Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt is very quiet this morning. But given his attitude on Question Time last night, I can’t say I am surprised. I would encourage you to check out the hash tag “nungate” to get a flavour of how his comments about Catholic nuns have been received.
Hunt, who wants to introduce compulsory sex education for five-year-olds, clashed with Cristina Odone last night after the former editor of the Catholic Herald praised her teachers. Hunt interjected: “These were all nuns, these were all nuns weren’t they?” Then he added with a smirk: “I know about your religious schooling.”
Hunt then generously allowed Odone time to explain that she had actually experienced three different types of schools – Catholic, private and state.
It is not clear what point Hunt was trying to make. The most widespread interpretation is that he was insinuating that the quality of Catholic education is somehow inferior. If that’s true, how ironic that this self-appointed spokesman for tolerance and equality in education chose to pick on a significant portion of the Church’s female population in order to exhibit his snooty attitude.
It’s Hunt’s tone, more than his exact words, that jars because it reflects what many Catholics fear in the country, namely, that there is a certain generation of MPs who do not understand – and perhaps secretly detest – Catholic education. Maybe, as Lord Deben said on Twitter, “his anti-Catholic remark was a knee-jerk reaction revealing his real views”.
But let’s not depress ourselves by dwelling on the fact we might soon have a Government that woos voters by attempting and failing to eat bacon sandwiches, teaching toddlers about condoms and wearing embarrassing T-shirts declaring: “This is what a feminist looks like.”
Cheer yourself up instead by checking out some brilliant Twitter reactions. The best comes from Sister Catherine Wybourne:
Poor Tristram Hunt. Think how much brighter he might be if he'd been taught by nuns. 😉
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