General UK politics VIII - The Last Tory

When I was of school age the Eleven Plus or equivalent had long been abolished in Kent but we had selection at thirteen. So after two years of absolutely no educational value at a secondary modern, I got transferred to a traditional state system Grammar along with a lot of other speccy twats with an unhealthy obsession with Tolkien. It did us all a lot of good.
 
Carrot Flower King said:
Well, bless my soul, what's wrong with me?

I missed out on becoming PM somehow, despite the advantages of being part of The Establishment...

Assuming that The Establishment covers children of physiotherapists (one born in a pit village and the other in a coal yard) who passed the 11+ and went to the local grammar school in the north east (not the local fee-paying school, which was mostly for thickos with wealthy parents).

FFS, the closest anyone I was at school with got to "Establishment" was becoming chief constable of a small police force.
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Well, I went to a Direct Grammar school, and checking out my school's Wiki page, it would appear it produced a few MPs, councillors and so forth and a goodly number of bishops and archbishops. But as it was an RC school, they don't really count as the Establishment...

Mind you, it did produce a few well known musicians, actors and sportsmen...
 
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As for the fishing 'surrender' It's an extension of the original Brexit deal. There are no changes to EU fishing rights.
 
malbui said:
When I was of school age the Eleven Plus or equivalent had long been abolished in Kent but we had selection at thirteen. So after two years of absolutely no educational value at a secondary modern, I got transferred to a traditional state system Grammar along with a lot of other speccy twats with an unhealthy obsession with Tolkien. It did us all a lot of good.
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Kent never abolished the 11+, they just call it the Kent Test. It is still in use today.
 
Another Direct Grant school alumni here.
It was a pretty hard entrance exam. It made me wonder how many of the rich kids got in there - about half of them were thick, rich ◊◊◊◊◊, the others were quite bright and a good number of them ended up in very successful careers - or politics, as did most of the 'council' kids.

I went to school with Mel Smith, he was really funny even then.

Of course, it's fee-paying now and has been for a while
 
Vixen said:
OK, have it your way. Starmer was just a very ordinary boy whose dad was a toolmaker. It is worth remembering that neither Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak came from a particularly wealthy background. They too, had scholarships and financial assistance. Sunak's parents drove him to Wellington every day, as a dayboy. I am not sure whether Johnson was a boarder or not but whilst he went to Eton, Sunak is probably much brighter than him.


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Winchester, rather than Wellington, I believe.
 
sinnikal said:
Another Direct Grant school alumni here.
It was a pretty hard entrance exam.It made me wonder how many of the rich kids got in there - about half of them were thick, rich ◊◊◊◊◊, the others were quite bright and a good number of them ended up in very successful careers - or politics, as did most of the 'council' kids.

I went to school with Mel Smith, he was really funny even then.

Of course, it's fee-paying now and has been for a while
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Tutoring to get them through the entrance exam. With sufficient preparation, will and tutoring even quite dim people can pass.
 
Darat said:
Which system was abolished?
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Indeed, it depends where you live. The Grammar school I went to in Kent was Voluntary Aided (as opposed to Direct Grant) when I was there; I'm not sure of its funding now, but it is still a state school, and is selective (and is currently ranked as one of the best in the country, and has as an alumnus one of the latest winning University Challenge team), as are the Grammar schools my nephews went to in Kent, and the ones my children went to in Berkshire. None of them can really be said to give you entry to 'the establishment'; the closest I can think of is an early Deputy Prime Minister of Israel went to my school, but that was nearly a century ago, as did the founder of Harvard.
 
junkshop said:
Kent never abolished the 11+, they just call it the Kent Test. It is still in use today.
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It wasn’t in existence during the 1970s, that’s for certain. Transfer was at age 13 on the basis of recommendation. They might have reintroduced something similar since then, but it wasn’t there for my generation.
 
malbui said:
It wasn’t in existence during the 1970s, that’s for certain. Transfer was at age 13 on the basis of recommendation. They might have reintroduced something similar since then, but it wasn’t there for my generation.
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Which bit of Kent? I took the 11 plus in 1971. I was in Kent (though might have come under the London Borough of Bromley at the time).
 
zooterkin said:
Which bit of Kent? I took the 11 plus in 1971. I was in Kent (though might have come under the London Borough of Bromley at the time).
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I was in Maidstone. None of my cohort - born between 1965 and 1971 - had anything like a selection exam.
 
zooterkin said:
Is there anyone here who didn't go to Grammar School? :D
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Me. There were no Grammar Schools in my part of the world. We had Comprehensive Schools. What was the Grammar was turned in to a 6th Form College.
Schools didn't have a 6th Form, it was in a separate college that took students from all the secondary schools in the area. A much better preparation for University.
 
So the deal with the EU seems like a win, so naturally all the right wing media is screaming betrayal and the BBC is being 'balanced' by giving equal space to Badenoch and the fisheries issue, you know the least important part of the deal.
 
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zooterkin said:
Is there anyone here who didn't go to Grammar School? :D
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Me. Went to a conventional comprehensive school with no shortage of bullies.

I'm not aware Grammar School was even an option for us.
 
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