Tag Archives: account

Twitter turns strange over journalist’s suspension. Guilty conscience? #StopTheLeftPurge

Remember this? You should, as it is only 11 days old at the time of writing. Now, it seems Twitter has to answer once again for its bizarre behaviour towards left-wing users.

Those of you who use Twitter may have noticed that This Writer’s personal account – @MidWalesMike – disappeared between Saturday morning (December 12) and today, December 17.

I received no explanation for the suspension.

Reason suggests it may have happened because of an article I wrote on December 11, regarding the court hearing in which Rachel Riley’s lawyers (she was nowhere to be seen) tried to strike out my defence against her libel claim.

The judge reserved her judgment, meaning she would provide it in written form at a later date. I was then able to write a story providing details of the legal submissions and the evidence on which they were based.

It seems possible to me that this upset some people. Riley’s strategy has always seemed to be about preventing the case from being discussed in court, using a series of legal applications in a bid to drain me of funds.

This has been unsuccessful because thousands of people have supported my CrowdJustice appeal for funds – and have continued to do so. The total raised so far stands at nearly £105,000.

So it seems the plan changed, and her lawyers were given carte blanche to try to have my defence struck out.

But this meant a court hearing would be necessary and the nature of the evidence would have to be discussed.

Perhaps they were gambling on a swift decision that would render my evidence useless? If so, they were disappointed. As judgment was deferred, I published my article on the evening of December 11.

I awoke the following morning to discover messages from a number of Twitter friends, raising the alarm that my account had been suspended.

On discovery that this was true, I emailed Twitter Support, asking the obvious questions: why had my account been suspended? Why had I not been notified? Why had I not been given the right of appeal? I later received a response saying that the suspension would be reviewed. I have received no further communications on this line of inquiry.

I also wrote to Twitter boss Jack Dorsey ([email protected]) and UK CEO Dara Nasr ([email protected]), submitting a Subject Access Request.

This yielded results – yesterday (December 16), after I sent a polite but impatient reminder.

I was asked to provide details of exactly what I wanted, along with proof of my identity.

So, with help from a friend who has experience in such matters, I responded as follows:

I require all and any information relating to the decision to suspend my Twitter account … to include but not restricted to:

Any e mails in which I am mentioned both internal and external to Twitter.

Transcripts or notes of phone calls in which I am mentioned both internal and external to Twitter.

Memos in which I am mentioned both internal and external to Twitter.

Notes of meeting in which I am mentioned both internal and external to Twitter.

Where automated decisions were made about the account on that date, I require full details of the automated decision making process.

Please note that if any of the information requested above includes reference to a third party or parties, you may redact the third party information and make that information available to me. You should not use the fact that the information contains third party information as a reason to refuse to supply me with that information.

Please note that you must comply with this Subject Access Request without undue delay and at the latest within one month of receiving the request.

I include this information for any readers who may find themselves in the same position in the future.

However, I hope that anybody else trying it does not receive the subsequent response.

I had been given a link via which I was to send this information – but when I tried, an on-screen message appeared, stating “Invalid or archived case”.

For clarity: a Subject Access Request cannot be closed offhand by the recipient. They have a legal duty to respond within the time limit specified. I have written to Twitter Support, reminding the organisation of this fact.

While I await the response, I find myself wondering why Twitter is being so evasive.

Was the reason for suspending my account insubstantial? Was any complaint made using false information? Did the social media platform fail to carry out simple checks to see if any complaint was accurate? Are Twitter’s bosses concerned that this could be embarrassing for them?

Remember: I am neither the first nor last left-wing writer to have had an account suspended recently. The phenomenon has led to a hashtag: #StopTheLeftPurge.

It would be extremely harmful to Twitter if evidence showed that the site has shown political bias by suspending or deleting accounts on political grounds – or on the basis of false complaints by others acting for political reasons.

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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MORE coronavirus propaganda: hundreds of fake NHS social media accounts set up – by Health Dept

Something smelling fishy? Matt Hancock’s government department seems to have hijacked images of NHS staff to create fake accounts that push lies and propaganda.

How much of this are you going to accept before demanding an end to the deceptions?

Now it seems the Department of Health has created hundreds of fake Twitter accounts, claiming to belong to NHS staff, in order to broadcast support for the government.

