To feel so upset about the government censorship?

[Utterlydisillusioned]

This has just appeared in my news feed and I feel so upset and disillusioned. I was a labour voter, thinking we voted the bad guys out but I'm now really scared about what we've let in...what on earth have we done...? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/17/education-secretary-bridget-phillipson-private-school-tax-r/

Apparently none of them were offensive or inappropriate. They were just challenging policies

We've just lived through all these things under the last government, and there was no early election as a result.

It's not her personal page. It's her official page as a senior cabinet minister. Labour Party’s social media policy states that: “We want debate and discussion to flourish on our channels and will encourage feedback wherever appropriate.”They DON'T

Sadly this. If you honestly thought Labour would be better than the last lot, I am amazed at your naivety.

Oh for heavens sake, it's the Torygraph, a right wing rag for those who can actually read.

If the govt can censor that sort of nonsense they should he be able to do it for everything else which quite clearly haven't been able to do to date.

Do stay off the Saturday gin.

Public figures remove comments from their social media all the time. Literally all the time. They employ assistants to do it. Our ex-MP was particularly swift on the delete button.

There is not going to be a snap election in two years. Why on earth would there be? The adults are in charge for five years, thank fucking goodness.

And whose fault is it that there is a huge shortage of school places and that we could do with another 6,500 new teachers to plug the gap? Oh yeah, not the party in power for a matter of weeks, but the the Tories, who were in power for the last 14 years.

Labour inherited a god-awful fucked up mess. It took 14 years to make it like that, so they aren't going to be able to wave a magic wand and fix it by Bonfire night, are they?

Because it is a tool for sending out political messages, not getting into debate.

It isn't censorship. It isn't removing anyone's free speech.

It's not her personal page. It's her official public page

Of course, the Torygraph is to be totally believed. They told us that Brexit was going to be wonderful and now we are in paradise.

Public figures remove comments from their social media all the time. Literally all the time. They employ assistants to do it. Our ex-MP was particularly swift on the delete button. Yes exactly this.

How are people so naive as to not know this?

I’ve been watching Bridget Phillipson’s Facebook page for weeks and comments are being routinely deleted where they do no support her VAT policy. None of these comments are offensive, they are just raising issues and requesting that she engages with concerned parents, many of whom are being told by their LEAs there there are no places for their children in state schools. In contrast, I have been following my own Tory MP’s page for years and she often gets highly critical comments but they are not removed.

Tories said nothing of the sort.

Exactly. I don't see what the fuss is about. I'm sure it happened on the public pages of the previous government's cabinet ministers as well.

This is what I thought.

If Phillipson thinks this isn’t an appropriate forum to respond, why not say that and make a statement on the issues another way? Or ask people to contact her constituency office, etc? You know, the way politicians usually engage with voters when they take their duty as a MP seriously.

Censorship isn’t a good look for her. It gives the impression she has something to hide and is scared of debate. Or that she isn’t willing to listen or engage in a democratic fashion because she knows best and won’t be told, which is somewhat totalitarian if so. I hope that isn’t really reflective of her approach, but in any case, she isn’t painting herself in a good light here. Someone with some political savvy should step in and advise her on how to engage judiciously.

And? It is her political page.

It is up to her what messages are on there.

It is. She is keeping favourable comments in but she is deleting anything else. If you want you can disable comment but she doesn't. She creates an illusion of democracy and then hides it. This is incredibly conniving

Seriously?
😂😂😂

It’s true, I have seen it with my own eyes. The Telegraph were just the paper that were prepared to listen when this was reported by a number of concerned parents. Other papers were approached.

Emphasis on ‘’apparently’’ - did you read these comments yourself? The likelihood is the people asking the questions are the same people who are opposed to the policy and were being provocative and inflammatory with their comments. It is in the interests of the right wing owned media to frame it the way they have.

My thoughts exactly. Couldn't have put it better...

🤣

Regularly these days you just disagree with a statement you are labelled a troll.

I have read many of the comments. They were not provocative or inflammatory. They were from concerned parents, many of whom are being told by their LEAs that there are no spare places in their local state schools.

Not usually when it’s about stated government policy, they don’t, though backbenchers sometimes do (eg Fabricant and any mention of his wig hair). I mean, why do that if you’re confident in the merits of your own policies?