Labour to abolish private schools

The Labour Party has voted to abolish private schools if elected for them to be integrated into the state system.
Is this a vote winner or will it be seen as too radical by the floating voter ?

If I were at all inclined to vote Labour this would lose them my vote.

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Yes,agreed though I bet it would have been more popular in the ‘loony left’ period.

This may appeal to some of their core vote but the cost would be huge.

Next Labour will be seeking to ban private healthcare, all BUPA customers must now use NHS - I am sure this will help the underfunding!

The education issue just goes to show that Labour are not only completely unelectable - but also would appear that they do not wish to be elected.

Just how bad do you have to be to lose an election to the current serial lying PM.

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I think those days of radical left ideas are long since gone so maybe any hope the Labour Party had of returning to power have just been wiped out, Boris must be thinking his boat has come in !

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Both the Tories and Labour have become obsessed with outdated ideology, if only the LibDems had a decent leader.

Sadly there is no current equivalent of Paddy Ashdown.

But give Jo Swinson a chance - its not always the flamboyant headline grabbers that are best for a party.

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I don’t know how many Labour voters have private health insurance, but I would be very surprised to learn that more than a very small minority of Labour party members pay for private provision.

A substantial fraction of the business that private hospitals and clinics profit from is paid for out of the public purse, because the NHS out-sources ‘safe’ routine surgery to private surgeons and operating theatres, who mainly shun anything complicated or ‘risky’.

This is because of lack of adequate provision by the public sector, in part politically contrived to boost the capacity of private hospitals who could otherwise go bankrupt.

Snouts in the trough, anybody?

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My understanding of Labour intentions re education are NOT the abolition of private education, rather integration of private schools into the state system; and removing the several financial advantages that private schools, like Harrow, Westminster and Eton enjoy by reason of their notional charitable status, which are IMO a preposterous fraud on society.

Again, I doubt most Labour-inclined floating voters are going to lose a wink of sleep about this reasonable and equitable proposal to reduce income-fuelled privilege, of the kind that gives rise to the emergence of ugly sociopathic creatures like Johnson and sneeropath J Rees Mogg.

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The plan is to integrate ALL private schools into the state system with I assume the state simply taking all the buildings and equipment which are currently privately owned, sounds like theft to me.

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@Peter_Goble. - I think this comment may have hit the nail squarely on the head - the Labour Party needs to focus on the people who MAY vote for them if they ever wish to get into power.

People who always have and always will vote for Labour will not swing an election they would need to attract the middle ground. But I have to say with policies such as these is absolutely no hope in Labour achieving this.

It seems to be a policy of jealousy that nobody would benefit from.

I reject that notion @Peter_Goble
My wife’s parents were staunch “labourites” yet they paid a substantial sum of money into an insurance to fund a private education for our son - their grandson.
They would not have been amused at this shift from more liberal inclinations in their party to towards the extreme left.

I don’t think your assumption is warranted, Tim, but I accept it is exploratory and intended to encourage discussion. :grin:

My impression is that it is more about regulatory adjustment so that admission is not contingent on prejudicial screening, especially screening out children with ESN, or privileged access to special treatment over holiday absences etc.

Let’s not jump to knee-jerk conclusions until we see more detail of Labour’s proposals. I think many of them across the board will be very much welcomed by the electorate, and reliably costed. At least as reliable as BoJo’s, that is!

Private schools serve children with SENs very well indeed. I have a friend who is a SEN coordinator at a private school in Northants, the assistance that those children get is exceptional.

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Many years ago when I started work there were moves afoot to nationalise the building industry and I feel that this labour proposal of integrating private schools into the state sector is just as crazy and misplaced.
There is a preconceived idea that all private/public schools are elitist like Eaton, Harrow and such but this is far from the truth as there are many lessor known private schools are the saviour of children’s education.
Those of us who chose this path for thier children’s future do not get the opportunity to opt out of the proportion of tax taken from earnings that funds state education just as those that choose private health care do not get a discount for not using the NHS or whatever is the equivalent in their country of residence.
Private education is freedom of choice and if the labour party think that integrating private education into the public sector is a vote winner they are on a hiding to nothing.
And just in case you haven’t worked it out yet, I attended a state comprehensive school and because the education offered was uninteresting IMO I did not take much notice and consequently the teachers took little notice of me.
I left school, worked hard and when my children arrived I was determined to give them the best start. They all went through the private sector of education and were never allowed to dodge the attention of teachers and most importantly the infinitely broader education of life that the private system offers.
My childen are all adults now with a rounded and grounded view on life and all have good jobs which is due in no small way to thier private education.
Jeremy Corbyn and thier communist views of how they see society should be are a leap back in time to somewhere between the iron curtain and the Berlin wall.
If I was faced with the same choice of education for my children now then I would do it all over again, my money, my choice.
Someone mentioned earlier (sorry can’t remember who) that they would vote Lib Dem if they had a leader, well I think they now have a great leader who talks as she sees things without any hidden agendas. If and when there is an election in UK then she would get my vote.
Sorry if I have rambled on and not used all fancy pants vocabulary, simply because my education did not provide it, but I had the choice to make sure my children got a better deal.
Thanks for reading my point of view.

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I’m sure that’s sometimes the case. But the situation in state schools is that ESN services are being eroded, slashed, curtailed and withdrawn. So children whose parents or grandparents can’t afford to pay for these essential services are being disadvantaged. Perhaps they may feel ‘jealous’ on behalf of their children and their prospects which is of course an unacceptable outrage, just the politics of envy, and a form of political terrorism against the well-off! :joy:

I remember my headmistress banging on about a (frightful) possible labour government taking away schools’ charitable status and that being a death knell for our education, were it to happen… I still don’t see it happening.

Peter, not sure what your emoji is saying but I can assure you that some who send their children to private school may well be “well off” but they are definitely in the minority and I can speak with experience.
Many parents who I knew had remortgage, begged and borrowed to get their children a better deal than the state system offered.
If labour think that this idea is a vote winner they are sadly mistaken, there will always be a hardcore of labour voters who do so in protest of what they perceive to be the well off but in reality the well off are actually those who are prepared to get off thier arse and work for a living

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