If true, this is pure propaganda; your government lying to you about the views of NHS staff.

The scam was cracked by John O’Connell on Twitter:

.@WestHertsNHS

Can you confirm that '@nhs_susan' here is a creation of the DHSC Communications Team, and not in fact, one of your hardworking staff at the Starfish Ward ?

Can you ask your staff member what she thinks of her image being used for automated #Tories Propaganda ? pic.twitter.com/ZKGeo2uqml

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 17, 2020

While the fake account didn’t seem particularly clear on its facts…

The fake account thinks that Johnson's published words are "conjecture" and "speculation". pic.twitter.com/HjmCbcXa1Q

— Steve Peers (@StevePeers) April 18, 2020

… we discovered that the real ‘NHS Susan’ is a nurse from Greece:

It appears that @nhs_susan – one of many fake NHS staff accounts uncovered by @jdpoc & seemingly set up at the govt's behest – used the photo of Mia Magklavani, a paediatrics staff nurse from Greece.

Staggering but very familiar dishonesty & manipulation.https://t.co/noLmtdH2vw pic.twitter.com/VGhtPOME5j

— Tom Scott (@Tom___Scott) April 20, 2020

It seems Mr O’Connell then discovered a further 127 fake NHS staff accounts. Here’s his Twitter thread about his findings:

The one person has been identified.

Despite the @DHSCgovuk reply to my queries of 'no comment' (and that's all she wrote), that person is a contracted Government employee temporarily assigned to this department.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

.@DHSCgovuk are adopting a corporate 'head in the sand' 'fingers in the ears' approach to this matter, hoping it will be swept aside by ongoing news stories of a more serious nature.

After all, who cares about industrial scale misinformation in the face of so many deaths? pic.twitter.com/TBHJQcpDJy

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

Addendum :

I quoted "28 fake #NHS Staff accounts" for clarity.

In actuality, there are 128 confirmed, 9 probables and 14 possibles, and amongst those, there are 16 which do not claim an #NHS connection.

43 accounts use actual photos of actual NHS staff.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

Addendum : (again, sorry)

The accounts have now mostly gone, not suspended by Twitter but deleted by the account holder(s) in one simultaneous mass cull a few days ago … At the click of a button.

Which itself, goes to prove the singular control of all the accounts.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

Further Addemdum:

When we state 'DHSC', to clarify, this is either directly, or indirectly via a ''Marketing Agency'' set up a few months ago with one client (guess who) and three staff (all ex DHSC). A poor attempt at deniability.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

Additional :

DHSC and various NHS Trusts seem to show no interest in the welfare of the genuine staff members who's identities have been lifted and used for Government Propaganda.

Surely 'Duty of Care' comes into it?

No interest in the data when I offered.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

A reminder ; DHSC were fairly offered an opportunity by me, via email and telecon, to address these issues. A chance to 'get ahead' of the story. I was duty bound to offer that to them.

It was dismissed out of hand.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

ADDED : I have since asked DHSC for further comment. No reply as yet.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

Further …

This is not new. The methods, the technology, the tools, all used before by the various #Brexit Campaigns.

What's different here is the scale, and almost certain Government Department involvement, either officially or 'under the radar'.

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

Cont …

In addition, I recall well how the whistleblower for the Cambridge Analytica scandal was crucified, publicly. I seek to avoid that, as you can imagine.

We, as a team, need to do more work and take legal advice. We do this in our spare time (we all have jobs, mostly)

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020

The Department of Health and Social Care has responded robustly…

These claims are categorically false.

To share disinformation of this kind undermines the national effort against coronavirus.

Before anyone shares unsubstantiated claims online, use the SHARE checklist to help stop the spread of harmful content:
➡️https://t.co/rdfG1BuY7Q pic.twitter.com/Ydlx2qyKkB

— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 20, 2020

… but unconvincingly. Remember that the Tories changed their own publicity account’s name to “FactCheckUK” during last year’s election campaign, dishonestly impersonating a genuine fact-checking service to lie about the Labour party.

And why would anybody use a government website to check whether content is harmful, when it’s the government that is accused of creating it?

The danger is that the Tory government is undermining trust in the institutions we need to be able to trust. It is deadly dangerous – but the Tories are playing the fool.

