Forum Topic

'Abolishing Eton' and the impact on Ealing

Just looking through the proposals being made by Labour for private schools I was trying to think through how this might work out in the local area. I've counted five private schools in a fairly tight perimeter in the north Ealing area. This is already an expensive place to live but if all of a sudden free education was made available at these schools with their generally excellent facilities then there would be a huge rush to acquire property in the catchment area. There are clearly problems with social mobility in this country but making private schools free doesn't necessarily deal with the issue. It is potentially a massive wealth transfer from the taxpayer to the relatively well off.I know this is a policy of a party that isn't going to form a government and they are giving the game away by proposing things that aren't practical.

Andy Jones ● 2044d30 Comments

For once we agree!Nonsensical that hospitals pay any element of business rates.

N V Brooks ● 2024d

Interested to see that 17 NHS Trusts are going to Court because hospitals and state schools have to pay Business Taxes whereas private schools with charitable status don't.  Lots more fees for lawyers.  Lots less money for the NHS and the Councils.Scotland doesn't have this problem - they've sorted it.

Philippa Bond ● 2024d

Sorry lost a post somewhere.

Philippa Bond ● 2038d

It was to be a gradual change to the number of hours worked per week with the introduction of a four day week. This might mean extending your hours on those four days but it would give you the extra day to do all the other things like personal apptmts/meeting teachers that you might be trying to arrange and doing in work time/going to on a weekday.  There are companies that have made it work successfully but that does not mean it will be easy to make it work for all companies.  The idea is to have a better work:life balance.

Philippa Bond ● 2038d

Should there be better life qualifications before becoming an MP?  These people are just trying to take us back to Victorian times and playing games learnt from their Greek and Latin studies eg the oh so popular divide et impera.  So much of it seems just like a game of strategy without the necessary feelings and emotions required for the implications this will have on the population.

Philippa Bond ● 2038d

Didn't HMRC have its funding cut too?  Is the movement of employees between HMRC and wealth management companies healthy for the country as a whole?Being one part of a group of countries with the same aim working on this would be a good idea.  Oh - we are.

Philippa Bond ● 2038d

Productivity is a somewhat bogus statistic. If you sack the 10% least efficient in the workforce, average productivity would go up because it only measures what people in work are doing. France's labour restrictions make it very difficult for low value businesses to survive, which may seem grand to some but not those who might otherwise have a low paying job. It's also been the case that UK workers were willing to accept pay cuts after the 2008 crash to keep their jobs, thus stifling productivity growth but keeping employment levels high. And if that doesn't make productivity seem misleading enough, there's a suspicion that the statisticians haven't really worked out how to measure properly the benefits of the digital economy, hence it doesn't fully show up in productivity figures.

Vlod Barchuk ● 2041d

Anyone who has ever owned and/or run a business will tell you straight, a 32 hour week would be disastrous.I think, rather than Professional Politicians pontificating, perhaps someone who knows what they're talking about, like Alan Sugar, should be consulted?

Rosco White ● 2041d

I think we're the least productive country because UK business doesn't invest enough in modern equipment and processes that would allow their employees to work more efficiently and effectively. Low wages don't help, as it's cheaper to take on more people than it is to invest in technological improvements and training. While the UK has high levels of employment, many of these jobs are low wage or on zero hours contracts, where productivity is poor through no fault of the employees. A shorter working week would encourage business to invest in productivity improvements to sustain economic growth.

Peter Evans ● 2041d

I’d be more concerned about the tax dodging of billion pound corporations like Apple and Facebook if I were you Paul. Strange how nobody is pursuing an aggressive policy to close down their loopholes.

Simon Hayes ● 2041d

As most of those 'tax dodging' schools have enrichment and best practice sharing programmes for local state schools the argument is a little hollow.You need to ask why the state school is 'crap', it is not all about funding.I spent over twenty years as a governor in state schools and failure, however one measures it, is all too often down to parental abrogation of  any responsibility for their children's education. No amount of additional funding will change that. A cultural step-change is needed but this must be reciprocated by the parents.  There were (and still are) some parents who believe that it is solely a school's responsibility to educate. They are easy to spot as they will be the ones missing from parent's evenings but the first in the queue to complain when their 'little darling' fails to get a clutch of good results.

N V Brooks ● 2041d

You won't improve your lot if you're a kid who has to go a crap state school, underfunded because the private school next to it is able to dodge millions of pounds in taxed.

Paul James ● 2041d

No, it doesn't.As soon as Labour abolish the 'politics of envy' and stop being so damned hypocritical (just like their conservative counterparts) then perhaps we 'ordinary folk' can get on with improving our lot.

N V Brooks ● 2042d

Doesn't have to be like that though does it?

Paul James ● 2042d

Or, using the Labour maxim, dragging all schools down to the lowest common denominator which is why so many Labour hypocrites educate their children in the private sector or strive to get them into grammar schools just like the 'magic grandpa' went to but now seems desirous to abolish.

N V Brooks ● 2042d

Surely the politics of wanting all schools to be as equally good as each other?

Paul James ● 2042d

No way, Labour would alienate all of their public sector union support if they did not extend this nonsensical idea to all employers 'across the board'.We are already one of the least productive nations in Europe (disregarding Greece, Italy and Spain as 'basket cases')and a 32 hour week would make us even less competitive.

