Today on Twitter the ex-school captain of St Paul's School London (a
fee-paying, posh school) and
BBC regular employee on the One Show and more (he works on the Discovery Channel and other outlets too),
Dan Snow was using his own Twitter account - which (
and this is the important part) is publicised on the BBC - to attack Faith schools.
He announced to the world (or the Twitteratti) that he had donated money to the British Humanists (BHA) for their campaign against Faith Schools (actually a campaign to pay one of their number £30K for one year).
Snow and the BHA spin the line that Faith schools sow division and that tax money should not go to divisive schools ("public money should not be spent on segregation").
There are some important points here of course. Certainly when it comes to
higher education in the UK we have the Catholic Church to thank as a trail-blazer. But history aside, it is a blatant truism that Faith schools
regularly and consistently out-perform state schools as a rule. Of course there are aberrations to this rule, but generally everyone knows this is true, especially in the inner cities. That is why faith schools generally have waiting lists, and why even atheists and the like "get on their knees and avoid the fees" by
pretending to be Christians to get a good, free education that they would otherwise have to pay out for to get the equivalent in a non-religious school.
Now let me lay my cards out here. I am lucky enough to live in (semi) rural Wales where the standard of education is excellent. I didn't go to a Catholic school, and my children don't go to a Catholic school. We all go to Mass, and Catholicism is part of our daily lives. If we lived in London or one of the big cities I think our children probably would have gone to a Catholic school.
So I have no particular vested interest as far as my education or my children's education is concerned; but what I detest is this:
- 1. That Dan Snow uses his BBC promoted Twitter account to attack Catholic (and other) schools.
- 2. He uses the excuse that others in a similar situation promote "beer and crisps" - but if the BBC is meant to be impartial it should not promote any of these Twitter accounts (and politics and religion are more edgy than mere comestibles!).
- 3. That Dan Snow and the BHA think that Catholics (and Anglicans, Muslims, Jews etc.) don't pay taxes, or that the taxes these people pay should only go to schools that Snow and the BHA approve of! It smacks of more state control.
- 4. That Snow and the BHA want to close the best-performing free schools, the age-old way of the atheist-left is oft repeated: lowering to the lowest common denominator for the many, whilst the uber-rich and privileged can continue to pay for their education.
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Catholic schools take working class kids and give them a superb, in-depth, cultured education. It may not be as perfect or as Catholic as some may like, but
as a rule it is ahead of the state equivalent.
Now ask yourself
why Snow and the BHA want to shut down the best performing free schools; why they don't think Catholics pay taxes like everyone else; why the BBC is happy to promote the personal accounts of people like Dan Snow who promote campaigns that bash Catholicism and Christianity based on their twisted atheist political outlooks.
Is "segregation" really such a big problem in the UK??? Moreso than non-performing schools? Than poorly educated pupils? Than school leavers unable to read, write and do maths to a decent level? Than pupils who think Hitler was a goalkeeper or D-Day happened in 1812?
Mr Snow has regularly assaulted Christianity in his tweets, and in promoting the BHA is clearly promoting and persuing an agenda.
That is his inalienable right. It's called free will.
The BBC however is
meant to be neutral.
It should either
stop promoting the personal Twitter accounts of its employees -
especially if they are used for politicised ends or offensive campaigns like the BHA's - or it should drop the pretence of being impartial and neutral.
After all, if a BBC employee used his Twitter account to attack homosexual "gay pride" rallies as being offensive, blasphemous and indecent (all of which break at least one law each), do you think the BBC would remain impartial on the matter - or that medialand would stay subdued on the matter? The fact is that person would probably get a knock on the door from a pc pc, despite breaking no law.
Yet here we have a BBC employee attacking faith schools and pushing a highly politicised campaign with impunity.
Meanwhile the rest of us can simply expose the lies, half-truths and political agenda of posh boys like Snow (who don't forget went to a posh, private school - 'twas ever thus!) and the BHA which simply hates Christianity in any form.
Simples.
Notes:
- According to Wikipedia, St Paul's School (where Dan Snow was school captain) "has numerous sports facilities, and sport plays a major part in the everyday lives of the boys. There is a large sports hall, gymnasium, dojo, fencing salle, 25m swimming pool, 6 fives courts, a rackets court, three squash courts, a fitness centre, a 100m sprint straight and ten tennis courts. There is also a large boathouse, and extensive playing fields which consist of 11 football or rugby pitches during the winter months, or seven cricket pitches during the summer months."
- The BHA's Richy Thompson (who will receive the £30K) says religious schools result in "...discrimination based on both religion and socio-economic standing, and pupils being denied a high quality education in, for example, SRE [fancy acronym for Sex Ed], which would enable them to make informed, responsible decisions later in life." In other words he sees nothing wrong with rich schools giving the likes of Dan Snow the privilege of working for the BBC whilst comprehensive kids struggle to get dead-end jobs; but the truth of this is a humanist assoc keen to make Catholic schools promote abortion, contraception and homosexuality. [my emphasis] The BHA has a specific "gay" section (GALHA) - clearly segregation is not an issue for them!
