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Karam Bales Profile picture
@karamballes
Jan 24, 2021 • 24 tweets • 9 min read • Read on X
1/ 🧵Gaslighting🧵 24/1/21

Dail Mail annoyed a lot of people with its teacher bashing today.
Also misrepresents the unions saying we are telling members not to do live lessons, NEU recently set up a hub where people can share best practice and resources.
2/ Seemed like a large part of the article was designed to make out as if many teachers aren't trying to provide quality education in difficult circumstances.

Also noted the picture shows he's using a premade resource, no issue with the resource but feels like he's over selling
3/ NEU Remote Education Hub
neu.org.uk/remote-educati…
4/ Then I saw who was sponsoring the initiative being praised in the Mail. Image
5/ Then someone told me about the man in the article. Image
6/ So I took a look at his Conservative Friends if Education group. This is from an article on Conservative Home in the summer. Image
7/ Little bit culture wars, makes out theirs too many tory hating hard lefties in education and Conservative values are under attack.

Values like misrepresenting the NEU and writing hit pieces on hard working education professionals? Image
8/ Then we get Halfon popping up to quote Jenny Harris that transmission isn't an issue in schools and workers are at no greater risk.

9/ However there are some serious questions that need to be answered regarding the evidence cited in the select committee.

@cyclingkev @MaryBoustedNEU Excellent questions here ImageImage
10/ For a more complete look at issues with the select committee
🧵here
11/ And now we have The Sun, The Times and The Telegraph all running pretty much identical stories.
Same quotes, same debatable facts.

"Increasing pressure from backbenchers and parent groups" You'd think there was a clamour for 30 kids, no masks, no SD in a few weeks. ImageImageImage
12/ Which parents group campaign are Sun, Times and Telegraph backing?

UsForThem, same astroturfing group invited to meet ministers, PM and provide evidence to a Education Select Committee
bylinetimes.com/2021/01/21/par…
13/ Scottish clone is the same
14/ Teaming up with skeptic groups ImageImage
15/ And which backbenchers are calling for quickly getting schools fully open but without suggesting what additional measures are needed to make them safer than our disasterous December
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID_Rec…
16/ And now, due to the amount of media speculation whipped up by his associates, Halfon will now be asking an Urgent Question on when schools go back.
Will they debate additional safety measures, rota etc?
No they will offer a false binary choice.
17/ This is how the political narrative is manipulated, a small hydra like group speaking the same message from many mouths, a narrow group pretending to be a broad cross section, the "will of the people"

Its a tried and tested tactic,does work😔
🧵Ends
18/ Update: Invictus the online initiative from the Mail story, which is basically a Tory Party outfit, is also a private tutoring company, the free lessons appear to be a business promotion.

Example here
invictaacademy.com/11-plus-prepar…
19/ Isn't this a conflict of interest, Tory initiative attacks teachers and unions whilst also promoting a private tutoring company sponsored by the Secretary of State?

The promotion and influence of astroturfing lobbyists with Tory links, lockdown skeptic MPs, smells rotten.
20/ 🧵Update: ONS Occupational Deaths Survey came out, the headline statistic today was "teachers at no greater risk" No mention of support staff as usual.

The headline should be reassuring, but as always the devils in the details.

Details⬇️
21/ However at least the guardian have started looking into UsForThem
amp.theguardian.com/education/2021…
22/ The more people look into UsForThem the more dodgy they look. Clone operations in US, Germany and others.
23/ Times today says only 3% of primary schools had outbreaks, only problem is many outbreaks weren't officially classed as outbreaks.
I know heads that were told after multiple cases was told to stop contacting PHE

See this head and others who replied
24/ So how did the Urgent Question go?
Williamson didn't attend, and it appears there will be no attempt to improve inadequete measures we had in December.

Ignoring transmission in schools means lockdown 4 is a possibility?

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More from @karamballes

Karam Bales Profile picture
Apr 11
🧵Cass Review
Not had a chance to read the whole thing yet, but have had time to look through the main points

What positives can be taken from it? The time spent on waiting lists was identified as a major issue, all children's services are massively underfunded at the moment
2/ I would like to think that this will lead to an investment in all children's support services like CAHMS, more pastoral support in schools etc

That would be a positive outcome, regardless of what else is included in the review, unfortunately real terms cuts are the reality
3/ What matters is how government interprets the review and what it chooses to implement, additional funding for children isn't going to be prioritised over tax cuts to appease RW papers
Imagine if the billions from last round of tax cuts had instead been invested in children
Read 11 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Mar 15
Institutional gaslighting here
This is a helpful read
So is this
Read 7 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Mar 11
Miriam Cates and Ranil Jayawardena's offices were very insistent that speaking at this conference didn't constitute "sharing a platform" or speaking "alongside" the other speakers

Cates' office even threatened legal action if those words were used
Interesting how Tory MPs and RW media consiser going on marches to call for a ceasefire in Gaza will have ppl labeled as being part of a hate march, but speaking at the same conference as multiple ppl named in a EU report on US and Russian dark money shouldnt draw associations Image
In total over $707,000,000 in funding between 2009-2018 was identified by the Tip Of The Iceberg Report published 2021 Image
Read 14 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Mar 3
🧵This article by Camilla Turner is a great example of how antivax talking points are laundered into the mainstream by those trying to claim excess deaths are being caused by vaccines

Group of MPs call for data to be released insinuating there's a cover up Image
2/ They claim they need data on dose and deaths, worth noting this has come from McVeys anti-lockdown APPG and UsForThem whose founder is supporting Bridgen and RFK Jr Image
3/ However I'm not certain what data they claim is being withheld as data on dose and death stratified by age is publicly available from the ONS

Right here⬇️
Read 16 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Feb 24
1/ "We have to learn to live with covid"
Sunetra Gupta said the West needed to become more accepting of deaths

Now her supporters are baffled by excess deaths, blaming them on vaccines even though most the UK haven't had access to a booster for over 2 years
2/ They said we should just let covid circulate in schools, now her supporters struggle to understand why there are high absence rates, blaming "immunity debt" or simple claiming parents no longer care about sending their kids to school
3/ They are confused by why so many workers have dropped out of the labour market, claiming ppl just can't be bothered to go to work anymore
Read 5 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Dec 13, 2023
1/Spoke to a school union rep yesterday, they accidentally saw an email from HR concerned about how covid was causing staffing issues

HR expressed suprise many staff were still testing

"While we can't staff from testing, perhaps we should remind them they don't need to test"
2/ This is a school where due to long covid a number of staff are on long term phased returns, have had to reduce responsibilities, or have developed ongoing health problems

Student absence is high, lots of fever or GI symptoms, third of some classes are absent
3/ Staff and students have been hospitalised this year, with some ending up in ICU however this isn't common knowledge amongst staff and students

But the solution is apparently to encourage people to keep coming in whilst infectious, how does that improve absence?
Read 6 tweets

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