School places (From The Northern Echo)

School places

10:32am Tuesday 7th July 2009 in

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IT was reported last week that a mother, Mrinal Patel, was taken to court by Harrow Council, north London, accused of giving a false address to get her son into the school of her choice (Echo, July 4).

The council subsequently dropped the case, which it brought under the Fraud Act 2006. The council said it noticed the deception because the address given for tax purposes was not the same as that given on the school application. The address given on the school application was Mrs Patel’s mother’s address.

Ed Balls the Children’s Secretary, described this type of behaviour as “playing the system”.

Doesn’t this sound very similar to our MPs’ recent behaviour?

Yet we’re still waiting for them to appear in court. Mrs Patel’s defence should have been: “I haven’t done anything wrong, guv. It’s the system that’s at fault.”

Colin Hutchinson, Willington, Crook, Co Durham.