A new name for privileged abandonment

We have a new name for privileged abandonment: according to the Financial Times should be called ‘Distinctive Living’.

Well, that’s the feature section for a new super glossy report on how to turn your Roubles into human gold and get shot of  the little buggers at the same time. Then when he grows up he’ll have lost that accent that sounds like you may be going to seduce someone (a la Fish called Wanda) rip you off (as in a Moscow taxi) or buy your football club – nuff said. Do it again Bradford!

I am sorry. I am feeling a little browned off after reading the papers, so this blog may sound a wee bit bitter

So, here we have the benefits, according to the FT:

‘William Richardson, general secretary of the HMC (the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference), says British boarding schools are very good at making children resilient adults who can earn a good living. “Children in boarding schools win out in the graduate labour market. They do well all round, and are self-confident, resilient and networked,” he says.’

But they do admit there’s a bit of a problem:

‘Last year, Andrew Halls, headmaster of King’s College School in Wimbledon, south London, made the headlines when he drew parallels between the banks’ excess before the financial crisis and current private school fees. He warned of an impending fee crisis, because private schools were charging too much. “We have allowed the apparently endless queue of wealthy families from across the world knocking at our doors to blind us to a simple truth: we charge too much,” he wrote in a blog.

“First the nurses stopped sending children to us, then the policemen, then armed forces officers, then even the local accountants and lawyers… The most prestigious schools in the world teach the children of the very wealthiest families in the world.”

As Robin Fletcher, national director of the Boarding Schools’ Association, points out, in the context of private education, the “squeezed middle”, is not those on average incomes, but those who earn about £100,000 a year, and complain that they cannot afford boarding schools.’

Oh dear.

Glad to see how brilliant we are in 2015 at creating a child-friendly society. What do we need to wake up? More Saviles?