I just saw this story on education in which Labour is promising to remove tax breaks from private schools if they don’t show more social responsibility.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/24/private-schools-labour-warning-tax-breaks-tristram-hunt?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

It is, I thought, another breakable Labour promise for our jolly pre-election period. And then I realised that, even if he kept the promise (quiet there at the back, please!), Tristram Hunt actually doesn’t promise enough. Since the chief inspector of schools likens “the current model of partnership between independent and state schools” to “crumbs off your table”, and since “just 3% of private schools sponsor an academy, while only a further 5% loan teaching staff to state schools”, why not just get rid of them, Tristram?

“Independent schools”, says Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, “are committed to helping widen access to their schools.” Well, they certainly want more customers – they’re businesses. The fact that they spell it “c h a r i t i e s” doesn’t alter that basic fact. They are also committed, says our Barnaby, “to improving social mobility”. What I think that means is that, insofar as they do grab pupils from state schools, they will set about turning the ordinary, decent kids down the road into the unbearable snobs on the hill. It’s possible to recover from the immense disadvantages of that kind of education. But there’s no guarantee you will – and you could be scarred for life.

I know it’s futile to say this to a Labour politician but I’ll say it anyway: “Be bolder, Tristram, be bolder!”