I say.

Your next book should just be called “Oh”. You must have enough of these to fill a couple of hundred pages.

They'd have paid school fees for the school year to avoid vat? September may see more change school, though I doubt it somehow.

Rather naive of local authorities to think intake is settled in March.

It’ll be the same with farmers.

Just like the minimum wage was going to be the end of civilisation as we know it. Future revelations: Farming families are coping just fine with paying discounted inheritance tax over ten years. But Labour’s benefit cuts are just as damaging as predicted.

All that screaming and crying they were doing, including a certain person LBC 🙄

It's almost as if many rich people are self interested liars isn't it?

You mean poor old impoverished Alexander Armstrong is still sending his brood?

What about Alexander Armstrong though?

Wonder how the Mail, Telegraph et al will spin this?

desperate times call for desperate measures. Now that has been sorted, how about a couple % increase in tax for earners over 500k

I believe Alexander Armstrong is looking to place his kids in the local secondary modern….poor lamb

Maybe they just needed to cut back on avocados, sky subscriptions and flat screen TVs 😉

Oh really? Not even Alexander Armstrong’s kids?

Apparently the word on the street is that some TV presenters have become irreparably poorer and as a direct result may have to be on our screens immeasurably longer

🌪️in a ☕ It would seem...

Such a tiny constituency and yet so flagrantly misrepresented as to their needs and motives... Plenty of air time though...strange no?

Every newsreader, politician, journalist in this country sends their kids to private school….. we don’t have regular working class people in these positions, or very few It’s for the rich I fcking hate it here

Isn't that UK politics in general, tiny constituencies that wield all the power.

Absotively but this an opportunity to demonstrate they aren't just over represented but also MISrepresented... Millionaires would leave if taxed correctly? Would they though?

What a surprise…

Exactly.

But Alexander Armstrong was a bit annoyed!!!

They just cancelled their Netflix subscriptions 😉

🧐

It only impacts those who arent super super rich.

Oh

‘Oh’ indeed James. 🙄😉

Funny that..

Gosh, didn't see that coming 🙄

Surprise surprise! It wouldn’t surprise me if a similar nil (or limited) effect will come from the farmer’s scaremongering over inheritance tax too.

yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but......

All that vitriol and bile, and all just huffing and puffing.

Armstrong found some doubloons under the mattress. Phew!

Put his cravat collection on vinted?!

The sale of fresh salmon,avocados and Netflix subscriptions at an all time low.

Yet.

Well, ofcourse it would never have happened. These guys think we were all born yesterday. Just takes a look at where the money has gone for a couple of decades. There was no exodus because they have the collective wealth to take the hit 10x over. It's not surprising at all.

This rise that was a HUGE problem but it wasn't and it also was widely reported as a key reason for the inflation spike in January. Was this a load of rubbish too? Education only counts for 1% of the consumer basket used to calculate inflation. Sounds suspicious to me www.ons.gov.uk/economy/infl...

The 1% education also is split 4 ways! This from the ONS 2024 basket www.ons.gov.uk/economy/infl...

Looking forward to Nick covering this tomorrow… 🙄

But...but.....Alexander Armstrong is extremely poor!?

It's almost as if they had that money all along.......

This is what happens when you try to tax the wealthy. They throw their weight around, threaten to sue (cash strapped though they are 🙄), cause a public outcry & then realise they should just get on with it, as the rest of us have to.

Golly gosh - didn't see that coming, much. They'll pawn their cats, dogs & grandparents before giving up the 'private school education' label.

they renounced the fourth holiday to Barbados.

The difference in the media treatment (not you James) of those having to make sacrifices to continue to provide the best for their children and the way they treat people in poverty choosing between heating or eating really was/is disgusting. And just to end up with barely any change-as we expected.

All that whining given so much press attention, but at the end of the day, most of those affected carry on pretty much as before. Anyhow, about those wealth taxes...

It's always the same, when things which affect the working/middle classes happen (like cost of energy, water, groceries go up), it's always BBC reporters shrugging their shoulders going "ah well, eh?", when it's VAT on Private Schools or Inheritance Tax then suddenly it's an outrage and protests.

When it's impacting the working/middle classes it just is what it is. When it's impacting the wealthy it's the downfall of society & life as we know it! Even though the opposite has been shown to be true over the past 50 years.

