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.

I don’t see how you can equate this to VAT on private schools policy? I’m trying to but nope, don’t see it.

In Starmers position if I thought my child’s exams would be disturbed by the election campaign (which I would think is fairly likely) I too would want to send them somewhere else so they could focus on them in peace. If Sunak or another Tory I can not stand did the exact same thing I would think it’s totally sensible of them too.

@Nc789123 ,

I am not against VAT on fees but they could have done it with a 2 year lag, so all children could complete their current schooling phase.

OTOH, a lot of schools (I think the majority) are inviting parents to apply for hardship funds if they genuinely can’t afford to complete the year with the VAT rise.

I agree, but adding it part way through the year when people will struggle to secure state places if they need to, when children in exam years might find their GCSE options are no longer available, or are working to a different syllabus, seems particularly egregious. And it's the disruption of GCSEs being used to justify accepting the donation that's hypocritical

Fair enough however to compare him to the tories you can't at all. This is being stirred up by the media james o Brian says this and he is so accurate on this

Of course he can. It's ridiculous people are pleading supermarket suits over this

@Daltonbear1 I was referring to Boris, not Keir. Boris’ personal life and political track record meant his behaviour in office shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. However more is expected of Keir and he has dramatically let his supporters down with his poor judgement.

Not let me down and yes Boris was a twat. I sit on the left but own Jones and those at novara media type lefties are pissing me off stop this he isn't a fucking God he is much better than what we had and listen to james o Brian as its been stirred up massively

Quite so @TeenagersAngst !

I think Ali’s interests are the important thing to understand here. Starmer has embarrassed himself and Labour can drop the Tory sleaze schtick now, but that is by the by.

Understanding who might be influencing our politics and why is what matters.

Nobody seems to question how Reform operate. Funny that.

That's because Reform aren't in government!! Dear God, the whataboutery brigade are truly out in force today.

whilst saving the taxpayer £8k a year

its this sort of comment that makes me eyeroll…absolutely get your children the best you can if thats what you want to do but lets not act like you are doing everyone else a massive favour

But it's a point though those shouting about democracy don't give a shit that Nigel had made it so he can't be removed from his party but hey

It's still a fact that it saves the state money which is why some other countries actually do do a rebate.

Why do some posters assume that criticising anything about Labour means that you liked the Tories or have forgotten about their behaviour?

Many of those criticising Starmer are simply disappointed because they hoped for better. Not in a naïve 'Labour are saints, Starmer is the messiah' way. Just in a 'Well they seem like they'll be at least a bit less venal and corrupt than the last lot' way. And yes, they probably are a bit. People were hoping for more than a bit.

I voted Labour a bit reluctantly, due to their history on gender issues, but I didn't really expect this level of hypocrisy over freebees etc from them. Certainly not this soon, anyway!

This comment is in response to posters claiming that taxpayers “subsidise” private education. They don’t. Each privately educated would cost the taxpayer around £8k a year if they were state educated.

It does seem like the sensible option might be for it to be taxpayer funded if we are saying that donors shouldn’t provide accommodation.

It is a perfectly reasonable reason to move out regardless of your party.

People need to send their children to nursery in order to be able to work. Equally any young person who’s bright enough to secure a place can attend university, regardless of parental income.

They’re still politicians. Most of the donations you’re so critical of were made when Labour weren’t in government either. Consistency isn’t whataboutery.

As james o Brian says the media mainly right wing press which is near everything is influencing this and stuff that really isn't a problem like a photographer is par for the role for rayner etc. It's designed to get uou pissed off. Plus you say you wanted better and it's not about starmer being a messiah yet they have barely got started and it's unrealistic how these posts seem on a daily basis. We haven't had election for many years in July which means it's a slow start and what is happening is he doesn't have control on his communications which be needs he's not playing smart politics which is what he needs he's ironically being to truthful he declared stuff which is jow uou have found out bh the way not hidden It like the tories do

And yet, that's exactly what parents are doing when they remove their DC from a state school and send them private. The government spends £7,460 per child, per year for education so for every DC that goes private, that's the amount the government is saving every year by not having to educate them.

All the press is covering it including The Guardian which is not 'right wing press'. That's what happens when you're in power. No point using the same sort of attacks to get into power and then complaining when you're in the firing line.

Exactly - I am to the left of KS and have never liked him much, but held my nose and voted for him despite the weasly pandering to the right wing tabloids because I hoped he’d at least fund public services better than the Tories did.

I wasn’t expecting miracles, but I was not expecting his snout to be in the trough within the first month. No, he isn’t as bad as Boris, but neither are any other Tory MPs - Boris was a grabby outlier even in his own party.

Well to be honest the same applies. The school should offset VAT, apply bursaries to those who are really struggling, and offer a payment plan to help with continuity. If a parent was affording 22k, then presumably when they move to a state sixth form, paying the delta over 2 years would be much more achievable. Annoying for them but they'd go from paying 1.8k a month to about 183, without any bursary or offset.

Year 9 I think they would stand a good chance of finding a state school that does the more standard 2 Year GCSE. Which is crap for them I'm sure. But the kier thing was about the gcse year specifically.

I know its a fact, doesn’t change my mind about the whole ‘doing you a favour’ comments

The wanting to shield his son I get however someone in his position would have surely had a few options, line perhaps paying for it yourself, moving in with family? Thousands of children have their exams interrupted or are carers so their life is never 'normal'.

Remember he is a multi millionaire. As others have said 'do as I say, but as I do' and btw you've worked hard and have a bit left over so we'll tax the arse off you at the same time.

Another little bit of maths for you.

615,000 children in private education in the UK.

615,000 x £7460 = £4,535,680,000

That's how much money parents who send their DC to private school are saving the government every year. Four and a half billion pounds.