@CoconutRumcake You don't care about children though, do you? Because if you did, you'd be putting at least as much energy into lobbying for something that actually affects children on a much wider scale, like the massive inequality in our education system, as you are into being upset that your friend has a perfectly valid opinion about VAT on private school fees.
And I really don't understand the "parents should have a choice" argument. Of course parents should have choices about lots of things for their children. But why should "choice" mean that if you have enough money, you can buy your child access to a different and, in many cases, more advantageous education system? children's educational opportunities shouldn't depend on how much money their parents have.
If private schools are so wonderful and you're genuinely worried about children losing access to them, then surely the thing to campaign for is a state education system that is so good that you wouldn't dream of paying thousands a year to escape it. That's where I'd want all this energy to go. Better schools, better funding, better opportunities for ALL children.
But instead there's this weird insistence that the important thing is preserving the ability of relatively wealthy parents to "choose" private education. Well, yes, they can choose it because they can afford it. If you think your children would lose something valuable by not being able to go to private school, then campaign for that thing to exist in state schools too. Don't argue that your child should be able to retain access to it because you've got the money to pay for it.
Because a child whose parents can't afford private school doesn't have that "choice". Their parents can love them just as much, care about their education just as much and want the very best for them just as much, but they simply don't have the money. So it's not really parental choice, is it? It's wealth determining which educational opportunities your child gets.
If you genuinely care about children, why not lobby for excellent state schools . Campaign for a system where a child's opportunities aren't determined by their parents' income... but you won't do that because you dont actually care about children, you care about those of the privelidged group you are part of and about maintaining a system that so very obviously is unfair and reproduces inequality.
But aside from this (as you can probably tell) I am staunchly anti-private-school and would abolish private schools altogether if it were up to me. But somehow I've managed not been unfriended by my friends who send their children to private school! Because people can have political opinions I strongly disagree with without me deciding to ruin history and relationships that are built on more