Been a fascinating back and forth, so I'm going to chip in and chip out (on a deadline with real work). Just to say I'm a grammar school kid too - one of the last ones before the middle class started hot-housing their kids in verbal reasoning and getting them in as an alternative to paying private school fees. Personally, I'd abolish private schools but at the very least I'd remove their charitable status and I'd do away with the grammar school system. Comprehensive has to mean comprehensive.

Confidence is what is taught, it's not well-roundedness (I'd argue). Many ex-private school kids I meet are over confident relative to their abilities - and yet this blend of confidence and bluster, when mixed together with a lack of accountability in large structures like the Civil Service, the NHS, large charities, the BBC and others means they consistently and frustratingly fail upward.

With Brexit, Tony makes some excellent points and there's very much a left-wing argument to be made against the EU corporation, however I saw (and still see) the EU as a largely socialist movement and those workers making money here and then sending it elsewhere are redistributing wealth from the rich end of the EU to the poorer end, I remember being profoundly disturbed by the adverts about Romanian orphanages across the 1990s. The EU has done much, albeit in a flawed way, to ensure Europe overall is in a better state than it was after 1989. Are there problems? Sure. Are they insurmountable? No. But I think it's better to resolve those issues from the inside.

There were stupid arguments made on both sides that had nothing to do with the complexity of the question at hand. Remainers, particularly here in London, have a sort of distilled arrogance which suggests everyone who voted leave is a bigot and an idiot and not worth talking to because they 'ruined the country'. The break down in communication was profoundly damaging on every level.

That turned out to be slightly more than my two cents... I'm supposed to be finishing a script today, so I shall leave you guys to it. Great convo. This is what the comments section is for :o)