Expansionist private schools need a lesson in morality | David Mitchell

British schools with branches in the Middle East are abandoning principles for profit and it's simply wrong

The private education system, I'm beginning to suspect, just isn't that into me. I blame myself - I've been playing hard to get. Pointing out the divisions in British society that having private schools causes, mentioning how the fees have gone up hugely ahead of inflation and questioning their charitable status in light of that. But still, in my heart I was up for being seduced.

I went to private schools and was generally fond of those institutions. As a left-leaning centrist but also a conservative with a small c" (a woolly position that makes me a massive c" in the eyes of some), I'm uncomfortable with abolishing, or otherwise driving out of existence, non-profit-making educational institutions. I don't like banning things in general. I can see the logic that these schools, which undoubtedly provide something good for thousands of children, might nevertheless be causing societal harm overall. But I'm squeamish about taking that logic and commissioning some politicians to turn it into a great big illiberal bunch of laws. So the truth, private education system, is that I was still fluttering my eyelashes at you.