ownership and joint endeavour.

And, if we were charged with devising a

brand new education system, I’m not sure that even the new right-wing
faction of today’s Tory Party, the ill-named Popular Conservatives, would
have as its defining principle the idea that the best off children should get
the most luxurious education.

You will be pleased to recall that my old boss didn’t share my absolutist
view and, to put your minds at rest, nor does his successor as Labour
leader, albeit that Keir Starmer is proposing something that we didn’t, and
which I suspect most of you will oppose, namely the change in the tax
regime for private schools.

I see this as a specific change to make the education system fairer and
raise money to spend on other elements of education. I don’t think you
should imagine it represents a step on the road to your demise. Leave that
nonsense to the Mail and the Telegraph and the like.
I believe in State comprehensive education. I just wish we had actually tried
it, as a country. The dictionary definition of comprehensive is “including or
dealing with all or nearly all elements or aspects of something …” well, if
the something in this debate is education, and the elements or aspects are
children, you might at a push make a case that