A strange coincidence that everything has become less affordable since the wealthy started paying less tax due to the trickledown delusion...

Many examples such as the housing market becoming a rent-seeking economy where money is extracted to pay for housing already built generations or centuries ago & funding going into speculating on its value rather than increasing supply. Yet they wonder why birth rates are dropping.

Market forces innit.

Didn’t we all know that this would be the outcome!!!

Maybe they had to flog their 3 grand Macbook Pros to someone in Julie's Wine Bar, W11? 🤷‍♂️

As an aside... Julie's Wine Bar in W11 (£38 for a lobster ceasar and a cost of living crisis-busting salade niçoise at a mere £28) was the venue for the interior scenes of Minder's Winchester Club. So there.

Worth looking at whether online schools have seen an uptick. Eg King's Interhigh. Often ND kids struggling in mainstream with no support get moved by desperate parents to private school as smaller. Any cost increase be unmanageable & online school fills gap. SEN parents often use such for similar.

Of course not! Parents understand very well the added life opportunities that private education provides vastly outweighs the marginal added cost of VAT.

Complaining about it is just....POINTLESS!

Can we tax the millionaires now too, let's see how many run away.

That's something of a relief, since it was a risk that state schools would suddenly see a large influx.

We'll be seeing the Telegraph trumpet this Brexit Benefit immediately, I presume!

Guess they sold the family jewels to cover the cost

The howls of anguish from the rich when they are asked to contribute to society are deafening be farmers or rich parents, we see you, you protest too much

Only the one ski holiday this year ?

Surprise!!

Ah. www.walji.uk.com/can-i-put-pr...

This reminds me, isn't it time again for land owners to infest Westminster in their Lamborghini tractors.

Maybe the parents have followed the advice of Tory MPs to people struggling to pay for their food and rent and got a better Job and stopped spending money on Netflix, fags (cigars) and booze. Well done...

Whomst couldn’t have predicted that these people would be able to gather up this money? They must’ve given up the avocado lattes?

Thought it would topple the system?

Misleading headline... we just pulled our dyslexic child out of the girls only school where she was thriving, because we can't afford the VAT. She is really sad to leave her friends. This hits the middle class parents who pay for schools with income from multiple jobs. Doesn't touch the wealthy.

It is really sad, I understand when it comes to SEN, you can get a certificate to exempt your child? I know it is not easy. All this aside though, you should really take it to the school as it was their choice to pass on the increase.

We had tried in the past, the school took months to even acknowledge there was an issue, we had to get the specialist diagnosis ourselves and only then did they accept. To then get an EHCP was another few months and not guaranteed, and the school said they did t have the ability to support m

And in the end we just gave up fighting the bureaucracy

Private schools frequently get rid of pupils who have behaviour problems or learning difficulties as they don’t want their results affected. I have worked for many years with these children.

Not in our case.

But think about poor Xander

The wealthy just ended up putting their hands in their pockets? What a surprise! I do hope li’l Ginny and Tarquín realise the sacrifices their parents have made.

Wait...do you mean to tell me that the threatened 'mass exodus and overwhelming of the state system' by private school pupils with numbers in the tens of thousands as quoted by those opposed to the policy including the former Tory Chancellor...was in fact complete b******s? Who'd have known?

Turns out the rich .... have money. Whodda thunk it....

You mean even the ones who are "extremely poor"?

Curious that 🤔 maybe we won't see the wholesale sale of farms and those £500k tractors that lined the streets of London in protest at having to pay tax🙄

As if they're going to send young Tarquin or Jemima to grot Street Comprehensive. They'll stump up the extra few hundred quid & write it off as they would anything else. I do feel for those private schools that cater for special needs, but they are a minority.

Shocker said no one ever

Blimey that is a turn up for the brand new, unused and personally embossed covered books.

Even poor (£3.9M) Alexander Armstrong is struggling on.

Nor has there been a mass exodus of tax payers from Scotland.

Typical libtard journalism, relying only on facts!

Can we not use that suffix please, even in jest? It’s as offensive as spa**ic to people like my son.

Apologies, no offence to your son meant.

Does he think he's being "ironic"? There's no place for language like that. It's is based on an ableist slur and wins him a report and a block.

We all knew that didn’t we?

yes

minimum wage was going to also devastate the british economy 🙄🙄🙄 they will say anything to keep their money especially if they have more than everyone else

Well I never.

