Alison Bennett's Monday Mail - Young people ask the best questions
Welcome to my Monday Mail for 13 May 2024, as I share a few of the things I've been doing and thinking about this past week, including speaking with young people and asking you to consider joining the Liberal Democrats.
Young people ask the best questions
I am convinced that young people ask the best questions. I have visited The Burgess Hill Academy and Burgess Hill Girls in the last ten days, (and today I am going to Downlands Community School) and I was so impressed by the students that I met and the questions that they asked me. Primary school visits draw on your wits even more because the next question could genuinely be about anything. Trying to explain planning law in terms that a room of seven and eight year olds might understand is something that has stayed with me even though that particular conversation was at least two years ago.
I learn alot from these visits, both from what the pupils tell me, but also by having conversations with teachers, governors and parents. It is clear that the pandemic continues to cast a long shadow over young people. Considerable learning has been lost, anxiety and poor mental health has risen, and social norms have changed. Government figures show 150,000 children at state schools were classed as severely absent in 2022-23, 30,000 more than the year before and 150% higher than the 60,000 who were severely absent in 2018-19, before the pandemic.
What’s the solution? Blaming the parents as the Education Secretary did this week isn’t going to turn things around. Talk to the people running our schools and they will tell you that they feel that they are on the front line, supporting children and their families, and going far beyond just teaching lessons. Schools need the resources - human, physical and financial to be able to do this. You can find out more about what the Liberal Democrats propose including investing in a mental health practitioner in every school here.
Join me - an experiment
I read a Robert Colville column in the Sunday Times last week about the troubles of the Conservative Party. His argument was that rather than fixate on Sunak’s leadership or goings on in Westminster, the focus should be on the health of the Conservatives as a grassroots membership organisation.
One passage piqued my interest:
I’ve been involved in politics for quite a while. In all that time the Conservative Party has never actually asked me to join it. Even when, back in the 2010s, I answered the question, “How will you be voting?” with, “I’m a senior leader writer at The Daily Telegraph”, there was no attempt by the canvasser to sell me a membership.
It’s not just me. Over the years I’ve asked dozens of Conservatives and Conservative sympathisers: business leaders, special advisers, cabinet ministers, activists and people actually working in party HQ. Not a single one was actively invited to join.
It made me realise that here in Mid Sussex we aren’t that good at actually asking our supporters to join the Liberal Democrats. So I am going to do that today:
You’re someone who is interested enough to be reading my weekly email, so if you aren’t already a member, will you join the Liberal Democrats?
For as little as £15 per year you can expect:
- Access to exclusive members only events and training.
- The right to pick your local candidates - and stand for election yourself.
- The right to vote at conference, make policy and shape our manifesto.
- To be kept informed about Liberal politics through regular emails and twice-yearly copies of the Liberal Democrat magazine, delivered to you for free.
I joined the Liberal Democrats in 2015. Quite simply, it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. It’s enabled me to meet people, go to places and learn things that otherwise would never have crossed my path. Will you join me today?
Best wishes,
Cllr Alison Bennett
Prospective Parliamentary Candidate
Mid Sussex Liberal Democrats
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