Mark Andrews: Gemma Collins's thoughts on education, Married at First Sight, and PM backing Burnham
Mark Andrews takes a wry look at the week’s news
Gemma Collins is to be the Department for Education’s new poster girl for post-16 opportunities. Providing, of course, they can print big enough posters.
Other than seeing a few pictures of her in tabloid newspapers, I’ll confess I’m not that familiar with her work. But it seems she used to sell cars for a living, before giving it up to become a full-time reality show ‘star’. And she got a grade G in her maths GCSE because, in her own words: "I remember sitting in the exam room for my maths GCSE and thinking, ‘I'm going to be famous, I don't need maths’."
A fame-hungry former car saleswoman who thinks exams are too much like hard work. Can you think of a better role model for the youth of today?
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I don’t profess to be a great expert on the reality show Married at First Sight, either, and certainly have no idea whether there is any substance to the allegations made in the BBC’s Panorama documentary. But even amid the amoral cesspit that is reality television, did nobody ever stop to think that a television programme - sorry, bold social experiment - that encourages complete strangers to ‘marry’ people they only meet on their wedding day, and then see how long they last, is pushing the boundaries of morality and decency just a little too far?
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Sir Keir Starmer has promised to visit Makerfield in Lancashire in support of Andy Burnham’s bid to win the by-election.
I’ll bet he will.
If he’s got any nous, he’ll make a few appearances, and bring Angela Rayner, Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor along with him too, all declaring their full-throated support.
Burnham’s leadership challenge will be sunk before it even starts.
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Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that ‘sources close to Andy Burnham’ have let it be known that he will appoint arch-rival Wes Streeting to his cabinet if he becomes Prime Minister. That’s pretty decent of him, don’t you think? Maybe a seat in the Lords for his predecessor, as well, and perhaps his old job as mayor for the MP who generously agreed to step aside for him.
I know he considers himself King of the North, and I’m sure all the mail-order retailers are very grateful for his work promoting zip-up hoodies for the mature man. But doesn’t the man who came fourth behind Ed Miliband, and second to Jeremy Corbyn six years later, seem to sound, how shall we put this, a bit cocky?
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