If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the boys, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue
How do you know it's rubbish?
Because God told him it was rubbish? Seems most logical answer.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
Rishi's star falls further as he donates £100, 000 to Winchester School
He has astonished me and Boris needs to move him on
So out of touch
"The donations fund bursaries for children whose parents would not otherwise be able to send them there."
I would have thought as a Conservative leaning voter you would be board with rich people donating so those fortunate can have access to top level education?
Sunak has spectacularly self-destructed
The most tin-eared donation EVER? What a moron. This on top of his Will Smith wife analogy, because people should not pick on a billionairess, and also filling up a Kia and being unable to use contactless because he is SO RICH
No chance he ever becomes leader. Not a boerwurst sausage’s chance on a braai
Not really tin eared at all. This was part of an appeal for a new fund for bursaries and scholarships a while ago.
There’s a very interesting Tatler (yes I know….) dive into him which goes into him failing to get a scholarship which resulted in his parents “having to make sacrifices”. It also talks about him working as a waiter during school holidays in a friend of the family’s Indian restaurant. So he’s not the typical loaded public schoolboy of myth.
Added to this was his fixation in his interview after the budget with wanting to give everyone the ability to work.
Whether he’s so far done anything to help more people to “work” I think it shows where his ideology is - work your ass off and you might succeed….
If you are a Tory I would imagine that a chancellor with this ideology and background is actually a wet dream - he might have been holed below the waterline by Covid and Ukraine but Once we are out the other side I think he’s actually probably the “perfect” Tory chancellor. Prob not PM but this donation issue is easy to frame as “billionaire Rishi gives money to toffs” but really exposes that he wants to give people the leg up he felt he had. Which is admirable whatever you think of his Spring statement…..
Ok, I'm on the other side of this argument, but that was rather a good argument. Impressed.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Reaction on PB suggests that you are optimistic re: ease of defense.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
FYI the £100k donation Sunak has made. He hasn't just written a big fat cheque last week. It is he has now given that of his lifetime, and in doing so has been listed now listed by the school as a "Wykeham benefactors".
So the claims of making a tin eared donation in current climate is nonsense.
Then he is still guilty of foolishness, and semi-tone-deafness, and he has been successfully despatched as a candidate for leader by some ruthless opponent. Hmmmm
I sense Rees-Mogg's hand in this - getting one over a jumped-up oik with presumptions from an inferior school is surely something he and Boris would absolutely relish.
'aint gonna be any kind of peace deal any time soon...
Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah · 1h Asked by @SkyNews how Ukraine could negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin given the atrocities allegedly committed by his forces, the Ukrainian interior minister said, speaking in English: “Go to hell.”
At some point there will have to be a peace deal with the difference between now and that some point being measured in deaths. I would not like to be the politician that has to determine when that time has arrived.
Yeah it's all jolly sending weapons but they essentially kill people and prolong things
It has been the paradigm of eg civil wars throughout history. At some point someone will win. Until that time then the deaths will mount up. As I said not a decision I would like to be in a position to make. And yes also historically arming the protagonists has extended the war.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
There aren't as many top Tory politicians who went to major public schools anyway. Truss went to a comp, as did Patel and Javid. Raab went to a grammar school.
Boris went to Eton and Sunak did go to Winchester. Wallace and Zahawi went to private schools but not top tier.
On the Labour frontbench Starmer was privately educated as was Lammy and as was Davey, the LD leader. So am not sure there is much capital in it from their end
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Edit: that last point concerns the amount of tax moneys effectively taken out of the Exchequer and diverted to the private purposes of this, or indeed, any donor.
Better he spends it on this than 5 star Holidays to the Caribbean and Maldives, Michelin starred meals etc which he easily could.
Voters who are ideologically opposed to private education generally don't vote Tory anyway
I'm not so sure. Simply buying luxury items, as opposed to deeply wounding the social cohesion of the country ... and as for your ignoring non-Tory voters as usual, their taxes are being used to buttress such donations in general.
If its a scholarship awarded to someone not able to afford an elite education, I feel that's a benefit to social mobility.
That's like saying the national lottery is an engine of social mobility. Sure, if you're the lucky winner.
You have £100k. What to do. Give it to Oxfam and see it fund their staff in Haiti for "certain activities" or the DEC, which would be a good home for it if you are a believer in aid. Or to a charity for the homeless - another good home imo. Or use it to fund bright underprivileged children who might otherwise not have the opportunity to benefit from this kind of education, yes thereby bestowing privilege upon them but privilege that they have earned. Also not a dreadful home for your money imo.
All the major public schools have such schemes and are very pro-active in recruiting non-"typical" ie poorer students with scholarships.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Reaction on PB suggests that you are optimistic re: ease of defense.
Going by the PB reaction Will Smith will never act in a movie again. I think I'm right and the consensus here is wrong, most people won't care and framed as being aspirational it won't hurt the Tories at all.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Things like council house sales tap into the politics of aspiration. Elite public schools don't because they're not relatable for ordinary people.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Reaction on PB suggests that you are optimistic re: ease of defense.
Going by the PB reaction Will Smith will never act in a movie again. I think I'm right and the consensus here is wrong, most people won't care and framed as being aspirational it won't hurt the Tories at all.
Never said it would hurt the Tories. Tho it might. I said it has seriously damaged Sunak, perhaps terminally. And he was already in free fall
I wouldn't automatically select joomag as the best name for an internet magazine company, but there you are. This is the Wykeham journal *2020* which seems to be the latest edition, but highly disingenuous to call it the latest edition without pointing this out. Sunak was almost certainly a backbencher when he made the donation.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
That is a strange report. The overall rating of Inadequate is due to failings in safeguarding, arising from an incident where kids got drunk at the end of term, and a SEND child had sex. Also, unvetted monks are allowed on the premises unsupervised. The other stuff done by the school is not really discussed, it is just described as good.
They have to be put on pretty severe notice to sort out the safeguarding issues, but it is not the only element of the school. The inadequate rating seems to be more a reflection on the priorities of the Inspectorate, than the school itself.
I've been looking at possible independent schooling for my son (albeit on the cheaper side), and read many similar reports - giving an enormous amount of weight and attention to safeguarding where the school has a boarding element.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
You're obviously not familiar with Ofsted's remit.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Things like council house sales tap into the politics of aspiration. Elite public schools don't because they're not relatable for ordinary people.
They are if their children get scholarships to them or use their sports facilities or theatre
I wouldn't automatically select joomag as the best name for an internet magazine company, but there you are. This is the Wykeham journal *2020* which seems to be the latest edition, but highly disingenuous to call it the latest edition without pointing this out. Sunak was almost certainly a backbencher when he made the donation.
And Sky News only found this 2 years after its publication....
