From the Chair, JOHN AUSTIN
We have been successful in recruiting a number of new members from ex-MPs who left Parliament at the December election. New volunteers include former Cabinet Ministers & junior ministers, chairs and members of Select Committees and several prominent former front benchers. This will greatly assist our ability to respond to requests for speakers.
Several members have now signed up to volunteer for the Speakers for Schools (S4S) programme and a number of our new members have expressed interest and will be contacted by S4S. The most recent S4S event was a visit by Victoria Borwick to Haberdashers’ Aske’s Knights Academy, a secondary school (formerly Malory School) on the borders of Lewisham and Bromley in London.
We have now established firm links with Exeter and Brunel Universities and are in discussions with Leeds University about a possible programme in the next academic year. We still offer our standard format (i.e. sending two speakers from different parties to talk about the legislative process, how parliament works, the role of MPs etc., followed by a spontaneous question and answer session) but increasingly we are responding to requests for speakers on specific topics and tailoring our contributions to meet the needs of the curriculum.
We had very positive feedback from the The Ursuline College in Westgate, Kent following the contributions from Nicholas Bennett and Derek Wyatt at a 6th form conference for criminology students in November and we are now positively asking for feedback from all institutions when we send speakers. We will also be asking all our speakers to send us an evaluation of their sessions.
In November, Adrian Sanders and Dr Edmund Marshall participated in a meeting on the work of Parliament with one of the student societies at the University of Exeter, “Model Westminster, Exeter”. We have recently approached the national “Model Westminster” organisation to publicise our services.
Two sessions have been held at Brunel University for students on a new Modern British Politics module. The first was held on 6 December with Tim Janman and Tom Levitt on the impact of Brexit on politics, party allegiance and political parties and the second on 31 January with Nicholas Bennett and Bridget Prentice on the role of Members of Parliament and the functions of MPs as both legislators and representatives of their constituencies. The session also examined the capacity of MPs to be representative of under-represented/minority groups. Brunel hopes to arrange two further sessions in 2020, one on the role of the Civil Service and the other on campaigning and elections.
A programme was also arranged with the University of Exeter for their Parliamentary Studies students with Phyllis Starkey on 20 February, Adrian Sanders on 5 March & Tim Janman on 19 March. There will also be a college-wide seminar later in the year with Bridget Prentice on electoral systems, voter registration and the work of the Electoral Commission. Further sessions are being planned for the autumn term.
We also responded to a request from the Overseas Department of the House of Commons to provide two speakers, Nicholas Bennett and Keith Best, for an incoming group of Parliamentary interns from Canada. We are following up on the Canadian visit by discussing possible future partnership working with the Overseas Office of the House of Commons.
In June, Nicholas Bennett and John Austin were due to participate in a session for a group of students from the Louisiana State University on the London leg of their European Study Visit. Regrettably this has been postponed due to travel restrictions imposed due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
We have also made approaches to both the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University. Members have also provided contacts at LSE, Plymouth, Wrexham and Stirling and through Gordon Banks of the Scottish Association of Former MPs, and with the assistance of Iain Luke, we are pursuing links with Dundee University and the Harris Academy in Dundee.
We would be pleased to hear from any members who have links/contacts at any universities.
Members can keep track of the Trust’s activities on our website at www.parlyoutreach.org.uk and can contact me at admin@parlyoutreach.org.uk
John Austin
PARLIAMENTARY OUTREACH TRUST 