The children of Lord Adonis will no doubt attend state schools in North London. Stands to reason. That is where everyone goes these days: everyone you are likely to hear talk on the subject of education. Our expert elite never do anything as crass and needy as sending their children private. Anyway, they don’t need to. If mummy and daddy are white, middle-class and part of the modern Establishment, what a waste of money.

When Lord Adonis revealed that more than 70 per cent of secondary school pupils at the worst 25 per cent of schools fail to leave with five good GCSEs, including maths and English, the statistics did not send a shiver through the smug opinion formers, education policy wonks or self-appointed specialists that bear responsibility for this small disaster. Ethnic minorities and the aspirational working class, they are the ones that read the figures and start cancelling holidays and hiring tutors. The ones that have got us here know they will be all right. They can afford to take a punt on state education.

Ever noticed how the state-schooled children of newspaper columnists are worn like a badge of honour? When a writer mounts the high horse for education it can be guaranteed that by the third paragraph, tops, we will know that little junior is in the comprehensive system, too. They would put it in the headline if they could, next to the picture byline with a little halo. And you know what else comes guaranteed, apart from an inverted snobbery against those that go private? A flattering, possibly airbrushed, portrait of a little white face staring back at you. Safe as houses, that lot. It is the reason the kids can go local. The parents, the background, the contacts, the package that comes with being a powerful person in modern media is the insurance policy.

Often it is all show anyway. Tony Blair’s children were state-educated, too; but not around the corner. No postcode lottery for them. They worked the system, finding a Catholic state school across town that is now the most successful comprehensive in the country at sending pupils to the leading universities in Britain. Wow. Faith aside, how do you think they got in there? Well, let’s see: how many standard comprehensive schools have an admissions policy in which parents and child are interviewed? The London Oratory does.

Newly gentrified North London has a number of state schools where pressure and the involvement of a significant rump of wealthy local residents have resulted in a lift in standards. This parental power trip is then taken on to the opinion pages, as if one size fits all. Immigrant families, or those pulled up by the bootstraps, know different. Take a risk on changing the system from within and what if you lose? Back to the bottom rung of the ladder. For an underachieving child with the right background, a few telephone calls from a well-connected parent who happens to be a QC or the former Prime Minister or a leading opinion writer could put the little problem right in an afternoon. If your dad ran a small newsagent’s in the high street it might be a different.

You read a lot of smug sermons from white people that would never send their kids private but, funnily enough, not many from black people. The day the African or Asian communities lecture on the benefits of the state system we will know it is safe to go back. Camden mummies love to opine on the ethnic cleansing of private education, while ignoring the fact that independent and grammar schools draw the ambitious immigrant community in large numbers, because through education they can escape the class system.

At the independent school where my elder son goes, the rugby team pack includes Inthujan, Yusuf, Dev, Chris (Patel) and Curan. And you know what Ofsted said about the local comprehensive? “Almost all students are of a white British background.” Nothing wrong with that, just stop pretending that private education is still an echo of Tom Brown’s schooldays, all boaters and fagging and tuck. Here are a few other things Ofsted said. “Pupils enter the school at Year 7 with standards that are below average for their age.” “The results in GCSE are approaching the national average.” “Attendance is now in line with the national average.” And this was a good report that paid tribute to the improvements the school has made under its new headmaster. Even so, do you take a chance? Fine, if your dad is Alastair Campbell and your mum Fiona Millar. Fine, if after two lifetimes spent networking in politics, the media, big business and sport, the future is bomb-proof.

Yet for a second-generation immigrant with a small business, who knows nobody of power or influence and aspires only to his offspring not having to work all hours to make a go of life in Britain, it might not seem wise to place the future in a lucky dip pot at the local council.

For his kids, for your kids, there is no favour that can be called in if the state school gamble fails. Education snobs say that parents who go private support an unfair system based on wealth and privilege; as opposed, presumably, to one based on power and influence. What did you say your father’s name was, son? Adonis? Really? Oh, sorry, Lord Adonis.

Try beating that at an interview with Morgan Stanley. The state-educated Kathryn Blair recently graduated from an intensive course at the Sorbonne in Paris. While there she stayed at the Left Bank mansion of Bernard Arnault, head of the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group and the seventh-richest man in the world. Just as your kids would.

I have a friend who works at the London School of Economics. Do you know why some universities still ask questions about parents’ occupations and educational backgrounds? They want to make sure the candidate comes from an environment that values academic motivation and commitment. If your dad was, say, the schools minister or your mum made documentaries for Channel 4, you would be a safer bet to complete the course than a bloke who submits that his family are grocers and his dad left school at 16 to help to run a market stall.

Sad but true. And that is why the white, middle-class, liberal professional does not pay, but the grocer does. How else is he meant to show he means business?

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