The documentary Britain’s Strictest Headmistress hit the small screen on Sunday. It continues to do the diligent work of Katharine Birbalsingh, in mythologising herself so furiously that, if you didn’t have a memory or know any better, you would think she invented the phrases “please” and “thank you”.
Birbalsingh is not a bad figurehead for the age we are living through, that of asymmetric polarisation. She can come out with any idea she likes – girls don’t like maths or liberals don’t like Shakespeare - but express any hint of dissent, ask even the mildest question about the evidence base, and you might be referred to by her defenders as the hysterical mob. It’s generally safer to just leave her be, which is fine, because more interesting than her didactic method is the response to it from rightwing commentary.
