#U-turn

[eaglesnick]

“‘Private education is not fair. Those who provide it know it. Those who pay for it know it. Those who have to sacrifice in order to purchase it know it. And those who receive it know it, or should. And if their education ends without it dawning on them, then that education has been wasted.”  - Alan Bennett.

One year ago almost to the day, Sir Kier Starmer, our new prime minister, promised to end the “snobbery” that surrounds academic vs vocational education. Speaking in Gillingham Kent, he said the ‘class ceiling' needed to be broken and he vowed to fight the existing reality that social background - and by default, economic background  - determines a child’s future opportunities.

This pledge was part of his fifth mission statement where he promised to “break down the barriers of opportunity at every stage for every child.”  More importantly he emphasised:

“This mission is my core purpose and my personal cause: to fight, at every stage, for every child, the pernicious idea that background equals destiny, that your circumstances, who you are, where you come from, who you know, might shape your life more than your talent, effort and enterprise.

“No, breaking that link, that’s what Labour is for. I have always felt that. It runs deep for me.” (Keir Starmer:05/07/23)

Starmer is absolutely right when he says a child’s socio-economic background determines the opportunities open to them. Money buys privilege. One reason private schools are so popular among better off parents, especially the very rich, is that class sizes are so much smaller than in the state sector, and as is well known, “smaller classes lead to higher quality education”. From early years of prep schooling right through to the elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, money buys academic success. It is no accident that 60% of top university student intake is private school educated, while just 25% is from state schools: the rest being overseas students.

But it is not only the quality of education than counts when it comes to future opportunities – social networking also plays a major role. Sending your child to a private school not only increases their chances of academic success, it also builds up “social capital".

This interesting headline says it all:

Getting the job: it's not just who you know, its how you know them" (nature: 23/1022)

If you know them from public school, especially boarding school, then you are recognised as "one of us" and you reap the advantages.

The dominance of the privately educated throughout Britain’s "upper echelons of power" was recognised by the conservative Prime Minister John Major, who was shocked at the difference a private education made to opportunities for success.

Starmer’s ambition to end the disadvantage of being a state educated pupil by raising educational standards in state schools is admirable but it is not enough. In a report into who gets the top jobs published in 2013 the researchers came to this depressing conclusion.

.”Our work discounts the notion that higher education levels the playing field between students of differing socio-economic backgrounds. Beyond academic achievement, our analysis suggests there are other reasons why wealthier and more advantaged students, and particularly those who attend a private school, are significantly more likely to secure a top job."  ( Macmillian, Tyler and Vignoles:“Who gets the Top Jobs? The role of family background and networks in recent graduates’ access to high status professions.” ; IOE December 2013)

Nothing has changed since 2013. In 2019 Statistica carried this headline:

“The UK's top jobs are dominated by the privately educated…our report shows, the most influential people across sport, politics, the media, film and TV, are five times as likely to have attended a fee-paying school.”  (Statistica: 25/06/19)

And in 2023 we had this report:

“Private school alumni…gain a disproportionate share, relative to their small numbers, of highly influential jobs in British public life and in business. (UCL: Private schools and British Society: 29/11/23)

Given Starmer’s “mission” to break the ‘class ceiling” is at the ‘core’ of his being, then he has gotten off to a very poor start in trying to remedy this gross social inequality. Originally he promised to strip private schools of their charity status.

“Keir Starmer vows to scrap charitable status for private schools” (LBC: 28/11/22)

Less than a year later, like so many of Starmer’s pledges, this plan was abandoned.

According to The Conversation (27/06/22) charitable status for private schools is worth “£3 billion a year”. It is certainly true that Rugby School is “raking in millions a year thanks to London rental property”. (Coventry Live: 06/04/2025).  Eton College, Britain’s most famous private school and the provider of 20 British prime ministers, has been described as having:

“…huge investments in securities and property - £568mn at August 2022 – chipping in handy amounts each year, tax-free thanks to its charitable status”. (Financial Times: 29/09/23)

Under Starmer the privilege provided by private education is to continue. Money buys smaller class sizes, better academic attainment and a build up of social capital through networking with others from wealthy families. Hiding behind the bogus claim of charitable status these schools for the privileged save millions of pounds in tax relief while the state sector is starved of sufficient funding. Rather than doing yet another U-turn, Starmer should have been planning to  close  private schools altogether.

