When did Blair's 1997 Pledge "Education, Education, Education" turn into "Indoctrination, Indoctrination, Indoctrination"?

New Public Management and the death of our democracies

I was there - well in the UK at least. In 1997. When a youthful-looking, some would say ‘charismatic’ Tony Blair, took over leadership of the Labour Party, renaming it ‘New Labour’ whilst paradoxically assimilating Thatcherite policies. Upon reflection that was defining moment when there was no longer any meaningful choice at our next General Election. “Two cheeks of the same arse” as Neil Oliver so aptly describes.

It was during those first few years of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) or Private Finance Initiative (PFI) that I became a mature female student at Warwick University - the personification of his ‘target audience’. Or was I? The truth was, the PFI was a cover story, with a long political history from lobby groups within Parliament. And maybe now we wonder just how far back (generations?) that ‘lobbying’ goes….

Blair’s BigTech alliances were in their infancy back then - let’s be honest, it was good old British Telecom (my first employer straight after I left school) which was keen to ‘partner’ with Government to connect the schools to the growing Internet. The story goes that the UK was in a time of ‘austerity’ and with public services neglected by Conservatives, ‘investment’ was needed from corporates and ‘philanthropists’. Because they did this out of the goodness of their own hearts and never demanded any interest. Not. It was relatively recently, whilst studying for my Masters in Law, that I gained true insight into the problematic ‘Charitable Status’ debate and the legal loopholes deliberately exploited by ‘entrepreneurs’ seeking tax exemption. (But’s let’s leave that massive topic for another day).

Nearly twenty years ago, in 2004, Paul Foot (RIP) published ‘An Idiot’s Guide to Private Finance Initiative’ (in Private Eye). I urge everyone to (re)read this eleven-page report in the current context, and see the hindsight he had - back when journalism was authentic and free speech was still legal.

Since then, hundreds, if not thousands of schools, hospitals, police-training colleges, prisons, universities, colleges (I could go on and on) have been stolen - there’s no other word for it - from the public. And this ‘heist’ was hidden in plain sight:

Blair’s influence on BigTech and Education did not end with his Premiership. Anything but. He carried on, not only with the famous ex-PM’s lucrative ‘speech circuit’ but also growing his wealth to a secretive Billionaire status, off-shore tax-havens included - see the Pandora Papers.

The setting-up of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) seems like a quasi-government, with branches across the world that “penetrate ze governments” as someone sinister once said. On a recent UnHerd discussion, the description of the TBI sent shivers up my spine, with the extent of the egos, greed and corruption presented:

As a result of what was sped-through Parliament in 1997, ignoring so many calls from the very people New Labour was supposed to represent (including the Trade Unions) the PFIs were expanded and the approach globalised. Our education system is unrecognisable as captured, broken and crushed by debt and administrative bureaucracy.

During the covid era, TBI gained over $20m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Little wonder then that Blair was very happy to go on TV numerous times promoting the ‘vaccine’ roll-outs, lockdowns, mandates and even (most sinister of all) encouraged the kids to get jabbed. Here he is in one of his more disgusting pieces of propaganda from that time:

But the TBI funding wasn’t just about promoting Gates’ Global jab-fest, it was also cashing-in on the Corporate Playbook of an ‘opportunity-in-a-crisis’. The inevitable boom in BigTech online learning was a dream come true for TBI - millions of potential new recruits, forced out of face-to-face educational settings as a result of the completely unnecessary lockdowns and discrimination through ‘Vaccine Passports’. And TBI had the perfect learning indoctrination platform ready (purely a coincidence, you understand).

Operation “Ultimate Dialogue Adventure'“ was launched - targets= 13-17 year-olds in over 30 countries. It’s ‘Free’ and Open Access, with games and quizzes that are self-directed, facilitated by virtual ‘endorsed’ neo-liberal teachers. Based on the existing ‘Generation Global’ platform, it claims to support ‘better citizenship’. But unsurprisingly, the content is somewhat concerning. Not least in the way it promotes the damaging ideologies that we have been trying to debate - but that the fascist censorship-industrial-complex has prevented. For example:

Here is the ‘map’ of the programme and its participants:

I wonder what is meant by (top right) ‘pilots and research’?

One clue to this question can be found hidden in the ‘small print’ in the Privacy Policy of the TBI learning platforms. For example:

and this:

If you are a parent or guardian, with a student signed-up to or about to enroll on one of these types of programmes of Open Access study, I urge caution. Please read and understand the small print of these Terms of Use conditions and Privacy Policies. The opportunities for data-harvesting are enormous and can be exploitative. We have all experienced unsolicited emails that try to sell us FutureLearn or Coursera type courses. This is a potential goldmine of information for those interested in marketing your personal information. And imagine what other personal data this could be joined together with?

On a positive note, reading through the comments on the YouTube posts featuring Tony Blair, it would seem that many people are getting wise to his suspicious objectives: