This isn’t an easy one for me, because I’m probably going to look ungrateful. Ungrateful to my parents, who did what they thought was best and paid for my education. Ungrateful to my teachers, who were (mostly) very good. And ungrateful to my school community as a whole, which played a major part in getting a (somewhat average) pupil into a (rather good) university. I have a lot to be thankful for.

So why then did I feel a kind of spark of recognition and sympathy the other day when Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of Belle and Sebastian, had a go at private education? Perhaps it’s just because I love Mr Murdoch's music and the black, black humour of his lyrics (I gave myself to God, there was a pregnant pause before he said okay). When someone like him uses words, set to music or not set to music, I’m inclined to listen.

But maybe there’s more to it than that. It’s not uncommon, although not common enough, for former private-school boys like me to be perfectly aware, and thankful, for the advantages their education gave them but also aware of its downsides. The lack of a social mix in the school for example (or in my case the lack of the other sex – it was all boys). Friends and acquaintances sometimes tell me too that private education seems to have given me confidence in my abilities and opinions; other people sometimes tell me it comes across as arrogance. If schools help make you, then my school has to take some of the blame.

The reason Mr Murdoch was getting so worked up about the subject the other day was he’d seen an advert for Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow, which was promoting an open day for parents. The ad said that, according to 39% of the UK population, the education system was “broken”. It also said the current system “won’t help pupils get jobs” and that parents could “discover an education that will” i.e. education at Kelvinside Academy (cost: around £4,000 a term).

Writing on X, Mr Murdoch made his opinions about the advert clear. “Lovely ad,” he said, sarcastically, and went on: “Last one out of public education turn out the lights. Thing is the vast majority are stuck here, trying to make the most of it. We love the teachers who are holding it together with blunt scissors and Sellotape. Your ad sticks in the throat.” The people commenting on Mr Murdoch’s remarks agreed with him. “How about promoting what’s good about your school rather than pushing down the state systems?” said one of them. “Just a thought.”

If I’m honest, I suspect that whoever it was who drew up that ad for Kelvinside is now regretting the clumsy way it expressed something many parents do actually feel. Like mine did in the 70s, some parents worry that the local comprehensive isn’t right for their kid or that a private school might maximise his or her chances and who doesn’t want to do that? Individually, case by case, I understand why parents – even parents like mine who didn’t in principle approve of private education – might worry about the local school and do what they think is right for their child. I would never criticise that.

On the other hand, I also understand where Mr Murdoch is coming from when he suggests that a “broken” system is unlikely to be improved by lots of schools encouraging parents to opt out and go private instead. I hope – and I don’t know Mr Murdoch’s personal circumstances so this isn’t a criticism of him – that he would also be unhappy about that other breed of parent that does something similar by paying over the odds for houses in the catchment of “good” comprehensives. They are part of the same problem, although you’d never know if from their smugness.

The answer here, based on the basic principle of freedom of choice, isn’t to ban or abolish private schools and I think most of the political parties have realised this by now. But what does surprise me is that some of the parties have appeared reluctant to take other steps that might help “fix” the “broken” system. For example, some activists at the SNP conference in Aberdeen this week wanted to debate a motion to end the charitable status of private schools but the motion hasn’t made it on to the SNP’s final conference agenda.

This surprises me. Cynics might say it has something to do with Humza Yousaf being an old Hutchie boy, but I suspect it has more to do with the SNP just thinking they have bigger issues to wrestle with just now (they do). Removing the charitable status from an institution like a school isn’t a straightforward process either, which is probably why Labour have also backed off from the plans even though Rachel Reeves said not so long ago that “private schools are not charities” and she’s right, they’re not.

I’m pleased to say though that Labour have still found a way to proceed and are intending to force independent schools, even though they can keep their charity status, to pay VAT and this is absolutely the right move. Private schools, including the one I went to, insist they are charitable institutions but here’s an exam question for you: how can a place that charges many thousands of pounds for its services, and by definition excludes most people on average-to-low incomes, possibly be a charity? It’s not and we can see that it’s not.

However, the bigger point is that, for the policy to work, changing the rules so that private schools have to pay VAT must also have a benefit for schools in the state sector; it must help the “vast majority who are stuck there” as Stuart Murdoch put it. And happily the Labour plans do that. They would charge VAT, they say, but more importantly they would use the money raised to fund more teachers and other improvements in the state sector. This seems to me entirely fair, entirely logical, and entirely right.

None of this is particularly easy for me by the way and in some ways I feel like a bit of traitor to my past, and I do support the work that some private schools already do in the state sector, by sharing their facilities for example. However, there’s always part of me that thinks there’s a limit to how much schools that directly benefit from privilege can teach schools that are struggling every day with deprivation.

We should also, while protecting the principle of freedom of choice and freedom of income, recognise that the principle of fairness needs to be protected too. Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian says the ad for Kelvinside Academy sticks in his throat and I get that. But if 39% of the UK population really does think the education system is broken, let’s encourage, or force, the private sector to play a bigger part in fixing it.