Feels like political games are being played...somebody suggesting to a journalist that perhaps they go and dig out this old school magazine.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
So you need to abolish the public schools.
Because your line would end all scholarships and then there would be even more polarisation of educational outcomes. It is surely a drop in the ocean but a non-trivial percentage of these schools' pupils are beneficiaries of such scholarships.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Edit: that last point concerns the amount of tax moneys effectively taken out of the Exchequer and diverted to the private purposes of this, or indeed, any donor.
Better he spends it on this than 5 star Holidays to the Caribbean and Maldives, Michelin starred meals etc which he easily could.
Voters who are ideologically opposed to private education generally don't vote Tory anyway
I'm not so sure. Simply buying luxury items, as opposed to deeply wounding the social cohesion of the country ... and as for your ignoring non-Tory voters as usual, their taxes are being used to buttress such donations in general.
If its a scholarship awarded to someone not able to afford an elite education, I feel that's a benefit to social mobility.
That's like saying the national lottery is an engine of social mobility. Sure, if you're the lucky winner.
You have £100k. What to do. Give it to Oxfam and see it fund their staff in Haiti for "certain activities" or the DEC, which would be a good home for it if you are a believer in aid. Or to a charity for the homeless - another good home imo. Or use it to fund bright underprivileged children who might otherwise not have the opportunity to benefit from this kind of education, yes thereby bestowing privilege upon them but privilege that they have earned. Also not a dreadful home for your money imo.
All the major public schools have such schemes and are very pro-active in recruiting non-"typical" ie poorer students with scholarships.
Optics absolutely dreadful, that said.
The optics, from one of the Tories who has presided over a 10% real terms cut in teachers' pay (likely considerably more than that after the next pay round) in the last decade, are sub-optimal.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Things like council house sales tap into the politics of aspiration. Elite public schools don't because they're not relatable for ordinary people.
They are if their children get scholarships to them or use their sports facilities or theatre
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
You're obviously not familiar with Ofsted's remit.
It is not to do the police's job for them.
It is has no remit in private schools on the criminal law
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
You're obviously not familiar with Ofsted's remit.
It is not to do the police's job for them.
It is has no remit in private schools on the criminal law
'aint gonna be any kind of peace deal any time soon...
Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah · 1h Asked by @SkyNews how Ukraine could negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin given the atrocities allegedly committed by his forces, the Ukrainian interior minister said, speaking in English: “Go to hell.”
At some point there will have to be a peace deal with the difference between now and that some point being measured in deaths. I would not like to be the politician that has to determine when that time has arrived.
Yeah it's all jolly sending weapons but they essentially kill people and prolong things
It has been the paradigm of eg civil wars throughout history. At some point someone will win. Until that time then the deaths will mount up. As I said not a decision I would like to be in a position to make. And yes also historically arming the protagonists has extended the war.
It is not a civil war.
No indeed. I said eg civil wars. But this war has to end at some point. Will it be when Putin says it will end in which case Zelensky has no decision to make; or will it end when Zelensky decides to see if peace can be achieved by negotiation.
@williamglenn says the former; I am not sure which it is. If it is the latter then Zelensky has a decision to make.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Things like council house sales tap into the politics of aspiration. Elite public schools don't because they're not relatable for ordinary people.
They are if their children get scholarships to them or use their sports facilities or theatre
And how many people is that?
I'm wondering, it's not just the main fees. How manyt of the people whose children get scholarships are given extra support to pay for all the additiona costs? Uniforms, travel to boarding school, pocket money, textbooks, excursions, society fees, music instruments ...
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Things like council house sales tap into the politics of aspiration. Elite public schools don't because they're not relatable for ordinary people.
A top education for their kids is though and tying it into some kind of bullshit about education funding won't hurt at all.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
So you need to abolish the public schools.
Because your line would end all scholarships and then there would be even more polarisation of educational outcomes. It is surely a drop in the ocean but a non-trivial percentage of these schools' pupils are beneficiaries of such scholarships.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
That is a strange report. The overall rating of Inadequate is due to failings in safeguarding, arising from an incident where kids got drunk at the end of term, and a SEND child had sex. Also, unvetted monks are allowed on the premises unsupervised. The other stuff done by the school is not really discussed, it is just described as good.
They have to be put on pretty severe notice to sort out the safeguarding issues, but it is not the only element of the school. The inadequate rating seems to be more a reflection on the priorities of the Inspectorate, than the school itself.
I've been looking at possible independent schooling for my son (albeit on the cheaper side), and read many similar reports - giving an enormous amount of weight and attention to safeguarding where the school has a boarding element.
Indeed, Charles Moore wrote an excellent article on it in the Telegraph
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Things like council house sales tap into the politics of aspiration. Elite public schools don't because they're not relatable for ordinary people.
They are if their children get scholarships to them or use their sports facilities or theatre
The bit about facilities use is interesting. Some private schools are integral, accessible parts of their communities. Others aren't in the slightest. Generalisations about private schools are not really useful.
This is Hanna, 74. She is living in a village near Borodyanka, Kyiv region. Together with her elder sister she was hiding from the bombs in a cellar. One day her sister went out to bring some food. russian soldiers shot her dead on the street. https://twitter.com/AlchevskUA/status/1511386505360588806
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
Are you seriously suggesting the only child safeguarding policy should be investigation and punishment after the fact?
In a field where bringing the criminal to copurt, and still more, a guilty decision, is a huge obstacle?
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Not so. The recipients of these bursaries are not secret poshos down on their luck, they are the real deal. And quite often getting a shit time from everybody else for their failure to be posh, secretly or otherwise, but that's another story.
Just exactly how do Winchester, Eton, etc. publicise these bursaries in your average sink estate?
'aint gonna be any kind of peace deal any time soon...
Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah · 1h Asked by @SkyNews how Ukraine could negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin given the atrocities allegedly committed by his forces, the Ukrainian interior minister said, speaking in English: “Go to hell.”
At some point there will have to be a peace deal with the difference between now and that some point being measured in deaths. I would not like to be the politician that has to determine when that time has arrived.
You say that, and I was about to "like" your comment to indicate agreement, but there are lots of conflicts which don't yet have a peace deal - Israel/Palestine, North/South Korea are obvious examples.
Even for a ceasefire, both sides would have to accept the futility of continuing to fight at the same time. I fear that there is a lot of fighting, and a lot of dying, before that point will be reached between Russia and Ukraine.
Yep. Hondootedly. I don't know if this falls into the long, arduous conflict category of those other two conflicts you cite.
At one stage the thinking was that Putin wanted to occupy all of Ukraine, thereby turning it into another Afghan. Now some say it is a play for Ukraine's energy supplies. Who knows but it could be that Zelensky could influence the timing of the end of the conflict.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
If all kids are going to get the same excellent level of education anyway, why are people spending a lifetimes worth of average earnings to put their kids to private school? And why does the chancellor need to fund scholarships?
