IT struck me as truly significant that the defence offered for the continuation of Taunton’s public schools is couched in terms of what they offer to the local economy, i.e. that they are huge local employers and contributors to the local economy.

This, despite the fact that their raison d’etre is maintaining the status quo.

Mr Gove and Mr Cummings made teaching in the state sector an untenable profession through excessive workload.

This is to say nothing of his appalling Gradgrind curriculum, abolition of the arts and ultimately blatant dishonesty in examinations.

At the start of September 2019 there were 14,000 teacher vacancies in the UK and two out of three teachers are seeking to leave the profession.

A problem the government has no solution to, despite the great numbers of unemployed graduates.

Some things in our community are above and beyond the business ethics that have wreaked this ruin and education is in all societies a very basic human right couched in law.

Now, UK public schools are spreading their social structures across the world as far as China.

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In 2016, Theresa May published plans for public schools to sponsor state academies, however only five schools took up the challenge.

There is an argument that all parents must be allowed to buy the best education for their children.

Education isn’t buying a new car or insurance. The education of children defines the community and the future society we inhabit.

It is apposite to consider the truth that the founders of Eton, Winchester and Harrow intended their legacy to Almighty God to be for the benefit of the poor.

JOHN NUTT
West Buckland