AIBU to think the Education Secretary interview with Gemma Collins was a mistake?

It is so bad it can only be good to show just how fuckIng clueless the whole shower of shit is.

It's totally cringeworthy and does nothing to help the issue.

Bridget Phillipson strikes me as someone who is totally performative and has zero substance.

From what I saw they discussed Richard III for some really fucking weird reason. No idea who formulated that script.

I’ve only seen the clip that was shared upthread but I don’t get the link to the SEND reforms. Did they talk about those?

Did I say there was? If she wants to post about them then fine.

Given the shitshow that is the NHS right now, Wes Streeting having a photo op with her wasn’t a good look, in my opinion.

She's raising awareness. She has a large platform and is using it to try and make positive changes regarding the condition her twins have.

What is wrong with that?

Also I said they were all over social media - am I wrong?

It’s like something out of W1A

I am aware of it, thanks.

I’d research the story of Jesy’s twins before I posted such a judgy comment, if I were you.

I just would have loved to be a fly on the wall for the brainstorming session that produced this idea . I’m cringing just thinking about it.

How cringeworthy. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Phillipson is now accusing everyone who objects of having vested interests and/or being joyless miseries. Despite having been claiming for weeks that she's listening to SEN parents, she just doesn't get it that her proposed reforms to the SEN system are causing massive worry and distress because they involve taking away significant rights, while she has no proposals to deliver what SEN parents actually want, i.e. adequate accountability to ensure that local authorities stop blatantly breaking the law. Accusing the parents of disabled children who have legitimate cause for concern of lacking "joy" is quite unbelievably crass of her.

I wish the leadership would realise that these proposed reforms are potentially disastrous. There's a very substantial sector of people involved one way or another in the SEND system, including teachers, who have been put off voting Labour for this reason alone.

The bit I’m even more confused about really is what on earth they were trying to promote. The Secretary of State has said everyone is being a kill joy and there needs to be more fun. Gemma seemed to just talk about being crap at maths. There wasn’t exactly any substance or call to action. I could perhaps get it if they were trying to promote something new and wanted to target a specific population but they’ve picked someone totally suited and it’s not even clear what the actual bloody message is. I think my interns at work would have done a better job structuring a comms campaign.

And yes Bridget, we deserve a bit of joy but my child’s school can’t afford glue sticks without asking for parental contributions so maybe you should fix the basics first before pratting about with influencers. I think she’s getting to be even more unpopular as an education secretary than Gove.

Phillipson thinks that she's terribly relevant to young people because she's been on TOWIE and pops on TV every so often. But the reality is that few people under 30 have a clue who she is, let alone think she is someone they want to support.

Can I just congratulate you - if your 16yo doesn’t know who Gemma Collins is, you have certainly done parenting right 😬

Decided to show my 16 yo DS the clip and he asked who the intended audience was because he has absolutely no idea who Gemma Collins even is! I’m not sure, really? They’ve massively missed the mark either way.

Phillipson is a thorough disgrace anyway, and just about everything this incomprehensibly perverse version of a Labour government says or does feels like a brutal satire by some conservative TV show.

Awesome!

Tbh: its points about education are sounder.

Thing is, Gemma Collins is a joke. Her fans probably don’t vote as they can’t understand it so it’s backfired

To be fair, Gemma Collins’ IQ probably far exceeds that of Bridget Philipson.

I raise you this.. 😂

This is the first thing I saw and for a moment I actually thought this was what Labour had produced 😂😂😂

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0FeT6wB_VzE

Bizarre

i think DFE massively cocked this up. People are raging on social media especially SEN campaigners. I literally don’t understand what on earth they were thinking. What makes it worse is that Gemma has talked openly before about not seeing school as important and not really giving a shit. What better advocate to consult about our education system?

What is actually worse is the crazy tweet that Gemma put out in response to the backlash which was along the lines of ‘don’t worry babe I’m going to fix it all’.

That response has pissed people off even more from what I’ve seen and just shows she was never qualified to be having that sort of ‘chat’ in the first place.

That’s what I wondered. Maybe that’s what we’re all supposed to be like?