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 ?

Still not seeing how any of that makes him “a public school privileged rich kid”, as somebody upthread claimed.

We should be pleased when young working class and lower middle class kids do well in life, and achieve things. Not “no true Scotsman” them and say it must mean they were never real working class people in the first place.

Social mobility has been shut down over the past 20-30 years, but it used to be perfectly possible for a working class kid to get to a good university if they were academically able.

It is telling that you are so gleeful about the impact on the DC

I’ve noticed this. We’re lucky that we have very good state schools, but I really feel for the dc who will be impacted. There are better ways to improve state.

Did they fund Starmer's pocket money as well? He doesn't appear to have had a Saturday job in sixth form.

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

There is more than one Swinton in England - we come from the Mexborough one, so more like 50 miles away from the Peak District, and about 100 miles from places like Ingleton.

Either way, they had buses and trains in the 60s, even up north. I don’t think 300miles is an insurmountable distance to travel for an annual holiday.

Probably also paid for his beers. We all know how much you are concerned about his beer consumption.

The Labour party must be delighted that the best dirt the Tories have is that Starmer played a music instrument.

Meanwhile have any more Tory MPs been locked in flats with bad people? Is that why Sunak was unable to vote in the London mayoral election?

Is that true re council tax? I can only find suggestions that they would revalue the bands. Many people in the south have an ordinary house that is only expensive because it's in the south, so a % of value system would be incredibly unfair.

How would you know, unless he has explicitly said he didn’t? Most people in their 50s don’t wang on about a Saturday job from 40 years ago. William Hague excepted, of course.

I doubt anyone I work with could tell you what part time jobs I had in my teens. I’m not even sure DH would know.

I have found a couple of sources which have said this but can't find anything from Labour.
They have proposed it in Wales so it is a supposition that Westminster would try to adopt it.
You mean unfair as in VAT on school fees for those forced out of the state sector??

I meant the council tax potential change would be unfair, but I also disagree with VAT on private school fees (and I have no skin in the game, my kids both went to state school)

@Clavinova Oh, and two minutes of googling finds that he did have a job from aged 14. Halfway down the page, did farm work apparently. What a privileged bastard.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tFUzEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT27&lpg=PT27&dq=keir+starmer+teenage&source=bl&ots=mvmnWDzqQ5&sig=ACfU3U3jbq46-E6ly0QoHLrzPfrNKV5T9w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWx8W3meFAxWPWEEAHdpzAzs4HhDoAXoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=keir%20starmer%20teenage&f=true

Yes, that was wonderful. It makes me so sad to see the state of musiceducation these days.

Remind me what was so bad? Did you hate shorter waiting times? More teachers to pupil ratio? More police? Better funded armed forces? Introduction of the minimum wage, sure start, more children and pensioners out of poverty, less unemployed, only 2 PMs in 13 years, etc etc.
I agree the Iraq war was horrific and selling the gold and Arms Lengths Companies a mistake, tony Blair's voice was annoying (but no worser than any if the Tories) but what else was so bad? Compared to increased inequity, trashed economy, ruined NHS, lowest trust in politicians ever, corruption plain to see.
So remind me what was so bad?

This.. you've been warned.

An exhibitor at the Guildhall. Yes, that's available for your average state school kids isn't it? Played violin,flute and given lessons by professional musicians. To be able to afford such lessons is out of the reach of average parents.
I would imagine the fatm he worked on probably belonged to the parents of one of the kids he was at school with.

If the link isn't on the spreadsheet it doesn't count.

Let’s see how everyone feels when they bring in pay per mile road charging across the country, increase income tax, put environmental tax on holidays and let all and sundry into the UK.

You may have missed my post explaining that there used to be County Music services paid for by LEAs that made such things possible for any child who showed interest or talent.
Pockets of such services still exist in some forms, for example my dd is fortunate to play in an orchestra at no charge which is run by professional musicans, but sadly such opportunities are much rarer than they used to be.

May I be so bold as to ask, how you know what is in the Labour party manifesto?
Are you perhaps part of their drafting team?

The same way anyone knows anything, because they are already laying out their policies.

Funnily enough, DS’s state primary school does offer just that. It’s a charitable outreach programme for deprived inner city children. The charity is called Music Masters, they work in a number of schools so hopefully not too outing.

DS has free cello lessons three times a week, and yes children from his school do regularly perform at the Guildhall.

In the 80s, DM used to work in the local council music school (payroll clerk), which provided free music tuition and instruments in local state schools.

Just because local government music funding has been slashed recently doesn’t mean it never existed.

That's odd, I haven't read about any of those policies in Labour party literature. Perhaps you could provide a link so I can educate myself further?

Really? I imagine the farm he worked on was on the moon. We can all do this making up thing if we want to.

What about? Tell us? Is it really worse than now? I remember having more money in my pocket despite being in a much lower paid job.

Its creative, I didn't have But Starmer worked on a farm on my bingo card, did you?

I sometimes wonder how Thatcher would have dealt with the pandemic. I don’t see her having covert drinks parties mainly because I don’t think she was as gregarious as Johnson is. But I think she was also someone who would’ve practised what she preached. I’m not a fan of her policies but in fairness I think she had more integrity. I can’t comment on whether she was a grifter with grifty mates - as the current lot seem to be!