Labour Party Conference

Bright kids get on in state schools if supported and encouraged by their families to achieve. My Daughter went to Hunningley Lane J&I, Holgate, Barnsley college then got a First Class Masters degree in Physics at York University the reason why is shes bright she worked hard and we told her it didn't matter what others said she could achieve everything she wanted to with hard work and determination no private school no private tuition on the side just a bright kid working hard with parents who encouraged and supported her.

 

Rather billions go into renationalising assets than into bombing countries..

 

As children they had no say in where they went but as adults if they sent their kids to private I agree.

 

But isn't that the point, that state schools have large class sizes because they are underfunded whilst private schools have smaller class sizes in part due to tax loopholes and charitable status they exploit?

This isn't about getting rid of private schools. It's about stopping the unfair allocation of public resources in to already privileged institutions when it could be focused on the universal school system.

If we start trying to pretend that private schools are some form of driver of social mobility then we really are misdiagnosing the problem.

 

my first thought were it reminded me of Zimbabwe and the farmers land grab! if reports were correct labour are going to seize school grounds. really bizarre.

 

Tony Blair - increase social mobility by improving standards of schools. Massive programme of building work to improve educational infrastructure. Taught aspiration and social mobility through achievement.

This shower - start a class war and talk in rhetorical terms about how ‘the rich’ are the enemy. Seize assets from private schools. They are actually a load of Socialist Worker mentalists. British politics is turning into an extremist race to the bottom.

I’ve voted Labour in every single general election since being an adult. There’s not a chance in hell I’ll vote for this gang of 70s throwbacks.

 

Except the only actual policy commitment is to close tax loopholes for private schools but this has hardly been reported at all

 

I think it's called the dead cat theory. You enter a debate by throwing a dead cat on the table, and suddenly the debate changes and people are talking about the dead cat instead of the matter in hand.

 

Yes, that’s the formal policy as it has been voted for by the members, but it’s the underpinning rhetoric that matters. The words being used by Rayner, a politician frankly as thick as any I’ve ever seen, are ‘redistribution’ of wealth and ‘seizing’ of assets.

 

Have you listened to the whole speech? I think Angela Rayner is one of the more thoughtful politicians we have today and bridges a middle ground between centrists and Corbynites. And she genuinely is someone from an unprivileged background how speaks from experience and to people from different backgrounds. She certainly isn't thick and the policy positions on Ofsted are genuinely exciting.

Here's her actual speech by the way rather than the BBC take

https://www.google.com/amp/s/school...ll-text-of-labour-conference-2019-speech/amp/

 

The fact that intelligent posters such as yourself see Rayner now as a moderate middle ground shows the extreme left lurch that the Labour Party has made under McDonnell and Corbyn.

 

Reasonable point Helen, but as adults these Labour politicians should acknowledge the benefits that private education has given, to enable them to achieve highly, which they are denying others.

Also, Corbyn’s kids... privately educated, Abbott’s kids ...privately educated, Chackerabati's kids, privately educated, Alibhi-Brown's kids, privately educated.

I carry on, exposing the hypocrisy.

Your kids... state educated. Keep voting comrades.

 

Personally I just feel there needs to be an element of bold intervention beyond third way approaches if social justice is to be improved. Labour did a lot of good in the 00s but inequality grew significantly. Don't get me wrong, I work in a complex political environment and spend my days brokering compromises to deliver change and appreciate dogmatic solutions aren't going to work, certainly in the current Brexit landscape. But there has to be some elements of change or the country will continue to fracture.

I also think it's telling just how pervasive neoliberalism has become that many of Labour's policies are perceived to be radical or far left when in essence I don't believe they are.

But I'm particularly passionate on this one as my wife is a new head teacher at a primary school in a challenging catchment area, and for the first time they actually seem to be getting it on SATs and Ofsted.

 

IIRC Corbyn divorced his second wife over an argument (probably one of many) about whether to send their kids to private school - he was against selective education.

 

Not fukcing likely

 

It's worrying really.
Because Tyketical Masterstroke seems an intelligent fellow and even he's not convinced.
Today we have the Tories and Johnson throwing their weight behind Saudi again, acting as puppets for the US as usual and Labour announcing four-day working weeks, renationalising rail, water, energy and what not and closing tax loopholes.
Yet it's the fair and what I'd deem as nice stuff from Labour that's getting smashed to pieces.
We live in a scary time.

 

It’s very scary indeed. Pick your poison. Renationalising at the time of brexit (seeing as labour want it to conveniently be ignored) is suicide. A 4 day week on less hours as businesses migrate to Europe, suicide. And one of the key drivers of net income is education, so we then “seize” assets and run in-house... just crazy.

I’ve only ever voted labour, not anymore.

 

Because I just don’t think that’s realistic anymore. Believe me, I was brought up on socialism, but look at McDonnell’s speech today, it’s absolutely full of good intent but it was conceived in a 70s dreamworld.

The opportunity to renationalise industry has gone in my opinion, it’s a relic of history. It was possible, and in my opinion preferable in the 70s and 80s, before the Internet brought about true globalisation . In my opinion true socialist policies can only work in a vacuum, effectively in a sealed economy. But we don’t have that anymore, unless you’re North Korea then we have a global economy (which is the main reason why I think Brexit is a flawed plan, but that’s an entirely different kettle of fish). The world is capitalist, and you have to compete successfully with the world now, in order to fund the workers rights, increases in living wage and other genuine positives that McDonnell is proposing.

And I have to say the main turn off for me is the 6th former class war rhetoric we increasingly hear from them, presumably because they think they’ve lost the working class vote to the Brexit party.

 

That’s just not true. Nationalisation is cost neutral other than potential pension issues.