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
That is a strange report. The overall rating of Inadequate is due to failings in safeguarding, arising from an incident where kids got drunk at the end of term, and a SEND child had sex. Also, unvetted monks are allowed on the premises unsupervised. The other stuff done by the school is not really discussed, it is just described as good.
They have to be put on pretty severe notice to sort out the safeguarding issues, but it is not the only element of the school. The inadequate rating seems to be more a reflection on the priorities of the Inspectorate, than the school itself.
I've been looking at possible independent schooling for my son (albeit on the cheaper side), and read many similar reports - giving an enormous amount of weight and attention to safeguarding where the school has a boarding element.
It's not the inspectorate's priorities, it's successive governments, following on from the Soham School murders and other abuse cases.
If Ofsted find safeguarding to be inadequate, then leadership and management and the school as a whole has to be inadequate - because children are not safe. And children's lack of safety trumps the quality of education, which could still be good or even outstanding, in theory. You may not agree with this, but there is a logic to prioritising children's safety. The inadequate judgement also means that the school will be under regular surveillance, in an effort to keep children safe.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
There aren't as many top Tory politicians who went to major public schools anyway. Truss went to a comp, as did Patel and Javid. Raab went to a grammar school.
Boris went to Eton and Sunak did go to Winchester. Wallace and Zahawi went to private schools but not top tier.
On the Labour frontbench Starmer was privately educated as was Lammy and as was Davey, the LD leader. So am not sure there is much capital in it from their end
Don't forget that good old Haileyburian Barry The Bazza Gardiner. Not on the front bench, that said.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the boys, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue
How do you know it's rubbish?
Because God told him it was rubbish? Seems most logical answer.
Seriously. I'd like to know what a C of E, erm, supporter such as HYUFD knows about the inner workings of Ampleforth and why he knows the report is 'rubbish'. Divine inspiration is certainfly a logical answer which I hadn't consdiered, though.
Politico.com - Trump aide seeking New Hampshire House seat voted in 2 states in 2016 Matt Mowers cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
There aren't as many top Tory politicians who went to major public schools anyway. Truss went to a comp, as did Patel and Javid. Raab went to a grammar school.
Boris went to Eton and Sunak did go to Winchester. Wallace and Zahawi went to private schools but not top tier.
On the Labour frontbench Starmer was privately educated as was Lammy and as was Davey, the LD leader. So am not sure there is much capital in it from their end
Don't forget that good old Haileyburian Barry The Bazza Gardiner. Not on the front bench, that said.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Not so. The recipients of these bursaries are not secret poshos down on their luck, they are the real deal. And quite often getting a shit time from everybody else for their failure to be posh, secretly or otherwise, but that's another story.
Just exactly how do Winchester, Eton, etc. publicise these bursaries in your average sink estate?
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Lucky Elizabeth Finn
Well yes, but any choice of name was going to be better than the charity's former title: The Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association
I don't think Sunak donating 100k to a private school is a big deal. The faux outrage about private schools is largely confined to labour voters who live in expensive houses near good state schools who live in a bubble with other middle class people, and who punch far above their weight in the guardian comments section. They were unlikely to ever vote conservative anyway. If you go to a more mixed area, like the one I live in, more affluent people tend to either send their kids to private school, or aspire to doing so. If the money goes to improving access, scholarships etc, then these people would probably see it as a good thing.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Not so. The recipients of these bursaries are not secret poshos down on their luck, they are the real deal. And quite often getting a shit time from everybody else for their failure to be posh, secretly or otherwise, but that's another story.
Just exactly how do Winchester, Eton, etc. publicise these bursaries in your average sink estate?
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Reaction on PB suggests that you are optimistic re: ease of defense.
Going by the PB reaction Will Smith will never act in a movie again. I think I'm right and the consensus here is wrong, most people won't care and framed as being aspirational it won't hurt the Tories at all.
I was against Will Smith (and he is rapidly becoming persona non grata btw) and can see the merits of Sunak's gift as outlined in my posts above.
But he is also a politician and should be aware of the optics. Great gesture and a genuine attempt to help less fortunate children; absolutely dreadful politics.
As bad and not yet picked up on by the press is that Winchester is co-ed in the sixth form but not before that. So it could be that he is actually helping to sponsor boys only which is also not a great look.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Lucky Elizabeth Finn
Well yes, but any choice of name was going to be better than the charity's former title: The Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association
Amazing that name survived beyond the 18th century....
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
So you need to abolish the public schools.
Because your line would end all scholarships and then there would be even more polarisation of educational outcomes. It is surely a drop in the ocean but a non-trivial percentage of these schools' pupils are beneficiaries of such scholarships.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the pupils, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue.
The rest is par for the course for most schools with teenagers
Funny that. You swear by Ofsted reports when they tell us how good grammar and private schools are.
And you're too dismissive. The 'monks of concern' are, as the report says, monks who have been accused of, or found guilty of, sexual abuse. It's not unusual for the Catholic Church to cover such things up, is it?
If they are found guilty then they would be in jail. That is a police matter, not for Ofsted
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Edit: that last point concerns the amount of tax moneys effectively taken out of the Exchequer and diverted to the private purposes of this, or indeed, any donor.
Better he spends it on this than 5 star Holidays to the Caribbean and Maldives, Michelin starred meals etc which he easily could.
Voters who are ideologically opposed to private education generally don't vote Tory anyway
I'm not so sure. Simply buying luxury items, as opposed to deeply wounding the social cohesion of the country ... and as for your ignoring non-Tory voters as usual, their taxes are being used to buttress such donations in general.
If its a scholarship awarded to someone not able to afford an elite education, I feel that's a benefit to social mobility.
That's like saying the national lottery is an engine of social mobility. Sure, if you're the lucky winner.
I thought it was a pension plan? That's what my wife always tells me.
@johnstanly -India condemns the Bucha killings and calls for an independent inquiry; -Calls for an immediate cessation of violence and hostilities; -Seeks an early diplomatic solution to the crisis; & -Reemphasises intl law, UN Charter & respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Not so. The recipients of these bursaries are not secret poshos down on their luck, they are the real deal. And quite often getting a shit time from everybody else for their failure to be posh, secretly or otherwise, but that's another story.
Just exactly how do Winchester, Eton, etc. publicise these bursaries in your average sink estate?
They are very active in promoting them. Per previous link.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
So you need to abolish the public schools.
Because your line would end all scholarships and then there would be even more polarisation of educational outcomes. It is surely a drop in the ocean but a non-trivial percentage of these schools' pupils are beneficiaries of such scholarships.
But a number of other international players have not been signed. David Warner, Aaron Finch, Chris Gayle and Babar Azam are among those to have missed out.
I'd rather Sunak give money to a school than to a donkey sanctuary.
