News

.... a weekly column from Michael Howard MP

1 February 2007

 

Last Friday began with a meeting with Graham Badman. Mr Badman has overall responsibility for administering Kent County Council’s policies on education. Regular readers will know that there have been a number of occasions recently when I have had course to challenge these policies, or the way in which they were being implemented. Perhaps the most notable example was their proposal to close Harcourt and Selsted Primary Schools which, I am glad to say, I and others were successful in defeating. The meeting which I had with Mr Badman was intended to ensure that these differences did not occur in future. I hope it will succeed in achieving that objective. 

Very appropriately, after this meeting, I then visited two schools. First, I went to Lyminge to be shown a new scheme – Creative Partnerships – in action. Later I went to The Channel School to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. This was a very moving event with readings by pupils of several local schools and speeches by others. All praise to those involved in its organisation. 

On Friday evening I attended the Annual Dinner of the Sandgate Branch of the local Conservative Association where I talked about the current difficulties at the Home Office and how, in my opinion, they illustrate the difficulties faced across government and the reasons for the failure of the government to deliver on its promises across the board. 

On Saturday, after my regular advice centres, I went to Folkestone Harbour to have a look at the premises which have been made available by Roger de Haan for the Folkestone Youth Project. This is the end of a long search for premises which will enable the young people of Folkestone to have somewhere to go and keep them off the streets. It has taken a long time to reach this point but the wait looks like being well worth it. I am immensely grateful to Roger de Haan for his characteristic generosity in making these premises available. 

In the evening Sandra and I attended the Phoenix Ball at Lympne Castle in aid of Lympne School. This very successful event – the result of a great deal of hard work by some of the parents of children at the school – reminded us all of that terrible day last year when the school burned down, but miraculously everyone escaped unhurt and unharmed. 

I shall shortly be attending a meeting to discuss how we can persuade the government to insist on the provision of sprinklers in schools, to make a repeat of what happened at Lympne so much less likely.