The Irony.. PM's donation was for ‘son to study for GCSEs’

[JustSpeechless]

PM suggests £20,000 donation was for ‘son to study for GCSEs’ | The Independent

Sorry if there are other threads, but I did search and nothing came up.

“My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life – I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.

So its OK for the PM to be worried about his child's "one chance" GCSE year being disturbed ...but he's not so worried about other people's children feeling stressed during their GCSEs by introducing the private school VAT during an academic school year.

I don't have a child in private school doing their GCSEs. And I know that there are lots of people who support the VAT and those who don't.

But I think there is a midline where lots of people on both sides of the fence agree making this change during an academic year is not fair on the kids in key exam years...and I am one of them because not all parents have a Lord Alli to step in to ensure their child's "one chance" GCSE year is not being disturbed.

For Voting:

Unreasonable - I am with Keir and I am not really bothered with other people's children's "one chance" school year being interrupted.

Not Unreasonable - I agree Labour should not interrupt the academic school year and introduce the VAT in September 2025.

Have you every thought that Lord Alli is one of a key players in Stonewall? just google him

Have you ever though about reasons why Labour are so anti women?

If you look at donations from this angle, do you still believe it's ok?

His glasses cost £2500?!?!?!! wtf?! Do they let him see into the future?!?! What glasses are these?!?!

I didn't say it was communism. I said even if we lived in a perfect communist system life would still not be fair.

The Labour Party are attacking parents on decisions they’ve made for their children though. They are claiming they will try to make society a bit less unfair - as long as it doesn’t affect them. Apparently we should all be more equal (perhaps they are proposing that we all get free £2500 glasses, use of £18m penthouses, and free holidays. I may have missed that announcement) Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

"Would you prefer it if our PM and cabinet ministers turned up to meet other world leaders in a supermarket brand suit?"
Why not? Additionally Victoria Starmer has already said that she is not going to be a political wife...that she is going to contribute her job (what job?) in the NHS, so even if you think its ok for KS et al to accept freebies because they are in government then why is it ok for her?

Incidentally, is it true that KS was in the CPS when the decision was taken not to prosecute Al Fayed?

You can think KS shouldn’t have accepted the accommodation and that this is a ludicrous attempt at justification, whilst also thinking this has absolutely nothing to do with VAT on school fees and this attempt to link the two is just as ludicrous.

I'm not pro this VAT and think Sept is a better start point. But if it is a pupils gcse year, the parent 'only' has to find VAT on two terms worth of fees . I think that really the parent and the school can work together on how to cover this last stretch if that extra 2-3k is the straw that breaks the camels back. A mix of offsetting vat, short term bursary and payment plan so they pay over a longer period. I dont think the parent should be making their child feel stressed about it either.

Only issue is if a school closes suddenly.

What about students that have just started Y10? Or those in Y9 where the school starts GCSE courses in that year (which my children's (state) school does)?

Starmer dragged his child into this.

Starmers biographer said only a couple of days ago that the Starmers stayed in the penthouse for security reasons. Which I suspect people would have been more understanding of.

The working class
Can kiss my arse
I've got the foreman's job at last...

Sing to the tune of The Red Flag/O Christmas Tree.

This is is madness. Children are being impacted by his policies

Of course hypocrisy is going to be mentioned. And it's his line 'my boys' or whatever that he keeps using to justify taking freebies.

I remember in the leaders debate when he said he wouldn’t pay for private healthcare even if a family member’s life depended upon it. It sounded ridiculous at the time. Now it sounds even more so.

I’d like to know more about this Ali character. What are his opinions and interests? The media needs to do its job and expose Ali a bit more.

You think on Starmers wage he can only afford to buy supermarket suits?! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 You think he can't afford to buy his wife an expensive dress? Or get himself a new pair off glasses? If he can't afford to do that whilst earning £170k a year perhaps he should have a chat about finances with his next door neighbour Rachel. Oh wait, she isn't all that good either.

Oh yeh I remember that

What a numpty.

What about what about what about schools with raac i hear you cry? Well why didn't the fucking shit tories do fuck all and he wasn't a pm then. But the vat on posh schools may help towards shit schools hey thought about that and all you right wing reform tory twats that want lower taxes think on when schools are literally crumbling.
Now if a labour mate of starmer wanted to donate money so kid could revise without having the media on him fair enough we can all understand that. It's not being g hypocritical at all tbh this was before he became pm and we have a cabinet of secondary school pupils. Which means many of them don't have the capital that alot of the richer ones did which means it's tough because it takes money etc to fund stuff which is why the labour donor did this. So I don't want the pm role or mps to think right maybe we can't afford such and such personally if you look at how much other countries raise for their campaigns we don't raise that much.

On the other hand, loads of people who have worked with him have said he is neither, and indeed that he was very kind, going out of his way to help juniors and others. I suspect your contact had their own agenda.

I am working class i begrudge him nothing tell me reform voters you happy with Nigel who has made it so no kne can throw him out of reform takes a shot load of money from TV while he won't meet his own constituents but nah its all labour this and labour that it's almost like uts a right wing coup

He is earning £8.5k a month after tax, has two kids in state school and recently settled his mortgage. His outgoings will be low, he can afford a couple of nice dresses, suits, and his own glasses.

Sorry I don’t know how that quote got in here but obviously my post is unrelated!

Worried about disrupted GCSEs?
No, I don't believe that will happen. No, your son won't be affected by the journalists outside the house. You knew for years that you would be fighting a General Election so should have made provision. No, your family has absorbed increases in pressure and scrutiny in recent years so can continue to do so.

Not my views, just applying Reeves and Philipson logic to the question.

I think it must have been tough on junior Starmer in his GCSE summer, and it's not outrageous to take action to shield your child from that. What is outrageous is the hypocrisy; that it's okay to disrupt other people's children mid-year, but not your own, so justifying personal gifts from a wealthy donor.

Sure he can but I am also sure that Boris could have afforded food for a fucking year 24000 it was yet none of this shit fuss then it's an agenda to take labour down

It was a long time ago, he may have changed, but his recent actions indicate otherwise. He can be those things and still be kind to juniors, they’re not mutually exclusive.

There are always going to be kids entering their GCSE year. Why would introducing it in 2025 help? Kids are still potentially going to be leaving their school they dont just settle in straight away. They shouldnt be adding VAT full stop.

There was a massive ‘shit fuss’ and one action doesn’t justify another. I’m not saying what Boris did was any better, in fact I think it was far worse, but if anyone thought he had morals or was principled when he came into office given his track record they were naive.

I think he does have morals actually i am not niave as you say he's far better than the tories so stop bringing this gov down the far left abd the fucking right are pissing me off its like he's had to be so fucking white its unreal. We can have ideology or student politics or be so clean or we can have bloody pragmatism I hate how so many on the left do this

Tony Blair is on record saying that he regretted holding John Major's government to such high standards when he was in opposition as it's almost impossible to be squeaky clean when in government and you are exposed for your hypocrisy.

I think Keir Starmer must be reflecting the same thing.