Thread 2: VAT on school Fees- High court challenge

[EHCPerhaps]

Following on from thread 1
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/education/5160565-vat-on-school-fees-high-court-challenge

Background to legal challenge (not yet a case):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13824931/amp/Single-mother-autistic-child-launches-High-Court-challenge-Labours-private-schools-VAT-raid-claiming-violates-daughters-right-education.html

Sorry to begin a new thread, OP, but your thread filled up very quickly!

I’ve just seen it. Utterly ridiculous. I don’t know a single private school with embossed stationery. I do know of state schools with a budget for Facebook advertising though……

The government statistics I linked to only looks at GCSEs sat by 16 year olds in one sitting in Y11. This year, 1.7% sat 11 GCSEs, 0.1% sat 12+. I know some schools sit some in Y9 &/or Y10 or who start with 11+ but some students drop subjects over the course.

Quinn’s DD hasn’t got an EHCP. KCC refused to assess. As far as I can gather she didn’t appeal.

My DC’s private school doesn’t have embossed stationary and my other DC’s football club trains at a state comp every week on a 3G pitch. And that comp has a swimming pool too. Honestly, the woman has lost the plot. It would be funny if it wasn’t damaging children.

Oh dear, I think someone had a few Saturday night Malibus and will wake up in the morning remembering they are Secretary for Education.

Similar story here. My child went to a sports event at a state secondary. The facilities were far better than the majority of private schools. They had Astros, an amazing indoor sports hall, drama and recording studios etc. Interestingly, the outcomes for children were far worse than schools with worse facilities.

I’ve just looked at the post and any comments against the VAT policy are mysteriously disappearing. They appear, then seem to be removed.

Easily done - you can use Facebook where the writer and their friends can still see the comment but nobody else can. You can also set it up to autohide or reject any comment containing certain words.

Oh she’s been doing that for months.

Numbers of GCSEs taken by successful and unsuccessful applicants to medicine at Oxford:

www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics

That article headlines with embossed stationary abd then in the second paragraph mentions that staff are being made redundant. I'd suggest that's a bigger cost saving.

I can see the comments against the policy as they are posted, but they are disappearing within 3 or 4 minutes of posting. It’s very strange. I wonder if it’s Facebook algorithms or something.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/17/education-secretary-bridget-phillipson-private-school-tax-r/

Great. She sounds cogent and responsible

Oh definitely!!! I have just shared an article from August about the Facebook deletions. Only the Telegraph were willing to pick the story up at the time. A couple of months later and the Guardian are now starting to question the VAT policy….

So we are not allowed to question the policy now? What happened to living in a democracy?

That ended on 4 July…

Wow - I've never seen posts vanish so fast. What a mediocre minister she is.

They are disappearing every 5 minutes or so. I really hope mainstream media pick this up. I totally understand that people have different opinions. If you truly believe in something though, have the strength of character to stand up for your beliefs and argue them, don’t just delete and remove comments you don’t agree with!

You can leave a story tip on the telegraph website, I’ve done so and I suggest others do. The disappearing comments and her rhetoric against children who’s welfare is under her remit are outrageous and not acceptable. I don’t care how many Malibu she’s had.

Agree. I’d suggest the DM too as it adds more reach

If she was truly confident in this policy, she wouldn’t feel the need to delete comments. My own MP is somewhat divisive (clue - she’s up for Tory party leadership) and attracts many negative comments on her Facebook page, some of which are just plain rude and offensive but they are never deleted. Contrast this to Phillipson where posters who question the VAT policy in any way always have their comments deleted. Almost all of these comments are perfectly polite…they just don’t agree with her!

Well, it's Labour's approach overall - shut down everyone who disagree.

Scary time

Surely it would be easier to appeal over refusal to issue then? Not to mention cheaper.

Comments aren’t disappearing on her X account though, where she’s posted the same thing. Backlash is huge - she’s going to have a busy morning when she wakes up.