Would you really go back to school?

From what I saw at the time it was during the 60s and 70s that the English Public Schools got left behind, as they were still running things the same way they had for centuries, and thus they were losing out in the workplace to the more savvy Grammar School kids.

Since then they have changed their culture completely, and now focus on providing a high quality education to those who can afford it.

Quite: I was asking the same question from the time I limped out of the house prefect's study full of that weird mix of pain, pride and indignation after my first experience of six of the best for breaking some stupid rule. And our parents were paying for this! Do us good presumably. Call that education? I've been trying to disentangle myself from it ever since. No, I would never go back to school and no, it has nothing to do with my spanking gene.

Parents who sent their children well at least their sons, to independent boarding schools in the 1960s and 1970s weren't so much paying for a good education (because often it wasn't) but good contacts whereby the "old school tie" gave preferential treatment for high places in British society.

Much as I disliked Margaret Thatcher, the fact that a grammar-school educated GIRL could be leader of the Conservative Party, supposedly the bastion of white male privilege, probably gave these schools a kick and ensured they took education seriously and they actually began to give up corporal punishment before many state schools because they wanted to attract bright kids who could get good results and not just the thick aristocracy.

They do still go for posh people like Boris Johnson and David Cameron but also elected as leader Theresa May, a convent and state educated woman who chose as her Chancellor the son of a Pakistani bus driver (Sajid Javed) so there's been change for the better.

I am still a big fan of Maggie and have been since I stopped supporting Labour during the Callahan years.

Whilst the old school tie thing existed in Whitehall up until Thatcher it was largely based on the traditions within the Civil Service, but by the 1960s those schools were producing an out of date product that was failing in the workplace.

In recent years those private schools have revamped themselves and now produce a very good product, but this elitism is not unique to the UK. It happens in all countries, and as we can see no matter what the political preferences are, Left or Right, nepotism and private education are still the name of the game. Most parents will by instinct try to give their kids advantages over others.

Don't get me started!