DIVA publishers respond to Tory MP's Early Day Motion on social mobility

I am Simone Webb, the young woman mentioned in the article. DIVA's statement contains a variety of inaccuracies and omissions which give a misleading impression. According to the statement, Jane Czyzselska told me an internship slot was "likely from the 1st of July". In fact, Jane made me a clear offer of an internship which went beyond telling me it was likely. The email stated: "We'd love to offer you an internship for the month of July". I have the emails concerned, and can forward them to whomever wishes to see them. Furthermore, the statement claims that Jane emailed me to tell me she'd be in touch closer to the time with details. In fact, I contacted her telling her I'd email later to find out details, etc. The sentence "Ms Webb evidently objected to the postponement of her internship. But rather than take this up with DIVA, she decided to blog about her concerns" is broadly accurate, but hugely misleading. My original blog post on the subject can be found here. I clearly did not mention the magazine's name in the article - DIVA's name was only brought into the discussion when later bloggers picked up the subject. Also, my blog-post was clearly intended to highlight the broader issue of unpaid internships and their effect on social divisions; the specific case was referred to only in order to emphasise this. Later blog posts, and Robert Halfon's Early Day Motion, certainly made the issue about me - but far more so than I'd ever intended. Finally, DIVA's statement misleads by omission. I know of at least two interns for DIVA who have been sixteen - almost two years younger than I am. Therefore, DIVA's comment about my age in the rejection email was plainly irrelevant. In the statement, DIVA does not quote the exact words Jane used to me, which was that she was uncomfortable offering an internship to someone without an independent budget; this was the main point to which I objected, as it appeared to be phrased as DIVA's policy. I was given no chance to negotiate. DIVA's statement, therefore, side-steps the main cause I had for grievance - which was not the lack of expenses as the way in which I was apparently rejected for asking for expenses. As for the statement's comment that I did not contact the magazine before "going public with [my] criticism of DIVA", I have explained fully in my latest blog post why I did not contact DIVA. I must also reiterate that my original blog post did not mention DIVA's name. Although Ms. Watson, Media and Marketing Director for Millivres Prowler, has criticised me for tweeting links to my blog post on this subject, I do not think this was unreasonable. Furthermore, Ms. Watson told me to comment here, although I asked for the statement to be rectified in light of the errors it contains. She says that there is no indication DIVA are accepting my version of events: I hardly see, however, how they can do otherwise, since I can back up everything I've said with email evidence.

Simone Webb needs to learn how to use paragraphs, to write more succinctly and to have a slightly less inflated sense of her own importance. I'm sure that being an intern somewhere else would teach her such things. Keep up the good work DIVA.