The government’s attempt to soothe the public over concerns that schools are crumbling quickly collapsed on Tuesday when the Labour Party unveiled an excellent rebuttal.
The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, shared a poster on platform X (formerly Twitter) claiming in all capital letters that “most schools [are] unaffected” by the crisis around RAAC, also known as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
That’s a dated form of concrete which is expected to last around 30 years before being at risk of falling down.
It’s worth noting the exact number of schools impacted is still unknown because some have still not told the government if they suspect they have RAAC.
As it is, more than 100 schools have been closed over the safety concerns – and PM Rishi Sunak admitted on Monday that up to 1,000 schools might have to shut while the situation is addressed.
The poster also noted there would be a “dedicated caseworker for every affected school” and “rapid support for funding for affected schools”.
The Labour Party then quickly edited the poster to make a Jaws joke, focusing on the top line from the infographic and changing the slogan to: “Most beachgoers not eaten by big shark.”
The opposition also changed the department for education logo to “Mayor of Amity Island” too, and altered the words “RAAC Update” in the left-hand corner to “Jaws Update”.
And in less than two hours, it got more than eight thousand likes on X.
The government poster was then torn apart by other X users, too.