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.

People can want a world different to the one they’ve grown up in.

Sometimes, if you’ve seen the impact of inequality first hand, you don’t think it’s a good idea.

Tony Benn renounced a title (Viscount) and was a republican.

IMHO, pulling up the ladder behind you depends on whether that perpetuates inequality or helps dismantle it.

I was responding to the poster that said (completely incorrectly):

'Most of the cabinet went to private schools.'

It's certainly not the worst government in living memory for me, but I'm disappointed that he is pandering to voters who voted to Reform so I assume that our political allegiences are very different.

I lived through the Thatcher years and her sell off of all public assets had disastrous consequences that we are still living with today (e.g. the behaviour of the private water companies) and she used the discovery of North Sea oil to use the money for the sell off of council houses cheaply and not replace them whereas Norway created a wealth fund for the benefit of all their citizens which is absolutely huge now.

In terms of the worst recent governments, Boris Johnson's and Liz Truss's (very shortlived) governments were much worse than this one for me.

I agree completely with this. On the private school threads you will get posters who oppose private schools but it normally turns out that they live in a nice area, in a catchment area for lovely schools. Starmers school was great from the start, who cares if it ended up private.

Yawn. Don’t know why you’ve only just found this out, as it was a favourite of Labour-bashers during the last General Election campaign.

So he went to a state school that turned private for his last two years there but his parents didn’t have to pay for him to stay there. What do you think his parents, or he as a schoolboy, should have done, then? Made him move schools on principle?

Not just that, the state education system when Starmer was at school was completely different to what it is nowadays and I doubt very much if he’d have had any other option to complete his secondary education (apart from an actual fee-paying public school, which is very different from both an independent or a grammar school). There wouldn’t necessarily have been a Sixth Form college available in his area at the time.

have only read the OP. I and plenty of my cohort went to private school and want them abolished. Or far more scholarships opened up for those who can't afford it.

Most of us (my cohort) were at private school because of being Forcces Brats.

Absolutely, it usually goes
No need for Private school
I don't believe in Private schools

And then it turns out that there was a good State Alternative anyway, hypocrites

That’s to do with inequality of neighbourhoods. If every neighbourhood is diverse, then the local state schools will be diverse. That’s why affordable rented housing in every neighbourhood is desirable.

I went to a private school. I now run a business that pays 20% off the top in VAT. Tbh it’s a killer and I think VAT is too high and is suppressing business growth but I don’t agree with a sacred caste of businesses being VAT exempt on the basis that everyone who uses that business is rich. It’s a luxury purchase. Pay your tax like everyone else.

Government policy should be based on what benefits the country as a whole, not on what 6th form a 16yo decided to go to in 1978. My grandmother was brought up in the workhouse. If I was prime minister I wouldn’t be advocating for policies whereby pregnant teens should be ushered into workhouses. I don’t gaf if this makes me a “hypocrite”. Yesterday is not today.

92% went to state comps

not RTFT but hopefully people have piled on to tell you this

also: since when are we in the business of blaming people for the choices their parents made? We all know that teenagership on MN often extends well into the 20s for some things. Well it applies to Starmer (who i dislike intensely for various reasons) too. He didn't choose it.

And expecting a teenager to change schools at 16 just so that if he became future Prime Minister he'd be squeaky clean is batshittery that only MN can aspire to

No, why would I want you to do that? I am pleased that the grammar school did what it was supposed to do and assist with social mobility.

What would be hypocritical though would be to deny that it was a privilege to have access to a state funded great education as many children simply don't have this today. It would also be hypocritical to attack private schools for elitism and inequality when this is absolutely rife in the grammar system that you benefitted from and the state system overall. If you want to help current children born into poverty then your focus absolutely wouldn't be on private schools. It would be on the failing state sector that is riddled with tax payer funded inequality. This is where the vast majority of kids attend and what can make the biggest difference. Everything else is just a red herring and dog whistle politics.

Blimey. I don't think you can blame him for the fact his state school changed to a private school while he was mid way through! Talk about scraping the barrel for trying to find something to have a pop at him about. No child should be made to leave a school where they are settled and happy due to reasons out of his control. Plus his parents never actually had to pay and he was a child at that time so any decisions were probably out of his control.

I think it's right that VAT is charged on private schools. It's not a necessity.

Not always. There are many different ways you can draw catchments or design admissions criteria in more populated areas that will influence demographics. It absolutely wouldn't need to rely on people moving areas.

Why would you introduce a new tax that resulted in a loss to the Treasury?

He went to what was then a Direct Grant Grammar School ie a state school funded directly from the Dept for Education.

The Labour government elected in 1974 was committed to abolishing this type of school which it did.

Most if not all of them took a choice to 'go private' including the one Starmer attended. He was able to stay there by virtue of a scholarship.

I think it is more important to note that he benefited from a selective grammar school education. But selective and private schools are more or less equally despised by the left

So "some Cabinet Members" has become one unprovable instance.

What was he supposed to do leave in protest?

Actually yes!
Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim was in the same year group as Starmer and he left in protest to go to the new sixth form college (he wanted to be edgy, not middle class). Starmer was a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists at 16 - he was 17 when he started sixth form at his private school. Why do Labour want to lower the voting age to 16?

It is possible to think that the EU deal is a step in the right direction whilst believing taxing education is wrong. A stopped clock and all that.

Education is a necessity, unless of course you mean that private school is a luxury and that is the issue. If that's the case then we need to overhaul the whole VAT system as you don't pay VAT on lots of luxury food, designer children's clothes etc either. Also we should look at charging VAT on extracurriculars for all children as not everyone can afford them so they must be a luxury too!

YABU.

I really don’t like the man but get your facts straight. It used to be a grammar school and was when he joined. It converted to private mid way through but the grammar kids didn’t have to pay fees.

By all means criticise for his awful decisions, not his education.

The type of scholarship/bursary that will become vanishingly rare as more schools go to the wall or to the financial cliff edge. Mission accomplished: leave independent schools for the toffs!

I don't agree with the VAT but this is completely nonsensical.

1. his parents sent him when it was a state school, and never paid any fees
2. he was school-age at this time - not an adult, not a policy-maker.

Actually @theworldsacrazycrazymess this is the first Cabinet in history where every single member of it was state educated.