To say I am fucking elated that this bunch of charlatans are on there way out

[Doyouhonestlyexpectmetobelieve]

My God I hated Thatcjer and all she stood for .. but at least I think she was honourable in her beliefs even if they were not mine .. but THIS LOT .. from BOJO onwards what a bunch of grifters ..

And before anyone says 'they are all the same ' .. I really don't think so ... At least in the 'lining their own pockets ' agenda .. AIBU to think this ?

I'm sorry that all those worried about women's rights think Tories are their saviours ... you are being played .. it's literally their ONLY thing .. but just words no actual action..

I also am anti support the nonsense that is gender ideology.:. but before all that we need to have a decent life and that will only happen with a Labour government.

He stayed on in 6th form which was funded by a bursary. His wife was privately educated and his DC have the advantage of using private school facilities. Starmer acknowledges the advantages a grammar/private education gave him.
He can afford a £2m home to ensure catchment to a great state school. Most of the country don't have this privilege.
He is now pulling up the drawbridge after him. He claims to want aspirational citizens yet with VAT is excluding more people from being aspirational and he is ensuring that private schools will truly become the enclaves of the super wealthy.

FYI Greece tried to put VAT on education and the results weren't great:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/greece-labour-style-attack-private-schools-backfired/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2sN-pZMJpDfQWo57wVLrLPoBOaVMytUp84rsQHgXWeBb3RF1DtgjIwLHwaem_AXFokiW2Sxhw8qmRi37OyopwwlFbM2mxMq7nd3bbQuUyvRwk4F_UukztJKbaUaLjtIZFlh31KA8ITOBhC45Vs8sd

Less than 7% of children in England go to private school. I’m just throwing this in because if you read - and believe - all the threads on Mumsnet you’d think the figure was much higher.

However there are 95,000 SEN DC at private school. Most of whom are there because they have been failed by the state sector. The % at private for 6th form rises to 18%.

However there are 95,000 SEN DC at private school. Most of whom are there because they have been failed by the state sector. The % at private for 6th form rises to 18%.

So let’s put money into the state sector to improve the provision. That’s the idea.

Won't be quick enough to help those kids now though will it?
The IFS stats have been well and truly picked apart now and it is expected that the policy will bring in half of the original announced figure.
The more sustainable long term option if Labour were truly serious about improving state schools would be through income tax.
The state education system needs more than 0.5% of its annual budget in order to effect any change.
Northern schools receive less funding than Southern schools and have some of the worsr outcomes. No word from Labour on improving this.

You do know that this is not how it is going to work?
If you truly believe that any money raised by this policy is going to go directly to improve state education provision then I would have to class you as dangerously naive.
If this policy has a noticeable affect on the funding or quality of state education I’ll be astonished.
And I work in state education- always hopeful!

I don’t know that, but I do know that the appetite to improve state education is better than what we’ve got now.

But apart from the VAT policy they haven't pledged any more money for education. Read the article on what happened in Greece when they tried to tax education.
It is illegal in the EU to tax education, for very obvious reasons.

Oh Clav there you are! Wondered where you and your non sequiturs had gone.

Presumably if he passed the 11plus for grammar school there must have been an alternative secondary modern somewhere in the area for those who didn't pass (and for those left learners who should know their place).

I wouldn’t mind this as an aim but I think there could be a better way than the VAT policy

T

His policies are a whole lot more coherrent than Sunak's that is for sure.

I'm so glad you are back, I had been missing you.
Have you been out canvassing?

Were your links popular on the doorsteps of the country?

No it isn't.
Remember the outrage when Rayner went to the opera.
People should know their place.

Saschka
My family are (retired) coal miners, steelworkers and electricians, definitely working class, and they could all play instruments (apparently Clav has never watched Ivor the Engine or Brassed Off - perfectly normal for working class kids to learn an instrument).

Starmer was a young scholar at the Guildhall School of Music - not a member of a colliery band. He played piano, flute, violin, recorder. (I love the film Brassed Off by the way - I've watched it half a dozen times).

They went on holiday to places like the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales, either camping or staying in a Youth Hostel.

Starmer took his children to see the 'cottage' he and his family stayed in when he was a child - not a field or youth hostel.

My mum went to the same grammar school as Ted Hughes, despite living in a Coronation Street style house with an outside toilet in Swinton.

Swinton appears to be only 20 miles from the Peak District National Park - Starmer's childhood home is 300 miles from the Lake District.

Certainly not - I post on here for my own amusement. I did smile at the man with the blue rosette standing outside my local polling station on Thursday though.

One nice thing that will change after the next GE is the UK's Prime Minister will not be an international laughing stock. It will be good not to have to explain to those from other places why we have put up with someone who can't obey the law for so long.

I can't say I've ever been asked to explain this. Do people from other places expect us all to have rioted?

It is one of my deep regrets that this was not mentioned during the Brexit campaigns, it would have been a much more persuasive argument than those that the Leave campaign advanced.

Floaty that is my dad’s fear. Labour get in they can’t effect change dissatisfaction spreads and some sort of hard right party fill the gap.

Because the Conservatives are implementing change and holding off the far right?

Wasn't it wonderful when County music services were funded by LEAs to provide music education for all, with opportunities to make music with those who belonged to other schools.
I wonder who cut the money for them?

Blue rosette, hmm, so not Street, Houchen or Hall who seemed to lose theirs.

It is telling that you are so gleeful about the impact on the DC. It is the kids who will suffer not the parents. I am specifically referring to the SEN kids at private school whose needs haven't been met at state school. Irrespective of whether the policy is wrong/right, the people who suffer will be the kids and it is very telling that the only people who revel in this are the supporters of the policy.
No-one is arguing that state schools don't need more investment however a more progressive and sustainable approach would be through income tax.
Sadly populist policies sold on straplines rather than sound economic sense seem to win the day.
Hope you are equally aa enthusiastic about the plans to reform Council Tax and the charge to be linked to a % of the price of the house instead of bands. That won't impact me because I live in the NE and can't afford a big house because I'm paying for school fees. So should I be gleeful because that will inpact Southerners and especially Londoners more than it will me?? Serves them right for being able to afford such expensive houses?

Starmer U-turns on his policies every other week. He doesn't seem very coherent on transgender issues - gets in a right old muddle. Plus, on Tuesday, Starmer said he 'gets on very well' with Rosie Duffield and they 'discuss' various matters together. Rosie Duffield says Starmer hasn't spoken to her in two and a half years - I don't believe a word he says now.