Scrapping VAT and removing charitable schools - Labour policy - do you agree with it ?

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Private schools and the tax breaks attached to them certainly compound the unfairness of our society, but I can't help thinking labour have bigger fish to fry and higher priorities when they get in. This policy is a fig leaf to cover what will be a general Tory lite austerity package. Throwing a few crumbs to the masses in the same way that Boris gave the NHS a clap every Thursday night instead of decent pay and conditions.
There again, having had the benefit of selective/ private education I'm sure Sir Keir will be all over the issue.

 

[Kompany Car]

I have a very simple idea, anybody that attends a fee paying school is barred from public office. Only state educated people can become MPs, be part of the Judiciary, have the highest ranks in the armed forces, be representatives in local government and be civil servants. Those who still want to send their kids to these schools can, the overseas pupils will still get educated and this country does not end up with a clown show of over educated unintelligent morons believing they have a right to run our country. fuck em, fuck the lot of the fuckers.

That we trust a small monied elite to produce the people who actually run the country is abhorrent, it is a waste of so much talent that is barred from their elitist clubs. There are people on here I would trust to run the country more than i do fucking halfwits like 50p Lee, Bridgen, Mogg etc etc. Imagine Zen's compassion and understanding of the world being our PM , that would be a great start but we need is MPs who represent our interests, who understand our lives, who understand poverty, not who lived in a bubble of wealth induced superiority. Look at Johnson, a prime example of everything wrong with our country.

As for VAT, it is regressive taxation at its worst, it affects those with least the most and is one of the reasons leaving the EU was the correct move as I would hope a Labour government gets rid of this tax on spending power and replaces it with a tax on wealth.

Dont know about leaving the EU and to be fair I'm not well versed enough to know if we could get rid of VAT and still remain in the EU. But all in all the rest seems pretty sensible.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Dont know about leaving the EU and to be fair I'm not well versed enough to know if we could get rid of VAT and still remain in the EU. But all in all the rest seems pretty sensible.

Prior to VAT we had sales taxes - like most places in the world do. If you get rid of VAT and don't use another purchase tax or taxes you lose out on I think I have read over £150bn of tax revenues

 

[Rascal]

Dont know about leaving the EU and to be fair I'm not well versed enough to know if we could get rid of VAT and still remain in the EU. But all in all the rest seems pretty sensible.

As far as i was aware VAT being harmonised by the EU, they supported a tax on the least well off, they are a neo liberal club mind.

Now we are out if the political will is there it could be scrapped and everyone in effect would get a pay rise.

 

[bluethrunthru]

As far as i was aware VAT being harmonised by the EU, they supported a tax on the least well off, they are a neo liberal club mind.

Now we are out if the political will is there it could be scrapped and everyone in effect would get a pay rise.

and the exchequer would make further cuts without a replacement sales tax

 

[PragueBlue]

Some use the iGCSE which is much more flexible and generally seen as easier. Many however use the same AQA, OCR and Edexcel (which is arguably the hardest) that state schools use.

I believe iGCSE is generally viewed as slightly more difficult. Certainly used to be as IGCSEs were pretty much all exam based, though I think GCSEs are heading that way too now.

One of my daughters did GCSEs and the other IGCSEs. I found the IGCSE quite a bit more demanding when helping them both with their studies.

Probably isn't much to choose between them in reality though.

 

[threespires]

Of course it is to obtain a competitive advantage otherwise they wouldn’t bother.
Let’s be frank here State Schools don’t attract the same quality of Teachers, pushy parents wanting value for money, competitive environment for the pupils, better learning environment, less disruption from the kids, discipline, choice of subjects, preparation for exams etc,need I go on.

Any parents wanting the best for their kids would opt for them to be privately education.

None of this nonsense of taking their kids out of school in Term time to save a few quid on the holiday using the excuse it will broaden the kids lifeexperience.
Fact, parents put their kids through private education to get the best possible exam results given their kids ability, of course that’s going to give them the best choice in terms of Uni and Career.

My point wasn't that private schools are a competitive advantage which they clearly are intended to be but that the tax break was an added advantage over and above.

 

[bluethrunthru]

So what you're saying is its mismanaged by the local authority.

No - I am saying that central Govt to local authority funding is deliberately structured to reduce what they pay as they take into account a local authority can hold some money back from the VAT reclaim - thats the sort of thing Hunt was alluding to last nigh when he said pay rises had to be funded from "savings" in existing budgets

 

[meltonblue]

Of course it is to obtain a competitive advantage otherwise they wouldn’t bother.
Let’s be frank here State Schools don’t attract the same quality of Teachers, pushy parents wanting value for money, competitive environment for the pupils, better learning environment, less disruption from the kids, discipline, choice of subjects, preparation for exams etc,need I go on.
Any parents wanting the best for their kids would opt for them to be privately education.
None of this nonsense of taking their kids out of school in Term time to save a few quid on the holiday using the excuse it will broaden the kids lifeexperience.
Fact, parents put their kids through private education to get the best possible exam results given their kids ability, of course that’s going to give them the best choice in terms of Uni and Career.

It’s personal experience but I disagree with this. I went to an all boys selective grammar school that also allowed fee paying borders that didn’t have to take the exams. Most of the people that were privately educated at primary school or paid for entry via the border route were thick as pig shit as they’d either been heavily tutored on top of their education to pass the eleven plus or just paid to bypass it and then really struggled to keep up due to the different teaching methods in those schools at secondary level. Some of them were also socially inept as they struggled to equate to anyone from a different background. I’d also add the teachers that were bad at the grammar school, although admittedly very clever, had had no teacher training or PGCE, which was a fair few of them, ditto in the private schools.

Parents choose private school because of the name of it and they’ve got the money to afford it. If their children have the aptitude and are lucky to have decent teachers (as that can happen in either) then they’ll thrive regardless and will more often end up much more rounded individuals. What they won’t have is the connections made or the influence of the name of a private or grammar school and that does open doors that it really shouldn’t.

Either way though, those people that did send their children to private school, it’s a very low percentage that choose to make proper sacrifices to their life in order to do it, as per the research I posted earlier. The sacrifices people make are more often downgrading their property in order to get into a decent catchment area for a very good state school or do something to afford to do that rather than pay thousands for private education. The vast majority that do choose private education for their children is because they can very very comfortably afford to do it and know very little of if the teaching provision is actually any good or not, particularly at primary, the importance is their child gets the name of that school and the association.

 

[PragueBlue]

The vast majority that do choose private education for their children is because they can very very comfortably afford to do it and know very little of if the teaching provision is actually any good or not, particularly at primary, the importance is their child gets the name of that school and the association.

I would disagree with that on the whole, though perhaps true at some of the 'elite' schools like Harrow and Eton.

My children have all been to both private and state schools at various times. The majority of parents at the different private schools they attended would fall more into the middle class bracket such as small business owners, estate agents, solicitors, accountants etc.

I don't really feel the names of the schools they attended would give them any great advantage or contacts going forward either. I also suspect that the parents do check out the school, Ofsted reports and exam results etc before deciding to send their children there, just like I did.