Those poor parents who are struggling to keep their children at private school despite higher costs. We must spare a thought for them in their deprivation.

Proof positive that if you cut down on the avocados on toast, drink fewer lattes, cancel your Netflix subscription and get a better paid job you can make ends meet…

So just millionaire Alexander Armstrong?

Well colour me surprised.

I know you don't like to speak ill of your colleagues @mrjamesob.bsky.social , but so many of them did phone ins full of whining rich parents not wanting to pay the VAT. Is there any oversight at @lbc.co.uk where they get called in for a chat over talking a load of bull on air for hours on end?

Some of your colleagues are going to be very upset 😄

Not sure it’s significant. Parents know that the critical years where most advantage can be gained from private schooling are years 7-11. Those can fix underperforming primary ed., and 6th form colleges are generally pretty good, so parents who can’t afford to go private all the way 5-18 focus there

Why is this not on top on Guardian home page? Right wing rags kept shouting and attacking govt for months with their top line headlines.

I think that less will carry on into senior school where the prices seriously hike up. Not an exodus though. Lots of kids being tutored for the grammar schools or houses on the market or being rented to get into Outstanding schools catchments. It’s still privilege, the whole system needs changing.

Yet another example of “free-marketers” not understanding free markets. Think Truss/Kwarteng versus markets. Now VAT on private schools with press/tufton street versus the private education market. Bless the little “free-marketers”. They don’t get it. If anything, school fees could go higher still!

Alexander Armstrong will be along shortly to bemoan how much extra he has to pay, and how state school isn't an option if you want your kids to get a music education

I guess cutting out the Spotify and Avocado tpast worked then...

The doom-mongers will be disappointed, having been robbed of their chance to say 'I told you so'.

Spare a thought for Alexander Armstrong.

On the money here from Cold War Steve 🤣

One has to ask just how so many expensively educated people could get it SO wrong? Perhaps the Schools Inspectors need to have a closer look at the curriculums these Schools are running & TBH it makes one wonder at the real value of the apparently excellent qualifications they are churning out.

The only classes independent schools are required by law to run are PSHE, RE and Games. And the ISI doesn’t really look at curriculum provision in the same way OFSTED does. Not saying they don’t run a regular provision, they do, but they don’t have to.

Thanks for the inside track ...everyday a school day as they say....although TBH I wasn't being entirely serious. I suspect that what most parents think they are 'buying' from a Private School is something other than an education.

I worked as the head of curriculum in an independent - an interesting position, seeing as I don’t really agree with the concept. But a job is a job - and I’d run screaming from the state sector before being head hunted to private. I see a more nuanced picture, but in some cases you aren’t wrong.

I find nuance a tad tricky with 300 syllables.... but I know you'll be right!

Who'd have guessed that?

Makes you wonder doesn't it? All those super rich & their fund managers & accountants saying they're going to leave if we dare to tax them fairly. Would they really leave.....& should the government give it a go & see what happens? 🤔

I'm sure Nick Ferrari will apologise on his morning show.

Farmers next

No, but MULTI millionaire tossers like alexander armstrong have become “POOR”

Next you'll be telling us the billionaires haven't emigrated...

They must have been able to give up the gags, booze and flat screen tellies after all then……

I was charged vat when I had to renew a seat belt in my motorhome! So I am, dam sure, they should pay it on something that is definitely a luxury.

If you can afford private school in the first place, chances are you have the means to adjust your budget to cover the VAT increase. The real issue isn’t affordability—it’s the expectation that luxury education should be tax-free while the state sector struggles for funding.

Amazing really how privileged people were able to find the extra 20% to ensure their children remained privileged. Time to remove charitable status from private schools

Funny that…..

Daily Telegraph Headline: “Unrepentant evidence harpy, Rachel Reeves, shamefully scorns parental feelings with her ‘facts’. Remains at large and says she would do it again.”

Some have too much money & some don't pay enough taxes yet have enough for private education. The smell of fraudulent BS & the inequality of education is Grotesque.

colour me shocked!!!!

It's almost as though the wealthy tried to convince ordinary people that their privileges are essential for everyone’s well-being. Only this time, their system of press narratives, think tanks, and lobbyists failed. And everyone else is better off as a result.

