This morning saw the arrival of an astonishingly offensive survey from Yougov. After being roughly sorted into my political and socio-economic position, I was then asked if I thought young people were feckless, work-shy layabouts who were too lazy to get out and find a job, whether teachers were incompetent jobsworths who lacked the wherewithal to educate children in the most basic skills, and whether nurses were lazy whingers who just didn't care any more, especially when it came to older people. It was like being backed into the corner by a Tory fifteen-year-old armed with a copy of The Daily Mail and the unbudgeable opinion that they KNOW IT ALL.

Although that is a feeling I'm getting quite used to.

I was moved to complain about the language they used to describe young people (the adults were afforded more respect) as they seemed to feel that they could say pretty much anything they wanted if they said "Jamie Oliver said" first (which did nothing to dispel the impression that I was being shouted out by a Tory Tween). As it turns out, Jamie Oliver had been saying these things -- presumably in an attempt to whip up some controversy around his latest Channel 4 shock show -- how did that channel go from being The Independent to The Daily Mail?

This is the one about hero teachers random celebrities setting up Free Schools and saving the education system by dissecting pigs; even the Telegraph's Harry Wallop is unable to repress weary cynicism in the face of Oliver's (presumably feigned) bewilderment at the fact that a bunch of children selected to be in a reality TV show acted like -- well, like reality TV participants.

Oliver himself, apparently, is seriously considering setting up his own free school. "I wouldn't be surprised if I don't do something in the next five years, for sure." he said.

Just to re-iterate, this is reality.