Gove gets worse

[Blissx]

Came across this article:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24653574

I am rendered speechless....

[straggle]

But in Warwick's report he mentions Snarebrook school and it sounds like parent power - backed by the Tory council - may have prevailed. I am so glad I have heard some good news about democracy today...

www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/10/snaresbrook-success-for-the-parents-for-the-local-authority/

[BoffinMum]

Great saving that. The salaries of two civil servants (presumably to pay for a couple of frothing SPADs in their place).

Have no teachers sued re: asbestosis?

[straggle]

Here's the latest from Warwick Mansell:

www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/28/dfe-plans-to-cut-asbestos-group

So, they resort to poisoning the 'enemies of promise' now? Coud we do something along the lines of arsenic in Gove's wallpaper or whatever it was Napoleon died of?

[lalsy]

Great, sorted, what next? World peace by the end of the day?

[BoffinMum]

Blissx has the answer, I think. It's ripe for the cover of the Sunday Sport.

[BoffinMum]

I think there's a queue for Warwick, but I believe he is spoken for, with offspring.

[pointyfangs]

After pondering the merits of taking one for the team and instigating a sex scandal involving Michael Gove and applying copious amounts of bleach to my brain, I have decided I'd rather shag Warwick Mansell instead. Not helpful, I know. Sorry.

[Blissx]

How about, "being caught in the DofE stationery cupboard doing unspeakable things to Pob, shocker" (the puppet I swear was Gove in a past life!)

[lalsy]

Boffin, I think no-one would believe us.......racism would still bring a politician down I reckon, but far too ugly to mess with.

We'll just have to use force of argument and rational thinking (weeps).

[BoffinMum]

Laisy, perhaps one of us should say he called us plebs?

Or surely there is someone on MN who can find some proper dirt in a long forgotten file? Expenses scandal? (Oh yes, that actually happened, he did the taxpayer for £7000 and had to pay it back). Taking backhanders from a media magnate? (Well, apparently there are all those lunches with Murdoch we see him photographed at, and apparently he was on his payroll whilst being an MP).

[BoffinMum]

That link is funny. I think I may have to change my sexual predilections if you are expecting me to do him though. Someone else will have to step up to the mark, as it were.

[ravenAnyKucker]

We did this, didn't we? There was definitely a thread where a brave MNer prepared to take one for the team, & y'know, try to stop him fucking all of us. As it were.

[ipadquietly]

boke [urgh] ....sex scandal with Gove.

[lalsy]

Before anyone makes the ultimate sacrifice, I don't think a sex scandal will finish off politicians nowadays. Have not plucked up courage to click on that link.

[straggle]

Take a look at his 'sex face' (number 6):

www.thepoke.co.uk/2013/10/25/7-signs-you-might-be-michael-gove/

[Argolis]

I think I'm going to be sick.

[Talkinpeace]

well since you thought of it and offered

[BoffinMum]

You realise one of us is going to have to take a fall for the team and shag the ugly bastard, don't you? Or else he'll stay in post and keep giving the education budget away to his mates Volunteers form an orderly queue around the back of the Garrick Club, if you please.

[BoffinMum]

Warwick really, really does his job properly. He's worth paying attention to, especially in relation to exam and assessment stories.

[straggle]

I don't think the BBC breaks many stories any more. The exception seemed to be the Kings Science Academy story on Newsnight.

The other thing is that so many stories about schools are reported locally but not nationally unless there is some sort of run of similar stories - Pimlico Academy + Al-Madinah + Kings Science Academy - and a politician makes some comment about it. They're rarely joined up though - it's a sort of divide and rule tactic. The root cause of the problem is never properly debated, and instead it turns very personal - 'ooh look, a Muslim/woman who can't manage a school properly!'

[lalsy]

Hear hear. And I rate WM too. He has a clear angle politically - but he digs deep, does his research and backs up his assertions.

We should all respond to the BBC News consultation by asking them to put links to sources whenever they are publicly available - they often don't, even for stories based on a blog post or academic paper for example. The only reason I can think of is it would show up how little analysis or investigation has gone into the story. That is one reason specialist blogs are so great I think- you get a rich and varied range of sources to boot.

[Talkinpeace]

In the case I was involved with, all of the press coverage was a C&P from the police report - which spelled my name wrong.
A simple check on linkedin would have shown the error
but
newspapers are too busy paying megabucks to "commentators" like la Toynbee
and making all true journalism and investigation be in the hands of unpaid interns
and
I had a hoo hah with one paper because I refused to send them a photo - I'm an accountant FFS, not a model.

discussion forums are better than papers every time

[straggle]

Newspapers are going down the pan - but online news pieces at least have comment threads below. The best reports on the Guardian are by Warwick Mansell but they are tucked away in the Education in Brief section and never on the front page. Instead we get Clegg wringing his hands about whether to send his child to the Oratory or Westminster. When the subjective opinionated handwringing comes from journalists themselves, who live in a middle class bubble, it's unforgivable that they should be paid for unresearched and subjective articles that lack balance.

[lalsy]

straggle, you are not alone.

I have switched to specialist blogs and checking the sources too - it is surprising how many common assumptions are simply not borne out by the facts.

And I then email the BBC with my findings, pointing out that opening a pdf or two would have shown the lies holes in someone's statement - and they reply saying they need to make the subject understandable .

I don't know what the mainstream media is for on issues like education any more. The original sources and huge amounts of data are often publicly available nowadays, so we can check them ourselves. And yet the mainstream media often seem content with swapping set lines from the main players, pointless when the devil is in the detail of a complex policy area.

[straggle]

You are absolutely right. Which is why in the last couple of years instead of taking media reports at face value, I have been looking at specialist blogs, written by people who do know what they are talking about, and looking at original sources. And I don't know whether to despair or get angry.

The thing is, I can't be alone in feelng this. There are often conversations on Mumsnet that are more enlightening than Newsnight interviews. I don't think his strategy fools all the people all of the time.