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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‘Unacceptable’ that Johnson is avoiding scrutiny by fellow MPs

Hair-raising: After cancelling three appearances before the Commons liaison committee, it would seem reasonable to suggest that Mr Johnson is ‘frit’.

A senior MP has described Boris Johnson’s behaviour as “unacceptable” after he sidestepped a meeting to scrutinise his actions as prime minister – for a third time.

In a handwritten note to Commons liaison committee chair Sarah Wollaston, Mr Johnson said he needed to concentrate on delivering Brexit – which is one of the issues on which he was set to be grilled.

In her reply, Dr Wollaston said: “You are refusing to face detailed scrutiny from select committee chairs tomorrow morning.

“This is the third time that you have postponed or cancelled.”

She added: “Our role as select committee chairs is to ask you detailed questions on behalf of the public and we planned to do so on Brexit, climate change, health and social care. It is unacceptable that you are refusing to be held to account.”

This is more in the ongoing saga of Dictator Johnson, who believes he can do anything he wants without the slightest responsibility to anybody else.

Scrutiny committees have little power, and it would be impossible to unseat BoJob as a result of anything said there.

But a hearing that exposed his blundering could be a public relations disaster.

With an election looming, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that he doesn’t want to be shown up as the utter dunderhead he is.

Source: Johnson accused of avoiding scrutiny after postponing committee appearance – BBC News

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

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If so many people are defecting from Labour because of Jeremy Corbyn, why manufacture FALSE examples?

Jeremy Corbyn: He’d be right to appear dumbfounded at the proliferation of fake identities and Twitter accounts dedicated to undermining his standing among supporters.

Read this:

“I might have remained “soft” Labour but for the perfect storm of Jeremy Corbyn and Brexit. The latter is quite simply anathema to me, not just because I’m the granddaughter of immigrants, but because I believe so strongly in freedom of movement, and that the evidence backs up the overwhelming truth that we are better off in the EU than we can possibly be out of it.

“The Momentum-propelled adulation of Jeremy Corbyn left me cold. I was also increasingly uneasy about the accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, and for the first time in my voting life I started to feel politically homeless.

“There has been a steady drumbeat from disgruntled Labour supporters looking to the Lib Dems over the past fortnight. A Lexit, you might call it, but not quite the one Jeremy Corbyn envisaged.

“Perhaps he should have listened to some of the 700,000 voices on the People’s Vote and Final Say March in October. I was one of them, protesting with the Lib Dems; I joined the party in August after a lifetime of supporting Labour.”

These were the words of Liz Jarvis in The Independent – and perhaps you think she was simply reflecting the feeling of the many Labour members and supporters we are being told are deserting the party because of Jeremy Corbyn’s opaque attitude toward Brexit.

But there’s a problem with the narrative:

Did you know that @LizJarvisUK – who has written this article attacking Jeremy Corbyn – used to work for Rupert Murdoch? She fails to mention this, as she declares her love for the Lib Dems, a party complicit in Tory cuts, Bedroom Tax and homelessness

https://t.co/vnOumqpUf7

— Socialist Voice (@SocialistVoice) January 3, 2019

That’s right – she’s a fake. Tom Pride exposes the facts of the matter on his website, Pride’s Purge. He explores the background of Ms Jarvis:

“Surely not the same Liz Jarvis – editor of extremely posh luxury cruise travel magazine Cruise International?

“Surely not the same Liz Jarvis, editor at Chelsea Publishers – publisher of exclusive lifestyle magazines for sloany posh types?

“Surely not the same Liz Jarvis who was once Rupert Murdoch’s Travel Editor at News International?

“Surely not the same Liz Jarvis one-time Express and Sun hack?”

Boom… pic.twitter.com/zSVJmHht8f

— Bevan Boy (@mac123_m) January 3, 2019

Busted!

It seems Ms Jarvis’s intentions may be considered… doubtful – to say the least.

Her left-wing credentials seem undermined by her employment history and the political loyalties implied by it.

If Mr Corbyn’s attitudes are so off-putting, why couldn’t The Independent find somebody with a less questionable history to explain that?

Come to that…

https://twitter.com/David75741853/status/1080891694768443393

The appearance of such Twitter accounts – all professing a particular political viewpoint but all lacking followers – is a clear sign that they are fake.

Either they are bots – artificial – or they are run by paid employees of (in this case) Mr Corbyn’s political opponents – not necessarily Conservatives – and dedicated to undermining support for him.

