Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, should resign

[noblegiraffe]

Let's judge him on his record. His two stated priorities:

1. Students smoothly get the exam results they deserve

2. Schools re-open in a way that is safe for your children

Target 1: Not met. The exams fiasco will go down in education history as the biggest shambles ever, including the time Y9 SATs paper were lost by the company paid to mark them.

Target 2: Not met. Latest data shows that 55% of state secondary schools had children isolating due to contact with a positive case at school on 22nd October. 39% of secondary children in Knowsley were out of school - an area with one of the highest deprivation rates in the country.

In addition:
Universities return - turns out having massive movement of young people around the country led to massive outbreaks of covid. To be fair, that was impossible to predict.

Free School Meals: Gavin tried to blame Rishi for not giving him any money. Rishi countered with the fact that Gav hadn't asked for any money. Gav himself voted to let children go hungry so clearly wasn't going to fight for it.

Laptops for the disadvantaged: In the best DfE tradition of dropping shit on headteacher's laps just as they break up for a holiday, the number of laptops allocated for disadvantaged kids was slashed just as it became a legal requirement for schools to provide remote education for isolating pupils. How can they fulfil that requirement without the resources, Gav?

Throughout this, Gavin has been basically invisible, except for a photoshoot with a whip.

YABU: Gav has met his targets and deserves a pay rise
YANBU: Gav should resign

He also attempted to start WW3 with China and was sacked for leaking secrets, anyone else would have been jailed.

On laptops, the govt dropped the targets because no one can get a laptop for love nor money.

I expect he'd resign like a shot if he could. My bet is that Johnson won't let him.

I mean obviously he should.

Who would take over though 🤦🏻‍♀️

He needs to stay as an inspiration to the useless and incompetent everywhere.

If he can get a job anyone can.

Isn't that an embodiment of the Tory dream ?

The good news is that we at least know who the numpties are that voted that he was doing a good job and should stay.

YADNBU

He’s an idiot.

YANBU

YANBU.

The man is the living embodiment of a chocolate teapot.

If he was a teacher at my school and was having his appraisal reviewed he would definitely be assigned a mentor and threshold progression withheld.

YADNBU.

Williamson, Jenrick, Hancock, Sharma and Whately all should have resigned by now for incompetence and "misleading the House" (or as we call it, lying). There are a couple of others who belong in there too. And of course, misleader-in-chief Johnson.

Much as I loathed Thatcher's policies, she's probably who we need right now. She had a chemist background, wouldn't have gone off on holiday, would have taken every briefing herself or only let Health Secretary do it, and would have sacked all of the above for even a whiff of cock-up. She also would never had had a Cummings. She surrounded herself with competence.

Shows you how bad things are with this shower if you long for Thatcher.

YANBU unbelievable he is nowhere to be seen throughout this shambles.

YANBU.
He isn’t the nastiest of them but he is the least competent.

an incompetent schoolboy YANBU

Is there just one decent person in the govt because I can’t think of any!

He probably resigned ages ago but he sent his letter to the North Pole and is waiting for Santa to reply.

@SmileEachDay

I mean obviously he should.

Who would take over though 🤦🏻‍♀️

Well here’s a shortlist. The 5 Conservative MPs who voted in favour of not letting kids go hungry. They seem to at least like children.

Anyone got any preference?

I can see this is going to be one of those polls where some Torybots people will vote I’m unreasonable but be unable to post any defence.

Chill. It’s half term.

In the words of my articulate, bright 18 year old. He's a knob.

Utter twonk. If he’d two brains he’d be twice as stupid.

Almost makes Grayling look competent.

Everytime I think about Gavin Williamson I can't help wondering how much more of a mess he'd have made had his wife not been a former teacher.

• In addition: Universities return - turns out having massive movement of young people around the country led to massive outbreaks of covid. To be fair, that was impossible to predict.*

Actually the uni sector was telling Gav all summer that one. So entirely predictable.

He won't resign though, he was chief whip- he knows too many secrets.

I don’t even have words for this shit show. YA most definitely NBU, but we all know that.

I fear 2020 is not done with us yet, though. Still to come: Trump re-election and a no deal Brexit...