AT long last, a senior Labour politician has said it out loud: White working class kids are being failed by our education system, and it’s a national scandal.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson did not mince her words, saying: “Across attendance, attainment and life chances, white working class children and those with special educational needs do exceptionally poorly.
GettyWhite working-class kids have been betrayed. It’s not racist to say it, it’s the truth & Labour have admitted it[/caption]
“Put simply, these children have been betrayed — left behind in society’s rear-view mirror. They are children whose interests too many politicians have simply discarded.”
Hear hear! Finally this Labour government has admitted what most of Westminster has been too afraid to say for years.
Phillipson has now launched an inquiry into why white working-class children are being left behind in schools.
For years, I’ve been banging on about this, much to the fury of the Black Lives Matter brigade and race-hustling grifters.
Yes, for too long, it was people like me — a black, female, immigrant — who were blocked from getting on in Britain. But that’s simply not the case any more.
It’s poor white kids now getting utterly shafted.
The Conservatives never got to grips with the issue.
Labour ignored it completely, terrified of being branded racist.
But now, even they can’t deny the uncomfortable truth.
Shocking new Government analysis shows that in 1,228 schools in England where more than 20 per cent of pupils are both white British and disadvantaged, 21 see those pupils performing better than average.
Not 21 per cent, 21 schools.
In other words, if you’re a poor white kid in one of England’s classrooms, you’re screwed.
This is a national emergency.
And the only thing worse than the problem is how long politicians have ignored it.
The data has been screaming at us for years.
In the 2022 to 2023 school year, only 36 per cent of white British pupils on free school meals got a grade 4 (equivalent to a C), or above, in English and maths at GCSE.
For black pupils, it was 56 per cent.
For Asian pupils, 62 per cent.
So much for white privilege!
If you’re a white working class boy, your outlook is even bleaker.
Since the pandemic, the number of young men who are NEET (not in education, employment, or training) has soared by 40 per cent.
For young women, the rise was seven per cent.
PAPhillipson has now launched an inquiry into why white working-class children are being left behind in schools[/caption]
And where do these young lads end up? Often jobless and on benefits.
In towns like Grimsby and Birkenhead, where over half the working-age population is on out-of-work benefits, many kids are now fourth, fifth, even sixth-generation unemployed.
And those are the lucky ones.
Others end up in prison or six feet under.
The male suicide rate in England and Wales in 2023 hit its highest point since 1999 — a tragic figure.
We’ve rightly spent decades trying to level the playing field for ethnic minorities. Great.
But where is the national mission to lift up the forgotten white working class kids of Britain, especially the boys?
The industries that once gave these lads pride, purpose, and a decent wage — manufacturing, skilled trades, construction — have been gutted.
Big blunder
In 1970, those sectors made up around 40 per cent of the UK economy.
Today? Just 16 per cent. And nothing meaningful has replaced them.
Meanwhile, politicians keep banging on about “jobs of the future”, as if everyone is a middle-class graduate.
They tell us the future belongs to data scientists and AI engineers.
Fantastic — if you’ve got three A-levels and a degree, that is.
But what if you barely have two GCSEs to rub together?
So yes, Phillipson is right to sound the alarm. But that’s not enough.
If Labour think a new inquiry will solve this, they are kidding themselves.
We’ve had more reviews than these poor white kids have had free school meals.
Labour’s last big blunder, when they were previously in power, was pushing every young person into university.
A generation of students are now loaded with debt for degrees they didn’t need.
This time, they have a chance to do something meaningful for the kids who need it most.
The Government’s £165million skills boost and new technical excellence colleges are welcome, but unless this investment zeroes in on neglected poor white communities, it’ll barely scratch the surface.
We need root-and-branch overhaul of how schools teach disadvantaged kids.
Education is in a state of disaster in this country: Severe absence rates are at record highs, according to the Centre for Social Justice thinktank, teachers are striking because behaviour is at rock bottom, and almost one in three parents no longer think kids even need to be at school every day, according to a YouGov poll for the CSJ.
Poor white kids are falling through the cracks of a system crippled by political correctness and low expectations.
We’ve made a national effort to support ethnic minorities — now we must do the same for these kids. =
It’s not racist to say it, it’s the truth.
TOUGH JOB FOR ARMY
THE Government is pledging billions to make the UK “war-fighting ready” and the Army “ten times more lethal”.
Good luck with that!
Most young men today can’t last ten minutes without checking TikTok – and certainly wouldn’t survive a day on the battlefield.
Army numbers have been tanking for years.
There’s no queue of eager recruits, and there isn’t going to be any time soon.
We’ve spent years telling young men to ditch “masculine” stuff, pushing them out of “proper jobs” and into lecture theatres, while teaching them Britain is the world’s biggest villain.
Why would they want to fight for it? If the Army is hoping for a new generation of tough lads, it will be waiting a long time.
World Boxing pulling no punches on Khelif at last
FINALLY, a knockout win for women’s sport.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has been banned from competing in any World Boxing event until they get a sex screening to show they are female.
APA leaked medical report appeared to show that Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is a male[/caption]
This comes after a leaked medical report appeared to show that Khelif is male.
Shocking? Hardly. Anyone with eyes could see Khelif had high testosterone levels, which made it completely unfair to fight a biological woman.
Putting female boxers in the ring with people who may be male isn’t “inclusive”, it is insanity.
JK Rowling nailed it: “It’s a win for women because they won’t be battered to death in the ring by men.”
She’s right. Women’s sport exists so women can compete safely and fairly, not so men with a hormone loophole can dominate the podium.
Hats off to World Boxing for finally finding their courage.
Genetic sex testing is coming in, and not a moment too soon.
MADDIE A MUST
GERMAN police are investigating Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
And predictably, some on X are losing their minds: “Why are they still bothering?”, they shout.
But I’m happy to live in a world that doesn’t give up on missing children.
Madeleine’s case was a high-profile kidnapping with possible links to paedophiles and unanswered leads nearly 20 years on.
If it were their child, these online trolls would be begging police to keep searching.
The millions spent since 2007 – and the Met was given a further £108,000 for the probe, known as Operation Grange, in April – may seem a lot.
But if it helps solve one of the most chilling child disappearances in history, it’s worth every penny.
Delighted sense won for Jodie’s lemurs
BEING emotionally invested in Jodie Marsh’s legal battle over lemurs was not on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are.
Who’d have thought the former lads’ mag star would become Essex’s unexpected champion of endangered primates?
Jodie Marsh has won a battle to keep lemurs at her Essex animal sanctuary
Yet it’s the local council that has gone bananas, trying to evict her lemurs over a bit of jungle noise.
Thankfully, the judge saw sense and said claims the lemurs were a nuisance were unfounded. He ruled they could stay in her private animal sanctuary.
Now Uttlesford District Council has to fork out £20,000 in costs to Jodie for wasting everyone’s time.
Good for Jodie, I say!
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