John Prescott gets it wrong again. He may have been an 11-plus failure but the standard of education was still good enough for him to get good O-level results and to benefit from free higher education, ending up as our Deputy Prime Minister. The struggle is not class-based, but opportunity-based. Schools should be able to select on academic ability (benefiting poor and rich alike) but all schools should have the same resources and a high standard of education. The Government is failing the majority of State-schooled children; we cannot blame middle class parents for securing better schooling for their children if they are able to (we all would if we could), but we NEED to restore the kind of social mobility that allowed an average student to reach the second highest office of government on merit alone. Darla Danya, London

Whenever Prescott says anything in public (which is mercifully rare) it's to insult or degrade one or other section of society. Exactly why is this man in government? I can't think of a single success he has had since Labour came to power, short of screwing up the transport policy before being swiftly moved on and letting someone else take the fall. Nicholas Ord, Guildford

So John Prescott failed the 11-plus. Surprise. Surprise. He would surely fail it again today. His ignorance is clearly resistant to any form of education. As a working-class 11-plus candidate who passed and went on to teach at Oxford and Paris Universities, I regard his class posturing with a certain contempt, particularly as he seems to have no qualms about using working-class tax-payers' money to enable him to live like a "toff" in his various grace and favour residences. I believe in elites, and am at present lucky enough to be teaching at a Chinese university whose entrance exams guarantee that only the very best students are admitted. They are not "toffs", simply highly intelligent, motivated and hard-working students from a wide range of backgrounds. But then the Chinese have always attached enormous importance to education in the broadest sense ... and our civil service exams were probably at least partly inspired by the imperial Chinese system. My present students make me feel more optimistic about China's future than the UK's. Ian McMorran, Shanghai, China

Existence of classes is a pre-requisite of any functioning society. Indeed a class-less society is a paradox. Removal or integration of classes only leads to replacement with some other. This has been amply proven by the communist experiment. It is true that the term "class" can be used to defend or hide a multitude of follies, but it is equally true that the same can also be used to deflect responsibility. I might have listened to Mr Prescott’s grumbling, if it wasn’t for the fact that the system that he perceives as having failed him is the same system which put him on the course to become the Deputy Prime Minister! Moiz Saigara, Nottingham

If, as claimed by several of the correspondents to this site, class no longer exists in UK, why is the "establishment" littered with so many Sirs, Lords, and Ladies? Surely if British society is so much more egalitarian these days, these anachronistic titles that continue to create a snobbish division among the population should be done away with? By all means recognise outstanding achievements and/or service to the community, but does it have to be by awarding these outmoded "ranks" to the recipient? Colin Cumner, Adelaide, Australia

Oh come on Libby Purves! I'm amazed you didn't go on to trot out that old canard about toffs being loveable old relics that are subsisting on bread and water in their crumbly, leaky-roofed palaces, deserving of everyone else's help and affection. As the recent, excellent Times article on the CAP pointed out, toffs are amongst Britain's wealthiest citizens, owning a very significant proportion of the country's most valuable asset - land, and profiting very nicely. With this comes enormous power and influence. Take Eton out of the boardrooms of the City of London's most wealthy and prestigious institutions and they would be pretty empty. I'm all for a balanced debate, Libby, but let's get real about the advantages that are still enjoyed by a relatively small aristocracy and squirearchy in Britain today. Phil Elmes, Sydney, Australia

Class warfare doesn't exist other than in the heads of people like John Prescott. My brother failed his 11-plus and this provided the kick up the backside he needed. Now he can earn around £100K a year when he wants. That John Prescott never recovered academically from this failure says much more about his character than it does about any two tier education system. It's so much easier to blame the system rather than yourself. Personally I have always felt sorry for ex-public schoolboys as I have found them to be incapable of functioning properly in a social setting. More to be pitied than laughed at. Derek Sinclair, Dundee

So John Prescott is trotting out another tired old cliché about class, while his party is busy overseeing the destruction of everything meaningful and worthwhile in this country. Gangs of zombified youngsters roam the streets attacking the defenceless. Drinking to excess is actively encouraged. State and education are two words that don't belong in the same sentence. The Government is failing the people of this land on every level. And the best John Prescott has to offer is a meaningless, outdated and jealous side swipe at the private education system. Pathetic. The reason the private system succeeds? It is perfectly simple really - if you pay for it you expect to have value for money. You expect your child to be able to read, write intelligibly, add up, subtract, multiply and divide; if the school does not deliver, the parent can go elsewhere. Perhaps if we brought in some system whereby stupid politicians had to fund the education of children failed by their useless policies we would see some dramatic improvements. Sarah Marquis, London

Again, we focus on the wrong factor in the equation. The problem is not that we have classes (how many people actually want to change their class when it comes down to it) but rather that people are treated because of that class generalisation. Rather than forcing everyone into an identity-bereft society we should be moving to exactly what it is Mr Prescott is complaining about - a merit-based system of recognition. Anything less is unfair and discriminatory. Hard work and effort should be both recognised and rewarded in any progressive society. Dominic Graham de Montrose, London

Libby Purves should reflect on her comment today that "there are not many toffs and they don't run things... unless they got to high public office on merit." Missing the real point here, obscured by the use of the word "toffs".Social mobility has been reduced in the last 40 years and state school pupils no longer get to Oxbridge in the same numbers. And Oxbridge still provides most of our leaders or potential leaders like Mr Cameron. Joe Eason, Leamington Spa

I don't know where Ms Purves lives but she seems quite unaware that there are already at least two tiers in the State education system and that is the whole source of the problem. The LEA run comprehensives have abysmally failed to provide a high standard of education. If they had, the whole issue of public v private would be irrelevant as the need for private schools would have vanished and the phenomenon of the middle classes moving to get their kids into their schools of choice would have evaporated. The issue is why the current approach has failed and the answer is obvious. The 2004 Treasury review showed that we spend £5,500 per secondary school pupil in the state system (not that much less than some private schools). Ask any headmaster how much of this they see and the answer is about £2,500. It appears we could get more of the education budget spent on our children's education by moving their desks from the classroom to the Town Hall. The solution? Give the headmasters the money directly, then if the LEA bureaucrats are really adding value there would be nothing to stop the headmasters hiring them to carry on. If, for example, more and better paid teachers might be the priority then they could do that instead. Prescott needs to understand this isn't about class its about getting the money to the point of service and minimising the administrative overhead in between. The LEA run system has failed to provide equality of opportunity and value for money for our children and its about time we tried another approach. John Galpin, Cookham

Why does libby purves equate opposition to foxhunting with social class? Most of the people I know who are opposed to it are anything but working class. Take the late Alan Clark, or perhaps Ann Widdecombe. It is a matter of whether you approve of inflicting pain and suffering for amusement. Alan Morriss, Nutley

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