A school in Kent, a county under Reform control since May’s local elections, has set pupils an exciting writing challenge. And the prize? A football shirt with Nigel Farage’s name on the back!
Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in Rochester has launched a competition for GCSE Citizenship students to write a 1,000-word essay competition on the title ‘Evaluate the view that Reform UK have obliterated the two-party system’ with the prize advertised as a Reform UK shirt with ‘Farage 10’ on the back.
And if that’s not an enticing enough prospect for the teenagers, the winner will be personally presented with the shirt by Reform’s Kent Council leader Linden Kemkaran when she visits the school next month.
Quizzed by independent local news website Local Authority as to why the school appeared to be actively promoting Farage’s mob, headteacher Eliot Hodges explained that it was part of a long-running programme of political engagement.
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“The school has a very active and high-performing citizenship and politics department, and we take the view that it is very important for our students to be exposed to a plurality of voices from across the political spectrum,” he told the site. “Only by hearing from a diverse range of views can healthy debate be fostered.”
He said that other political parties had been involved in the past and that previous prizes had included life-size cardboard cut-outs of Jeremy Corbyn and Rishi Sunak, copies of Vince Cable’s book and batches of Vote Labour leaflets. What a treasure trove for the average 16-year-old!
Local Authority, however, reported that pupils could not recall similar contests linked to previous visits over the past year, nor political memorabilia being offered as prizes in the past. “Students also showed us evidence that the Sunak cut-out had been auctioned off rather than awarded as a prize, and appeared to have been bought online rather than supplied by the Conservatives,” it said.
When the site sought clarification from the school, asking for details of the essay contests and prizes donated by political parties, a message advertising a new essay contest was suddenly sent out to students, this one tied to a forthcoming visit by Gillingham and Rainham Labour MP Naushabah Khan. The essay title is ‘Evaluate the view that Labour’s first year in government has been a success’ (good luck with that) with the prize a mug bearing the slogan ‘Keir Starmer is my hero’.
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