Campaign For Common Sense ISN’T

All those groups who get their copy into the papers and online information sources, but whose names are seriously misleading, are mostly well known. The so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance isn’t an alliance of taxpayers, the Global Warming Policy Foundation exists only to rubbish the idea of global warming, and the Renewable Energy Foundation likewise attacks the renewable energy industry. Then there’s the Campaign for Common Sense.

Not long on the scene, this body has got its copy recycled by the usual press suspects, such as the Mail and Express, on a regular basis. The Mail, for instance, told us last May “Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party is out of touch with public opinion on woke issues, a Mail on Sunday poll has found. The survey revealed that the party was overwhelmingly associated with support for politically correct issues - such as pulling down statues of historical figures - that are not backed by voters”. Yes, the meaning of Woke wrong again.

Whose survey is this? “The poll, conducted by JL Partners for the Campaign For Common Sense”. And their spokesman? “Mark Lehain, director for the Campaign for Common Sense, said: 'The results of this poll show the vast majority of British public are tolerant, fair-minded and moderate people who are not interested in divisive identity politics’”.

So far, so useful not only to the right-wing press, but also the Tories. It was the same story pushed by the Express last February. “A NEW report has revealed that ‘dodgy data’ is being used to distort the diversity debate in Britain … The study by the Campaign for Common Sense (CCS) has looked at how figures are exaggerated when claims about ethnic disparities in the workplace are made. It finds that data is being used to make false comparisons, creating a sense of wider disparity within society than may actually exist”.

And who was on hand to give a comment? “Mark Lehain, director of CCS, said”. No shit, Sherlock. And now this “Campaign” has been given a plug by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog. “Unilever faced a protest outside its headquarters this morning … organised by the Campaign for Common Sense which has urged the Unilever brand Ben and Jerry’s to stop virtue signalling”. Has it now?

It sounds like Tory propaganda, because it is Tory propaganda: Mark Lehain might have resigned as a director of the Campaign for Common Sense Limited, but is still an active director of Advantage Schools Limited, whose address is the Bedford Free School. Holding that thought, here’s the Guardian in the run-up to the 2019 General Election.

“‘It’s not been easy being a Tory in education over the last few years,’ says [Mark] Lehain, a former maths teacher, with a sigh. A torchbearer for the Conservatives’ academy and free school policy, he founded and led one of the first free secondary schools - the Bedford free school - then left to head up PTE, the Parents and Teachers for Excellence group, which campaigns for stricter discipline and more facts in the curriculum. He stepped down last month to pursue another campaign”. He was standing for Parliament.

For the Tories. In Newcastle-upon-Tyne North, a long way from Bedford. He lost. So this self-confessed Tory has followed groups like the TPA in pushing right-wing copy to willing media outlets. The Campaign for Common Sense is just another Tory front.

That’s one of those “more facts” he’s not admitting. Another Tory non-disclosure.

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