Although the two could sometimes be confused.
I don't agree there. Winchester is not short of money. Donkeys are so badly treated, anywhere which helps them in their later years is good by me. I have been adopting retired racing greyhounds as pets for at least 20 years, the charities involved there do a great job. The greyhound racing industry is another matter.
'aint gonna be any kind of peace deal any time soon...
Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah · 1h Asked by @SkyNews how Ukraine could negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin given the atrocities allegedly committed by his forces, the Ukrainian interior minister said, speaking in English: “Go to hell.”
At some point there will have to be a peace deal with the difference between now and that some point being measured in deaths. I would not like to be the politician that has to determine when that time has arrived.
Yeah it's all jolly sending weapons but they essentially kill people and prolong things
It has been the paradigm of eg civil wars throughout history. At some point someone will win. Until that time then the deaths will mount up. As I said not a decision I would like to be in a position to make. And yes also historically arming the protagonists has extended the war.
It is not a civil war.
No indeed. I said eg civil wars. But this war has to end at some point. Will it be when Putin says it will end in which case Zelensky has no decision to make; or will it end when Zelensky decides to see if peace can be achieved by negotiation.
@williamglenn says the former; I am not sure which it is. If it is the latter then Zelensky has a decision to make.
Peace can only be achieved if and when Russia withdraws. Otherwise it's just a pause.
Zelensky has made clear Ukraine's bottom line; there can be no negotiation over territory with such an invader. I don't see how he can do any different, since accepting the occupation of captured territory would be abandoning his citizens to the sort of brutality witnessed in occupied Donbas over the last decade - and occupied towns over the last month.
The example of a civil war is an exceedingly poor one.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the boys, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue
How do you know it's rubbish?
Because God told him it was rubbish? Seems most logical answer.
Seriously. I'd like to know what a C of E, erm, supporter such as HYUFD knows about the inner workings of Ampleforth and why he knows the report is 'rubbish'. Divine inspiration is certainfly a logical answer which I hadn't consdiered, though.
The Ofsted report on Ampleforth won't be rubbish, it will be accurate. Because it's such a high profile school, it will have been pored over from the top to make sure that the evidence is secure. And, of course, Ampleforth could have lodged a complaint if they thought it inaccurate. They didn't.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Lucky Elizabeth Finn
Well yes, but any choice of name was going to be better than the charity's former title: The Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association
Amazing that name survived beyond the 18th century....
Oh, the whole idea would have been to stop the posh having to slum it in the slums, worse still the Workhouse. Like orficers and other ranks in the Army [edit], at least in the old days.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
'Up to' four boys a year! That's going to give underprivilege a good whacking, isn't it? Levelling up, indeed.
FYI the £100k donation Sunak has made. He hasn't just written a big fat cheque last week. It is he has now given that of his lifetime, and in doing so has been listed now listed by the school as a "Wykeham benefactors".
So the claims of making a tin eared donation in current climate is nonsense.
Then he is still guilty of foolishness, and semi-tone-deafness, and he has been successfully despatched as a candidate for leader by some ruthless opponent. Hmmmm
I think that is right because, at least up to now, Rishi's allegedly disastrous spring statement has not dented Conservatives in the polls, suggesting Sunak is victim of blue-on-blue fire.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Edit: that last point concerns the amount of tax moneys effectively taken out of the Exchequer and diverted to the private purposes of this, or indeed, any donor.
Better he spends it on this than 5 star Holidays to the Caribbean and Maldives, Michelin starred meals etc which he easily could.
Voters who are ideologically opposed to private education generally don't vote Tory anyway
I'm not so sure. Simply buying luxury items, as opposed to deeply wounding the social cohesion of the country ... and as for your ignoring non-Tory voters as usual, their taxes are being used to buttress such donations in general.
Case made, you are an ideological anti Tory voter who thinks private education is 'deeply wounding to the social cohesion of the country'.
Whereas Tories believe in parental choice
@HYUFD I am often more sympathetic to you than most, but this is idiotic from Sunak. Winchester College is already insanely wealthy. He should have just given the money straight to Prince Andrew, who does so much good work with impoverished young women
That’s about the level of crassness. A man so lacking in basic political judgement should never be allowed to lead
Go long on Truss or Mordaunt
Mordaunt - the one who not only organised the cringe-worthy (and technically law-breaking) ‘Leadsom for Leader’ March on Wesminster, but who actually came up with the idea in the first place?
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the boys, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue
How do you know it's rubbish?
Because God told him it was rubbish? Seems most logical answer.
Seriously. I'd like to know what a C of E, erm, supporter such as HYUFD knows about the inner workings of Ampleforth and why he knows the report is 'rubbish'. Divine inspiration is certainfly a logical answer which I hadn't consdiered, though.
The Ofsted report on Ampleforth won't be rubbish, it will be accurate. Because it's such a high profile school, it will have been pored over from the top to make sure that the evidence is secure. And, of course, Ampleforth could have lodged a complaint if they thought it inaccurate. They didn't.
Thanks, that's a good and constructive contribution. Was HYUFD correct in claiming Ofsted has no remit in private schools? Or is Ampleforth not a private school somehow?
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Edit: that last point concerns the amount of tax moneys effectively taken out of the Exchequer and diverted to the private purposes of this, or indeed, any donor.
Better he spends it on this than 5 star Holidays to the Caribbean and Maldives, Michelin starred meals etc which he easily could.
Voters who are ideologically opposed to private education generally don't vote Tory anyway
I'm not so sure. Simply buying luxury items, as opposed to deeply wounding the social cohesion of the country ... and as for your ignoring non-Tory voters as usual, their taxes are being used to buttress such donations in general.
If its a scholarship awarded to someone not able to afford an elite education, I feel that's a benefit to social mobility.
That's like saying the national lottery is an engine of social mobility. Sure, if you're the lucky winner.
You have £100k. What to do. Give it to Oxfam and see it fund their staff in Haiti for "certain activities" or the DEC, which would be a good home for it if you are a believer in aid. Or to a charity for the homeless - another good home imo. Or use it to fund bright underprivileged children who might otherwise not have the opportunity to benefit from this kind of education, yes thereby bestowing privilege upon them but privilege that they have earned. Also not a dreadful home for your money imo.
All the major public schools have such schemes and are very pro-active in recruiting non-"typical" ie poorer students with scholarships.
Optics absolutely dreadful, that said.
If the concentration of wealth, services and opportunities is a problem in this country (and it is) I would not think that donating to one of the DRIVERS of that inequality is the answer. In fact, it exacerbates the problem.
Scooping one lucky person out of the hole and depositing them onto the mound is objectively worse than not having the hole in the first place.
I agree but we are where we are and the Cons aren't about to include abolition of private schools in their manifesto.
