Private schools dominate Britain again

The rubbishy State schools that socialism has produced now no longer give the poor a chance at a good education

This country is being overtaken by toffs. David Cameron is not the exception: he's the new rule. Privately educated children predominate in every sphere. It hasn't been like this since the Edwardian era. It's not just politics, although much of the Cabinet and shadow cabinet went to private schools. It's the arts, the media, the music industry and the sciences.

They may not wear school uniforms any longer, but they share distinct traits - they are self-confident, competitive, well read all-rounders. Tony Blair and David Cameron, from the best-known Scottish and English public schools, exemplify them. They are just as at home in jeans, changing nappies and drinking tea from mugs in Islington and Notting Hill, as they are leaning against their Agas, cooking breakfast for their children in the country.

The Cabinet is full of them, though ministers don't brag about it. Most forget to mention their schools in Who's Who. Tessa Jowell, who brought home the Olympics, went to the private St Margaret's School in Aberdeen. Charles Clarke pretends to be a man of the people, but went to Highgate School. Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, admits under duress that she went to Westminster. Ed Balls, Gordon Brown's protégé, went to the fee-paying Nottingham High School.

Margaret Thatcher presided over a cabinet of grammar school [selective State schools] boys including Cecil Parkinson and Michael Howard. Now half the shadow cabinet - including Oliver Letwin and George Osborne - went to private schools.....

This is outrageous. Private school pupils make up only seven per cent of the population (up under Labour), but their influence is out of control. This is not the fault of parents who slave away to pay the school fees, nor can it be blamed on private school alumni. At 13, Mr Cameron can't have been expected to rip off his tail coat and refuse to go to Eton. It's the Government's fault. The state system isn't good enough. It fails children on every level, not just the five million who never learn to read so don't even stand a chance of a decent career, but the pupils who never learn the self-confidence that comes from the good teaching and high standards expected at most private schools.

But it's not all Mr Blair's fault. The problems started when he was at Fettes. Grammar school boys could hold their own, they knew they had earned their places on merit alone. In the 1950s, the grammar school system meant that there were more state school pupils at Oxford and Cambridge than there are now when the numbers are being manipulated. But when Labour scrapped the grammar school, it turned the country back into a class-ridden society, where the children of the rich had a huge advantage. The comprehensives, if they had been properly streamed, might have worked, but instead they went for the lowest common denominator. No one was allowed to be challenged; no one could fail. Exam results were fudged and school discipline fell apart. Margaret Thatcher didn't do enough to stop it.

Mr Blair's crime was that he realised this. He sent his children to the selective Oratory School because he knew the comprehensives in north London were bog standard. Yet in eight years he has done little about it. His education White Paper today promises yet another new start with an emphasis on excellence, but he is more interested in busing children round the country in pursuit of that elusive goal of equality. If Labour really wants to boot out the toffs and give private schools a run for their money, it should bring back selection, not just for sport and drama, but also for academic excellence. My hunch is that it is going to take an Old Etonian to do it

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