Mary Reid

Today I was granted a meeting with the Mayor of Kingston, Desmond MacKenzie. We chatted about our common concerns - underfunding from central government for road repairs, managing longterm contracts, encouraging cultural tourism and the political uncertainties with elections this year.

But the talk inevitably turned to the problems of downtown Kingston, and the ward (division) he represents. The ongoing drug and gun fuelled violence has turned many streets that once formed the thriving administrative and cultural centre of the city into no-go areas. This has been exacerbated by political involvement, whereby the gangs and areas are each identified with one or other of the two main parties.

A struggling economy, held back by the difficulties of competing in the world market for sugar, bananas and coffee, means that unemployment is high. And the long coastline can swallow up drug and arms smuggling.

The education system could hold the key, but it is difficult to recruit well-trained teachers into the Basic (Nursery) and Primary schools because the pay is low. I am hopeful that links between our schools can be valuable for both Kingstons.

This will be my last posting from Jamaica as I will be flying back tomorrow evening.

The High Commissioner set up a working lunch for me today and invited a number of people who might be interested in developing links between the two Kingstons. 

These included  the Town Clerk and a leading councillor from Kingston (sitting on either side of me in the photo - she is the councillor) plus civil servants from the Ministry of Education and the equivalent of our Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.  Standing on the right is Les Green who was with the Met Police on Operation Trident but is now working for the Jamaican Police.

It was a fascinating conversation ranging over afterschool care and activities for children, youth offending, relationships between police, schools and local communities, quality of nursery provision, teacher exchanges - lots we can learn from each other.

This follows on from the meeting we had back home just after Christmas.

Although I'm in Jamaica visiting family, I am trying to develop some links between this Kingston and the Royal Borough.

Today I was invited to a meeting to discuss a proposed project in a primary school.  In the after school period children would get the chance to take part in arts/performance activities. It sounded very much like the enrichment programme at King Athelston Primary, so I hope to put the schools in touch with each other.

But there is one serious difference.  Although children in parts of my Kingston do suffer from various forms of disadvantage, it is nothing compared with the fear associated with everyday living in some parts of Kingston, Jamaica. Gun use is widespread, the murder rate is frightening, unemployment is endemic and when a job is found the wages are low, illiteracy rates are far too high. The areas are dominated by rival dons. Someone commented that it is a cross between Belfast during the Troubles and Sicily. Children are traumatised, demoralised and without options for the future.

I heard about several highly successful community projects which had tapped into the lines of influence and created street events that brought rival communities together. Using what had been learnt, the new project would be offered to children most at risk.

At the heart was a belief that I totally subscribe to - that children's lives can be transformed through the arts. Involvement in co-operative activities like drama, dance, murals and music can develop self-confidence and stimulate the intellect.  It can be the beginning of a life that questions the culture and breaks free from aggression.

A virus bearing email with a spoofed address has just gone out to councillors in Kingston, and maybe to local residents as well.  The problem is that it appears to come from my fellow ward councillor, Sue Baker, though her system is definitely not to blame.  Worse still, if the photos in the email get through spam filters they appear to be an invitation to a porn site.

Very amusing for fellow councillors who received it (although if sent to their council email addresses they will have been properly filtered), but highly embarrassing if they have gone to local residents. 

The GCSE league tables place Kingston once again right near the top with 67% gaining five or more A* to C grades. But as I said to the press, it is easy to become complacent and forget that each year a new cohort of young people have been working extremely hard, supported and encouraged by teachers and parents.

The value added figure is the most useful data about each school.  It compares each pupil's results at GCSE with their scores in Year 6.

If the pupils in a school have made progress that matches the national average for similar pupils then it is given a value added score of 1000.  So scores over 1000 mean that a school has stretched young people and raised their achievement, irrespective of how able they are.

In Kingston, Coombe Girls, Holy Cross, Tiffin Girls, Tiffin (Boys) and Tolworth Girls have high added value scores.