We have public schools and we have the state system. Very sadly very often the state system is inferior in terms of outcomes to the public school system.
Within this iniquitous system Sunak is trying to achieve some small amount of crossover so that people from one system have the opportunity and the benefits of the other.
Of course we shouldn't have started from here but here is where we are.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Lucky Elizabeth Finn
Well yes, but any choice of name was going to be better than the charity's former title: The Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association
Amazing that name survived beyond the 18th century....
There's a very good reason for it, sadly. People are just as snobbish and racist about charitable giving as about everything else. It is better to get charity out of someone for distressed gentlefolk, surely, than to get nothing out of them for anyone at all because they are worried they might be inadvertently supporting the working classes?
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
So you need to abolish the public schools.
Because your line would end all scholarships and then there would be even more polarisation of educational outcomes. It is surely a drop in the ocean but a non-trivial percentage of these schools' pupils are beneficiaries of such scholarships.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
If all kids are going to get the same excellent level of education anyway, why are people spending a lifetimes worth of average earnings to put their kids to private school? And why does the chancellor need to fund scholarships?
It's not abut the excellence of the education so much as making contacts with those who can similarly afford the expense - which will give you a significant advantage in later life.
Scholarships are PR for private education and its charitable status. Not a bad thing in themselves, but it's very clear why they exist.
'aint gonna be any kind of peace deal any time soon...
Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah · 1h Asked by @SkyNews how Ukraine could negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin given the atrocities allegedly committed by his forces, the Ukrainian interior minister said, speaking in English: “Go to hell.”
At some point there will have to be a peace deal with the difference between now and that some point being measured in deaths. I would not like to be the politician that has to determine when that time has arrived.
Yeah it's all jolly sending weapons but they essentially kill people and prolong things
It has been the paradigm of eg civil wars throughout history. At some point someone will win. Until that time then the deaths will mount up. As I said not a decision I would like to be in a position to make. And yes also historically arming the protagonists has extended the war.
It is not a civil war.
No indeed. I said eg civil wars. But this war has to end at some point. Will it be when Putin says it will end in which case Zelensky has no decision to make; or will it end when Zelensky decides to see if peace can be achieved by negotiation.
@williamglenn says the former; I am not sure which it is. If it is the latter then Zelensky has a decision to make.
Peace can only be achieved if and when Russia withdraws. Otherwise it's just a pause.
Zelensky has made clear Ukraine's bottom line; there can be no negotiation over territory with such an invader. I don't see how he can do any different, since accepting the occupation of captured territory would be abandoning his citizens to the sort of brutality witnessed in occupied Donbas over the last decade - and occupied towns over the last month.
The example of a civil war is an exceedingly poor one.
Europe still has the chops when it comes to being utter arseholes. Ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, now Ukraine.
I'm reminded of Randy Newman's Great Nations of Europe: of how we took our ability to be arseholes worldwide.
The great nations of Europe Had gathered on the shore They'd conquered what was behind them And now they wanted more
So they looked to the mighty ocean And took to the western sea The great nations of Europe in the sixteenth century Hide your wives and daughters Hide your groceries too Great nations of Europe coming through
The Grand Canary Islands First land to which they came They slaughtered all the canaries Which gave the land its name There were natives there called Guanches Guanches by the score Bullets, disease, the Portuguese, and they weren't there anymore Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone You've never seen anyone so gone They're a picture in a museum Some lines written in a book But you won't find a live one no matter where you look
Hide your wives and daughters Hide your groceries too Great nations of Europe coming through
Columbus sailed for India Found Salvador instead He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead They got TB and typhoid and athlete's foot Diphtheria and the flu Excuse me great nations coming through!
Balboa found the Pacific And on the trail one day He met some friendly Indians Whom he was told were gay So he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say The great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone You've never seen anyone so gone Some bones hidden in the canyon Some paintings in a cave There's no use trying to save them There's nothing left to save
Hide your wives and daughters Hide your sons as well With the great nations of Europe you never can tell
@johnstanly -India condemns the Bucha killings and calls for an independent inquiry; -Calls for an immediate cessation of violence and hostilities; -Seeks an early diplomatic solution to the crisis; & -Reemphasises intl law, UN Charter & respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
'Up to' four boys a year! That's going to give underprivilege a good whacking, isn't it? Levelling up, indeed.
Don't let the perfect be an enemy of the good. Would you rather zero?
Fun fact, in Hindi Rishi means 'Tone deaf PR skills' and Sunak means 'Indian heritage David Miliband but without the political nous'
What is more interesting is who has it in for him. This donation story is clearly a hit job, as it seems the vast bulk of the donation (if not all) was made before he was even a minister and dates back as far as 2014. I wonder who in government is trying to ensure he takes more incoming?
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
'Up to' four boys a year! That's going to give underprivilege a good whacking, isn't it? Levelling up, indeed.
Loving your eyepopping claim that you don't get sex, drink or drugs in state schools, but it does rather torpedo your credibility on the subject of education.
At last this depressing and almost non-existent campaign is going to end.
A very large majority before the campaign said they wanted to avoid a repeat of the Macron/Le Pen duel. And yet, here we are.
Macron blatantly refused to campaign and debate opponents. It was criticized but the war in Ukraine gave him both an excuse to avoid campaigning and a nice boost from old voters backing the established order in uncertain times. His total domination of media space (printed, radio and tv) gave him a huge advantage that he used freely to demolish his potential rivals and boost those from the extreme left and right.
Melenchon is rising too late and the left in general is in disarray: all left wing candidates combine for less than Macron’s share in the polls.
Le Pen is profiting from her traditional role as the « kick the guy in power » candidate. She benefited from a very soft press coverage this time, the villain du jour being Zemmour.
She has an outside chance of getting almost level to Macron in the first round. I still think her ceiling is somewhere around 45 to 46% in the second round. Minutes after the first round there will be the usual call to arms by the press, all parties, churches, trade unions and so on, who will order people to vote Macron. it will work, even if less than last time.
But a president/candidate that only beats by a few points a person with the most hated name in politics for 40 years running, who has no team and no real program beyond spending a lot of public money and restricting immigration, would be wise to consider the roots of this rejection. I’m not holding my breath.
Objectively, it's commendable. Yet it is focussed very much on buttressing the private education system.
Subjectively, it's a disaster, as it reminds the rest of the UK just how much money the Chancellor has to spare. (And how much tax relief was involved, too?)
Objectively.. is it? Donating money to a cause depends on the worthiness of that cause. Private schools are engines for concentrating the quality of services and delivering them mostly to those who can pay.
Yes, I know that bursaries exist and the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in, but it's still a system of intentional and intense stratification that benefits the extremely wealthy. It obviously right up HYUFD's street but if you asked me (I know, I know) I could find much better things to do with a spare £100k.
