Robert Peston said teachers didn’t do much teaching in lockdown and was schooled into next week

ITV News political editor Robert Peston went viral for reasons he wouldn’t have been hoping for after he had this unusual take about teachers during lockdown.

It’s the third part of this three-part thread about the economy which got him all the attention after he referred to ‘the phenomenon of the government paying teachers for not very much teaching, when lockdown closed schools’.

The ⁦@ONS⁩ says that the “broadest measure of inflation” – the “GDP deflator” – rose 4.8% in the first three months of the year. It is the question of the moment whether government stimuli and Covid19-impaired capacity means inflation is back is a serious risk. It is… pic.twitter.com/YePvXYusPE

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

really striking that nominal GDP – GDP in cash terms – barely fell at all in the first quarter. All the 1.5% real decline was due to price rises

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

The other important way of looking at this is that output was surprisingly robust in the first three months of the year – since much of the so-called inflation was (eg) the phenomenon of the government paying teachers for not very much teaching, when lockdown closed schools

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

And anyone who is a teacher, or knows a teacher, or has looked out of the window over the last 15 months or so will know just how off the mark that last ‘phenomenon’ was and people were very happy to let him know.

Robert, I can guarantee that every single teacher in this country worked harder than you – a man, who as far as I can tell, is paid £750,000 a year to paraphrase WhatsApp messages he receives from Dominic Cummings.

— Histor's Guy (@Alec_Eiffel85) May 12, 2021

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?? Teachers had an absolute nightmare, teaching in school AND online. Are you a journalist? Were you paying attention to what happened this year? Fuck me ragged. https://t.co/3iyd2YjhRh

— @[email protected] (@mrchrisaddison) May 12, 2021

WHOA. I know many teachers, and they worked twice as hard when schools were closed. They had to learn how to do online learning OVERNIGHT, keep track of vulnerable pupils, make online lessons interesting and engaging, etc etc etc. They went from 60-hour weeks to 100-hour ones.

— Margaret P Houston (@HoustonMargaret) May 12, 2021

I saw my wife push herself to the brink of breaking down during lockdown. Giving all of herself and more to the kids she teaches and the school she loves. ‘Not very much teaching’? Jeez. She taught her backside off in the direst of circumstances. Why do we do our teachers down? https://t.co/SqphSPe2U8

— James Mitchinson (@JayMitchinson) May 12, 2021

Bob, I'm literally a fantasy author & I still do more research into what I write about than you seem to have done with this howler.

— A General Sense Of Foreboding (@Scriblit) May 12, 2021

Stop it. Just stop it. Teachers continued to work *bloody hard* and in effect had to learn a brand new job in incredibly difficult circumstances. https://t.co/PuIipEY5zF

— Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) May 12, 2021

Are you FUCKING joking?? Seriously, not much teaching! My wife is teaching full days of live lessons and planning for those in school and those online, I don't know any teachers who weren't working their absolute arses off during the last year. Please rethink this statement

— Giles Paley-Phillips (@eliistender10) May 12, 2021

Oh this is outrageous. Doesn't he TALK to any teachers? Absolutely crammed weeks of online teaching, huge stress, people going above and beyond with teaching AND pastoral care. Teachers at full stretch during lockdown. This is as ignorant as it is insulting. https://t.co/wkFWG2sXKL

— Ian Martin (@IanMartin) May 12, 2021

On behalf of the nation's teachers, who worked tirelessly to deliver education through lockdown, go to hell.

— David Andress (@ProfDaveAndress) May 12, 2021

Oh mate https://t.co/LC5LgW8hbR

— Rachel Parris (@rachelparris) May 12, 2021

The always popular Larry the Cat – @Number10cat on Twitter – had some advice.

Robert, it’s not too late to delete this and apologise.

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) May 12, 2021

And Peston later offered up this clarification which was brief and to the point, as usual.

Sorry. I know all teachers work incredibly hard whether locked down or not! I was not making a point about the amazing contribution they make whether locked down or not. But through no fault of their own, we know their productivity is impaired by lock down. If that was…

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

not so, there would have been no need to cancel exams or commission expensive catch up programmes. In other words the price of standardised educational outputs has risen significantly, we hope only temporarily

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

One more thing, I was making a point about how @ONS measures the most general measure of inflation, the GDP deflator. In getting so angry and upset, you are blaming the messenger – which I think is something most teachers would discourage

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

PS Anyone who knows anything about me would know I admire teachers hugely. And I would never knowingly cause offence. I am sorry I used the sloppy phrase “paying for not very much teaching”, which I can see is capable of being misunderstood. It was not a reference to the…

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

effort put in by teachers; it referred to the output of that huge effort, which – with no teachers at fault – diminished.

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 12, 2021

Maybe this would have been better. It would definitely have been quicker.

The words you were looking for were ‘sorry, I didn’t think that through, and I apologise profusely’.

— Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) May 12, 2021

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Source Twitter @Peston