Incredible...oh well maybe add a super VAT let's see where the break even really is...

But I was so sure, they told me it was true, there would be millions of young children flooding the state sector. Surely it couldn’t have been misinformation ?

Were the ski slopes deserted?

Quelle surprise!

Well knock me down with a feather

Amazing what you can find down the back of the sofa!

…but please spare a thought or indeed a shilling or two for the plight of the daytime tv quiz hosts…

Lies. I removed my daughter immediately. 😎

The question was to ensure state school standards are good enough for us not to go private. The increase has bitten into our pockets but we actually don’t have a choice where we live. The state school had complaints of rats and had poor standards of education. This is insane

Normal waffle.

I guess all those rich parents must have cancelled their Netflix and stopped buying lattes at Starbucks....

The third holiday may be cheaper or the 4WD renewed every other year. ....always was how it would go despite the press hysteria.

It's easier for the rich to convince themselves that they are poor, than the poor ... .

Clearly they all tightened their belts and cut-back on their Netflix subscriptions, pumpkin lattes & crushed avocado on toast, the poor wee mites.

Your mate Alexander Armstrong is now poor apparently?

"You wouldn't know them, they go to another school"

How surprising!

Do you think, with a good accountant, the impact of the family farm tax might be similarly reported in months / years to come?

Yes, especially after all that confected panic over ULEZ.

I wonder ifall the protesting farmers got ULEZ/ Congestion charge fines?

Or whether they were fined for using red diesel

Yes, put it in trust now, survive 7 years, problem solved - who do I send the bill to?

But Alexander Armstrong is poor now, so it has had devastating consequences.

Well, yes, I suppose, but wouldn’t it have been a success if we’d seen the start of the demise of private education on the UK?

Yup. Knew it!

No surprise there then.

Won’t anybody think of (extremely) poor Xander Armstrong? He’s down to his last £4m

Awww the poor little lamb.

Saw this the other day..

To be fair, he’s really been feeling the pinch. To send his nepo-babies to private school he’s had to cancel his Disney+ and tell “the help” not to come at the weekends. The indignity.

Thoughts and prayers though for the multi millionaire Alexander Armstrong. Tough times.

Now try a wealth tax

Perhaps most affected parents are covering costs by writing "pithy fit" articles in the press, like "Zander" Armstrong?

And there won't be. Alexandra Armstrong is having a fundraiser to help him as he's poor.

Well what an absolute shock! Who'd have thought it...

After all that noise the Tories etc made! Lol

But skiing holidays are down. Did anyone think of the chalet girls?

Yeah, they are perhaps a tiny bit less likely to be molested by a bunch of snobby Hooray Henry’s’ that are pissed up after a day ‘on the piste’.

And we're still supposed to believe that if we taxed the super-rich they'd all leave the country

And Isabel Oakshott moved all the way to Dubai too!

And the "we're not rich we just work hard to put our kids to school" mob will just claim they're working harder.

We managed to bin off Oakeshott though!

bonus 👍

Wow! It's almost as if they were lying.

You mean the facts don't back up the opinions? Never! Almost like ______ (insert favourite culture wars reference here).

Maybe we could start taxing the super rich next and see if they come good on their promise to leave the country after all?

Who would have thought that 🤔 Perhaps the parents have have cancelled Netflix after all …

They scrimped and saved to make it, just like their lectures to us 😊

The RW media were talking BS? And they were wrong? I never expected that Wait. Yes, I did.

Be that as it may, it does still mean people sending their kids to private schools are now being taxed twice, which isn’t fair. Taxing education isn’t the right way to go.

I couldn’t care less if rich people pay more 😳 millions of children go hungry DAILY in this ‘only for the rich’ country, fck rich people my god 🤦🏻‍♀️

The you couldn’t ‘care less’ and ‘fck rich people’ is a naive and childish response. Head back to Twitter if you’re so full of hate.

But….. I thought they’d all gave to close….. you mean they haven’t? Rats

Bless the self-entitled rich bleaters & political agitators for trying to make a big song & dance about this issue. Now it’s time for Reeves to grasp @dalevince.com & others proposal for a small % tax on the wealthiest few. It would net a significant amount and save Labour punishing the poorest.

It is definitely time

So thats what actual "fear mongering" looks like as opposed to warnings as with Brexit that all turned out to be either true or even worse than predicted...