"...the poor but brilliant gold ticket winner can get in..."
This is a modern version of the Distressed Gentlefolk* charity. Sure, in theory it's open to anybody but in reality only a very small subset of society, usually with the right connections, would ever have the wherewithal to apply, let alone be successful. It's a sham.
(*I am probably being unfair to that charity, now sensibly renamed 'Elizabeth Finn Care'.)
Not so. The recipients of these bursaries are not secret poshos down on their luck, they are the real deal. And quite often getting a shit time from everybody else for their failure to be posh, secretly or otherwise, but that's another story.
Just exactly how do Winchester, Eton, etc. publicise these bursaries in your average sink estate?
no idea. Talent scouts?
Let me help you: They don't.
Let me help you: you don’t know what you are talking about. Not only do they have very active outreach programmes helping schools and sharing resources they actively promote bursaries and scholarships around the country because funnily enough they actually do want to recruit very bright and able students as it benefits everyone at the school and, if cynical, the reputation of the school when these bright kids get access to places they wouldn’t otherwise and go on to do great things.
All the major public schools support inner city clubs - Winchester for example supports the Crown and Manor club in London where they arrange exchanges, tutorial help, resources, money and time for kids from some of the shittiest unfortunate backgrounds because funnily enough all public school people aren’t entitled wankers.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
'Up to' four boys a year! That's going to give underprivilege a good whacking, isn't it? Levelling up, indeed.
Loving your eyepopping claim that you don't get sex, drink or drugs in state schools, but it does rather torpedo your credibility on the subject of education.
Pupils at state schools tend to do it extramurally ... not being at boarding schools.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
That is a strange report. The overall rating of Inadequate is due to failings in safeguarding, arising from an incident where kids got drunk at the end of term, and a SEND child had sex. Also, unvetted monks are allowed on the premises unsupervised. The other stuff done by the school is not really discussed, it is just described as good.
They have to be put on pretty severe notice to sort out the safeguarding issues, but it is not the only element of the school. The inadequate rating seems to be more a reflection on the priorities of the Inspectorate, than the school itself.
I've been looking at possible independent schooling for my son (albeit on the cheaper side), and read many similar reports - giving an enormous amount of weight and attention to safeguarding where the school has a boarding element.
It's not the inspectorate's priorities, it's successive governments, following on from the Soham School murders and other abuse cases.
If Ofsted find safeguarding to be inadequate, then leadership and management and the school as a whole has to be inadequate - because children are not safe. And children's lack of safety trumps the quality of education, which could still be good or even outstanding, in theory. You may not agree with this, but there is a logic to prioritising children's safety. The inadequate judgement also means that the school will be under regular surveillance, in an effort to keep children safe.
Whilst I appreciate your explanation; I still find it sad.
Much of the education system appears to be a performance, for the benefit of Ofsted.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
If all kids are going to get the same excellent level of education anyway, why are people spending a lifetimes worth of average earnings to put their kids to private school? And why does the chancellor need to fund scholarships?
It's not abut the excellence of the education so much as making contacts with those who can similarly afford the expense - which will give you a significant advantage in later life.
Scholarships are PR for private education and its charitable status. Not a bad thing in themselves, but it's very clear why they exist.
I'd say that's b/s for many schools. I went to both state and private schools, and I gained zero contacts that have helped me in later life at any of them. None. Neither did the few people I'm still in contact with from them. But IMV it was still a better school than the local state alternatives I would have gone to, especially as I had (ahem) difficulties.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is providing over a cost of living crisis that might see people actually go hungry, is worth £500 million, and decided that Winchester College really needed £100,000. Cause they can barely get by, what with being worth £100 million less than him and his wife
What’s more, he decided this donation was so crucial to Winchester College, which is barely scraping by with its £400 million in assets and £27 million in annual income, he should give this money PUBLICLY, so everyone can see his priorities
Fun fact, in Hindi Rishi means 'Tone deaf PR skills' and Sunak means 'Indian heritage David Miliband but without the political nous'
What is more interesting is who has it in for him. This donation story is clearly a hit job, as it seems the vast bulk of the donation (if not all) was made before he was even a minister and dates back as far as 2014. I wonder who in government is trying to ensure he takes more incoming?
It's such a boring and obscure publication one tends to scan the landscape for other wykehamists and come up with that fat bloke who used to be Culture and Sport. Who are his allies?
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
'Up to' four boys a year! That's going to give underprivilege a good whacking, isn't it? Levelling up, indeed.
If Sunak was going to give money to a private school, he'd have been better off giving it to Ampleforth College, which is in his neighbouring constituency. It was inspected recently by Ofsted and found to be a) a den of iniquity, and b) inadequate. That's private schools for you - a heady mix of drugs, alcohol, sex and "monks of concern".
You don't get that sort of stuff in the state sector.
The Ofsted report was of course a load of rubbish. Academically Ampleforth still gets top grade average GCSEs and A levels and provides plenty of extra curricular activities.
The main concern from Ofsted is the monks live on site with the boys, as they have done for centuries. Yet supposedly this is a major safeguarding issue
How do you know it's rubbish?
Because God told him it was rubbish? Seems most logical answer.
Seriously. I'd like to know what a C of E, erm, supporter such as HYUFD knows about the inner workings of Ampleforth and why he knows the report is 'rubbish'. Divine inspiration is certainfly a logical answer which I hadn't consdiered, though.
The Ofsted report on Ampleforth won't be rubbish, it will be accurate. Because it's such a high profile school, it will have been pored over from the top to make sure that the evidence is secure. And, of course, Ampleforth could have lodged a complaint if they thought it inaccurate. They didn't.
Thanks, that's a good and constructive contribution. Was HYUFD correct in claiming Ofsted has no remit in private schools? Or is Ampleforth not a private school somehow?
No, he's wrong. It's complicated, but Ofsted has the power to inspect everything. There is a fairly toothless Independent Schools Inspectorate that carries out humdrum inspections, but Ofsted's elite squad (HMI) are called in to do any tricky private schools like Ampleforth.
Fun fact, in Hindi Rishi means 'Tone deaf PR skills' and Sunak means 'Indian heritage David Miliband but without the political nous'
What is more interesting is who has it in for him. This donation story is clearly a hit job, as it seems the vast bulk of the donation (if not all) was made before he was even a minister and dates back as far as 2014. I wonder who in government is trying to ensure he takes more incoming?
It's such a boring and obscure publication one tends to scan the landscape for other wykehamists and come up with that fat bloke who used to be Culture and Sport. Who are his allies?
Whittingdale.
Sky News can't even get basic COVID data right most of the time because they don't read the reports, the chances they have been carefully and proactively searching through obscure school magazine from several years ago and found this info on page 87 ....0.001%.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
'Up to' four boys a year! That's going to give underprivilege a good whacking, isn't it? Levelling up, indeed.
