Whitehall “braced for private schools collapse” 4

[ICouldBeVioletSky]

Continuing the discussion about the impact of VAT on independent schools…

Form a leading KC, I had rather expected some cunning or subtlety. Whatever they're paying this moron, it's too much. The "justifications" he's given are so ham-fisted, clumsy and peppered with own-goals, they're what I'd have expected from a not very bright student in a Key Stage 3 debate.

And that's why we are fighting them. The ramifications of them winning this case are bad because then there will be no stopping them!

Ha ha yeh so did we but honestly they could have saved themselves a hell of a lot of money and just got some trolls from X to defend their case. We expected intelligent, well reasoned defence but it has been risible. That makes the stakes even higher though tbh.
They were told off by the judge by using the term "subsidy" + "tax breaks" because they aren't and that was a matter of opinion, not fact/law 🤣
It's literally everything we have been saying for 18 months!!

Private school parents must pay 'fair share'

That's quite a blast-from-the-past, I must say! Haven't seen that bone-headed nonsense on these threads for months; these days on these threads we've moved on to higher grade arguments like "nobody will change behaviour due to financial pressures."

We need bingo cards.
Including:
‘But that small private school would probably have closed soon anyway’
’Why didn’t you budget for the additional 20% on top of annual fee rises?’
‘Middle class sharp elbowed parents are now bankrupting local authorities’

You mean like this one?

Thank you to that judge for forbidding misleading terms in court. I wish the government would stop feeding these mendacious terms into the media.

That is good. But there’s loads more!

‘universally accessible state school places’

‘sharp elbowed private school parents will drive up standards in state schools’

‘you can always home educate’

Just spotted that the BBC is looking for
parents to give views! At the foot of yesterday’s VAT case high court coverage:

Are you personally affected by the issues raised in this story?
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.
You can also get in touch in the following ways:
Email: [email protected]
WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2088mzdr8o

They really don't give a shit about children...

Labour knowingly chose ‘most disruptive’ date for private school tax raid

https://archive.ph/MdnJC

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/03/labour-chose-most-disruptive-date-private-school-tax-raid/

None of what is coming out in court surprises me! Paying 4 KC not enough to put forward robust arguments? Gaslighting in court by using incorrect political speak like “tax breaks”? Actually knowing that the policy cannot work and loses money unless you throw DCs with SEND under the bus? All explained on numerous threads on MN for YEARS now.

And let’s not forget the huge elephant in the room. Sir Keir Starmer himself a HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERT who has just had his own child go through GCSEs and fully well knows that educational privilege includes “state plus”, hence the whole Lord Ali flat to keep things quiet for his own child.

Discretionary post tax spending? No, they believe that 20 per cent of that belongs to them, as a matter of right.
Pushing children with SEND into online schooling and home education, implicitly?
It is really truly shocking.

However, do you know what actually aggravates me the most? Is the fact that this cynical VAT was intended to drive a wedge between parents of state vs private, SEND vs not SEND children.

When in actual fact we all need to unite to fight for a better future for all our children. The Tories failed our kids during COVID massively, instead of sorting it out LABOUR CHOSE DIVISION between parents. You can see it on these threads, those defending the private school VAT in some vain hope that it was meant to improve state education. All lies! All our children deserve far better!

Most importantly, EVERY child deserves to attend school in person, in the real world, if that is what their parents want!

Let’s hope Labour LOSE but what we do have as a legacy is parent activism, advocating for our children, let’s not let politicians ever again forget about our children. This needs to be turned into something positive. SEND parents need to unite. State school parents need to demand more. You cannot just ignore the parents.
Our children have a universal right to an education that is fair and lets them flourish as citizens and humans, regardless of their disabilities and background and belief systems. The State needs to provide all of that and we have paid for it. The State serves us, we have delegated spending to them, they do not control us. We have voted them in to serve us and our children. Not the other way round!

👏👏 however any group of parents banding together needs to have very thick skin against attacks by other parents!!!!

100%

And if you and I can see this as state school parents...

Another aspect of the idiocy of this policy is that it treats education as a purely national issue and a zero sum game, in which there is a fixed size of pie and they can take some of the pie currently going to some children and redistribute it to others, with no other effects.
In practice, this is not true for several reasons.
Firstly British education - both private secondary and tertiary - is one of our most successful export industries. By attacking one part of this, and underfunding the other, they're damaging that successful industry and the national economy. Their simplistic economic estimates of revenue "raised" by the policy neglect the thousands of redundancies that will result from the closure and downscaling of hundreds of previously viable small businesses. Secondly, the UK requires a globally competitive workforce, and our private schools churned out many of the best educated, helping the UK to compete internationally. Studies like PISA and TIMSS showed that the UK's top performers in STEM subjects were disproportionately concentrated in private and grammar schools. If you wanted to reduce the UK's future global competitiveness, there could be no better policy than attacking the schools in which many of its future key contributors are trained. Ultimately, all Labour can envision is levelling down. But this is not a zero sum game: reduced ability to compete in a global economy and damage to a previously successful export sector with thousands of redundancies will result in a smaller pie, with less for everyone.

4 more schools to announce closures before Easter and further 16 now on watch list.

Do you have a link to this information, please? I'm only able to see 16 private school closures this year through Google so not sure if you are looking somewhere different to me? It's terrible if that many schools are closing in such a short space of time.

Sorry it is information given by parents as they have had notification from school so not yet publc.
We are now at 25 confirmed closures in public domain since January, 77 since the election (confirmed in court yesterday) + another 16 on watch list

Excellent challenge by Pannick:
Government says you can access private schools but you have to pay a tax to the state to get that access. Same as saying to someone you have a right to go to mass but must pay a tax to the state to do so. They are purposely impeding access.

Love that.

Perfectly good free alternative in our state sponsored religion, the Church of England (insert Wales/Scotland as required). But if you want to opt out and go with Rome then you need to pay a tithe.

Again this is just like bingo calling of numbers when there is no evidence to go with it. If you can’t evidence it, it is premature to announce it.

Evidence is court documents but obviously I don't have those

Well we could make do with links to any details.

How can I link you to court documents??!!
Not allowed to record live stream either

Sorry, I think we have crossed wires. I wasn't talking about the court proceedings. I was referencing this post

twistyizzy · Today 12:47
4 more schools to announce closures before Easter and further 16 now on watch list.

Other countries must be laughing their heads off at us. First Brexit to decimate STEM and now this. I wonder if once Kier's kids get through Oxbridge they'll move on to demolishing those next?