I say again:

If support for Mr Corbyn is draining away because of his attitude to Brexit, why are such filthy, underhand, deceitful and disgusting tactics deemed necessary?

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Malicious cloning of Corbyn-supporting Labour members’ Twitter accounts – have YOU been targeted?

We should all be grateful to Evolve Politics for spotting the latest wheeze in the ‘Get Corbyn’ campaign of lies.

It seems certain persons, with malice aforethought, have decided to clone Jeremy Corbyn-supporting Labour Party members’ Twitter accounts with a simple substitution.

They are swapping the lower-case letter “L” in victims’ Twitter handles for an upper-case “I”, and using the new, fake account to spread abuse.

Obviously the intention is to screenshot this abuse and then use it to make fake accusations against the victim – to “frame” them, to use an old expression.

If you are likely to be affected (if you have an “L” in your Twitter handle), I would suggest the best thing to do is check that your account hasn’t already been cloned, and then create a clone yourself. That way, nobody else can do it and you control the cloned account.

Here are the Evolve Tweets that explain:

Evolve have had reports indicating that Corbyn-supporting Labour members are having their Twitter accounts cloned in order to grab screenshots of abuse.

If you have a lower-case 'l' (L) in your Twitter handle, the cloners are replacing the "l" with an upper case "i".

Please RT pic.twitter.com/BYeJ49HFTa

— Evolve Politics (@evolvepolitics) August 27, 2018

We have created the accounts in the accompanying screenshot to show how easy this cloning method is – they are all working accounts that are essentially indistinguishable from our real one.

— Evolve Politics (@evolvepolitics) August 27, 2018

https://twitter.com/evolvepolitics/status/

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Government to give millions from dormant bank accounts to homelessness schemes – WHOSE accounts?

A homeless person sleeping rough in a doorway, as homeless people in Britain now outnumber the population of Newcastle, a leading housing charity has said [Image: PA].

This Writer has a savings account that hasn’t been touched for at least 15 years, I feel sure. I haven’t had any money to deposit in it!

That doesn’t mean I don’t want it.

I wonder how the Conservative Government will gauge whether the owners of accounts cannot be traced.

Will they ask the DWP to supply its letter-delivering services to the financial institutions tasked with tracing us? If so, it seems likely the letters will not arrive until weeks after the contents of our accounts have been seized.

And will any high-value bank accounts be among those seized? Or will their owners – or their next-of-kin – be on Conservative Party members’ speed-dials?

This just seems like a cash grab from the poor – disguised as a good deed. I would like to support it but the Tories cannot be trusted to do anything other than betray the British people.

Hundreds of millions of pounds will be seized from dormant bank accounts and used to tackle homelessness and help disadvantaged young people, a Government minister has said.

Up to £330m will be made available from bank and building society accounts across the country that have remained untouched for at least 15 years and where the holder cannot be traced by a financial institution.

Tracey Crouch, the minister for sport and civil society, said that housing initiatives aimed at homeless and vulnerable people, social enterprises and local charities will receive around £135m across England over the course of the next four years.

In the latest allocation, a further £90m will be used to help disadvantaged young people into jobs, and £55m is to go on “financial inclusion initiatives” such as tackling problem debt.

Up to £50m will also be distributed by the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Source: Government to give millions from dormant bank accounts to homelessness schemes | The Independent

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DWP advisor reckons there’s a job for everyone – even if you’re 64 and disabled

[Image: Black Triangle Campaign]

This is exactly what Debbie Abrahams was talking about when she said the “healthcare professionals” who conduct benefit assessments must be held to account.

Here’s a lady who is five months away from retirement age and disabled. Whoever carried out her work capability assessment has messed it up, by all appearances, and the DWP has compounded the crime by giving her a load of waffle that it’s not worth appealing.

Of course it’s worth appealing – even such a short time away from retirement – because every successful appeal is more proof that the Tories’ genocidal hate campaign against the sick and disabled must end.

A claim that it “wasn’t worth” appealing is an attempt to stave off that eventuality, because DWP officers know they’re doing wrong.

They’ll all say they were “only following orders” – the Nuremberg defence – when push comes to shove. It will have been their bosses’ responsibility – except of course that responsibility for actually pushing someone off-benefit and into financial trouble lies with the person who made the decision, so that doesn’t work.

