Educational McCarthyism
Beware, Red Ed Under The Bed…
The strange, embarrassing story of Dame Alison Peacock, The Chartered College of Teaching and the apology that wasn’t about the excellent television broadcast that was.
Have you ever wondered who funds UK government education policy?
It’s a complex network of opaque think tanks and hedge-fund sponsored trusts and foundations with a vested interest in free-market economics and the privatisation of public education that places the commons, that which the public should rightly own, into the hands of private capital.
Amongst these think tanks is, according to leading transparency organisation Transparify, the most opaque of them all — Policy Exchange
So imagine my surprise at the sheer chutzpah and brass neck of former Policy Exchange mandarin and now TeachFirst executive, Sam Freedman, for calling out television broadcaster Russia Today (RT) on its apparent lack of transparency and the suggestion that it is a propaganda machine for Putin.
This is an evidence-free claim of course because Freedman has, like evidence for the efficacy of TeachFirst, nothing to back it up. Even the New York Times investigation threw up a blank.
That said it wouldn’t surprise me if RT had a bit of Kremlin money in it. After all this is how the media works. Do we really think that the BBC, Al Jazeera, the Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, Evening Standard, CNN, The Metro, Fox News, etc don’t operate in a similar way in the interest of some biased benefactor?
Even media plays like Pokemon Go have CIA money in them so it’s fair to imagine that all kinds of skullduggery goes on in the mainstream media especially those of national broadcasters.
The EduTwitter nasty party got it’s knickers in a twist because of a critically acclaimed television programme produced by the award winning production company Renegade Inc had been syndicated to RT.
Yes, that’s right. A small but journalistically independent television production house and film maker had the audacity to make a living by accepting money from RT so that RT could have first dabs at broadcasting its acclaimed television series.
Well, blow me.
The television programme in question featured Dame Alison Peacock, CEO of the Chartered College of Teaching in conversation with yours truly hosted by, the very much non-Kremlin stooge, Ross Ashcroft. Yes, the same Ross Ashcroft famous for the award winning documentary, The Four Horsemen, that he and his colleagues funded via kickstarter.
Presumably kickstarter is another crafty Kremlin money laundering vehicle to fund documentaries that suggest that the neoliberal experts running our economy into the ground might have just messed up.
It was all my fault, naturally.
Earlier in the summer I had leaked details of how the British government via the Department for Education (DfE) had laundered £75 million of tax payers money into the hands of their friends, sycophants and policy supporters. This leak I might add didn’t come from Wikileaks or the Kremlin but a close and disgruntled associate of Nick Gibb, UK secretary of state for schools.
Despite the mainstream media, including The Guardian and the TES, trying to keep this out of the news only one education paper reluctantly picked up the story and even then somewhat late.
When I was invited by Renegade Inc to participate in their talk show to discuss this misappropriation of tax payers money as well as how our schools are preparing children for an uncertain future I suggested Dame Alison Peacock as a co-panellist. Given that the £75 million fund had been announced by UK education secretary Justine Greening at the launch of the Chartered College it seemed odd to me that it had been overlooked in the divvying out of funds.
I hadn’t met Dame Peacock prior to the recording but knew her by reputation and supported her and the College’s aim of improving teacher quality in a non-political environment for the better preparation of present and future generations.
We got on very well and the recording went splendidly — we even exchanged email right after as we had both enjoyed ourselves and both had plans to attend the theatre although not together. Perhaps tellingly I was attending the opening evening of Young Marx at the Bridge Theatre. Dame Peacock, I believe, was attending some musical theatre in the West End. Dame Peacock’s email said that the recording was great fun and that she looked forward to meeting up to discuss future collaboration.
I was working in SE Asia on a speaking tour and meeting with delegations from the British High Commission, British Council and others when the programme aired on RT. After watching the programme I immediately pinged the link over to Dame Peacock saying “Didn’t we do well?” to which she replied positively and again looked forward to meeting up on my return.
A matter of hours later, Kate Hodge, head of content (or perhaps that should be discontent) at the Chartered College posted a statement that lied about the college being unaware that the Renegade programme would air on RT via syndication. She stated that had the college have known they wouldn’t have participated.
But Dame Peacock knew that the programme would be aired on RT given that the host Ross Ashcroft briefed us both prior to recording because we asked about broadcast dates. We also knew that it would be aired on other channels including Renegade’s own channels because that’s how syndication works within the 21st century media landscape.
Timezone and work commitments permitting I entered into lengthy correspondence with Dame Peacock and her colleagues who, to be fair, seemed genuinely concerned that they had suggested that Dame Peacock had been lured or deceived onto the show. Concerned enough to amend their statement to clarify that they weren’t misled and that they were happy with the programme but not concerned enough to withdraw their statement, admit their mistake, and issue an apology.
I remain baffled by this behaviour — the programme is of the same high standard that all of Renegade’s programming is. Dame Peacock and the College come out very well and even to the end I summarise by saying that we should applaud her work and support the college.
What kind of Kremlin propaganda can this be?
Is it bluff and double bluff, spy vs spy?
You see what I think happened was that Dame Peacock and Kate Hodge panicked when they got some push back from the EduTwitter nasty party. Dame Peacock is a trustee of TeachFirst and had asked me not to mention TeachFirst in the discussion. I said I wouldn’t and I was true to my word. I did mention a teacher training agency that would allow graduates to enter a classroom after just six weeks training as evidence that the teaching profession was being de-skilled. It was Dame Peacock who then tried to defend TeachFirst — she didn’t need to, especially when it’s indefensible.
But no doubt this is what stirred the loins of TeachFirst’s Sam Freedman and the rest of the EduTwitter nasty party that made the Chartered College, with whom they are opposed, to issue such a ridiculous statement followed by a mealy-mouthed non-apology.
I wonder which media outlets the hapless Kate Hodge will allow Dame Peacock to participate in the future. The Chartered College needs friends and supporters and yet it’s doing its absolute best to dismiss them.
You can see the whole programme here and then make up your own mind. If you think it is Kremlin propaganda let me know and I’ll post a picture of myself bare-chested, riding a horse and dragging a dead stag behind me.
A statement by Renegade Inc can be read here:
And for your amusement, political comedian Lee Camp explains how ridiculous this all is — enjoy!
