Ed & Education, Education, Education

On Thursday lunchtime I went to see Labour leader Ed Miliband at a policy launch on Education which took place at Haverstock school in Camden, North London. This state run comprehensive was where Ed and his brother David were educated.

While waiting for the event to begin I had a chat to a women sitting next to and by coincidence she was a retired former teacher of Ed at this school. Her name was Kate Myers and she was his form teacher and later head of house.

Of course I asked whether she had any juicy gossip about Ed when he was in the school and she shook her head and said "No, he was absolutely lovely".

Graham Lane, former Newham Council Chair of Education, was there and we had a chat about local issues. I must get around to reviewing Graham's excellent book "Local Government and Democracy - an insider's view" which is actually a first hand account of the massive changes in education policy in in recent decades. It has not always been a pretty tale.

The current head teacher of Haverstock, John Dowd, (who has a magnificent trimmed beard) introduced Ed to the audience and said the school always welcomes former pupils, including future Prime Ministers. 

Ed spoke about how important the school and its "extraordinary teachers" had been to him. A good education is imperative not only for pupils but also nations. He announced plans for a future Labour Government to increase spending on Education at least in line with inflation and limit primary school classes to 30. He also wanted parity of esteem for technical and academic qualifications.

In the Q&A the media present ignored education and failed to ask Ed a single question about it and instead only asked about the row between Ed and the Treasurer of the Conservative Party about tax avoidance. While this is an important subject the event was supposed to be about "Education". It goes to show how shallow and irreverent traditional UK media is making itself. I suppose if Ed had talked about changes to private school education they would have shown more interest.

I wasn't picked for the Q&A which was a shame since I was going to welcome his comments about the importance of paying teachers well with making sure that school support staff are also recognised as being vital to a great education and who equally deserve decent pay.

At the end I said to Ed's former teacher Kate that she must be very proud of Ed and what she has helped to achieve. She replied very softly but firmly "Yes, I am".

So there you go all you undecided and floating voters. Vote Ed for Prime Minister. Teacher knows best.

A UK Foreign Policy for the Middle East - Newham Compass 17 Feb 2015

This is going to be a really interesting event. It clashes with my UNISON branch AGM. Which is a real shame as Mike is always an entertaining speaker and was the former chair of the foreign affairs select committee.

"Women & Power In Europe" Newham Compass

Last week I went to this Newham Compass debate at West Ham Supporters club in Green Street. 

The Chair was supposed to be Newham Councillor and recent Labour MEP candidate Farah Nazeer. However she was unable to make it so former Newham Councillor (and author) Graham Lane stepped in. 

First speaker was Charlotte Minvielle (on left of panel) from the UK arm of the French "Parti Socialist". 

The French constitution in 2012 allowed for 11 Members of its National Parliament to represent citizens who live outside France. Charlotte has lived in the UK for the past 8 years and helped elect Axelle Lemaire as Northern Europe (including UK) representative in 2012. In April this year Axelle is now the French Government Secretary of State for Digital Affairs. 

As a young women, mother and now Minister, Axelle has received a lot media attention and questions. 

Interestingly, Charlotte explained that in France, political parties face fines if they do not have parity of political representation for women. Companies face audits as well on pay gaps between men and women which can also result in fines. Some organisations prefer to pay the fines rather than change.

She noted that in the UK Ed Miliband now has 33% of Labour MP's who are women compared in only 3% in 1982.  But in the UK women have been far more affected by austerity than men by 3:1.

The second speaker was Violeta Vajda who was a candidate for the Green Party in the recent European Elections. Violeta has a Romanian and Hungarian, part Roma background. She thought it was good to speak to so many men at this meeting about "Women and Power" (there were 9 men present and only 4 women I am afraid). 

Violeta thought that things had changed and every women she met during the recent Euro campaign regardless of Party was a feminist. However, she praises the men who stand behind women. Green MP Caroline Lucas who was arrested during a protest alongside her son. Parenting is a political activity. She is only here tonight because her mother is looking after her son.

In the Q&A I asked Charlotte for more details about the fines on political parties if they do not have gender parity. She said that it was a good principle but like in housing development in France, 20% of all new properties are supposed to be for social housing. Developers will only build 5% social housing and pay the fine. 

I challenged Violeta about her comment that all the women candidates she meet were "feminists" since I have come across a number of women in politics who express a very dismissive "Margaret Thatcher" style attitude to feminism? Violeta responded by saying that some women will indeed "sell their soul" to win political office but privately they will admit that they are feminists.

This was yet another great Newham Compass event with intelligent and thoughtful speakers who have challenging ideas and views that we may not always agree with but want to listen to and then debate. Many, many thanks to Christopher for organising these events and for Graham for chairing.

A breath of fresh air.

"Women & Power in Europe" Compass in Newham debate 24 June 2014

This looks really good but I have a union clash in the evening so not sure if I can make it. I only know Newham Councillor Farah Nazeer, who is an intelligent and thoughtful speaker.

The meeting is being Chaired by former Newham Councillor Graham Lane, whose excellent book "How Different Governments Have Weakened Local Government and Democracy" I have recently finished reading and will post upon soon.

"Trident: What its for?" Newham Compass and Fabian Debate

This picture is from the debate organised on Trident by Newham Compass and Fabians last week.

Kate Hudson from CND and Labour Party Councillor (and NEC member) Luke Akehurst debated the proposed Trident Nuclear submarine and missile programme.

Former Newham Cllr (and budding author) Graham Lane (middle of photo) chaired the meeting.

Luke went first and started by arguing that he is not here to argue for the use of nuclear weapons rather it's role in deterring such war. While there is no current threat Trident is an insurance policy for the next 40 years, since who knows what threats we will face during this time interval.

He agrees that the world would be a much better place if there was no nuclear weapons but believes that this is more likely to happen if there was multilateral rather than unilateral disarmament. Since no one would care if we disarmed by ourselves. If you have a deterrence you can negotiate it away but if you haven't got it & then find you need it to face a threat then it will be too late.

Trident lite nuclear solutions make pre-emptive strikes more likely & more dangerous than not having nukes. The total cost of Trident should be viewed over its entire lifetime - 0.3% of total government budget.

Kate was not having any of this and costed Trident at £3 billion per year for 30 years. The equivalent of 30,000 new homes being built each year which could provide 60,000 jobs.

She believes that even the UK Military top brass are worried about opportunity cost of Trident and that the UK cannot have Trident and be an useful military ally. Former Labour minister Des Brown thinks we cannot afford Trident. She points out that even Tony Blair admitted that that having Trident is not about defense but about national status.

Having any nuclear weapons is just too dangerous. If we think we need them then so will other countries.

The debate and Q&A that followed was civilised and courteous unlike similar debates I remember from my youth. As an aside I pointed out in the Q&A that myself and Terry Paul (a Newham Councillor who was also present) were "cold war warriors" who had spent part of our misspent youth in the 1980s as members of the British Territorial Army. Who at the time were trained to defend the German plains and stop the possible advance of hordes of Soviet tanks.

At the time I didn't think we would have much success in this role nor the reassurance we were given that don't worry if nuclear weapons were being used in the battlefield because as long as we had 18 inches of earth above our trenches, we were perfectly safe from anything apart from a direct hit! ...Yeah.

Local Government - deepening & strengthening Democracy

This should be a good event on 26 October 2010 run by Newham Compass.

The panel includes Cllr Steve Reed (Leader of Lambeth Council); Graham Lane (former Cllr and Chair of Education LBN); Cllr Sam Tarry (LB Barking & Dagenham and Chair of Young Labour) and Cllr Paul Brickell (LBN).

See post on past Newham Compass debate.