Keir Starmer's kids at school

[SoHereWeAre01]

So Labour Party supports the teacher's union in opposing schools reopening on 1 June....

Whilst the the leader of the Labour Party has his own children currently attending state school....

Hypocrisy of the political establishment...

Trying to distract from the real scandal (Dominic Cummings), OP?

He's quite old- how old are his children? Surely not primary school age?

Good to get Starmer's name out. He is sensibly keeping a distance from this epic shitshow of Tory misrule (Brexit next!) but the tidal waves of crap emanating from the government are somewhat distracting from the sensible politicians in other parties.

@JinglingHellsBells 10 and 8 I believe

@EdwinaMay I actually think they are pushing mostly based on economic decisions - R and Yr1 because firstly they are younger, more difficult to homeschool, look after if you need to work - even from home. They’ve also allowed childminders and nurseries to support this theory. Year 6 had to transition to secondary school, so a key period for preparation.

What you learn from a goady thread on Mumsnet! Sir K is in his late 50s and his children seem to be of primary school age.
Now which other politician can I think of with a young child, much younger than Starmer’s? Oh yes...as well as many other children by a number of women, who knows how many?

I should have said which lying scumbag of a politician in his 50s but I was too polite.

If Mumsnet is meant to be for grownups, some of these posts are bordering on childish. They are either partisan in nature (if you criticise Keir, you are a Tory) or simply mocking

Oh OP you are priceless, just read your own posts.

When a username only ever appears to spout rubbish on one theme its hardly surprising if people assume that username is a shill. In this case Tory shill. Or an LD shill, aka Tory that missed the human biology classes at school.

Thanks to the hilariously desperate smear campaigns against Starmer, I have learned that he wants to protect his children from media intrusion, cares about donkeys and elderly women and thinks that the safety of children and school staff is extremely important. Those are literally the worst things that any detractors could find out about him!

It feels so good to have a competent and decent opposition again. Even with the horrors of a global pandemic, it gives me some glimmers of hope for the future being a little less awful than it could have been.

He is absolutely a key worker. If he wasn't able to work, we basically kiss democracy goodbye. Our whole system relies on having people whose job it is to scrutinise the government both in public but also in all the things the government don't even attempt because they know their shadow minister is watching and taking note. Journalists don't have the access or, these days, the time to do that effectively alone.

His wife is also a key worker. Occ Health ensure people who have been unwell are enabled to get home and don't block hospital beds. They are probably more essential now because family members can't be around to provide rehabilitation and day to day care as easily.

He also does support schools reopening as seems to be attempting to act as a mediator between the government and the unions so they can come to what he calls "a consensus". Hardly someone who opposes schools opening at all costs. In fact he has repeatedly spoken about the cost being born particularly but less wealthy families and the detrimental effects of not having access to education.

Even if all that wasn't true, his children aren't political pawns up for grabs. So I fully disagree with you.

@CaptainBrickbeard

It has been quite interesting to see them trying to come up with something. Either complete nonsense like this or the donkey story, or downright lies that two minutes on Google will disprove.

I think they're struggling partly because he's refusing to play into their Culture War games. They thought he was going to become some kind of Remainer-in-Chief and stoke up hostility on that basis. Instead his messaging has been about competence, fairness, having a better country, about people being decent. Far too early to say whether it will work or even if he can maintain it, but it's fascinating to see how it's really quite hard to maintain an aggressive fighting pose (which the govt thrives on) when your opponent just won't engage with it.

This story needs to be seen in the context of this tired old Tory trope.

It started with Education Secretary Tony Crosland in the 1960s who was pushing for an end of selection whilst, the tory press reported, he sent his kids to private school. .....Except that they weren't his kids. They were his wife's kids.

And then there was Tony Blair who 'sent his kids' to an Posh RC Comp rather than some random comp in Tottenham and not the even posher local comp to 10DS, just because his wife was a Catholic, etc.

It would be nice to think that BJ knew where all his kids were, never mind what schools they go to.

Talk about scraping the barrel! This thread is just stupid!

Then of course, we have Cameron, who made rather a lot of capital out of sending his kids to state schools. I don't know about his daughters, but I believe his son is now privately educated. The Press didn't bother to report that though.

