On 3 February Bridget Phillipson held a meeting with headmistress extraordinaire and anti-woke warrior Katharine Birbalsingh. Part of an ill-fated charm offensive with key academy figures…
Birbalsingh’s account of the meeting was scathing – she accused Phillipson of being driven by a “Marxist ideological dislike of academies” and lacking a basic knowledge of facts. Before too long a Bridget-sympathetic narrative managed to appear in the press via Freedom of Information request. Only nine days after the meeting itself was held – a miracle in government transparency and a new standard for all meeting FoIs…
Schools Week’s alternative account from the provided transcripts of the meeting went like this: “Bridget Phillipson had to ask headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh to ‘lower her tone’ and ‘allow her to finish her sentences.'” Where Birbalsingh says “You do not seem to understand your own bill” the transcript’s account is: “The SoS said that the explanatory notes on all of the Bill measures are available online and provide more detail.” You get the picture…
Seeing as DfE is so keen on getting meeting transcripts into the hands of journalists via FoI Guido put one in for minutes of meetings held with the head of the National Education Union. Ten working days later – crickets. Not so keen on releasing those?
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”