Rishi Sunak went without Sky TV so his parents could send him to private school

[number10bus]

Honestly this has really annoyed me, apart from the fact it's such crap - he came from a family where his parents were a GP and a pharmacist, it's like he's literally thought of the most working class stereotype and applied that. He's so out of touch and I don't know why this one has annoyed me so much but it really has.

I'm not much older than our prime minister and we didn't have one either, or holidays and not much in the way of any luxury items and guess what my parents couldn't afford to send me to private school despite them working very hard too.

He sounded like he was incredibly deprived as a child. Shall we have a whip around?

It started in 1989. I can perfectly well believe that his comfortably off but not filthy rich parents thought in 1993, "we shan't spend money on an unnecessary luxury like Sky TV for the football so we've got enough spare for Rishi's school fees".

But it's a hugely tone deaf thing to say, given so many people's very real COL struggles.

well he is hardly going to say that the real sacrifice was his sisters education. They could only afford to send two children to private school so they sent their sons.

I feel really bad for my 28 year old. We didn't send him to private school despite never having Sky AND he doesn't eat avocado toast and he can't afford to buy a house. Where are we going wrong, I just don't understand 😭

It’s a very silly thing to say. I’m the same age as Rishi and nobody had Sky when I was young, and in secondary school I think I had one friend who had it. She’d tape X Files for us and we’d all go round to watch it the next day! But it wasn’t a common thing at all.

And when I started work and we did get it, I’m sure it wasn’t more than about £30 a month. Hardly enough to cover Winchester school fees!

Mind you this mindset is still alive and kicking on MN. Apparently it’s usual for people to sacrifice fancy holidays, getting nails done and new cars to pay for private school. Dunno where I went wrong because I work hard in a professional job, don’t have any of those things and still can’t afford it! Don’t have Sky either…

Oh bless him, the struggle is real.

I'm the same age as Sunak, and I grew up in that world. I went to private boarding school.
I remember listening to my friend's mum complaining the fees had gone up and now they could only afford 1 skliing holiday a year, instead of 2.

True hardships 🙄

Maybe this is the start of a new Monty Python sketch.
No Sky TV? You don't know how lucky you are. We didn't have Sky AND we had to holiday in Skegness.
Holiday in Skegness? You lucky bugger. We had a 2 night break in a tent in Jaywick......etc etc

It smacks of 'everyone on benefits has a big TV in their living room, they can't be poor'.

He's so tone deaf and out of touch it would be laughable if he wasn't 'running the country' (into the ground)

Rishi discusses the link between his childhood trauma of having to choose between Mario on the SNES or Sonic on the mega drive and his recent policy announcement on hedgehog culling.

I don't think sky was invented when rishi were'a'lad. Wasn't it around 1990 when it first came around,? I remember lost of sales reps door knocking trying sell the packages. Sky and BsB if I remember rightly. BsB ending up as the beta max of its time 🤣

So if I cancel our £10 a month Netflix I'll be able to afford the £3k to send my two children to private school?

Wow. Economics is wierd...

He’s just like us guys 😂 salt of the earth!
He’s about 5 years older than me, we didn’t get it until I was about 15, it wasn’t that common where I live (don’t know when it really became as mainstream as it is now but I hardly knew anyone else that had it back then) - it’s a bit like me saying we didn’t even have an Alexa 25 years ago!
He needs to just stop talking at this point.

Dear me! Love to know the sacrifices and cut backs my 2 state school teacher parents with no family money could have made to put three of us through Winchester! Clue - none!

Isn’t Sky £60 a month? I agree that sky tv should be cut out to make sure a household can afford basics for their DC, but I really don’t think £60 a month is going to be enough for private school. What a stupid statement.

I don’t want to sound like the Monty Python sketch, but we didn’t have a TV at all till I was 13 (it was back in the 70s, but still…) There were always other priorities for our household income. My Dad was a building labourer who worked bloody hard for not much pay (he had left school at 14 to help his family by getting a job) and my parents rented all their lives.

It's almost like he doesn't want elected I mean the depravation 😂

I’m Rishi’s age and one of my mates had sky (it did exist) but only one. Probably because I went to private school and everyone else had cancelled their subscriptions 😂. Used to love going to hers and watching the simpsons and Nickelodeon!
In all seriousness though I’d cancel sky in a nanosecond if it meant I could send my DC to private school. But alas my sky contract does not cost £20k pa. He’s such a twat.

I think ambitious immigrant parents do prioritise education over nearly everything else. But he can't take that tack as trying to get votes back from reform

😂 oh my that's good

I remember when channel 4 started so am even older 🫣..

we don’t have sky now and my Ds went to state school.

Exactly. I was born in 1981. Was brought up by a single mother, we were pretty poor. No sky TV until I was 18 and working myself to pay for it. Private school probably cost the same as my mums entire income. It's simular today, its like the cost of a minimum wage full time job. You'd have to sacrifice a lot more than sky to pay for private school. Maybe sacrifice paying your rent or mortgage too.

If Keir Starmer had said the same it would really annoy me too. It's so out of touch. If RS just owned the fact that he had parents who were able to afford to send him to public school it would neither surprise me or annoy me.

Was his sister sent to state schools?

Oh dear, just when I think he’s clutched at the last possible straw, up he pops again clutching an even more desperate one.

Most people didn’t have Sky when he was a schoolboy. It wasn’t launched until late 1989.

Never mind, Rishi. You and your wife could probably buy the company now, if you’re still feeling deprived.

Poor No Dishy Rishi.