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?
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”