The Dishonesty Of Jago Pearson

Earlier this week, I noted that the Telegraph had given a platform to one Jago Pearson, who told that he was a mere history graduate, but happened to work for a firmly Tory-oriented PR firm, and whose assertions on left-wing bias in teaching were made from the perspective of one who had, while at Loughborough University, been a point man for the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA).

There was adverse comment following Pearson’s article, which may not have been unconnected to the fact that he provided no evidence to support his contention of left-wing bias in academia. So Damian Thompson, curator of the bear pit that is Telegraph blogs, gave him the opportunity to have another go. This he did. “I criticised Lefty academics. So now I’m a ‘Tory stooge’” bleated poor Jago.

And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. The academics were those he asserted to be “Lefty”, yet put forward no evidence. And his whining about being called out is no better. “‘You are a Tory stooge,’ says one. ‘Jago’s a professional Tory propagandist,’ says another” are two examples of names he’s been called by all those nasty Marxist keyboard warriors. But where?

Tom Pride didn’t use either term in his post on Pearson, or anything remotely similar. And neither did I. Moreover, none of our commenters did, either. This means that either Jago is making it up, or the rotten rude remarks came from those commenting at the Telegraph, in which case he should take his complaints to Dames and ask his pal what he’s going to do about them.

But let’s see what new evidence Pearson provides to support his assertions of left bias. “Of course, the fact nobody can dispute my claim that the Left hold a broad monopoly of school and university history teaching speaks volumes”. No it doesn’t: the claim has nothing to support it. Even the assertion that Pearson attended a top five university doesn’t square with Loughborough being around 14th in the UK.

“The evidence is there. Education has been monopolised by the Left over decades”. Where? Seriously, that is all Pearson has to offer, barring more whingeing about how the rotten lefties are not playing by the rules because his opinion has morphed into immutable fact. In other words, to Jago Pearson and all those other clever people who talk loudly in restaurants, it feels hot to them but nobody who matters cares.

And that echoes the words of Lyndon Johnson: “Did y’ever think ... that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else”. There’s a lot of that going in within the Conservative movement right now, only with another practitioner of the art of putting belief above reality doing the pissing. If only there was a point to it all.

That is, apart from generating plenty of laughs for others. No change there, then.