Bridget Phillipson Accused of Hypocrisy After Playing Hockey on Private School Pitch
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been accused of hypocrisy after playing hockey on a private school’s AstroTurf hours before suggesting independent institutions didn’t “need” the pitches. The Telegraph has the story.
The Education Secretary made a viral social media post on Saturday mocking cost-cutting measures schools are making ahead of the Government’s VAT raid. She wrote that state school pupils “need careers advice more than private schools need AstroTurf pitches”.
However, Ms. Phillipson has been accused of hypocrisy for posting the comments after she spent the afternoon playing on the artificial grass pitch of a prominent private school, where fees are upwards of £25,000 per year.
The MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, who was voted player of the year by her teammates in 2023, is understood to have scored a goal during the match. The game took place at 12.15pm – around five hours before she posted the tweet, which was viewed 5.8m times, at 5.41pm.
The revelation comes after private school leaders pointed out they allowed their facilities such as their swimming pools to be used by the local community including nearby state-school students, free of charge. Teachers have warned this may have to be reviewed if Labour’s planned tax grab goes ahead.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Cabinet Minister, described Ms. Phillipson’s actions as “classic socialism”.
He added: “It is ‘do as I say not as I do’ while levelling down for everyone else.
“Stopping private schools from having AstroTurf pitches will not add a single careers adviser to a state school because pupils are already being taken out of private education so the Government will not raise the money it anticipates.”
Worth reading in full.
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Nobody needs career advice. More like advice about how not to commit suicide with wretches like you in charge. This concept of a careers service is a cheap and nasty sop. This is a much deeper problem. I couldn’t tell a young man what to do in terms of work but at least I would get him fired up so he wants to work at something. You just want him to feel abject and useless hence your agenda over the last thirty years.
Without careers advice how will school leavers know to go and do degrees in gender studies and sociology? They need to continue producing diversity and HR officers and other cadres to keep the revolution going
I played hockey (badly) into my fifties – so I salute her for playing such a great game. The fact that she posted drivel some 5 hours after playing at a private school’s astro pitch – I would hope is due to her having consumed alcohol post match.
Ignoring her hypocrisy – and in an ideal world – she would be in a great position to encourage people to take up sport (particularly young people). Amateur, non-elite sport has been badly hit in the last 20 years by a number of factors such as increased costs for pitch hire and so on, lack of opportunity and encouragement from schools, safe-guarding legislation (that means a single adult cannot take 3 kids in a car to an away match or event some distance away) et al.
As an active sportswoman, she must know how some of these issues affects her local hockey club. If she can help grassroots sport and overcome some of the problems it faces – she would be doing a great service to young people if she can increase their participation.
Off topic, but deservedly so..
Frisby discusses what’s driving Gold…. Very interesting..
https://youtu.be/qEUGlZ6iwxM?si=92FlHtYhWpp2yYOk
Hypocrisy at its finest.
This leaving is drawing out like Brexit. Just get on with it.
Might just stay, seems to be seriously bothering you on your platform huxley baby… 😂.. Just paid another month of subs 😉
Ps, didnt you enjoy Fisby talking about a Gold backed cbdc..
No i bet you didnt, you got no idea what he was on about, 🤣
Jacob Rees Moog nailed it, ‘do as I say, not as I do’
The Council up there is no doubt Labour. Interesting that the local Private Schools allow local people to use their facilities for free because their Labour Council mismanages the money so badly they can’t provide them. See a Labour Council, see a train wreck budget.
Labour MP is a prize hypocrite. Anyone surprised?