Although it is good to see Labour hoisted by its own petard, I feel some sympathy for Ruth Kelly.
Firstly, it is a shame that the State system cannot provide her child with an education that meets its needs, even when those reported needs put it outside the normal boundary of State education. Secondly, if she wants to spend her dosh on private education, that is alright and is her choice. The public funds that would have been spent on her child will now help towards the overall budget elsewhere.
It is the rank hypocrisy of the Labour Government that gets to me; they dismantled a perfectly good system that provided a state education system based on ability, and invented an education system that depends on how much money, or political influence, parents can wield. Where is the sense in that? The smart child, born of poor parents who live in the catchment area of a poor school, now has great difficulty escaping from that background - because the parents cannot afford to move to the catchment area of a better school or to pay for private education. Even the Assisted Places scheme has been destroyed, and Northern Ireland is about to lose its grammar schools (courtesy of Martin McGuinness....).
Is this Socialism? It isn't what I understand to be Socialism. This is part of the "I'm alright, Jack" culture that I abhor.
Hypocritical? Yes, and she therefore deserves the opprobium that will be heaped upon her.
/and breathe....
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