POLLY VERNON
COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR
LABOUR’S PLANS TO impose 20% VAT on private school fees are causing a hell of a row. If the party wins the general election, Labour intends to take the money raised by that extra VAT – an estimated £1.6bn a year – and use it to pay for more teachers in the state system (6,500 more, according to its pre-election pledge) which seems… Oh, I dunno. Incredibly fair ?
I write, admittedly, from a biased perspective, as a state-educated individual who wouldn’t private educate my kids if I had any (I don’t), even if I could afford to, (I couldn’t). I’m no radical leftie, a moderate one on my leftiest of days, but I do passionately believe in the comprehensive system. I think it’s just sensible. Socially responsible, smart, a decent, realistic preparation for adult life, yadda ya.
I’ve got mates who privately educate their kids. Do I judge them for it? Of course not. We all make our choices, we all lead deeply morally compromised lives anyway. Let she who didn’t just step over a homeless person on her way to spend four quid on a latte cast the first stone, eh? And I truly appreciate that if you have a kid already in the private system, and this increase in cost will mean they have to come out: that could be miserably disruptive.
Still : I have had some awkward convos on the subject. Especially when I hear the
Labour Party’s VAT policy described as the ‘politics of envy’. As if it could only possibly be explained as a cynical attempt to win votes by trading on the spite-laden, pettyminded pique of the 93% who can’t afford private education, so want nothing more than to see others denied it.
This confuses me. Partly because not ever yone thinks about private education like that. Some of us look at the shit show of the Government of the last few years – with particu
