Labour Leader confused over Academy Schools et al
I spoke representing the Lib Dems at a small public meeting hosted by the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) in Shakespeare Hall yesterday evening. Alongside me was Albert Nugent, Labour Leader of Durham County Council. The Conservatives were invited but failed to send anyone.
In my speech I mentioned my opposition to Academy Schools and particularly those sponsored by the Emmanuel Schools Trust (funded by the Vardys and promoting whacko ideas about evolution).
This elicited a strange response from Albert. He agreed with me. He was also against Academy Schools.
Why strange? Because Durham County Council, led by him, has just decided to proceed with two Academy Schools and are still looking at a third!
No wonder things are going off the rails at County Hall.
The other thing I found out was that the County are in discussion with the Civil Service about using a building at Aykley Heads to deal with ID cards. The building concerned is the detached council block where the County Library Service used to be run from.
Apparently this could attract another 500 workers onto the County Hall site with who-knows-what impact on traffic and parking in local streets.
The thing that annoyed me is that my County Council division includes County Hall, yet no-one in the administration had the courtesy to let me know what was going on so that I could represent the serious and legitimate concerns that residents of North End already have about parking and transport issues.
Yet another cavalier example of how Labour deals with local people.
2 Comments
have your say
How then do you square that with the Lib Dems’ national policy of wanting every school to be an Academy?
This is not national policy. There has been a debate on the issue following a paper by a think-tank called Reform.
Nick Clegg did indeed express support in the following terms: “there is “nothing wrong with allowing schools to exist outside direct daily local government management - as long as they are under local government oversight”.
This is a long way from the Labour and Conservative models of Academy Schools.
Also note that settled Lib Dem policy is made by our Party Conference, unlike Labour and Conservative where it is shoved down members throats by the party leadership.
At the recent spring conference in Liverpool a discussion on Academies found them roundly condemned by most conference representatives who spoke.
So I maintain my position. Schools achieve excellence from top class leadership and not from organisational gimmicks.
The least successful school in the north east (according to the Northern Echo recently) is Unity Academy, Middlesbrough.
I rest my case!