Keir Starmer went to private school

[Asking4afrend]

AIBU to be shocked that Keir Starmer went to private school? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. So he enjoyed an excellent education which increased his social mobility and then wants to bring down the system that helped him, even when they gave him a 100% bursary so that his parents didn’t have to pay the fees?

This is from wiki:

Starmer passed the 11-plus examination and gained entry to Reigate Grammar School, which at the time was a voluntary-aidedselective grammar school.[1][12] The school converted into an independent fee-paying school in 1976, while he was a student. The terms of the conversion were such that his parents were not required to pay for his schooling until he turned 16, and when he reached that point, the school, by now a charity, awarded him a bursary that allowed him to complete his education there without any parental contribution.

I only found out about this today when I was googling the school for another reason and looked up the alumni. What a hypocrite. You didn’t hear about this in the election during all his “my father was a toolmaker” speeches.

It's not very consistent, is it? Private schools are now required to charge VAT on school fees to raise funds to go into the state system. The justification is that parents are choosing to pay for a luxury service. Given that not everybody can afford private tuition and private music lessons, why aren't they treated as a luxury service? Nothing whatever to do with the fact that affluent Labour voters who send their children to good state schools would be up in arms, I'm sure.

Music teachers self employed under the VAT threshold don’t have to charge VAT. Some of the bigger private schools employ the music teachers to give them employee status and protection- that translates to VAT being payable. Another absurdity as leads to private schools no longer employing the staff. Happened to one of my DCs music teachers who works at a top private school.

They are not required to charge VAT on school fees, it's a choice they make

State school with tutors is OK. Just private school with PAYE teachers is apparently not.

Where has this narrative come from that private school dc don't use tutors.

Music tuition can incur VAT but it depends on certain things as there is a threshold.

‘They’ did not give him a 100% bursary. Children already at the school before it was turned into a private school were funded by the council, like all kids at state schools. Don’t like paying VAT? Send your kids to state schools.

😂😂😂 Get a grip, OP. These shite arguments undermine the credibility of any discussions of the real issues, and make you sound bitter and uneducated.

Nigel Farage went to Dulwich College.

It's not that. What annoys me is the sanctimony of people who've used their relative affluence and knowledge to get their children into good state schools, which often requires or leads to paying a small fortune to private tutors and/or to buy a house in catchment, but who regard themselves as morally superior to those who've spent similar sums but paid them directly to a private school.

I also don't understand the narrative that you can't be critical of private schools unless your dc go to a dreadful comp?

and plenty of parents with dc in private live in the leafy areas with the good local school.

MN is weird on this topic, state school dc are the wealthy ones living in 1m + houses paying for private tuition & private dc live in cheap houses in less salubrious areas & do not have any external tuition. It's not what I see in reality.

I went to grammar school. We still have a selective, exam based transfer system in NI. When I am Queen of the world, I would like to abolish it. Is that ok I wonder? Or am I a hypocrite too?

As that's the tired old cliché used to describe the 'hypocritical' behaviour of state school parents who are apparently all loaded on Mumsnet!

It's so odd @Goldenbear

@Funnywonder you're a disgrace & pulling up the ladder (I think)

Not true. When the first Cabinet was announced Louise Haigh was the only one to have gone to private school and she’s no longer in the Cabinet. Starmer was at grammar school that turned private for his sixth form and got a bursary (note he is called after Keir Hardie, his parents would never have sent him private), and I think one other cabinet member went to a private sixth form. This is the first cabinet ever with so few independent school people and no Eton Westminster, St Paul’s.

Because if you are in the fortunate position of having children accessing education at a high achieving state school then it is not reasonable to be telling others their children can’t have comparable education to yours because they would have to pay for it.

The whole of Starmer’s year group had fees paid by the local authority because they had almost completed their education when the school went independent .
analysis of other Cabinets plus this one here
https://www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion/all-news-opinion/sutton-trust-analysis-of-labour-cabinet/

Absolute twaddle.

Because if you are in the fortunate position of having children accessing education at a high achieving state school then it is not reasonable to be telling others their children can’t have comparable education to yours because they would have to pay for it.

So I am right, you are saying you can't be critical of private school at all unless your dc go to a crap school?

Well you could but you would be very hypocritical for doing so when you have likely paid for your child’s education via the tax-free route of buying a house in catchment.

It really isn’t. The numbers don’t lie.

What the numbers I posted earlier from the institute of fiscal studies showing how many millions of extra revenue for the treasury would be raised every year by this? You’re right they don’t lie.

And what a crowd of wallopers they are

I explained why they are only half the story.

It’s like claiming all the tax paid on alcohol and tobacco are available for the government to spend while at the same time ignoring the huge NHS burden that each create.

You have to consider the net position which the IFS report doesn’t do.

Had every parent kept their DC in the same schools and all paid the VAT the calculation would be a fair estimate but that’s not what has happened.

The net position is a cost to the taxpayer.