Will Starmer do a U-turn on removing charitable status from public schools?

 

Pupils at Eton College

By no stretch of the imagination are public or private schools, 'charities'. Their sole purpose is to provide an education for an elite group of children whose parents are rich enough to send them there.

Sir Keir Starmer has stirred up an hornets nest by talking about removing the charitable status from private schools. I think that Starmer is right to raise this issue of charitable status for public schools, but I don't I think that Starmer, is ever likely to end this racket for the middle-classes, because he's Tory-lite and too much of an establishment man.

Nor do I think the issue resonates that much with working-class Labour voters. They don't really suffer from the politics of envy or begrudge people becoming filthy rich. You will offer hear them say, good luck to them, or wouldn't you do the same thing if you were in their boat.

What they're more concerned about, is their own reference group, people like themselves, who they can identify with. They're likely to be more envious of the neighbour over the road who has bought a new car or who has put new curtains up. You will also find an inclination to resent anyone from their own social class who gets on or makes a success of their lives. They will often say that person has got above themselves.

The author and Old Etonian, George Orwell, wrote in an essay called 'Boys Weeklies', about the fascination that working class kids had with the lives of public school boy. Perhaps, this explains why so many working-class Labour voters, were so enthralled with that public school buffoon, Boris Johnson, who resembled Billy Bunter in many ways. I think he also said that 'Tommy', Tommy Atkins, the archetypal English soldier, wouldn't follow any officer, who didn't speak with plumbs in his mouth. He also said there was a "pew renter" asleep in every English working man.

All these examples highlight the conservative instincts and deferential attitude of the English working- class, who seem to need someone to look up to.