If he is willing to surrender so easily to privilege and wealth on his “core” beliefs then he has no right to be Prime Minister, and his claims that his administration is all about "change" is just hollow rhetoric.

[maviaden]

hafta ortası yapılan kaçamaklar.

[identifying-moves-in-posts]

U-Turn

Bug | 20pp | power 70 | acc 100

After making its attack, the user rushes back 581 miles to visit Buc-ee's.

this stupid little beaver bitch

[the-eccentric-eclectic]

Hey kid, look at me.

I want you to T-pose. Turn your right thumb up and your left thumb doen and look at your right thumb. Move your arms up and down a bit until you feel a nerve running from your armpit to your palm. Now turn your right thumb down and your left thumb up, and look at your left thumb. Keep your chest facing forward and your shoulders back. Move your arms again until you feel that nerve again. Keep alternating between these two for a minute, or look at each thumb thirty times each.

Now sit down. Put your left hand firmly under your left buttock, palm down. Keep your shoulders back and put your right hand over the crown of your head, very gently pulling it to the right. Do this for thirty seconds, then do it again but with your right hand under your right buttock.

These are stretches for the nerves in your arms, and are very good for people who sit behind a computer a lot, or fibre artists, or you name it. Do them daily. They will hurt in the beginning, but keep doing them, even after the pain has gone, or it will return and you'll have to start all over.

[saturdaysentiments]

U-Turn

Why loathe the Man that chose To correct his Steps of foolishness All Rights Reserved ©️ 2025

[keshavdubey]

Roads

ROADS ************** * All roads have two ends, First,from where they start, Then they go, to merge with other, Covering a distance, long or short. Some of the roads lead to a fixed target, Go and reach the destination- no doubt, Some trapped in jungle of cement-concrete, Beneath sky-scrappers, they try to come out. A road starts from an unknown dusty village, And dissolves in the ocean of the…

[clowniconography]

drawing of a nightmare situation i may or may not currently be in

[chloeworships]

With the speed of light 👀

[rightnewshindi]

टॉयलेट टैक्स पर विवाद के बाद सुक्खू सरकार का यू टर्न, फजीहत होने के बाद डिप्टी सीएम ने रद्द की अधिसूचना

Himachal News: विधानसभा चुनाव के दौरान मुफ्त गारंटी योजनाओं को लागू करने के बाद कर्ज के बो�� तले दबे हिमाचल प्रदेश की कांग्रेस सरकार ने शौचालय की संख्या के आधार पर टैक्स लगाने संबंधी एक आदेश जारी किया है, जो एक बड़े विवाद का कारण बन गया है. सरकार के आदेश का भाजपा और सोशल मीडिया पर जमकर मज़ाक उड़ाया जा रहा है. इसके बाद सरकार ने इस आदेश को वापस ले लिया है. हिमाचल सरकार पर फिलहाल 96000 करोड़ रुपये…

[wisdomfish]

You had better repent—you had better turn around, go the other direction, and understand that the only was you will ever know God, salvation, and forgiveness is by understanding that God has appointed a Judge who will judge all sinners. And that Judge is none other than Christ Jesus, who died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, and whom God raised from the dead to affirm that His sacrifice was complete and sufficient. ~ John MacArthur

[hinamie]

morning glory

[cryptocism]

"just as I did, in 1983."

you'd never know my favourite parts of the show are the fucked up insane bits when my first instinct is to draw the cheesiest thing imaginable

[dandyshucks]

being in love with a fictional character will make u produce art u didnt know u were capable of

~

[if ur part of the "fiction doesnt affect reality" crowd: please fuck off lol]

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

theyre both famous in their own ways