Now can we try with the other taxes...

Looking down on someone is worth something then

It's almost like rich people can afford to pay for these things and it doesn't really affect them.

I was so worried that rich folks who can afford the best accountants working on limiting their taxes wouldn’t be able to limit the impact of VAT on their kids education.

It was a worry, but luckily the upper middles managed to scrape through. Phew.

So relieved.

Who would have guessed🤔😄

It was always going to be the case. There will be no apologies for the coordinated campaign to mislead

Apparently the exodus has been to private schools in Dubai 🙃

🤣🤣🤣

along with Isabel Oakeshott's children

Unbelievable, I presume they are incandescent with rage about possible welfare cuts too.

Thank goodness.

Utterly predictable. Any pupils being pulled out of private schools because of the fees hike were always going to be replaced by kids of parents who couldn't get them in before because of competition for places. Supply and demand, red in tooth and claw!

Imagine that.

Pass this on to Alexander Armstrong.

Tax dodging tractor boys will be next

Another Tufton street scaremonger rumour proved wrong again, keep calling them out.

As long as they’re paying their way with no subsidies then keep their bloody private schools .

Didn’t think there would be, all just noise from the fascist fat cats party

Seems like a compelling argument to tax the super rich more then as well…

Well, there's a surprise,just like the exodus of millionaires.

It’s almost like they can afford it.

What are the chances that farm inheritance tax is the same nothingburger? 😉

What a surprise 😏

What an absolute surprise to no one at all.

Let me just not pick up my jaw from the floor.

But but Isabel Oakeshott HAD TO move to Dubai, you're not implying there could be other considerations behind that like the low taxes and beautiful weather?

What’s happening then because some schools are closing 🤷‍♀️

Yes, private schools are businesses, some of them close if they don’t make money. Well noticed 👏

But where are the kids going? Genuine question.

To other schools. If a school closes, the pupils will go to different schools. Why are you worried about it?

I’m not worried The article implies that students haven’t left private schools (as feared) to go to state schools. But I know of a school closing (because of the VAT) the admission numbers are down. So the article must be somewhat misleading.

Private schools close all the time as a matter of course & many (like Alton School) were not economically viable regardless of the VAT situation. The point of the article is that the scaremongers said that it would cause a mass migration from public to state schools which has not been the case.

The pupils typically go to another private school.

Yes of course I know this. Kids from the private school have applied to other local private schools. As have the teachers. But VAT was the final nail in the coffin I guess for them. Schools are closing but I suppose it’s not an “exodus” and that’s the bit that I hadn’t picked up on.

Sorry, but the article i‘ve read reported the nonexistent exodus, emphasis on exodus. It also mentions some fluctuations, but largely flat sign up numbers ie no widespread change

Thank you Maddin. It’s the “exodus” bit I failed to recognise.

They are closing because, well, capitalism. If a business that sells a luxury service closes because they can't afford to run it without what is effectively a state handout, then their business model is not very robust.

Yep. They’ll be no farmers dying due to inheritance tax either

Just wondering - would the impact really be at year 7 or at a later stage? Year 7 parents would already have been gearing up for a jump in fees from junior to senior school whereas an additional fee jump for those already there is likely to cause more of a financial shock.

Agreed. Would be more impactful to see numbers going into Y10 and if they hold steady - those already in the system have choices to make and end of Y9 would be biggest time to jump ship.

No shit sherlock, could never see that coming lol

Isn't someone gonna tell them they have to pay vat ON the vat? (Just to have them scurrying to their accountants and lawyers while everyone watches and laughs from the pub) --

Whoda thought eh?

Presumably the extra revenue received, will automatically go into public school funding?

Fancy that!

I wonder if this is due in part to the rush of "Fees in Advance" schemes that allowed you to pre-pay your fees without the VAT liability. That and the vast majority of families in private schools are rich enough to afford the VAT. Yes. there may well be a few that can't, but not that many, I suspect

Of course not - private school fees jump significantly year on year, so the vast majority of parents paying know this and in a financial position to weather it

The people who can afford private schools and the ones jumping hoops to send their children to it, are obsessed with the privilege that comes with private education. Most think sending their child to a State school would mean condemning their child to unspeakable doom. They would pay anything.

As expected

And how many OAPs frozen to death over last few months?