N V Brooks ● 2042d

Would these reductions in holiday entitlements and reduced working hours apply in the private sector?

Tricia Arbuthnot ● 2042d

McDonnell isn't proposing a 32 hour weekly cap, as in France, but to increase annual holiday entitlement alongside reductions in working hours to bring average weekly hours down to somewhere near what people work in other developed countries. Removing private schools so-called charitable status and other tax advantages would be a start, and several private fee paying schools have already voluntarily converted to 'free' schools to get the government funding, so it's not an impossible proposal.

Peter Evans ● 2043d

Re. Diane Abbott.  On the 12th of Never, when he's made Prime Minister, the Magic Grandpa is sure to put his ex-lover Abbott in charge of eradicating all private schools LOL  >>> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1445618/Abbott-says-sons-school-decision-is-indefensible.html

Tony Heath ● 2044d

Strewth McDonnell has been letting Diane Abbot near the abacus again!A 32-hour week was introduced in France (by Jospin's left-wing government of failures) on a trial basis almost a decade ago with the resultant 'tanking' of the sectors where it was trialled.  A decade on the companies are still battling unions to return to  realistic working week.

N V Brooks ● 2044d

2pm 23/09/09.  News item: 'McDonnell says Labour would introduce 32-hour working week within decade.'Jeeze, Ealing Town Hall staff won't like seeing their weekly worked hours quadrupled. LOL.

Tony Heath ● 2044d

The Conservatives could win a majority next time out particularly if Labour continues the way it is going. They have just announced plans for a four day week with no loss of pay which will primarily benefit public sector workers. The rest of us will have to fund the extra cost.The outcome of the next election is hugely uncertain but due to the simple fact that the Tories as the principle Brexit party are likely to face three remain parties in all the seats they are actively contesting, they will win quite a few with a relatively small proportion of the vote.

Andy Jones ● 2044d

I don’t think any party can ‘win’ a General Election these days. The two main parties are just too divisive to the electorate, while the smaller parties just don’t carry enough weight in certain regions to get the numbers of seats required.I wouldn’t be surprised to eventually see some form of proportional representation emerge from this mess, as many people - from all parts of the political spectrum- are not feeling properly represented these days.What’s very interesting now is seeing how party leaders can get away with saying nothing of substance on major policies or can be equivocal with the truth and yet stay in place.

Simon Hayes ● 2044d

Re. Corbyn.  The entire point of the year 2015 duplicitous mass of new conscripts signing up as members of the Labour Party was to ensure the Magic Grandpa was elected as its leader, thereby ensuring the Labour Party could never win another general election.  So far, the plan is working as intended.

Tony Heath ● 2044d

"Come to think of it, Corbyn, Abbott and McDonnell would make a fine triumvirate of Child Catchers "The problem is that the "Labour Party" (or the apology for a party now masquerading as such) is run, not by the Magic Grandpa but by Len McCluskey, his cronies and Momentum.

N V Brooks ● 2044d

Considering Labour won’t win the next election this policy is one that’s unlikely to happen. Personally I wouldn’t send my children to a private school but I know plenty of people who do, often for welfare reasons as their children have particular needs.These people make big sacrifices to afford this education and certainly aren’t part of the wealthy ‘elite’.Perhaps a better policy would be to prohibit Old Etonians/Harrovians/Wykehamists etc from standing for election. That would ‘cleanse’ Parliament fairly quickly. Then they’d just have to tackle the Lords.

Simon Hayes ● 2044d

What always makes me laugh is the fairy tale socialist ubiquitous use of the notion 'free' . . . free healthcare, free schooling, "ice cream, lollipops, all free today." Come to think of it, Corbyn, Abbott and McDonnell would make a fine triumvirate of Child Catchers for a new stage production of 'The Economy's Gone **itty **itty Bang Bang'. LOL.

Tony Heath ● 2044d

The 'politics of envy' from the champagne socialists yet again.Doubtless to appease (grammar school educated but probably unfair in Allotment Utopia) 'Magic Grandpa' they will vote for this ridiculous proposal and Diane Abbot will, again without doubt, be vocal in her support despite sending her own son to the fee-paying City of London School.

N V Brooks ● 2044d

Labour's silly proposals will fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically the ECHR protects the peaceful enjoyment of private property. The state cannot simply steal it. If Labour tried this the private schools' assets would be tied up for decades in a huge legal fight that Labour would be hard pressed to win without resiling from the ECHR. The assets would not be available for teaching anyone.The ECHR also protects parents' rights to educate their children according to their religious or philosophical views. ECHR case law specifically allows private schools to be created. Ad well as dumping 600K children on the streets with a £3.5 billion price tag it is not clear that the private system's teachers would automatically want to teach in the state system. Very quickly a huge private tutoring business would grow up.Meanwhile I look forward to - Labour MP Rupa Huq (late of NHEHS), - Labour council leader Julian Bell (whose daughters educated at NHEHS) and - Labour GLA member Onkar Sahota (the allegedly modest GP who put three children through elite private schools)explaining why these changes are fair and sensible. Silly Socialists will not destroy the ambition of parents for their children by the stroke of a pen.

Phil Taylor ● 2044d