In today's Guardian: Beccles Free School twitter spat with Sam Freedman

Sam Freedman
DfE Civil Servant

The story that was first featured on this Blog about the tweets made by DfE civil servant Sam Freedman alleging that staff running one of the Beccles Free School consultation meetings had been "reduced to tears" by a member of the anti-academies alliance is featured on p33 of today's Guardian newspaper.

The problem with this remark is that on closer examination neither part of the allegation was true. Nobody was reduced to tears and the person alleged to be responsible isn't actually from the anti-academies alliance. Indeed the owner of the newsagents where the consultation took place reported that the event passed off with no trouble.

In case you are interested in reading more, here are the links to the relevant posts:

• Beccles, the Big Society and a Free School (report of twitter argument)
• Full text of the twitter argument
• Free School Consultations: Like letting property developers carry out their own planning inquiry (response to allegations)
• Beccles Free School: The "newsagent" consultation (report just after the consultation meeting)
• Guardian Article (or read below as printed)

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The Guardian
13 Mar 2012