You can read the GCSE results for Kingston, or you can choose schools by name or near your postcode.

Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister, had announced that the five good grades this year should include English and Maths. On that basis Kingston scored 57%.  But these revised figures were NOT published by the DfES yesterday but instead obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.  Presumably the Government has cold feet as it would have depressed all the results.

The Surrey Comet makes a front page story today out of the delay in opening the Rose of Kingston theatre.  This was never the secret that the paper claims it was.  The theatre has always said that it would take a year to fit out the building, and it is obvious to anyone walking past the site that work has not yet begun.

Last summer the Council put together a financial package to enable the project to be finished.  It was only then that the lawyers got to work.  Any hopes of completing the legal agreements in a couple of months were soon dashed.  But I'm pleased to be able to say that everything is now in place, ready for the final transfer of funding from the three parties, General Mediterranean Holdings, Kingston Council and Kingston University.

In case anyone is puzzled about why this non-story has suddenly appeared at such length, they need only notice that the local elections will be in May.

In the article, my comments at Council last week are quoted, and it mentions that I am a trustee. It also says that Kevin Davis, leader of the Conservative group, is 'deeply concerned'. 

But it doesn't mention that Kevin was appointed last month as a trustee of the theatre. And that he has access to all the reports which would explain the delay. 

Odd, that.

For total ghastliness, ponder on this fact: Apparently the execution chamber in California does not have disabled access.

When I started teaching we all knew about List 99, the list of banned teachers.  We knew we would be put on it if we had been involved in any one of a range of serious crimes, not just child related ones. Long before the current obsession with sex abuse, the DfES recognised that anyone with a history of offences against the person should not be allowed to work in a school

I have already blogged about my own brush with a headteacher who was a sex offender.  Some further shocking stories have been emerging this week.

If today's Independent is to be believed, then a teacher with " homosexual, paedophilic and inappropriate" feelings towards young boys was removed from List 99 and given permission to teach in a girls school on the grounds that he had "no interest in girls".

If someone's moral judgment is so clouded that he thinks it appropriate to behave sexually towards a young child in his professional care, then he must never, ever, be placed in a position of trust in relation to anyone, least of all a young person. 

I've been out and about this morning chatting with local residents. Some have asked me about becoming a member of the Liberal Democrats and whether they can take part in the leadership election.

Anyone who joins before 25th January will get a vote.  But I am suggesting that people join the Liberal Democrats online to make sure it gets processed in time.

Ruth Kelly is in trouble. 

Child sex offenders have been high profile for years, and preventing sex offenders from working in schools was exactly the issue addressed in Sir Michael Bichard's enquiry after the Soham murders.  We have to remember that Ian Huntley had not actually been convicted, but had been implicated in and charged with a number of offences.  That should have been enough to prevent him from getting a job as a school caretaker. 

The revelation that some people have actually been appointed as teachers in spite of being on the sex offenders register fills me with total horror.

And I have reason to be concerned.  Many years ago I was a governor at an Inner London school.  The Head was convicted of sexual assault against one of his own pupils, and it seemed likely that the victim was only one of many.  This man was given a suspended sentence and walked free.

That experience has haunted me down the years.  Why had we, as governors, not realised what was going on?  Looking back, there were indications, and some oblique attempts at whistleblowing.  And what on earth did the judge think he was doing in giving him such a light sentence?

The climate of opinion has changed since then, but not enough, it seems.  Ruth Kelly must take decisive action on this, or go.

We need someone much stronger as Secretary of State.  Someone who can stand up to Blair over the dismantling of local control of schools, and someone who can truly put Every Child Matters at the heart of any reforms to schools.

So I checked out the Liberal Democrat category in Wikablog, and there was a Google ad lurking in the corner. 

Now in the Australian category, the ad sensibly offered cheap flights.

But why on earth did Google decide that LibDems were a suitable market for 'Free Instant Ordination'?

