Mark Thornton from Mostly Books was interviewing David Mitchell at the Amey Theatre in Abingdon this evening.
David, a very well known actor, comedian, and writer, has put together the best of his writings from his Observer column into a book called “Thinking about it only makes it worse, and other lessons from modern life.” It covers the last 6 years from the banking crisis when Labour was in power through the resulting Con-Dem coalition years.
David attended Abingdon School, where he enjoyed debating and theatrical productions, and was very good academically. He spoke with honesty and humour on lots of topics including Private Education and its Charitable Status, The Internet, and Madame Tussauds.
He signed a lot of books.
The queue stretched at one stage from the stage out through the foyer.
I agreed totally with what he had to say about Private Schools but not about Madame Tussauds. It is more than just an antiquated wax works,
Hi,
I’m interested to know what he said about private schools. Could you elaborate?
I haven’t lived in Abingdon for about 3 years, but I still come on this blog. How sad I know, one feature I wish you could add would be something about the railway. It seems so short-sighted that they got rid of it, especially with the awful traffic in Abingdon.
So what did he say about private schools that you agreed with?
He said that because of their charitable status, they should be using their facilities to benefit the general population and other schools.
Couldnt agree more
What? Oiks on the fencing salle?
And who was it that did away with Direct Grant Schools ? Or were the beneficiaries just ‘Token Oiks’
as they are not charities why not just take away the status and let them continue as they wish.
if they are a charity the only people they benefit are the kids of the ‘donors’
Ah……David Mitchell…….Abingdon School and Cambridge methinks?
Easy to criticise a system after one has benefitted from it.!!!!!
Further to David’s comments, i’d welcome our private schools showing some leadership to the rest of the independent sector and demonstrate a real commitment to sharing facilities, where practible.
The issue is that according to Charity law, the purpose of a school is for the advancement of education. Sharing their facilities with the general public makes no difference, in terms of their legal charitable status. The fact is, that due to the tax breaks the independent sector receive, they are effectively tax-payer subsidised. This allows the private schools to benefit from the best facilities. How can it be right, that you have multiple schools in one town and only a select few benefit from the best facilities?
I agree with the above comments, it’s very easy to question the system when you are a product of the system and have benefited from it as DM has. I think a lot of the problems we have today, in terms of inequality, stem from our school system. Look at the backgrounds of the cabinet, how can they be representative of the general population?