Thread 15 Starmer - Nolite te bastardes carborundorum

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5244293-thread-14-starmer-the-starmeristas-strike-back?page=40&reply=141334312

I liked that bot/poster. Some yank blow in

She has been reading MN for sure

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/labours-private-school-vat-hike-exposed-myth-3485471

Not because supporters of it are class warriors who want the playing fields of Eton bulldozed for Angela Rayner’s social housing 😅

Sorry - that's behind a paywall.

They are another group who deluded themselves into thinking they are special.

Weirdly (?) the frothing there has got quieter the closed the magic court date came. You know, where the judges will rip off their gowns to reveal capes (hmmm, someone needs to fix the imagery here for the Netflix series) and declare that a Labour government is really illegal and deliver whatever the precious parents want.

The energy of thought on those threads was so low as to be embarrassing.

Ultimately, the only real way to defeat a political measure (which is what the VAT move was) is by political means. If you have to resort to legal Hail Marys, then you are effectively admitting you have no political response. You have in effect lost the argument.

Posters are free to check my working. As always on these threads.

Ah sorry, my free articles count must have been reset

I copied the first paragraphs

He who pays the piper, plays the tune.
And he (or she) who pays the school fees, plays the tune too. Which explains why you could be forgiven for thinking that the introduction of VAT on private school fees – which kicked in on 1 January – is the greatest national scandal since the poll tax (and I’m talking about the Middle Ages poll tax).

This is largely because our media telling the story of VAT on private school fees is still disproportionately staffed by those who have either attended private school themselves, or are now paying for their children to do so.

A 2019 report by the Sutton Trust showed that of the UK’s leading 100 journalists, 43 per cent attended a private school. Of newspaper columnists, 44 per cent went to private school. At the BBC, it was 29 per cent of executives.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t all journalists – but it is the ones who are helping shape the national debate.

Example this Times article,
VAT on private school fees puts Edinburgh state schools at capacity

https://www.thetimes.com/article/ab42d116-6fde-4d9d-9469-b700e3385a2b?shareToken=91bb085888803670cab94eb97dbfb474

Headline is nothing like the article

There are around 10k private school kids in Edinburgh.
51 have moved to state schools in January.

Trickle not a flood

VAT on private school fees puts Edinburgh state schools at capacity

So make them bigger.

Isn't the whole point of tomorrow that it can be different to today ? Not if you are a critic of anything this government does, it seems.

Regarding VAT on private schools in the News, constantly, is presumably because it makes a good story to sell? So if it sells, then that boosts revenue and advertising? Since when are journalists these days rich enough to send their kids to 30k plus elite private schools? ( unless they are trustaferians - trust fund beneficiaries) isn’t she undermining the integrity of journalism and propagating the story and benefitting from the clickbait herself?

Nobody is going to invest in making state schools bigger right now because there is this whole thing of birth rate decline?

She’s not talking about the ever diminishing number of local journalists. She’s talking about the ones with bylines in the national press and whose faces you recognise on TV, ie those with incomes of £120+.

It's more that their view is not representative of the actual views the country holds, the policy is popular with voters but you wouldn't know that reading papers or MN

A journalist income even above 120k wouldn’t pay for a private education in London. It’s the domain of bankers, City lawyers, elite internationals and successful migrants scraping together fees. It’s pricing out the latter group and the last remaining journalists, I guess.

So perhaps the angle becomes get all journalists back into state schools to report daily on the conditions in some! Although I strongly suspect their children won’t be frequenting the most challenged ones, VAT or no VAT. So the story is likely to turn more in the direction of how surprisingly good some state schools are.

A journalist income even above 120k wouldn’t pay for a private education in London.

That’s the salary level quoted in the article. Obviously the journalists I mentioned are on multiples of that.

Going to China was also important for the university sector. We rely on the Chinese students coming. We needed to show symbolically that we aren’t going to just play to Trump’s tune and that we are Ok. As discussed up thread, optimum positioning is key.

Britain is a “has been”. Rather than falling for the Make Britain Great Again, we should take a long hard look in the mirror and celebrate those wrinkles. They are only going to get deeper. Some honesty would be good and a plan for longevity and health wouldn’t go amiss.

.

Is this a book you would like your wife or servants to read ?

@Araminta1003 - I agree that the UK does not have to choose. I don't even believe the US will make its tariff threat real with China. It is likely to increase some tariffs and internal taxes on certain goods. It may also ban certain imports. But the UK is a medium sized economy with far less room to move. We need the US, China and the EU.

I was able to read it all.

Listened to Lisa Nandy on R4 news as I walked to work this morning.

I was very impressed. She didn't falter once, answered her questions clearly and when she didn't answer how Nick wanted and he changed the question she remained firmly in brief and exam lined the same thing (the truth!) and different way.

I remember multitude of threads stating that you could afford PS if you just drove a 'old banger', went camping and shopped at Lidl.

I also remember that people had to use PS as all the nearby state schools were 'dire'

How times change

Conseratives to means test State Pension

"She posted a seven-second clip of her LBC appearance, in which the subtitles show her saying “I have always said that we don’t do means testing …”, the presenter asking “are you going to look at the triple lock?” and her replying “No, we’re going to look at means testing.”"

Would be the headline you would not see if the Conservatives said it - but it would be if Labour even mentioned it, there would be threads everywhere and the Tories would be criticising it.

@DuncinToffee - the price point for private schools is anywhere from 5/6k to 60k (inclusive of VAT), with a massively differing demographic. London private schools, are not unsurprisingly, largerly in the more. expensive bracket. So yes, I can believe that some journalists who have just about being able to afford it, are now priced out, as well. Unless they move to the rural sticks somewhere. Which is not compatible with attending the House of Commons on a Wednesday, when you cannot claim back on your London home…

No, no, no, Badenoch is misunderstood, her words are skewed

@Araminta1003 , ofcourse some will be priced out but as Blossomtoes said they are not the faces you see on TV or writing columns

Gosh her spokesman is very busy. And almost as rude as she is...