Loving your eyepopping claim that you don't get sex, drink or drugs in state schools, but it does rather torpedo your credibility on the subject of education.
Pupils at state schools tend to do it extramurally ... not being at boarding schools.
OK but these are more or less social activities, so presumably school is where they team up? I am not seeing any additional wickedness on the part of the private sector.
Memo to massively wealthy Tory politicians, don’t give MORE money to already wildly wealthy and super elitist public schools
I’d give similar advice to Labour politicians of questionable patriotism: don’t support the IRA and hang out with Hamas
Nah, it's very easy to defend - "I had a brillliant education at Winchester and I've been donating to a scholarship fund to enable kids who weren't as fortunate as I was when growing up to enable them to get the same benefits I had and with our education plan we will ensure that all kids get the same kind of excellent education I was able to receive"
It doesn't need more than one line.
Lol. A totally garbled, implausible line as you try to fit so much bollocks into one line
But it works because it's aspirational. The Tories are supposed to be the party of aspiration, not holding grudges against rich people.
Winchester College. Rrright.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
The kids his money helped go to Winchester won't care and again, aspiration is what the Tory party are supposed to be in favour. I don't think this really hurts very much at all if they can frame it correctly. If this is an attack by team Boris they may have misjudged the party, which isn't surprising because Boris doesn't really get it.
Who actually gets these scholarships though? Is it ever a rat-catcher's spawn in hobnail boots and odd socks, or someone who would have traditionally forked out the fees had his ancestor not had to flog off the old manor house for Death Duties in 1965?
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
'Up to' four boys a year! That's going to give underprivilege a good whacking, isn't it? Levelling up, indeed.
That should cover all of Bozo's output.
What on earth happened to girls? (The, presumably, Eton ones, I mean, not ...).
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is providing over a cost of living crisis that might see people actually go hungry, is worth £500 million, and decided that Winchester College really needed £100,000. Cause they can barely get by, what with being worth £100 million less than him and his wife
What’s more, he decided this donation was so crucial to Winchester College, which is barely scraping by with its £400 million in assets and £27 million in annual income, he should give this money PUBLICLY, so everyone can see his priorities
He has been giving this money over the course of 10 years (by 2014, he had given over £25k).....that is what ultra wealthy people do, they give money and get their names on plaques of buildings.
You can't turn a corner of London without some building, street, monument being named such because somebody once gave some money to charity....
'aint gonna be any kind of peace deal any time soon...
Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah · 1h Asked by @SkyNews how Ukraine could negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin given the atrocities allegedly committed by his forces, the Ukrainian interior minister said, speaking in English: “Go to hell.”
At some point there will have to be a peace deal with the difference between now and that some point being measured in deaths. I would not like to be the politician that has to determine when that time has arrived.
Yeah it's all jolly sending weapons but they essentially kill people and prolong things
It has been the paradigm of eg civil wars throughout history. At some point someone will win. Until that time then the deaths will mount up. As I said not a decision I would like to be in a position to make. And yes also historically arming the protagonists has extended the war.
It is not a civil war.
No indeed. I said eg civil wars. But this war has to end at some point. Will it be when Putin says it will end in which case Zelensky has no decision to make; or will it end when Zelensky decides to see if peace can be achieved by negotiation.
@williamglenn says the former; I am not sure which it is. If it is the latter then Zelensky has a decision to make.
Peace can only be achieved if and when Russia withdraws. Otherwise it's just a pause.
Zelensky has made clear Ukraine's bottom line; there can be no negotiation over territory with such an invader. I don't see how he can do any different, since accepting the occupation of captured territory would be abandoning his citizens to the sort of brutality witnessed in occupied Donbas over the last decade - and occupied towns over the last month.
The example of a civil war is an exceedingly poor one.
If Russia wanted to make some dubious moral case for increasing its territory, then it would have made Donbass a shining beacon of civilisation. Instead they turned it into a murderous criminal mafia statelet.
Why would anyone want to live in the situation the poor citizens of Donbass have been forced to live under? AIUI some separatist fighters are so disgusted with Russia they're now fighting with Ukraine (*)!
(*) AIUI mainly because they wanted independence, not to become part of Russia.
Comments
Boris went to Eton and Sunak did go to Winchester. Wallace and Zahawi went to private schools but not top tier.
On the Labour frontbench Starmer was privately educated as was Lammy and as was Davey, the LD leader. So am not sure there is much capital in it from their end
All the major public schools have such schemes and are very pro-active in recruiting non-"typical" ie poorer students with scholarships.
Optics absolutely dreadful, that said.
Next he should give £30 million to the Duke of Westminster so he can lower rents on the Grosvenor Estate for his poorer tenants
Someone timed it exactly right. Cui bono?
https://viewer.joomag.com/wykeham-journal-2020/0933703001619605833
I wouldn't automatically select joomag as the best name for an internet magazine company, but there you are. This is the Wykeham journal *2020* which seems to be the latest edition, but highly disingenuous to call it the latest edition without pointing this out. Sunak was almost certainly a backbencher when he made the donation.
They have to be put on pretty severe notice to sort out the safeguarding issues, but it is not the only element of the school. The inadequate rating seems to be more a reflection on the priorities of the Inspectorate, than the school itself.
I've been looking at possible independent schooling for my son (albeit on the cheaper side), and read many similar reports - giving an enormous amount of weight and attention to safeguarding where the school has a boarding element.
Feels like political games are being played...somebody suggesting to a journalist that perhaps they go and dig out this old school magazine.
Because your line would end all scholarships and then there would be even more polarisation of educational outcomes. It is surely a drop in the ocean but a non-trivial percentage of these schools' pupils are beneficiaries of such scholarships.
https://www.etoncollege.com/admissions/scholarships-and-awards/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/eton-scholarship-teenager-poor-area-public-school-father-tesco-work-stephen-geddes-dingle-liverpool-a8094936.html
It is has no remit in private schools on the criminal law
@williamglenn says the former; I am not sure which it is. If it is the latter then Zelensky has a decision to make.
https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2020-02-12/former-ampleforth-college-monk-given-20-years-in-prison-for-child-sexual-abuse
But safeguarding is very much a matter for OFSTED, and to think otherwise demonstrates extraordinary ignorance.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/03/18/ofsteds-over-zealous-approach-safeguarding-puts-future-boarding/
Generalisations about private schools are not really useful.
Although the two could sometimes be confused.
https://twitter.com/AlchevskUA/status/1511386505360588806
At one stage the thinking was that Putin wanted to occupy all of Ukraine, thereby turning it into another Afghan. Now some say it is a play for Ukraine's energy supplies. Who knows but it could be that Zelensky could influence the timing of the end of the conflict.