But push won’t come to shove with no evidence that it needs to – and that’s why this lady needs to appeal.

I then spoke to a 64 year old lady who was clutching hold of her large empty shopping trolley that she was carrying. She told me that she had failed her ESA medical and also had been told that it wasn’t worth her time appealing. I told her that it is always worth appealing.

She then went on to tell me that her advisor had told her that she had to sign on daily. Yes daily. She’s 64 and disabled.

What sort of job are they expecting her to find? Her advisor told her that there is a job for everyone.

Well I disagree with that. No there isn’t.

She will receive her pension in February. I informed her of her right to appeal, of why she should appeal and that she should do this as soon as possible.

Let’s look at this realistically, no one would employ her and why should she have to find work. Shes disabled and should, if the law hadn’t been changed, be claiming her pension already.

Source: Stressed. 64 year old lady told to sign on every day. A rotten morning. – The poor side of life

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Labour conference: Benefit assessment nurses must be held to account, says Abrahams | Disability News Service

Sure, Jeremy Corbyn was the star of the Labour Party Conference, but if you’re long-term sick and/or disabled, you would have wanted to hear what Debbie Abrahams had to say.

And it was worth hearing:

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary has called for nurses and other healthcare professionals who write misleading benefit assessment reports to be “held to account”.

Debbie Abrahams said there had been “too many times” when healthcare professionals had written reports that did not “marry” with the evidence they had been given by disabled benefit claimants and what they had been told by those claimants during face-to-face assessments.

Abrahams (pictured, second from right), who was speaking at a fringe event organised by the Fabian Society and the disability charity Scope at Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, said: “Assessments are conducted by clinical professionals.

“We must be holding these clinical professionals to account.”

She said she had heard of “dozens and dozens” of cases, both in her national role and as a constituency MP, of assessment reports “not marrying at all with the detail in the assessment, the medical records that were supplied and so on”.

She told the meeting: “This cannot be allowed.”

Source: Labour conference: Benefit assessment nurses must be held to account, says Abrahams

Abstaining Labour MPs are independently singing from the same song sheet – written by a rat?

Harriet Harman seems to have caused confusion by mixing Labour’s lack of opposition for the Welfare Reform and Work Bill with the party leadership’s reaction to the proposed cut in tax credits.

A Labour MP named Helen Hayes contacted This Writer on Twitter after the disastrous vote on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, asking me to read a blog article explaining her reasons for abstaining after our party’s “reasoned amendment” failed.

According to this piece, it seems she found reason to support certain parts of the Bill, namely the provision of three million new apprenticeships, support for troubled families and reduced rents for council tenants.

She opposed the abolition of child poverty targets, the reduction of Employment and Support Allowance, and the shrinking of the benefit cap in London.

She voted for the Labour leadership’s “reasoned amendment”, in which changes to the Bill were proposed alongside reasons for it. When this failed, she said she abstained because she wanted the elements she supported to be enacted.

She went on to point out that the Bill will not become law until it has been discussed, line by line, in the Committee Stage, sent to the House of Lords for detailed consideration there, and returned to the Commons for its Third Reading.

Finally, she pointed out that the Bill does not include the proposed cuts to tax credits, which are to be implemented in the autumn via a Statutory Instrument which Labour vehemently opposes.

It is impossible for This Writer to agree with Ms Hayes.

Yes – new appenticeships, support for troubled families and reduced council rents are potentially good moves. But the other elements of the Bill are disastrous for the people the affect.

If the Labour leadership had wanted to adopt a principled position, it would have required them to say that the offer is tempting, but the price is too high – and to reject the Bill, as it is, in its entirety.

Ms Hayes suggests, “It would be much harder to hold the government to account for delivering high quality apprenticeships and an effective troubled families programme, if I had voted against the principle of these proposals”.

Yes indeed – but it will now be much harder to stop the government from abolishing child poverty targets, cutting ESA and reducing the benefit cap – across the who of the UK – now that most of the Labour Party allowed those thing to continue along the legislative process unopposed.

Furthermore, This Writer would have been more impressed by Ms Hayes’ article if I had not read almost exactly the same sentiments in words by fellow Labour MPs Andrew Gwynne and Peter Kyle.*

Both of these gentlemen mentioned the elements that Labour supported and rejected, the stages through which the Bill had to progress, Labour’s “reasoned amendment” and further amendments to be made later, and the fact that tax credits are not part of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill.

