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2020vision Merchants Connected ArchivesGTX Parliament Trip 2011
On a chilly Tuesday morning nine Lower Sixth pupils set off to Westminster with Mr Sutcliffe to take part in the post-16 conference, a national conference designed to get students more interested in the workings of Government. Having fallen victim to Britain's rail system (and Mr Sutcliffe's map reading abilities) we arrived 45 minutes late, but came just in time to hear the end of a speech by the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, where he tried to uphold the Speaker's neutrality by telling us what he used to think (when he was allowed to have an opinion) but not what he thought now. After that was a workshop excitingly titled ‘Show me the money', in which each group was allocated a Chamber of Government, and had to prioritise the budget for different chamber policies, after which we were split up and had to argue the case for out Chamber against other chambers. Having been allocated the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport we were up for a difficult debate, but managed to heartlessly steal budget off the Health Department to finance our Theatre Scheme. After the workshop (and the revelations that we would no longer have free healthcare, so that we could have free sports equipment for schools) there was a Question Time on the subject of the media's impact in politics. Unsurprisingly, the MP was less than complimentary about certain newspapers, but some searching questions from the crowd sparked some intriguing debate. Another workshop followed, the equally excitingly titled ‘Whose vote is it anyway?', a role-play designed to allow students to understand the differing pressures a politician faced. Having cast our votes as to whether to vote for our party, or for our constituency, we were asked for the reasons behind our decisions. Aaron Bush, when asked, acted like a true politician and diverted the question to Simon MacAdam who, again like a true politician, made something up on the spot. Finally we were treated to a Q&A session with the Labour MP for Tottenham who, after giving us his verdict on the Conservatives' cuts, felt the full force of Simon's rebuke, as he was challenged forcefully on Labour's true motives. Q&A session over (and Simon suitably disenfranchised with Labour) we set off back home, having taken part in an event that will stand us in good stead when trying to comprehend the future of politics.
Joe Mansour