To ask what you expect from Labour when/if they win the election?

[Welovecrumpets]

Just curious. I’ll be voting for them reluctantly but I’m not really sure what can or will be done about the state of the country. It seems we’re skint so they’ll just have to tinker around the edges.

£15k😂

You seriously have no idea.

And I repeat this isn’t about school fees, how many private school fee threads do you want?

What is your point here? That is about the average for fees outside London - my school charges about that.

😂😂😂

As I said only the rich can afford private school fees and this is such a non issue for the vast majority of working families.

Could you not take it to yet another thread on the subject. The rest of us have bigger things we want out of the election.

For us to move to the catchment of a good state would cost 150K against total fees of approx 75K for 5 years.

But you’d get your £150k back when you sold. The £75k has gone for ever. False economy.

Anyone who can afford to spend £15k on school fees is comfortable

for the vast majority it’s inconceivable that £15k, £10k or £5k can be put aside each year and that’s not because they are spending their money on fancy clothes, cars, holidays or cigarettes

I have no idea what my private school in the NE charges? Okaaaay then

Comfortable yes, wealthy no. We prioritise spending on education over getting a bigger house/car/holidays. Like I said above it is cheaper for us to pay for private fees than buy a house in the catchment area of a decent state school.

Only if you value material things over education. We are happy in a small home.

Oh my, so tone deaf, @twistyizzy £15k to spare on school that is otherwise freely available but not wealthy and then totally misread the incredulous laughter from others. I prefer stinking rich people who blatantly don't give a fuck about anyone else than this pretence that 'ordinary hardworking people' afford private schools by being frugal and not going on holidays. It's really insulting.

If you think that another party, whether Labour or a Labour/Lib Dem coalition, won't be able to do better than the current corrupt, lying, entitled, greedy Tory government who have destroyed the UK in the past 14 years then you are either a Tory plant or completely lacking in common sense.

Well I guess we'll see, won't we? In any case, this holier-and-woker-than-thou attitude of 'If you don't see that we are the correct party to vote for, you must be a far-right-winger or a thicko' is certainly the message the Labour party seems to give off these days. No wonder so many traditional Labour voters and centre-leftists still won't be able to bring themselves to vote for them.

For me most of our problems have been caused by various govts since 1997. The country got better in the 80s and early 1990s, that's a fact.

We haven't got it 'spare'. Spent 8 years saving up. Your assumptions about our income are insulting.

That's because most parents plan for private school and save up beforehand.

That's a bit twisty. Keir Starmer attended Reigate Grammar which was a state grammar school when he joined, which was converted into a private school and as that was the case, he was exempt from fees up to sixth form. He stayed there for sixth form and received a charitable bursary. His parents never sent him to private school. They were a nurse and a toolmaker and staunch Labour supporters. He was named after Keir Hardie. Different picture entirely.

Nope. It’s simple economics. Spend £150k, get it back in ten years time. Spend £75k, lose it for good. Hopefully your kids’ private school will give them a better grasp of finance than their parents’.

The fact remains unchanged that he benefitted from a private education as did his wife and their DC benefit from private school facilities (he was at a GDST event watching hie daughter compete a few days ago) yet he now wants to put barriers up to prevent other people (from similar backgrounds as his own) accessing that same education.

The fact remains unchanged that he benefitted from a private education

By accident. And the same education he’d have got while his school was still state run.

You have missed the point of my post

vast majority could not save anything like £5k then continue to spend £15k a year it’s behind peoples budgets and that is not down to choices it’s the cost of everyday living

honestly I have never heard such tone deaf discussions around money as I have in a prep school playground

*beyond

That maybe so but they must have been secretly wealthy as they didn’t move out of Reigate and we all know that Surrey is only for the wealthy😬

I don't know wether they will take it much now though..

Quite a few people I know are getting sick of paying in and getting nothing in return so are looking at alternatives.

We are in a more competitive world now as you can see from the number of GPs going abroad leaving us short. I think this trend will continue and is why the Conservatives are hell bent on finding tax cuts.

So I think the taxing of a narrow band of people is coming to an end and as a PP said I think everyone will have to get used to being taxed a little more

It’s off topic but we have a small home and still wouldn’t be able to stretch to private school fees.

We are talking about Starmer, not his wife or the environment in which his daughter is doing sport or extra-curriculars. They are not going to be leading the country. He is.

His school was monetised once he was already there. That was not the case when his parents signed him up for it. The education he got would have been very similar to the state grammar labelled one anyway just with £ attached.

If you are going to use these very unusual circumstances to smear him, please do answer this. Should his parents have pulled him out and disrupted his education when he was happy in a school etc. etc. because the school's label changed? If the answer to this is yes they should have then I would ask you to rethink the argument that keeps coming up about how cruel VAT on school fees are as children will be displaced from schools they are happy and achieving in. If it would have been proper for Starmer to have been removed, then what is the big deal if others have to move due to change in external circumstances? I would say, either drop that argument or drop the ammunition against Starmer about his school. It goes both ways.

Genuinely not sure what your point is at all. I was merely wondering why you were laughing at a poster who said that average fees for an indie outside London are around £15k when she is correct?