Labour's Proposal to Abolish Private Schooling in the UK

I was born poor, but smart. I was lucky. I was educated in a grammar school. I won a scholarship to Oxford. Two scholarships actually, since I won a commercial one as well as the college one.

After ill health obliged me to leave the Diplomatic Service I ended up as a teacher, first in state schools, then in a private school. I took this last job because I needed the money, but I soon discovered I had little chance of returning to the state system, since my qualifications had been negated by my willingness to take a job in the private sector.

The prejudice I encountered in the employment market is the same that fuels this policy of state monopoly. It is a policy that has already destroyed the ladder I climbed and would like to tear down alternative ladders as well.

The children in private schools are children. They are lucky children, as I was, but they are still children. They are not suitable for use as political footballs.

In my judgement, we should not be asking ‘Why should some children have good education and not others?’. We should be asking ‘Why should not all children have good education?’