The elements were arranged in different ways, and each article was clearly written by each individual MP, but it seems clear that they were all working from the same starting point.

Oh look – Karin Smyth, the new Labour MP for Bristol South (This Writer’s original home constituency) has written a piece that is, again, startlingly similar.

Is it paranoia or healthy scepticism that prompts This Writer to suggest that someone in the current Labour leadership has issued a bullet-point list or factsheet to all abstaining MPs, showing them how to defend their indefensible position and claim that they came to this decision by themselves? You decide.

Or perhaps the author of such a document would like to step forward and admit the attempted deception?

*Apologies to the kittysjones blog for using it to highlight this; the articles by these two were the very first blog pieces I read after Helen Hayes’ article, and the similarities were too pronounced to ignore.

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Tory Education Secretary is right: She should be held responsible for the mess in our schools

Nicky Morgan: Under-achieving Education Secretary.

Conservative Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has rejected calls for an independent body to make decisions about the school curriculum, saying parents should be able to hold politicians to account for their decisions.

What a generous statement! This is possibly the modern-day equivalent of stretching one’s neck out over the executioner’s block.

It is heartening that she is prepared to let the Conservative Party take the blame for its ‘Free Schools’ pet project, which has been rocked by successive failures including that of its flagship, the Discovery School – declared inadequate by Ofsted and shut down. The Observer revealed that former Education Secretary Michael Gove wanted to hush up further damaging revelations by ensuring that problems were tackled before Ofsted could publicise them.

Free Schools have taken billions of pounds of public money and given nothing back – certainly not an education. Academy schools – publicly-funded companies set up by central government and answering to central government and not to the local education authority or even parents – have also overspent by more than a billion pounds.

In 2013, the “ring-fenced” education budget was cut by 5.7 per cent in real terms. The remaining funds were divided up, with non-academy schools receiving a cut of 4.31 per cent, infrastructure spending was cut by 81 per cent, and academy schools received a funding increase of no less than 191 per cent.

As Kerry-Anne Mendoza put it in Austerity – The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy: “The state sector is being starved of funds, while the academy sector enjoys a glut of funding, which it spends inefficiently and opaquely.”

It is also heartening that Nicky Morgan is prepared to take the flak for Tory attempts to curtail the teaching of science in our classrooms – notable in Mr Gove’s attempts to halt the study of climate change; he wanted to deny it exists.

This writer is glad that the Tories are willing to take the rap for trying to reduce World War One into a display of “patriotism, honour and courage” while deriding examples of popular culture like Oh, What a Lovely War! and Blackadder Goes Forth. Gove claimed that the war was a “noble cause” and a “just” conflict against the “social Darwinism” of the Germans, while Blackadder portrayed it as “a misbegotten shambles – a series of catastrophic mistakes perpetrated by an out-of-touch elite. Even to this day there are Left-wing academics all too happy to feed those myths.”

It is, frankly, terrifying that a man with such ludicrous and – in context – dangerous views has held the position of Secretary of State for Education.

Do you remember Kate Nash on the BBC’s This Week, ripping into Gove’s attitude that learning-by-rote is better than understanding and creativity? She said: “There are certain things we need to be addressing, that are being completely missed – and that’s to do with education being inspiring and interesting for young people, rather than just about purely passing tests and pressure.”

Television historian Simon Schama has described Gove’s curriculum as “insulting and offensive”. He told an audience at the Hay Festival, “This is a document written by people who have never sat and taught 12-year-olds in a classroom.”

There are many more examples of Tory education ineptitude, but let’s finish this with a poem – ‘Dear Mr Gove’ by Jess Green, from only a little less than a year ago. At the time Vox Political first publicised this video, I wrote: “If enough parents saw, and listened, and thought about what this poem says – about their own lives and the lives their children can expect thanks to the worst-ever British government, perhaps it might persuade them to think again before putting their cross next to the Conservative candidate at the next few elections.

“It isn’t rocket science.”

Oh, and if you’re wondering why this article hasn’t mentioned any of Nicky Morgan’s achievements as Education Secretary, the reason is that she simply hasn’t had any.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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