Do D of E hang out on threads?

[wondersun]

Is it just me... or does anyone else notice a disproportionate number of posters trotting out the party line re schools, especially at times of crisis in schools.

This post has even be removed from the d of e Facebook page.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3535507603151665&id=116423535060106&ref=m_notif&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

It’s like they want to try and make their narrative seem like the norm and suppress any other views.

[quote CallmeAngelina]@930onaTuesdayNight, Could you BE more patronising?! [/quote]
❤️ I’m like 🕵🏼‍♀️🧐🧐🤔😂😂 It’s these sort of comments, the putting people down, trying to make out people are bonkers. I’m sure some people live like this for kicks but I don’t think many.

Obviously didn’t mean yours @CallmeAngelina

@noblegiraffe

Do not even bother with the MP, go straight through to Gavin Williamson Secretary instead and bombard her with your issues, that is what I did, and she was very nice.

Contact details would be appreciated.

You are only allowed to email MPs if you are in their constituency so ways to circumvent that would be good.

Contact details pleeeease

By the way, I joined in a Mumsnet webinar the other week; The Powers That Be are well aware of influencers spouting particular agendas. Apparently the regular Mumsnet stalwarts are really good at spotting these posters quickly. They didn't mention details; but Ecosse aka whatever came to mind.

So, sorry tinpot hat lady, but it does seem to happen and it seems plausible to me that some effort goes into influencing what is being said on a social media site with a lot of traffic.

Social media spin seems to have been a key strategy in persuading so many people to vote for something as utterly mindless and destructive as Brexit was always going to be. So given that exercise in mind-bending worked, Cummings and his cronies might quite possibly try variations on the theme.

Using Occam's razor, it is the most elegant explanation for Ecosse, for example.

That sounds interesting, herecomes, what was the webinar about?

@noblegiraffe

That is because a lot are obviously being started in the hope they are picked up. Repeating the same stuff everyone has heard again and again. They need a new angle. You can't just be shouting close the schools think of the teachers.

No one has been starting multiple threads shouting close the schools think of the teachers, and I've been paying attention.

People, however, have often claimed that my threads are shouting close the schools while presumably not reading them.

Not being personal it was a raw example.

Only vaguely noticed you on threads and I actually think you make some valid points from what I have read.

We probably don't see eye to eye on everything though but I rarely do that with anyone. Still only trying to be helpful. You can take my opinion as you please.

No worries, Truely, it’s just I’ve had a lot of people make those comments about my threads so assumed it was me again.

@herecomesthsun

By the way, I joined in a Mumsnet webinar the other week; The Powers That Be are well aware of influencers spouting particular agendas. Apparently the regular Mumsnet stalwarts are really good at spotting these posters quickly. They didn't mention details; but Ecosse aka whatever came to mind.

So, sorry tinpot hat lady, but it does seem to happen and it seems plausible to me that some effort goes into influencing what is being said on a social media site with a lot of traffic.

Social media spin seems to have been a key strategy in persuading so many people to vote for something as utterly mindless and destructive as Brexit was always going to be. So given that exercise in mind-bending worked, Cummings and his cronies might quite possibly try variations on the theme.

Using Occam's razor, it is the most elegant explanation for Ecosse, for example.

So mumsnet were patting themselves on the back at spotting these posts. That is interesting and very amusing. Considering some of the stuff that has happened on this site over the years. However I will try and give them the benefit of the doubt. Sure they spot the obvious posters at least

Very reassured that I’m not bonkers - have popped my tin hat back into the bottom of my wardrobe. Until the next time...
Will click those links later!

I'm astonished that people don't realise there are paid posters all over social media. I thought it was common knowledge.

Our local FB page is administrated by the Conservatives, councillors and members, and heavily censored.

No one was patting themselves on the back. But this type of poster referred to upthread seems to be A Thing.

Hopefully, the DfE realise that they have lost the respect of many professionals for their diabolical handling of education since March:-

• online / not online
• mutant algorithms
• exams on/off
• cags on/off
• holidays on exams results day
• laptop roll-out / not rolled out
• catch up tutoring / who knows
• changing guidance - masks/no masks, schools walls built with special covid deflecting material
• they have left students and staff down big time

Williamson and Gibbs have presided over failure and incompetency since March and should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

They couldn't arrange a piss-up in a brewery (even a covid non-compliant one)

And wasn't there a thread that the DfE managed to get a message posted as the 1000th response?

