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 ?

The Guildhall has bursaries and scholarships available.

I would imagine the fatm he worked on probably belonged to the parents of one of the kids he was at school with.

Stop imaging and acquaint yourself with the facts.
His mother was ill. He grew up with his two sisters and one brother. His brother has learning disabilities. They shared a bunk bed. It was not a privileged upbringing.
Why is it so hard for you to accept that a boy from a working class family could be musically talented and intellectually gifted.

He was at grammar school. The rest of the boys in his would have been grammar school entry too. Why would they have farms?

This is his childhood home.

You have summed up my whole issue with Starmer.
He is from WC roots and through a private education (bursary enabled) he rose to where he is now. He acknowledges the opportunities hos education gave him and now wants to pull the drawbridge up so other kids from hos background will be excluded from having the same opportunities.

Bursaries will be the first things to go with VAT.
His whole family have benefitted from private education but he doesn't want others to have that same benefit.

That's my issue with him. Otherwise I wouldn't give a rats ass where he came from or where he was educated.

He says he wants aspirational people to flourish under Labour but then penalises those very people.

Stop imaging and acquaint yourself with the facts.

But if we did that we would have to accept that the Tories are on their last legs and soon Starmer will be Prime Minister.

Aspirational people don't go to state schools?

Bursaries will be the first things to go with VAT.

That’s not good.

Your link says he was encouraged to get a farm job during the holidays but no details of what he did or how long he worked there. The link says that every Saturday morning, at the insistence of his parents, he would travel to London to attend lessons [at Guildhall School of Music]. As a teenager he toured Malta with the Croydon Youth Symphony Orchestra.

The link also confirms that Starmer's father was self-employed - reference to his father's toolmaking business. Starmer worked for his father for six months in a gap year before university.

Further, the link says that Starmer was active in helping to raise bursary funds for his old private school, but then two years later he gave a speech saying he didn't believe in separating children at eleven. He also missed off Reigate Grammar from his Who's Who entry.

No but in some schools bursaries come directly from fees. Can you see parents who are paying an additional 20% on top of fees being happy to see their fees subsidising other pupils?
Lots of schools have already indicated that they will close new bursary applications and only support existing awards.

Naieve. The next bunch won’t be any better, in fact they’ll probably be more hypocritical.

i don’t know how stupid you have to be to think that who you vote for makes any difference.

Can someone answer me this:
Some posters claim that private school is only for wealthy people yet also claim that Starmer wasn't from a wealthy family.
Those posters ignore the bursary factor in the first claim yet use it to justify Starmer's time at a private school.

You can't have it both ways folks! Either private schools are only for the truly wealthy OR they offer a way for less well of kids to climb out of their WC background? Which is it?

Saschka
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

Your link says he was too busy at the Guildhall School of Music on Saturdays.

Isn't it wonderful that anyone no matter their background used to have access to the highest quality musical tuition and each county had its own youth orchestra supported by dedicated professionals. Such as a shame that such services were cut in the 1990s as the then government couldn't see the value in funding them.
A few remenants still exist, for example the Scout and Guide Association have a joint orchestra that meets for a week each year. It is like so many other things that once made this country great a somewhat pale immitation of its previous self, but it is still a fabulous opportunity for young people of all backgrounds to make music together.

I know it’s a very sad outcome of the policy but then I don’t see many upsides, just this kind of removal from dc

JessS1990
Meanwhile have any more Tory MPs been locked in flats with bad people?

No idea - but to answer the OP's question - at least six Labour MPs have been locked in a prison cell since 2011 for fraud/false accounting - will that do instead? (The seventh Labour MP received a supervision order):

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/20/mps-expenses-elliot-morley-sentenced
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20248915
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/jan/07/david-chaytor-jailed-mps-expenses
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/mar/31/jim-devine-sentenced-expenses-fruad
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/feb/10/mps-expenses-eric-illsley-sentence
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25492017
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-64577552

Doyouhonestlyexpectmetobelieve
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 ?

Apparently the CPS think you are being unreasonable OP.

Do you have any source for this policy beyond the tripe put out by lying liar loser Susan Hall?

Which is my point about the hypocrisy of Starmer and many of the Labour Party who were privately educated

The pp knows this because they are writing the Labour manifesto. Although it is not clear with they have told Starmer yet.

So if you go to private school - which Starmer didn’t - you’re not allowed to become a Labour MP?
Can you be a Lib Dem? Or how about SNP?

Of course you can but don't then pull up the very drawbridge that you benefitted from, behind you. Don't penalise other lower income kids from achieving what you achieved because of the ending of bursaries.

But how do you know it was the grammar school? Maybe it was Leeds University? Or maybe his background made him more determined.

This is a ridiculous post. How is he pulling up the drawbridge behind himself? I think you're confusing him with Braverman and Sunak making sure no other children of immigrants have a chance here.

Investment in state schools will give more opportunities to working class children.

This. Maybe he was just a smart kid with a good work ethic back in a time when you didn't have to be rich to go to uni.

Because opponents of private schools claim that they give unfair advantages/connections etc. That we need to level the plating field. Therefore it must have been the evil private school that enabled him to achieve the position he is in today.
I agree with you that it is more likely to be due to sheer hard work but that doesn't play into the narrative of needing to tax private education.

Sensible people know it is more about background and personal drive.

JessS1990
Isn't it wonderful that anyone no matter their background used to have access to the highest quality musical tuition and each county had its own youth orchestra supported by dedicated professionals.

How do you know Starmer received free music tuition at Guildhall or Reigate Grammar? Who paid for him to tour Malta with the Croydon Youth Symphony Orchestra?

Saschka
@ 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.

This appears to be the extent of his farm work (Country Life Mag);

I loved it growing up. You could make easy pocket money clearing stones for the local farmers and play football, quite literally, until the cows came home.

He clearly did go to a private sixth form - even if his parents applied for a means tested bursary.

Making plans for the future - eg getting qualification for a better job or whatever has nothing to do with who is in government.

Getting qualifications and a better job were made much easier under the last Labour government.

Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools
Doubling of school funding
Youth unemployment down 75%
Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18
Record number of students in higher education
Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.