Yesterday, the ever watchful Tom Pride unmasked
the author of a propaganda piece in the Telegraph
as a minor executive at a PR company run by one of the most rabidly Tory CEOs
in captivity. The article was titled “Left-wing
thinking still prevails in schools”, with the sub-heading “The educational elite is indoctrinating the
young and - Education Secretary Michael Gove must be allowed to change it”.
The author was one Jago Pearson, who claimed to be “a 21-year-old graduate of History and
Politics, just six months out of university”. This, as Pride noted, is not
quite the whole story: Pearson is an account executive at MIP, whose head man,
Nick Wood, is a staunch Tory. Moreover, as I observed
back in December 2011, MIP has been in receipt of significant sums from
Tory politicians.
What Pride missed is that Jago Pearson has not just joined
the propagandist right-wing: over two and a half years ago, this blog picked
up on his presence at Loughborough University being used as justification
by the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) for the claim that they had a
Leicestershire branch (which was him). Yes, young Jago has significant previous
(he was also a TPA intern).
It gets worse: MIP does not merely offer its services to the
Tory Party and employ suitably right-leaning graduates, it also promotes
right-wingers via its pool of so-called “talent”.
The roll of dishonour has featured such names as Raheem “call me Ray” Kassam, Alex Deane, Daniel Hamilton, and last but not
least, the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole of Guido Fawkes infamy.
Companies like MIP are part of the greater Conservative
nexus that includes not just the TPA, but other like-minded Astroturf groups
such as the ASI, IOD, CPS and IEA, together with outfits like Conservative
Home, between which the pool of up-and-coming “talent” moves, all the while gaining media experience to enable it
to better push the desired message to an unsuspecting public.
And what’s more, the campaigning by Wood and his young protégés
is working: the revelation that his company had been bunged tens of thousands
of pounds by the likes of Iain Duncan Cough (via his Centre for Social Justice)
and (yes, it’s her again) Nadine
Dorries was made in the Telegraph.
Now, the same group has fallen into line and is running propaganda items from
Wood’s junior staffers.
That’s not all: all these clever people who talk loudly in
restaurants then shamelessly promote one another via social media without
letting on who they really are. So Pearson is lauded as “very talented” by one Alistair Thompson on Twitter. Who he? Failed
Tory Parliamentary candidate Thompson just happens to be Nick
Wood’s sidekick at MIP! Self-promotion was never so easy (or so blatant).
Behold a slick, uncompromising and ruthless shower. You have been warned.
4 comments:
What I don't understand is how anyone can praise that article. It's rubbish from start to finish. Its author claims to have wanted to study war history, yet he chose a degree that didn't offer much of it at all, as would have been clear from its prospectus - why, one might ask...?
But worse than that is his citing the 'Beatles studies' module as evidence of anything., If you look at the Loughborough History website, you'll see that this module is not compulsory - i.e. he actively chose it, over, for instance, a module on Chinese politics (surely of more relevance to someone with obvious political ambitions?). He also very obviously misrepresents the module - to feature John Lennon's (ultra-confused) statements on politics on a module dealing with 1960s popular culture (on which they did have a fairly big influence) is not to endorse them per se.
I wonder what his degree classification was.
This paean to a student rag must qualify as a prime example of self-preening.
And, for sure, 'tis he.
On November 21, 2012, Pearson was interviewed by BBC Radio Leicester about the NUS demonstration. He told the broadcaster that the demonstration against austerity was "out of touch" and that the national body was "failing to represent students".[
Another in the Raheem Kassam line of 'rare right-wing gobshite student immeidately gets media coverage' methinks.
So, what he's saying is... A Mickey Mouse degree from a second-rate Uni is all you need to land a plum job writing Tory PR.
Nice work if you can get it.
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