Oh and wasn't Corbyn privately educated? Since we always have to get a 'Corbyn would have been worse' in.

To be fair Labour MPs living in the area are very selective about the state schools they use for senior school. Better a long rail journey out to Potters Bar than to mix with the local riff raff. If not use the church card or otherwise pay the fees. IMO it is hypocritical for the Labour Party to say everyone should use state schools but then not use their catchment schools but to go to great effort to get their DCs into top performing state schools. The Oratory school is supposed to use a lottery system to award places but I have never known a politician not to get a place for their chilld.

The story on Stamer's kids being at school is just to get the public used to the idea of kids being at school. It was a very positive piece. There is a similar story today in the Telegraph on the Tindalls and how Mia Tindall wil be returning to school on 1st June.

I think Stamer has been quite clever. He has shown that he supports DCs being in school without taking on the mad Momentum lot.

Our friends are labour mps and their child goes to their local inner city comp which has had quite a few issues.

In Islington Mrs Swift?

Key worker family sends children to state school key worker provision so they can work is a total non story.

It'll be interesting to see what attempts are made to hide the Dominic Cummings story. He's a contemptible scrote who has somehow managed to end up running the show.

Interesting take on the situation but ultimately KS actions show he supports the return so not seeing what your problem is really. Anyway leave KS alone, us Labour supporters are truly enjoying the honeymoon period. It is so refreshing having a leader you are not totally embarrassed by.

Here is the Tindall article for anyone interested. There will be someone else tomorrow, probably a politician preferably female who will drone on about the problems of WFH with small children there, and as I posted on another thread all this will lead on to George and Charlotte excitedly returning to school on the 1st June clutching NHS rainbow pictures (that Kate scribbled the night before) and William will make some lame joke about struggling with Y1 maths. Leading this country by it's nose is not very dificult.

Honeymoon period or not, none of the articles are critical of Stamer. Everyone knows that he is doing his bit for the back to school campaign that he believes in. Even the DM is pretty positive. And it is good to see a Labour leader that isn't embarassing, our political system needs a strong opposition.

www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/mike-tindall-zara-planning-send-mia-back-school-june/

Oh it's so difficult for them having to try to school their children at home with acres of space and only a nanny to do the childcare!

Where exactly does Mia Tindall go to school? Will this, like George and Charlotte require a move back to London? Are people now 'allowed' to move between houses?

Yeah, at least Keir Starmer knows how many children he has at school..

The science is undeniable. On balance, more damage is being done to children (especially of poor or BAME) in lockdown than in getting them back to school.

Care to provide a cite for that, OP?

We have to start at some point, and what's the difference between 1 June or 8 June or 15 June? Will one or two weeks make such a dramatic difference?

The ISAGE report says that going back on 15th June will halve the risk of children catching coronavirus (and therefore taking it home to their families).

To me, that seems like a good trade off.

The government were also presented with other, lower risk, return to school plans than sending all kids from 3 year groups in at once.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

We should not be taking advice about continuing to deny our children an education from a bunch of self-publicist scientists, even if they themselves have decided that they are independent.

Children are not and never have been at any significant risk from coronavirus. They have most chance of being struck by lightning than by dying of Covid-19.

Unless we are going to keep schools closed until the risk from lightning is zero (and there seem to be many rabid lockdown supporters who are delighted by the forced removal of children from public life) then we need to get them back ASAP.

It's not about the risk to children directly themselves, it's about the risk to the wider population.

Children can pass coronavirus onto adults. Studies disagree about the degree to which they do this, but some say they can pass it on at the same rate as other adults. That means any child that gets ill could infect their parents or any other adults they interact with.

The death of a parent is horrific for a child. Even the death of a teacher or member of school staff can be very upsetting and damaging to their mental health.

It's also about protecting wider society, as secondary school children especially will be using public transport etc, and maybe infecting others if they are ill.

I think waiting 2 weeks to halve that risk is worthwhile.

Furthermore, if we are trying to get the economy moving, halving the number of families who have to self-isolate for 14 days is probably helpful.