Kusal Ariyawansa

Profound words from @POTUS this morning: "Long before Americans had a nation or a Constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed. Before we ever proclaimed our Independence, Americans carried within us the rarest of gifts — moral courage — and it came from a small but mighty kingdom across the sea. For nearly two centuries before the Revolution, this land was settled and forged by men, women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here, on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and Great Britain's distinctive sense of glory, destiny, and pride — and that's what it is, glory, destiny, and pride. The American Patriots who pledged their lives to Independence in 1776 were the heirs to this majestic inheritance. Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage. Their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good, and true. In recent years we have often heard it said that America is merely 'an idea' — but the cause of freedom did not simply appear as an intellectual invention of 1776. The American founding was the culmination of hundreds of years of thought, struggle, sweat, blood, and sacrifice on both sides of the Atlantic. Fate drew a long arc from the meadow at Runnymede to the streets of Philadelphia that ran through the lives of people born and bred on the British code that 'no man should be denied either justice or right.' American Patriots today can sing 'My Country 'Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty' only because our colonial ancestors first sang 'God Save the King.'"

I went to a state school. I used to be against private schools. I used to think they were toffs & people who thought they were better than us. Then I matured. I now realise that in the main, the people who send their kids to one are just normal folk who have decided to prioritise best education for their children and often make significant sacrifice to do so. Alongside this, they also help fund the state education system, which they don’t use. Whatever problems state schools face, it certainly isn’t as a result of private schools. If anything, kids going private eases pressure on the state system. The closure of these schools are utterly tragic for the kids affected. The policy attempts to damage the private system are an act of societal self-harm. Anyone who celebrates it, is frankly, a fool. edp24.co.uk/news/26058426.…