At full Council last night we had a question, followed by a short debate, about the progress towards opening the Rose of Kingston. 

I am a trustee of the theatre, and normally I have to declare an interest and leave the chamber when it appears on an agenda.  But because no decisions were being made I was able to contribute this time.

This is what I said:

In 1998 we were faced with a difficult choice.  This Council had a Section 106 agreement with St George’s to build the shell of a theatre.  But our application for £4M funding from the Arts Council to complete the building had been turned down. St George’s had offered us about £1M in lieu. If we took that, then our hopes of a theatre in Kingston would be lost forever.

 

The Council opted for a feasibility study.  Running theatres is a risky business, so it included a requirement that the new theatre would be “self-supporting in the revenue account”, and that still holds today.

 

I won’t rehearse the full history, but will comment that, after some initial and understandable nervousness, the project had the enthusiastic support of the leaders of the three parties.

 

To be frank, the Trust and the Council probably underestimated the difficulty of raising the capital from private sources.  So last summer the Council offered to provide capital support, mainly in the form of loans, to enable the project to finish. 

 

Of course, by that point the theatre was being lauded in the press.

 

We had, to my total astonishment, attracted one of the greatest theatre directors of our times, Sir Peter Hall, to run it.  He had masterminded a short season in the shell which showed just how special this building is and what its potential will be when finished.

 

To quote from the Telegraph:

 

"This exciting new theatre, brimming with potential, has got off to the best possible start … [it's] already a theatre that works brilliantly,"

 

And this from The Stage:

 

"Star of the show is the Rose of Kingston…. This perfect playing space… also seems completely of our own time."

 

But there are other reasons to rejoice even for those who do not share my love of the arts.

 

First, this theatre will position Kingston as one of the cultural leaders in the country.  That in itself will attract new commercial and artistic enterprises to the borough.

 

Second, it will transform the social landscape of the town centre, especially in the evenings.

 

Third, it will bring huge economic benefit, estimated according to an Arts Council calculation at £11M per annum to the businesses in the borough.

 

Fourth, the educational benefit will be enormous.

 

Ours will be the cheapest new theatre in the country – about half that of the Manchester Royal Exchange, for example.

 

This has been the most exciting project I have ever been involved with, and also the most nerve-racking.  But I am fully confident that not long from now we will be watching that first performance. 

 

And, as a trustee, I want say something to all of you who will have helped that happen.  Whether you have been committed to it from the word go, whether you have expressed helpful words of caution, whether you have been prepared to take a risk because you recognise the benefits it could bring – whatever you have done to make this vision come true – thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Some excellent news! Chessington Community College is to be completely rebuilt by 2008.  At the same time, some new building will be done at Tolworth Girls School and Southborough Boys School so that the three schools can together provide sixth form courses.

A couple of months ago I was completely taken by surprise when the DfES announced that it was giving a grant of £23million to Kingston to rebuild a secondary school.

This is part of the Building Schools for the Future programme which promises to rebuild or remodel all the country's secondary schools.  As usual, Kingston had been put at the end of the queue, with no chance of getting started until at least 2011.  Then out of the blue the DfES decided to give a sweetener to 12 councils in the same position as us.

The funding has to be used to rebuild an existing school, so can't be used to provide a new school, much as parents in the north of the Borough would like one.  The choice of school had to be based on building needs and on the potential for improving educational achievements. We are allowed to use some of it to support collaborative ventures, such as the joint sixth form.

The proposal is coming to Executive next Tuesday for formal approval.

The photo shows the South of the Borough Lib Dem councillors celebrating the cash for Chessington Community College.  From left: myself, then Cllrs Rolson Davies, Martin Blakebrough, Vicki Harris, Rob Lee, Sue Baker, Tricia Bamford.

Martin Tod has written a good analysis of the online tools that could be used to support a leadership contender.  The Howard Dean campaign has dramatically changed the thinking of all political parties about online campaigning. Martin himself has created Flock Together, the Lib Dem version of one of the tools widely used during the Dean campaign.

