Starmer's stubbornness

I think we should all be ashamed to live in a country that has a two tier education system. Get rid of all private schools and make a decent system for all. The current system merely propagates entitlement and privilege. Time to end it!

Well said. Couldn't agree more.

Are you talking to yourself?

Germanshepherdsmum

Starmer knows better than to put country before party. He will face a challenge from the left wing and the unions are his party’s paymasters. Another instance of saying what people want to hear.

Goodness yes. It's terrifying that the common people on whose labour we depend to provide all our goods and services should have a say in how the country is run as well as big business and the finance industry.

😱

Unite are already telling him he’s got to borrow more money to get his growth plans going. The tail wags the dog.

I’d expect the unions to encourage Starmer to be more willing to borrow to increase growth. That’s what many Labour voters want
I keep coming back to the devastation of all public services caused by our govt in last 14 years. Even the tories are recognising. This now they see how angry voters are

My oldest have put my granddaughter in a private school both were in military at the time when they came out they chose not to remove her my youngest granddaughter also in private school they are just two normal parents working so the girls get better jobs when older. The local school doesn’t have a good name dil sister as her child in it. My grandson in a regular school my youngest can’t afford to go private like his bro if he could he said he would as my grandson doesn’t have a regular classroom has his school is one of the damaged schools council don’t have money to fix it don’t know if him and his little friends are going to have to squeeze into another school so stammer wants to also squeeze in private school kids too. He won’t be getting my vote because he doesn’t know what a woman is.

This idea about getting the private schools to pay more I notice is one of Ker Stammer’s sticking point.Yesterday there were chaps walking around my street trying to hand out labour leaflets.
When I brought up this subject even one of the chaps agreed with me! I cannot see it getting passed the government unless labour win by a vast amount of seats.
On the other hand the conservatives want to abolish the A level which most firms want before taking anyone on.

Germanshepherdsmum

Unite are already telling him he’s got to borrow more money to get his growth plans going. The tail wags the dog.

And Suella Braverman wants the conservatives to work with Farage, but the tail isn't wagging the dog there either.

I understand the concerns of comfortably placed parents who see their budget under threat, but let's put this into context.

1. There will be no 'impossible burden' placed on state schools, for the simple reason that under a Starmer government they will be properly funded.

2. There will not be a 20% vat increase, merely the removal of a 20% vat exemption.

3. 'Over 103 thousand' well-fed children pales into insignificance when set against 4.3 million who live in poverty in the UK today. These are kids that do not even have breakfast and many don't even have a bed to sleep in.

Let's get this into proportion. No child deserves to be made to suffer from the inadequacy or sheer bad luck of their parents, just as none has a right to benefit from the good fortune of theirs. This is no different from the Indian caste system; it is not a thing we should be supporting.

What ever happened to Tony Blair’s promise of ‘education, education, education’?

mousemac

1. There will be no 'impossible burden' placed on state schools, for the simple reason that under a Starmer government they will be properly funded.
Could you define properly funded please?

Suella Braverman is a member of the government, Wyllow, so hardly the tail wagging the dog. Unite is not part of the Labour Party, but you know as well as I do that Labour is dependent on funding from the unions, each of which would be a tail wagging a Labour government dog. And it’s started already. A sign of things to come.

I second that question Mollygo.

Such amazing semantics - there will not be a 20% vat increase, merely the removal of a vat exemption. Ever thought of being a spin doctor mousemac?

Keep up Germanshepherdsmum. There is much less dependency on Union donations in the Labour Party than there used to be, and consequently they have much less influence on party policy, hence they have not driven the manifesto, and a number of them haven’t endorsed it. The tail is not wagging the dog.
www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/labour-conservative-party-donations-2023-spending-analysis/

What about the children of members of the armed forces? They get posted every 18 to 24 months. Despite a national misconception, they only have a small percentage of school fees paid by MoD. Parents have to make up the rest, which is a huge chunk out of a lower rank salary. These people are prepared to put their lives on the line for all of us. It is a national disgrace that Starmer wants to penalise them.

Before various statistics are bandied around the place and used as ammo, I should like to see what the proportion is of non UK nationals in the great scheme of the education census! Me sceptical? Good lord no!!

Don't forget that one of the greatest educational levellers was the grammar school. If you were bright enough, you could climb the heights. If you did not quite make it at 11, you went to secondary modern (you could re-take 11+ after a year) but meanwhile received a good grounding AND went on to learn a trade. What is wrong with that? We all need plumbers, carpenters and electricians and why do those trades need Latin?

But, of course, this sound idea was smashed by the Labour Party. Do not forget this on 4 July.

👏👏👏 I went to a grammar school at 11 and had a friend who joined after re-taking her 11+. By and large those I knew who attended the local secondary modern left at 16 and learned trades. It worked.

There was no 11+ in our area when my son was young. He went to the local comprehensive which had some excellent teachers.

Babamaman

What ever happened to Tony Blair’s promise of ‘education, education, education’?

The tories got in

Iam64

Babamaman

What ever happened to Tony Blair’s promise of ‘education, education, education’?

The tories got in

That's an interesting one from my experience in the independent sector. We certainly noticed a downturn in pupil numbers from 1997 onwards when prospective parents decided to choose the state sector over the independent sector for their children's schooling, encouraged by the Education, education, education promise. 5 or 6 years later though, they were disillusioned, and were flocking back to the private sector. I know this because when we sold the school in 2004 numbers were at their peak with waiting lists in some classes. The promise had obviously not
materialised.

Dynawritecat

I think we should all be ashamed to live in a country that has a two tier education system. Get rid of all private schools and make a decent system for all. The current system merely propagates entitlement and privilege. Time to end it!

But Starmer has nothing against private schools as such. He keeps saying this. Of course he doesn't want to get rid of them.

but you know as well as I do that Labour is dependent on funding from the unions

GSM not the case. Labour’s donations during the first weeks of the election campaign were in the £millions - most of it not from the unions.

I’m sure you’ve seen the figures; Tory donations have plummeted.

I posted the actual figures for 2023 above LizzieDrip, but it wasn’t acknowledged - didn’t fit the narrative I guess.

Ah yes, apologies Casdon. Very interesting figures aren’t they!

As you say, if they don’t fit the narrative, oft times they get ignored🤷‍♀️

I think you are probably right maddyone. I don’t know how much money they are hoping to raise from this initiative. This morning on LBC the Shadow Education Minister Bridget Phillipson said that the money raised was going to be used for Breakdast clubs and Mental Health provision in schools. Meanwhile in the Sunday Times Sir Keir said it was going to fund 100,000 new childcare places. The Shadow Minister did confirm that those children with an EHCP will be exempt from the VAT but also acknowledged that many don’t. The list of things they want to do with this money seems endless. If a large number of parents withdraw their children they may have to revise their sums.

...and where did Starmer go to school? He'll start on the Grammar schools next. 'Pull the ladder up Stammer' I call him.