If Ofsted find safeguarding to be inadequate, then leadership and management and the school as a whole has to be inadequate - because children are not safe. And children's lack of safety trumps the quality of education, which could still be good or even outstanding, in theory. You may not agree with this, but there is a logic to prioritising children's safety. The inadequate judgement also means that the school will be under regular surveillance, in an effort to keep children safe.
On a two-day visit, the Guardian found evidence of summary executions, torture and looting
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/05/barbarians-russian-troops-leave-grisly-mark-on-ukraine-town-of-trostianets
In any case the Abbey and school have now been split with their own separate governance
Politico.com - Trump aide seeking New Hampshire House seat voted in 2 states in 2016
Matt Mowers cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/05/trump-aide-new-hampshire-house-00022972
SSI - Another graduate of Chis Christie's Finishing School for Fellow Bottom-Feeders
Well yes, but any choice of name was going to be better than the charity's former title: The Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association
But he is also a politician and should be aware of the optics. Great gesture and a genuine attempt to help less fortunate children; absolutely dreadful politics.
As bad and not yet picked up on by the press is that Winchester is co-ed in the sixth form but not before that. So it could be that he is actually helping to sponsor boys only which is also not a great look.
And your second sentence is disrespecting donks!
Just that I didn't think @Leon was a fan.
-India condemns the Bucha killings and calls for an independent inquiry;
-Calls for an immediate cessation of violence and hostilities;
-Seeks an early diplomatic solution to the crisis; &
-Reemphasises intl law, UN Charter & respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty.
https://twitter.com/johnstanly/status/1511382334431711232
IMV thinking the other way around is deeply immoral. Others may differ.
https://www.etoncollege.com/admissions/scholarships-and-awards/
I don't think he would go as far as closing them however
Otherwise it's just a pause.
Zelensky has made clear Ukraine's bottom line; there can be no negotiation over territory with such an invader. I don't see how he can do any different, since accepting the occupation of captured territory would be abandoning his citizens to the sort of brutality witnessed in occupied Donbas over the last decade - and occupied towns over the last month.
The example of a civil war is an exceedingly poor one.
https://www.etoncollege.com/admissions/scholarships-and-awards/
"Boys who are outstanding academically, who have been educated in the UK state system at primary level and who need financial assistance to attend Eton can be considered for the New Foundation Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of a donor, this award provides means-tested financial support for up to four boys per year to attend Eton. These boys are identified by the school during the Admissions process. Where necessary, the scholarship will cover 100% fees and extras. We will help families identify the most appropriate pathway for their sons in Years 7 and 8. Boys should be registered in the normal way for 13+ entry by 30 June in UK school Year 5: please contact the Admissions Office if you have any queries."
Levelling up, indeed.
We have public schools and we have the state system. Very sadly very often the state system is inferior in terms of outcomes to the public school system.
Within this iniquitous system Sunak is trying to achieve some small amount of crossover so that people from one system have the opportunity and the benefits of the other.
Of course we shouldn't have started from here but here is where we are.
Scholarships are PR for private education and its charitable status. Not a bad thing in themselves, but it's very clear why they exist.
I'm reminded of Randy Newman's Great Nations of Europe: of how we took our ability to be arseholes worldwide.
The great nations of Europe
Had gathered on the shore
They'd conquered what was behind them
And now they wanted more
So they looked to the mighty ocean
And took to the western sea
The great nations of Europe in the sixteenth century
Hide your wives and daughters
Hide your groceries too
Great nations of Europe coming through
The Grand Canary Islands
First land to which they came
They slaughtered all the canaries
Which gave the land its name
There were natives there called Guanches
Guanches by the score
Bullets, disease, the Portuguese, and they weren't there anymore
Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone
You've never seen anyone so gone
They're a picture in a museum
Some lines written in a book
But you won't find a live one no matter where you look
Hide your wives and daughters
Hide your groceries too
Great nations of Europe coming through
Columbus sailed for India
Found Salvador instead
He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead
They got TB and typhoid and athlete's foot
Diphtheria and the flu
Excuse me great nations coming through!
Balboa found the Pacific
And on the trail one day
He met some friendly Indians
Whom he was told were gay
So he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say
The great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way
Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone
You've never seen anyone so gone
Some bones hidden in the canyon
Some paintings in a cave
There's no use trying to save them
There's nothing left to save
Hide your wives and daughters
Hide your sons as well
With the great nations of Europe you never can tell
Fucking politics of envy.
At last this depressing and almost non-existent campaign is going to end.
A very large majority before the campaign said they wanted to avoid a repeat of the Macron/Le Pen duel. And yet, here we are.
Macron blatantly refused to campaign and debate opponents. It was criticized but the war in Ukraine gave him both an excuse to avoid campaigning and a nice boost from old voters backing the established order in uncertain times. His total domination of media space (printed, radio and tv) gave him a huge advantage that he used freely to demolish his potential rivals and boost those from the extreme left and right.
Melenchon is rising too late and the left in general is in disarray: all left wing candidates combine for less than Macron’s share in the polls.
Le Pen is profiting from her traditional role as the « kick the guy in power » candidate. She benefited from a very soft press coverage this time, the villain du jour being Zemmour.
She has an outside chance of getting almost level to Macron in the first round. I still think her ceiling is somewhere around 45 to 46% in the second round.
Minutes after the first round there will be the usual call to arms by the press, all parties, churches, trade unions and so on, who will order people to vote Macron. it will work, even if less than last time.
But a president/candidate that only beats by a few points a person with the most hated name in politics for 40 years running, who has no team and no real program beyond spending a lot of public money and restricting immigration, would be wise to consider the roots of this rejection. I’m not holding my breath.
All the major public schools support inner city clubs - Winchester for example supports the Crown and Manor club in London where they arrange exchanges, tutorial help, resources, money and time for kids from some of the shittiest unfortunate backgrounds because funnily enough all public school people aren’t entitled wankers.
Much of the education system appears to be a performance, for the benefit of Ofsted.
https://bylinetimes.com/2021/11/25/elite-private-schools-increase-assets-by-more-than-half-a-billion-pounds-in-six-years/
It earns £27 million a year
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is providing over a cost of living crisis that might see people actually go hungry, is worth £500 million, and decided that Winchester College really needed £100,000. Cause they can barely get by, what with being worth £100 million less than him and his wife
What’s more, he decided this donation was so crucial to Winchester College, which is barely scraping by with its £400 million in assets and £27 million in annual income, he should give this money PUBLICLY, so everyone can see his priorities
Whittingdale.
You can't turn a corner of London without some building, street, monument being named such because somebody once gave some money to charity....
Why would anyone want to live in the situation the poor citizens of Donbass have been forced to live under? AIUI some separatist fighters are so disgusted with Russia they're now fighting with Ukraine (*)!
(*) AIUI mainly because they wanted independence, not to become part of Russia.