I've just been approached to see if I could develop a leadership campaign website. Sadly I've had to say 'no' because I have a tight deadline for a book I'm writing, and I'm then going to be out of the country for a while. The timing is just wrong.

This is a great opportunity to explore e-democracy for internal party use, using the framework that Martin has given us.  Anyone up for it?

I am very sorry to hear that Tony Banks is seriously ill following a stroke and unlikely to recover. 

I remember him from the early days at the University of York.  We were only 500 students then and Tony was a very visible player in student politics. I wasn't involved in those days - this was the period leading up to widespread student protests and only the far left carried any credibility.

Tony Banks continued through life as an impassioned anti-establishment leftwinger.  He was an amusing and colourful character, who, of course, would never manage to last for too long in a government post. 

We need people like him in politics for two reasons.  Individualists keep politics alive through challenge, but they also makes it fun (and we haven't had much of that recently)

Charles Kennedy's speech today was dignified, if a few days late. I wish him well, and I am sure he will return to the front benches in time.

On a local note, Edward Davey has just announced that he will not be standing in the leadership election.  By yesterday he was being given odds of 7:1 by some of the online betting sites, so I'm sorry that he isn't having a go.  But as things are emerging it does look as though people are uniting behind Ming Campbell, and that would be no bad thing for the party.

Charles Kennedy has been an excellent figurehead for the party and has been very popular with Lib Dem voters.  His love of a few drinks was hardly a secret, neither was the fact that on occasions he was the worse for wear.  But it was certainly not obvious to most of us that he had such a serious alcohol problem. It clearly has been difficult for the MPs, and for some time they have been protecting him and covering up.

Vince Cable is someone I have respected ever since apparently I was seen on the breakfast news hugging him after he was elected in 1997...it was filmed at 5am and I think I may have had a few by then, anyway.  He tried to impress on Kennedy, in private, the views of the 11 frontbenchers, including our own Ed Davey, who had signed his letter, but to no effect.

Kennedy should have resigned when he made his statement yesterday.  He would have left with dignity and with considerable public sympathy.  He was wrong to try to remain in power by calling for an election but then saying that he would stand again, because a number of credible contenders have already said that they would not stand directly against him.

They say that all political careers end in failure, but politicians can bow out with integrity and with their reputations intact.  Sadly Charles Kennedy is going to be remembered as the leader who was forced out very publicly by his own team.

My fellow councillor Liz Shard gave birth to Poppy Victoria yesterday. Both are doing well.

Many congratulations to Liz and Michael!

Can anyone tell me where I can get a copy of the famous, but very kitsch, Ambassador's Party TV ad for Ferrero Rocher?

My cousin recently took up the post of British High Commissioner (equivalent to ambassador in Commonwealth countries) to Jamaica and Bahamas. Of course, everyone has been giving him boxes of Ferrero Rocher, and I have to admit to this highly unoriginal idea myself when we saw him at Christmas.  But his partner, Barbara, is German and never saw the ad when it was screened in the UK. I would like to get it on a DVD or from the Web, so we can show her why she is being overwhelmed by these rather tasty, but absurdly packaged, chocolates.

So who is in the photo.....

From left: John Azah (Director, Kingston Racial Equality Council), Dr Barbara Munske, Derek Osbourne (Leader of the Council), Cllr Yogan Yoganathan (Mayor), Jeremy Cresswell (British High Commissioner), Saro Yoganathan (Mayoress), myself, Prabha Shetty (KREC)

John was sent to Kingston, Jamaica, a couple of months ago with Sir Ian Blair's team, who were providing support for the local police.  Whilst there John met Jeremy and they discovered the Kingston/Reid connection.  Since then we have been chatting about the potential for cultural and other links between the two Kingstons, culminating in this meeting with the Mayor last week.