Theresa May today described public schools as follows:

‘Most of the major public schools started out as the route by which poor boys could reach the professions. The nature of their intake may have changed today – indeed these schools have become more and more divorced from normal life’

This is the definition of a public school from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

‘The term public school emerged in the 18th century when the reputation of certain grammar schools spread beyond their immediate environs. They began taking students whose parents could afford  [my highlighting] residential fees and thus became known as public, in contrast to local, schools. By the late 20th century the term independent school was increasingly preferred by the institutions themselves’

It has always been about selection and privilege. May’s consistent promotion of her current ambition to help the poor and generate social mobility is not supported by fantasy views of a past or the future.