Mumsnet in Sunday Times

[Xenia]

I cannot link because of the firewall but saw a reference to mumsnet - article about left wing people who send children to private schools.

one couple they referred to broke up their marriage because they could not agree on state or private schooling.

(When is it right to put family ahead of principle?

www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/focus/article1101910.ece )

The stranglehold of the privately educated on a particular swathe of influential jobs was really only broken between about late 60s-1997, when the products of grammar education held many such positions.

(I picked 1997 on purpose, as that was the year Uk's last state educated PM left office).

Who says that you vote labour in the privacy of the voting booth just because you work for the Guardian.

People tell bare faced lies about their religion to get a place in a good school.
I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same for a well paid job.

John Major though,despite being state educated himself , sent his own children to independent schools as did Harold Wilson , Callaghan and Thatcher.Surely the most important thing is the choice you make for your own children rather than the choice your parents made for them.

Sorry last sentence should be "the choice your parents made for you"

Polly Toynbee is the worst kind of hypocrite, a Labour MP told me so.

I understand the principle, but what about the former independent schools that are now funded by the tax payer? Is it the exclusivity or who is paying that's the issue?

I went right off Diane Abbot in the Labour leadership race a couple of years ago, when I read an interview with her. In answer to "What is the best investment you've ever made? ", she replied "My son's education.".

I don't like people who have never set foot in their local 'comp' slagging it off as a way of justifying their decision to buy advantage for their child by choosing private education.

Was at a toddler group where one of the mummies was agonising over the ' local schools' and how you coukdn't send little Poppy there but she shut up when I mentioned my older were at school there and were very happy.

All this reference to 'sink schools' etc as if you all live in the Bronx or something...

That said, give me someone who unapologetically enjoys their privilege over left wing hand wringers like those Gaurdian journalists. All they are saying is that stage ed is fine for wirking class children but should be improved. When it comes to their children however private education is best as it caters for their child's giftedness/ sensitivity/ harp playing/shyness. I was reading another one in Saturday Guardian going on about his 'struggle' over sendjng hus kids private, what he'd say at dinner parties etc, and it's so pathetic.

You feel like saying to these journslists thst some families ( including mine) are working found round the clock just to pay their bills and frankly couldn't hive a shit what you do with your money even if you are buying advantage over my children.

StarBallBunny: "Who says that you vote labour in the privacy of the voting booth just because you work for the Guardian.

People tell bare faced lies about their religion to get a place in a good school.
I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same for a well paid job."

I don't suppose that when you get interviewed for the Guardian, they actually ask you how you vote. But yes, I would guess there are a few Tory voters working for The Guardian, just as there are certainly Labour voters working for the Mail and other right-wing papers.

Plenty of left-wing parents don't send their kids to private schools.

A few do.

And the story is...?

And thread title v misleading - this has nothing to do with Mumsnet.

AFAIK, MN has no 'official' or unofficial left-wing leaning.

"And the story is...?"

The story is that right-wingers get to describe left-wingers who send their kids to private schools "hypocrites" and those who send their kids to state schools as "sacrificing their children to their principles." They then hug themselves with glee at the fact that they have no principles and therefore don't have to make difficult decisions, while feeling superior to those who do.

Yes, well said hackmum.

I think we all know why the OP posted this story....

The point is not about left-wingers being vilified for sending their children to independent schools, only those l-ws who have vociferously judged others for doing that, only to make excuses for doing so in the exceptional case of their own children.

Absolutely, it is a hypocrisy issue and it's very very topical and always on mumsnet so to see that rather close to the bone public connection re the family etc is which amusing.

it's important to bear in mind that this form of hypocrisy is only available to a tiny minority of people.

So the 'difficult decision' hand wringing which goes on via newspaper columns really means nothing, so few people can relate to it, and even fewer give a fuck...

Our local state school is a huge (6 form entry) dysfunctional place with high levels of absenteeism, truancy, discipline issues, poor acsdemic results and it feeds into a truly dire secondary school.

We have therefore send our DC private.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to send their children to our local school.

As I said before, it is entirely possible to be against the system in principle, is it not??

If there wasn't a two tier system of education, everyone would have the same opportunities. What's so wrong with that??

It is of course possible to say I deplore the system in principle but am duty bound to make the best choice within my power for my children. That would seem to be the position of someone like Will Self, who was one of the people mentioned in the article, and whom I would not criticise for choosing private education - though I do think he is a bit pompous for continuing to live in "edgy" Stockwell where he knows damn well the state schools are poor. He could perfectly well move to leafy Richmond and go state but that wouldnt suit his self-image I suppose, arse of a man that he is. Where I and others are inclined to be really critical, I think, is where people attack parents for choosing private education, cast aspersions on their reasons for doing so, insult the products of private schools (eg david Cameron) using their education as a reason, but make the same or simialr choices for their own children.

Yes, I have never really understood the difference between choosing a posh comp over a fee paying school.

I think hackmum sums it up well, but feel compelled to mention Karlos that I have met Will Self a few times through work and he was immensely kind and nice to me, a total nonentity to him. Def not an arse in RL

Doesn't contribute much to the thread, I know.

He may be nice in RL but his public pronouncements tend toward the arsey - only my opinion.
I think Xenia is right - the salient point here is "choice". The better-off have it and can choose to go prviate or move house for better state provision and the less well-off are stuck with what the state gives them. The only way this could change would be through taking measures which would not be acceptable in a liberal democracy. the answer is surely to focus on improving state education, rather than slagging off the parents of the 7% who are privately educated.

Xenia - "I have never really understood the difference between choosing a posh comp over a fee paying school."

About 15-30K/annum, I believe.

Boom boom.

Actually the sums are often the other way. Someone mentiond an area with good comps with average houseprices of £800k. In that case the mortgage is several multiples of what school fees might be.