If you listen to DJ Fatboy Slim on the recent long-running BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs you'll hear how he went to Reigate Grammar School, where he was in the same class as Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Keir established a reputation for not being able to stick to any single initiative he announced with the exception of adding sales tax to private education.
When I was at school, state education was selective so that for instance Keir and I would pass an exam that meant we went to a grammar school of this kind instead of what were variously called secondary modern or comprehensive schools. Around the time I was there, however, the Labour government ~ most of whom attended private or grammar schools themselves ~ abolished the system. It was something my lifelong Labour supporter at college described as having been rescued, and then pulling up the ladder.
Wind on a generation and they have done the same for what remains of free choice in education by effectively upping the fees that private schools have to charge by some 25%. It did appear this would barely alter the status quo, and this was correct in so far as it effectively eliminated any chance of working-class parents continuing to benefit in that way.
I'd like to believe the revenue gained would be steered exclusively toward the state education system, but then I'd like to believe that the Earth is flat. The upshot however was that aside from the richest schools catering to the wealthiest, like for example socialist politicians, the remainder have been decimated.
A side-effect is that any number have been bought up by Chinese concerns for who-knows-what reason: the best guess of mainstream media is straightforward asset stripping. Accordingly, Galaxy Global Education whose website is down at 9:10 on a weekday morning (see me after class) is in the process of closing down Malvern St James established in 1893, Ruthin School founded in 1284, and Robotics stars Durham High School for Girls... clockwise from top left.
It is I guess a part of Labour's ongoing efforts to eliminate any trace of either labour or initiative in the UK, though there are great hopes for Keir's replacement, local lad Andy Burnham... yeah, right. Important thing is, meantimes it helps sell off the last of our silverware before the proper Soviets arrive.
I've no particular axe to grind though regards politicians, and like most of us living through the arse-end of a civilisation, loathe all of them equally.
* Ed. Well that's going to get us a grant, isn't it?
