Henry Williams is inaccurate with facts and enjoying a culture-war bash in "Why Ampleforth should not be closed down" https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-ampleforth-should-not-be-closed-down via @spectator

The first factual error is his description of how IICSA spoke of abuse "in the second half of the last century". In fact the most recent abuse to result in a conviction was in 2010, and the teacher concerned taught at the school until 2016.

The next error is his suggestion that it was IICSA's conclusions published in 2018 which have led DfE to act. Not so. The main reason is that since the arrest of Dara de Cogan in 2016, Ampleforth has had five school inspections and failed four of them specifically on safeguarding

The most recent of these was an Ofsted inspection in September, which resulted in DfE concluding that things were getting worse rather than better, as they stated in the enforcement notice. But none of this got into the Spectator article.

I am sure Williams is perfectly capable of checking his facts but he didn't this time. As an Amplefordian, did he just take the school's word for everything, or does he think it doesn't matter whether day pupils are safe at the school? Or are facts irrelevant to the culture war?

In principle, Ampleforth can quite easily remain open. All it has to do is put in measures (which thousands of schools up and down the country routinely manage) to protect its pupils from sexual assault. Over years it hasn't done that.

So the DfE's message to Ampleforth and its safeguarding arrangements is in fact very simple.

Time to change or time to close. Your choice.

This is the third in a series of similar articles. We've previously had Charles Moore in the Telegraph and James Jeffrey in The Critic. All have been similarly inaccurate with facts minimising both the scope and recency of abuse.

Presumably Ampleforth is co-operating with the authors or even encouraging them as part of its PR strategy. But I suspect this sort of an article is going to be an own goal for the school.

Media articles with factual errors hardly provide a justification for lifting the ban. On the contrary, I suspect those responsible for making the decision will see this as evidence of unchanged attitudes from Ampleforth, confirming in their minds that the ban should remain.

The impression is that they are trying to send a message to Gavin Williamson: "Do you realise who you are talking to? This is *Ampleforth*! A little oik like you from Scarborough 6th Form College has no business telling us what to do!" Can't believe that will go down well...