General British politics discussion thread

Average fees for private day schools is £18K, average UK salary before tax is £35K. Do you really think 2 people with 2 children earning the average wage can send their kids to private school? If you are sending your child to a boarding school the average cost is £42k per year. That is more than the average wage before tax. Private schools are the playground for the rich and only the well off will want to keep it that way.

No amount of trying to gaslight people that they can also afford it if they just didn't spend so much on "luxuries" will make that reality go away. Your post itself hints at that point - "are they, or do they just have different priorities to some people?".

I don't know how he has so many followers when he has shown again and again that he is nothing short of a bully and a coward. But grifters will grift and if his followers are stupid enough to let him keep his lifestyle while they are miserable then there is nothing you can really do to help them.

I see the financial picture for the UK is about as bad as you can get. I don't know how the Tories are going to be a viable opposition. They have been so reckless with the economy it is almost criminal. How could Sunak and Hunt and the party stand there and tell people they were going to cut taxes? If they still have a reputation for anything other than ruining the economy for the next 10 years then the UK is truly lost. This is not the GFC, this was self inflicted harm and I hope it is called out again and again whenever a Conservative MP makes any noise about anything.

The average wage in Ireland is 45K euro per year, the highest fee/private school cost is just over 9K per year. So a two income household where one parent earns the average and the other half of that can make smart decisions and afford a private education for their children.

As I have shown, the average fee for private day school is £18K and that is more than half of what an average wage is. This inequality exists already and to think that by making private schools pay VAT and Business rates will all of a sudden make it worse is just ridiculous.

In case you are in any doubt, I am mentioning average private school fees in the UK and comparing the most expensive fees in Ireland and comparing it to the average wage. If you were to take the average fees in Ireland it would surely look even more affordable for a lot of parents and not just the very well off.

https://www.zurich.ie/blog/private-secondary-school-cost-in-ireland-in-2023/

"There are around 50 private or fee-paying secondary schools in Ireland, with more than 28,000 students attending these schools*.

Fees can vary from school to school but can be a considerable expense for parents each year in addition to the cost of things like grinds, books, uniforms and transport.

The Irish Independent detail the cost of sending a child to a fee-paying school and found that this expense has risen for many parents. They also highlight that the most expensive private day school in the country is St Columba’s, in Rathfarnham, Dublin, where fees are €9,632, up from €9,147 last year**."

https://www.jobted.ie/salary

"The average annual earnings for employees in Ireland is €44,202 per year or €3,683 per month (gross salary)."

https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/business/average-uk-salary-by-age/#:~:text=pay%20measures%20up.-,Earnings%20on%20the%20up,tax%20salary%20of%20%C2%A335%2C828.

"The latest government data (published July 2024) reveals that the mean average UK weekly wage (including bonuses) across all industry sectors (in England and Wales) is £689 gross (that’s the equivalent to an annual pre-tax salary of £35,828."