Amanda Spielman, Chief Inspector of Ofsted, has issued a warning to teachers to stop involving students in “divisive” political campaigns. She took issue with students missing school to participate in School Strikes for Palestine last week. During a media briefing following the release of Ofsted’s annual report, Spielman pointed out that teachers are “enlisting” children “to write campaigning letters” and “walk down the high street to support people who are demonstrating”. She cautioned against running “contentious” campaigns within schools because they lead to “unhappy” and “uncomfortable” students. There’s no end to education…

Every councillor in the UK has been sent an email from two Kingston councillors demanding they sign a letter accusing Israel of “war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing“. James Giles and Jamal Chahan have organised the effort, giving their 19,102 fellow UK councillors until Friday this week to sign on. Otherwise, they will publish “the names of those who have been invited to sign but choose not to, in the interest of accountability”. Councillors across the country are reacting pretty angrily to the threatening letter…

Guido readers may be interested to hear James Giles is a longtime agent and collaborator of George Galloway, running various campaigns for him including Batley & Spen’s by-election in 2021. Giles previously hosted Galloway’s programme for Russia-owned SputnikTV and Galloway’s The Mother of All Talk Shows when it was aired by the now-banned RT. He also ran his grandmother’s campaign in a by-election for the same council, which the LibDems and Conservatives denounced as “dirty” for attacking their LibDem rival for being an Ahmadiyya Muslim. A pleasant character no doubt…

Meanwhile, Conservative councillor Jamal Chahan is the son of Tory donor and PPE provider Ashraf Chohan. Guido hears he’s on his way through the candidate process to become a Tory PCC. Guido wonders what local Conservative associations will make of that…

UPDATE: A CCHQ source tells Guido:

“The councillor in question has now been kicked out of the Tory group. He’s also not a party member, so any applications from him won’t be going very far….“

Swift action from the new chairman. Not seeing the same from Sir Keir with his own elected MPs…

UPDATE II: The Local Government Association has expelled the pair and sacked them from all positions.

The BBC has been forced to update its latest “counter-disinformation” piece on how fatality figures are calculated in Gaza. Puzzled readers pointed out the story made no reference to the fact the Gaza health ministry is run by Hamas until the last paragraph, where the BBC deigned to quote the IDF who “said the health ministry was a branch of Hamas and that any information provided by it should be ‘viewed with caution‘”. This was after directly quoting figures from the Hamas-run health ministry nine times without caveat. You’d have thought they would have learned by now…

Anything connected to the Israel/Hamas War seems to be fair game for BBC misreporting. Last night’s article on Labour’s ceasefire rebellion got the outcome of the vote the wrong way round. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity…

Are unpaid interns running BBC reporting?

Looks like Jon Ashworth’s constituents in Leicester South aren’t too happy about his refusal to aid Hamas on the ceasefire vote. They’re gathering to call for his resignation in Leicester. Guido assumes they’ll take the 7-minute walk to his constituency office on Charles Street. He might not be in…

The first of many?

10 of Starmer’s frontbenchers resigned last night to vote in favour of a ceasefire in a symbolic vote organised by the SNP. The King’s Speech amendment calling for “all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire” was defeated by a majority of 168. Performative, pointless…

Labour’s front bench resignations were:

• Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding Jess Phillips.
• Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction Naz Shah.
• Shadow Minister for Devolution and the English Regions Paula Barker.
• Shadow Minister for Local Government and Faith Sarah Owen.
• Shadow Minister for Exports Afzal Khan.
• Shadow Minister for Veterans Rachel Hopkins.
• Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales Andy Slaughter.
• Shadow equalities minister Yasmin Qureshi.
• Shadow treasury PPS Dan Carden.
• PPS to Angela Rayner Mary Foy.

A total of 56 Labour MPs – over a quarter – rebelled. Starmer’s statement reiterated his support for Israel and added – “I regret that some colleagues felt unable to support the position tonight“. John Healey said this morning that Labour is “acting in these very difficult circumstances as if we were in government“. Oh dear…

Julia Hartley-Brewer and arch-Corbynite former Labour MP Chris Williamson have had a mega 15-minute spat this afternoon on Julia’s TalkTV show over Israel/Palestine. Alongside the usual Hamas apologist lines Williamson claimed the “zionist entity” is responsible for “spurning” peace and Israel is “worse than Nazis actually in some respects“. Hartley-Brewer was having none of it and came back swinging. The clip’s worth a watch…