Anum Qaisar-Javed, who was elected in a by-election less than two weeks ago, taught modern studies, a subject distinct to Scotland that covers contemporary political and social issues.
Today, the SNP MP for Airdrie and Shotts was involved in the most contemporary of political issues, but from an entirely different standpoint - as a member of the Commons Health and Science Select Committee that has been questioning Dominic Cummings.
Ms Qaisar-Javed drew on her experience of talking to 13-year-old students about the early stages of the Covid pandemic, and compared their comprehension with that of Boris Johnson’s government.
Dominic Cummings faces tough Covid questions from Anum Qaisar-Javed
Addressing Mr Cummings, she said: “Prior to my election, I was a secondary school teacher - I taught modern studies and politics - and I specifically remember a lesson in early January 2020, when the first outbreak happened, and we were discussing it in class.
“And I was explaining to some of my pupils that there’s an area called Wuhan in China, this is happening here, and linking it to what I teach. We spoke about, ‘If you were the prime minister, or if you were a government adviser, what steps would you be doing?’ - to develop those critical-thinking skills [in her students].
“My 13-year-old weans understood the concept of closing the borders or stopping people from entering or leaving the country. If 13-year-old kids from Edinburgh could understand that, is it a fair assessment to say that...that 13-year-old kids were thinking more clearly than the government?”
Mr Cummings’ initial answer - before going on to respond to Ms Qaisar-Javed’s question at greater length - was initially simply to say, “Correct.”
Ms Qaisar-Javed also asked Mr Cummings how he would rate the government’s Covid response using the Ofsted inspectorate’s four-level grading system.
She said that Ofsted “have four grades: grade one is ‘outstanding’, grade two is’good’, grade three ‘requires improvement’, grade four is ‘inadequate’ - how would you rate the government response on those four grades?”
Mr Cummings replied: “I would say some individual brilliant performances; overall - system total failure”.
Ms Qaisar-Javed asked him to confirm if that represented a grade four - to which Mr Cummings simply nodded.
Anum Qaisar-Javed was a teacher before an MP, said her pupils knew to close borders in Jan.
Q: ‘Is it your view that 13-year-olds in Edinburgh were thinking more clearly than Government?’
Responding to new SNP MP @AnumQaisarJaved Cummings drops another bombshell, blaming PM for failing to bring in a border policy to protect UK from new Covid variants arriving: “Fundamentally there was no proper border policy because the PM never wanted a proper border policy.”