Williamson and Gibbs have presided over failure and incompetency since March

I think saying the incompetence started in March is pretty generous. Don’t you remember changing the pass grades for the new GCSEs 5 weeks before the first lot were due to sit it, to pluck one example out of the air?

I was restricting myself to the covid mismanagement but I agree with you @noblegiraffe the last minute what is a good pass at 9-1 decision is another very good example that the idiots do not know what they are doing. It was almost as though the new GCSEs were a surprise and that they had forgotten that we (the teachers) had spent two years delivering a new syllabus to students.

'The Inset plan is ham-fisted, tone deaf and demeaning'

The DfE hit a squalid new low by announcing that it would give staff a break with an Inset day, says Geoff Barton

Mumsnet had to actually post on a thread I was on validating my non-paid-poster status.

A particularly dim mumsnetter still kept banging on about me being a paid poster. I think it was about not thinking Jeremy Corbyn was much cop.

Where I worked, we even paid consultants to write reports on key stakeholders, basically a private investigator to 'put a file together' on anyone who is not on the same page as the company... Illegal now due to GDPR , but I think it atoll goes on...

STILL goes on... That should have been.
Corporate espionage is a thing. It comes in all forms, shapes and sizes.

@noblegiraffe

Do not even bother with the MP, go straight through to Gavin Williamson Secretary instead and bombard her with your issues, that is what I did, and she was very nice.

Contact details would be appreciated.

You are only allowed to email MPs if you are in their constituency so ways to circumvent that would be good.

I don't know if anybody's tried this:

members.parliament.uk/member/4108/contact

At the bottom of the page there's a DfE phone number and a contact form for Gavin Williamson.

The other option is to contact your MP and ask them to pass on your concerns and questions to the relevant minister - make it very clear this is what you are asking your MP to do, especially if you have already written and got an unsympathetic boiler-plate response from the MP themself. Your MP should contact the minister on your behalf, even if they don't agree with you, although you can ask them to add their support if they agree. You should get a response from DfE via your MP. You can also ask your MP to chase up if you don't get a response.

I've asked my MP to pass my concerns onto Gav and Nick and never had a response from the DfE so that's interesting.

Ah, I thought you would probably have already tried that. It would be worth chasing it up though.

It might also be worth contacting your local councillors and relevant members of your council's cabinet. Maybe also submitting questions to, and (remotely) attending relevant committee meetings.

A few LAs are now acting in defiance of DfE and if they can do it over school closures then they can do it over school safety measures more generally, including putting pressure on central government to provide the necessary funds.

I'm not entirely sure what jurisdiction councils have over academies. I thought we reported directly to the DfE.

@MrsMiaWallis

Mumsnet had to actually post on a thread I was on validating my non-paid-poster status.

A particularly dim mumsnetter still kept banging on about me being a paid poster. I think it was about not thinking Jeremy Corbyn was much cop.

And how exactly could MNHQ verify that? Just because you've had an account for X years? Politrolling/astroturfing began on MN at least 11, 12, maybe more years ago but anything would have passed me by in the baby years

@noblegiraffe

I'm not entirely sure what jurisdiction councils have over academies. I thought we reported directly to the DfE.

As far as I'm aware LAs have no direct jurisdiction over academies in terms of education but their public health remit covers everything that happens in the borough. E.g. in 'normal' times the LA can shut down food outlets that are the source of food poisoning outbreaks and they can intervene at any premises that are an epicenter for infectious disease.

This is a public health issue. If an academy does not have effective measures in place to contain covid then that affects everybody in the borough, whether they have a direct connection to the school or not. We know that schools in general are driving community spread and LAs have a public health duty to everyone in the borough, including those studying or working in academies.

I'm not saying this will definitely be successful but it's another legitimate way of raising the issues and pushing for change in schools more generally. Sometimes a 'bottom-up' approach can be more successful, especially if all you're getting back from central government is a load of slogans.

Probably you'll be frequently fobbed off with, 'Academies? Nothing to do with us!' So you might need to frequently reiterate, 'Public health! Everything to do with you!'

Worth a try?