This week, a shudder when down my spine when I heard about Harrow Council's prosecution of Mrinal Patel (no relation), the cheating Harrow school mum. On the basis of "there but for the grace of god go I", I have to say that I support her and harbour considerable anger towards the council's actions. There is nothing fair about the schools admissions system in Britain.

This year, we have had to go through the same process for my daughter. We're far out of the catchment area for a decent girls school and despite putting her through all sorts of exams and auditions - the outcome has been predictably dire. Not to lessen my daughter's considerable achievement - she was the only one in her class offered a place at a highly competitive (mixed) state school nearby - but it isn't what we wanted. I considered appeals and lawyers, for us to finally decide to impoverish ourselves by sending her to a private school. Friends console me by saying that it is the best girls school in the country so I made the right choice. But it came at the cost. In my case, the capital needed to set up a potential new business. Where's the fairness in that?

We didn't cheat, we played by the rules and it got us to the same place - nowhere.