. I do not believe in tax on education. An educated society is good for everyone. I cannot afford Eton, Winchester, Marlborough etc. And you know what I don't begrudge those who can. Lucky them. You sound very bitter.

Your comment “it’s your turn now” was in response to a previous poster mentioning the IFS warning that the government needs to find an additional £25bn in taxes from somewhere. That affects all of us. This ridiculous them and us attitude is getting really quite silly.

No shit - really?

Come now, you care alright.

And when Labour fail to raise the revenue they wished for, they will come for something you care deeply about.

Deep down, you know this.

There’s already speculation about increase in university tuition fees.

She's awful. Just a terrible, hate-filled nasty piece of work. See also Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner. Then there are others in the cabinet that are just plain old fashioned thick as mince like Cooper, Miliband, Lammy (god help us with him in the FCO), Nandy and Dodds.

Thing is you may not care about the private school families , you might not care about the winter fuel payment but will you care about what comes next ? Might be an assault on pension tax free sum , might be VAT on University , might be IHT - who knows . It’s all squeezing away at small sections of society though - people they don’t think vote Labour anyway . If money needs spending for the benefit of all on education , NHS - whatever - everyone should be funding it

Why do you believe that increases in private school fees is justification for a new tax being imposed on them? Day nursery fees have increased massively over the past ten years. Do you think they should have VAT on them as well?!