Letter from Parliament

Jim Dobbin MP

Gordon Brown’s aim is to make Britain a world leader in education. In his Mansion House keynote speech, he outlined his education plans. He said that to achieve this we need to ensure that for the first time every young person has a clear pathway from school to a career. This can be either through college or university and then a profession or through an apprenticeship and skilled work.

Gordon revealed that a new council for educational excellence will take the lead in mobilising support from employers, universities and colleges to raise standards in all our schools. There will be a clear focus on mastering the basics, personal classroom teaching, strong discipline and diversity in schools. This is extremely encouraging and I know that he will build on the successes we have had in education in the last ten years. I think these measures will be good for my constituency and the U.K.; equipping people with skills they need in the modern world.

Gordon Brown’s measures include:

• For the first time all young people in Britain will be offered education to 18.
• Improved vocational education through diplomas in subjects like engineering or construction.
• Increased investments with an aspiration to spend one pound in every ten of government spending on education.
• A new council for educational excellence bringing together leaders in business, higher education and the voluntary sector alongside school heads, teachers and parents.
• For pupils at risk of falling behind, early intervention and special support to help them keep pace.
• A new programme for literacy and numeracy.
• Access to after school small group tuition in subjects they are interested in.
• A programme for gifted and talented pupils.
• More support for excellence in teaching.
• Extending the programme for the best graduates to encourage men and women of talent to move in to teaching.
• Strong measures on discipline and boundaries to be set on what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

The Prime Minister is committed to putting education at the top of his agenda.

The new Prime Minister has taken over at a most difficult time and has had to face the problems of the London and Glasgow car bombs and the serious flooding in Yorkshire. Not an easy baptism. On both issues he has shown a calm, determined strength in his character and has handled both issues with certainty.

The fight against terrorism no matter where it comes from has to be dealt with in the strongest possible way. Every one of us has to be vigilant in our everyday life as exemplified by the ambulance crew who discovered the car bomb outside the London club. I know our Asian community in this borough deprecate terrorist activities.

My constituents in Heywood, Middleton and Norden, who have been flooded twice recently, sympathise with those thousands of families in Yorkshire who have lost everything, some even their lives.

I accept that the rain was extraordinary and relentless but the government needs to review the capacity of our drainage systems to handle heavy downpours. Planning applications for new housing developments also need strongest regulatory procedure enforced by local planning departments. The water companies need to be obliged to invest more resources on capacity improvements and preventative measures. Floods blight family homes and destroy victims’ quality of life.

The Prime Minister has indicated his plans for a new constitutional debate through intensive consultation and a return to parliamentary democratic debate. The Government also announced plans to review the face of change in the N.H.S but emphasised the need to continue change when necessary. This is the proper way to improve services for local communities.

The Secretary of State for Education also announced improved support for students in higher education. The threshold for full grants will be open to families earning up to £25,000 instead of £7,500. 50,000 more students each will receive full grants when the system is up and running. Families earning up to £60,000 per year will also benefit. This will ensure more than 100,000 extra students will receive a partial grant. In total 250,000 students will gain from these changes when they are introduced.

I note that STORM, a local rail campaign group, support the use of the Castleton Corus site as a transport interchange. I have long thought this was a good idea and could take much road freight off the motorways and provide much needed local jobs. I talked to our local regeneration officers some years ago about this possibility. There are grants available for this kind of development.

The site is ideally placed in the centre of the country and adjacent to railway and motorway systems and is midway between the ports of Liverpool and Hull.

Together with David Chaytor MP and Janet Anderson MP, I am in discussion with the Passenger Transport Association about opening the line from Bury through Heywood/Castleton to Victoria, Manchester. This is a long term plan but worth pushing.

On Saturday 3 June, I attended the opening of the Mega Mela at Bowlee. It was the beginning of the Langley Festival week. Unfortunately it was celebrated in a deluge of rain. However, as always it was a very colourful event with dancing and music. The organisers, Multi Asian Arts have to be congratulated.

On Tuesday 3 of July I had breakfast with the Italian Ambassador to discuss the setting up of a new British Italian Parliamentary Group and he arranged for myself and one other MP to travel to Rome on the ninth to discuss the issue with our counterparts in the Italian Parliaments. I shall report on progress in a future article.

On Thursday 5 July I had breakfast with four other Manchester MPs and the BBC executives to be briefed on the BBC move to Media City at Salford Quays. This will be a huge benefit for the North West in job opportunities and training.

Saturday 7 was very busy, beginning with a surgery at 9am at Heywood Civic, then moving on to open the fun day at Langley, alongside Kim Caldwell, a local girl who has suffered from a rare form of bone cancer and is an inspiration to the local community. I have met Kim a few times, she is a talented poet and a great role model for her community.

I then went for a fleeting visit to St. James’s Ashworth where they were holding a garden party. I had time for a quick hello before moving on to Roeacre House, Roch Valley Way for their Summer Fair and then on to Darnhill Festival at Heywood Community School to draw their raffle. Rick Walker and his team together with the Darnhill Festival association pulled out all the stops to provide a fantastic event.

Back in Westminster, Tuesday evening [10 July] to welcome the Mayor and Mayoress and Councillor Ann Metcalfe to have dinner with myself and Paul Rowen MP.