Would that be the same "Eton Toff" (Typical envy driven, divisive, "class warrior", leftie activist label, Trotted out by a lazy believer in stereotypes) who called a referendum to honour a long overdue election promise of Gordon Brown's that enabled the electorate of the country to decide on whether, or not, we wanted to remain shackled to an increasingly corrupt and authoritarian failing socialist pipedream?

On the subject of the thread it is a pity your boy Tone didn't honour his manifesto commitment to - "Education, education, education" - what the meddling tossers delivered during their time in office was - "education, edukayshun, edjewkayshun".

Scotland used to have a "comprehensive" system that worked with Certificate and General streams determined by the 11-plus exam (Which was taken as being a start point - NOT a life defining moment)- Everybody went to the same school had the same teachers, same resources and within the subjects taught movement from a General course to a Certificate course was possible and actively encouraged.

My children all went to the extremely good State First School to be then handed on to a Middle School that was absolutely deplorable and the thing that made it so was the Headmaster and his teaching staff according to my wife who was an ex-teacher herself. So we then both took the decision to take our children out of the State system and educate them privately (Here's a laugh for you Shaw - the boys went to a De La Salle College - and benefited by receiving an excellent well rounded education). As a family we made our sacrifices to cover the cost of doing this, but the children definitely benefited from it both mentally and physically, all went on to university and all play numerous sports instead of just watching them, and none of them ever gave either my wife or myself the slightest cause for concern in childhood. They are now all married and settled in their careers with their own families - the education they were given and the environment they grew up in played a big part in that as did having two parents who instilled in them the value and importance of having an education and teaching them that things in life are earned by effort and hard work, they are not just simply given.