Young PPCs week 5: Emily Benn

1st March, 2010 by Emily Benn

I can hardly believe it has been a month since I last wrote a blog for this site; over the past four weeks I have been trying to engage with as many constituents as possible, work with my local Labour Party, and support the national party as we enter the final months before the general election.

The Labour Party have set up a website called Change We See which allows people to upload pictures of the results of Labour’s record investment in public services and communities nationwide. Examples already posted include Brighton’s Jubilee Library (which has won fourteen awards since opening in 2005) and the Liverpool Echo Arena & Convention Centre, opened in 2008. There is no doubt that this record investment over the lifetime of this Labour Government has delivered real change on the ground in communities

across the country. Programmes such as ‘Building Schools for the Future’ have transformed tired, old school buildings into 21st century centres of learning excellence. Hospitals have been rebuilt with world-leading facilities for patient care. The hospital at which I was born, Mayday University Hospital, has also been revolutionised by a new day surgery unit; the new unit was opened in 2005, providing a reassessment centre, a DSU ward and four theatres.

In a couple of weeks time I am going to visit a local secondary school in the constituency to talk to their year 13 students, which I am very pleased about and looking forward to . This particular school has recently become an Academy; an education policy of which I believe this Labour government can be rightly proud. Thanks to the Academies programme, sponsors from a wide
range of backgrounds – including high performing schools and colleges, universities, individual philanthropists, businesses, and the voluntary sector – can become involved in the running of schools, in partnership with experienced school managers. What is particularly effective is that each academy is unique, because of the programme’s focus on fitting each academy to its community and circumstances, and not applying a ‘broad brush’ approach to all schools nationwide. The two academies in Shoreham were only established in September 2009, and I hope and believe they will go on to become one of the many success stories to come out of the academies programme. Indeed, academies have had real success, breaking the culture of low aspiration which afflicts too many communities and their schools. The 36 Academies which have been open long enough to have results in both 2007 and 2008 have seen an increase of 11.5% of year 11 gaining 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE and equivalent (up to 55.2%) – more than twice the increase seen nationally.

Last week I had a really great time talking to local residents and constituents at a campaign day out in the constituency, on the day of the excellent local farmers’ market. It is vital for PPCs of all parties to go out into the community to hear people’s concerns, thoughts and hopes for their community and their country – and I was very grateful for the support of my local party members who came to help out. I had a lot of questions about securing our economic recovery, along with recognition of the help Labour has been giving to pensioners over the winter. I had a lovely chat to one pensioner who came up to thank Labour for his Free Bus Pass, which allows him to travel to see friends around the south coast, and for his Free TV Licence! It is really rewarding to have these kinds of conversations, where you know that politics has really made a positive difference to someone’s life. This principle – that politics should be there to stand up for the vulnerable in society, and to make people’s lives easier – has always been incredibly important to me. Increasing the Winter Fuel Payment to £400 for over-80s households and £250 to the over-60s, and trebling the value of Cold Weather Payments this year - when as we all know the cold weather we’ve had made this all the more necessary – provided real help to those who needed it most over this freezing winter, and it is just one of the many reasons I am so proud and honoured to be standing for Labour in the coming election.

Anyway, life is getting busier by the day, with many more campaign activities, fundraising, leafleting and visits planned, but I am looking forward more than ever to the campaign in the next two months!

Tags: Labour, PPC