Chapter Two

As I wrote HERE was due to happen, the question of the future of Strood's secondary schools came before a special meeting of the relevant Scrutiny Committee earlier this evening (checks clock: actually yesterday, now!) and we spent a good three hours looking at this question.

It was generally a very good meeting, with some really good input from the Head Teachers and Chairmen of Governors (rather unfortunately referred to as "chairs"!) of the two schools directly involved, plus a student from each.

Disappointingly, there was no-one present from the Hundred of Hoo School, who could have explained the two counter-proposals involving that school that had also been put forward, though neither of those turned out to be viable, as it turned out.

Interestingly, the Temple School representatives want an Academy (and had been working towards this for some five years, which I hadn't realised) whereas Chapter does not -- or, at least, not straight away. They propose a staged approach over several years, gradually merging the two schools ready to become an academy at that later date, which is a scheme they had thought out carefully.

I mentioned several things at the meeting:

• How my own Secondary School had been through something far worse, back in 1966
• My appreciation of, and general liking for, the SOCK proposal (that's "Support Our Chapter Kids")
• It would be best if we could pursue a course along the SOCK lines, if Ministers would allow this
• My oft-stated sadness at being dictated to by outsiders, as apparently has been done in this case
  

Throughout all this, I kept it as non-party political as I could (and I think I succeeded) whereas the Labour spokesman on the committee tried to turn the whole issue into a party political debate, and not exactly with any degree of subtlety (he really isn't very good, to put it frankly). He wasn't even able to recall what he had said previously during the evening, and was completely wrong-footed by the committee's vice-chairman who quoted his earlier statements back at him. It was a picture watching said Labour person scurrying through his written notes (script?) almost in a panic...

In the end, it was clear that the academy route was the only option that had been left open to us, so that is what we had to recommend to Medway Council's Cabinet -- but it was not the option I for one wanted to take! As so often happens in modern-day Britain, those at the centre dictate to everyone else -- largely because they hold the purse-strings and can lay down any conditions and restrictions they choose.

This is something I would scrap if I could. I don't believe in outsiders telling all and sundry what to do and how to do it, as you might have gathered by now. It is my single biggest gripe by far in political life, and I don't think any national political party has what I would consider a satisfactory policy on this question. Even so, it does seem that the Conservatives are well in front on this, and are the only party likely to be in a position to do anything about it in the reasonably near future.

I shall be watching them as well, though, as I expect them to agree that absolutely every local decision is to be made locally, with no pre-conditions and no external impositions whatsoever, under ANY circumstances. Oh, and all tax money to come to local communities, who will themselves decide just how much should go to a "federal" (nationwide) outfit, and to do what jobs -- and those only!

If we had that now, I believe we could solve the Strood schools issue more-or-less overnight. I'd create an Academy at Temple School now, and gradually bring the Chapter folk into this over the years that SOCK propose, building the new facility at Temple in the meantime (that last part of which is what is now being considered anyway). That would satisfy both schools' wishes, which no other approach could as they are (to a great extent) mutually exclusive.

See what true local democracy could achieve, given the chance?

A New Chapter?

There has been an issue with a couple of Strood's secondary schools for a while now. The question of what to do about (a) falling rolls and (b) the problems that Temple Boys' School had for a time is a tricky one.

The falling rolls business has been around for a few years now, owing to reduced birth rates that have impacted primary schools in recent years. This is now (unsurprisingly) shifting to secondary schools, as the reduced number of primary-age children come of age to progress to secondary level.

Okay, all of this is fairly obvious, when one knows a bit of the background. The problem is: what to do in the most acute situations such as in Strood, where one previously-failing secondary school (Temple) needs action to keep it viable.

Nearby is Chapter School, the female half of the Strood secondary-level equation. That school has a really good (and well-earned) reputation. Interestingly, both these schools have rather poor school buildings, and both could do with some new build. Unfortunately, the Government programme of "building schools for the future" has passed Medway by completely.

It is said that Medway will be included in this programme in or around the year 2016; but anyone who has been watching such initiatives in recent years will be well aware that they are always dropped after a few years -- once there are no more headlines in the offing. Therefore it is wise to assume that this will in reality never happen.

Meanwhile, where does this leave Strood's secondary schools? Well, frankly, it leaves them nowhere.

The small intake each year at Temple School makes it unviable in future, and it is an obligation on the Local Education Authority (LEA, which is Medway Council) to resolve the present situation. Under the prevailing circumstances, this seems to be possible only by merging with Chapter School. Interestingly, the principle of this is generally accepted, though not at a rush.

The problem here is that the LEA is required by Government diktat to deal with this matter pronto, and will not be allowed to phase a gradual change over a number of years, which would be our preference, and the preferred way according to (in particular) Chapter School's pupils, parents and staff. It's the way I'd personally prefer to go, remembering how my school was suddenly transformed into a Comprehensive School back in 1966, with the scrapping of its sixth form.

Reading the (socialist) writing on the wall, I gave up school, after a year of studying for A-levels, and went off to work instead. Again, that was a Labour Government diktat that dragged my (top of the area) secondary school down to the lowest (as it had been amalgamated with the worst in the area). No longer did we have precision metalwork as a craft: it became bricklaying (I kid you not -- I was there!)

This is why I have great sympathy with the SOCKS campaign that Chapter School has initiated, and am saddened that matters have been geared toward turning both schools into a merged so-called "Academy". Personally, I'd be prepared to forego the investment in new buildings if that would solve the problems and get the outside dictators off the schools' back. It has been made very clear to us that it would not. It isn't an option.

Now, to be fair, the Academies that are now being set up are a lot better than the first wave, and I have to admit are actually rather good! The shame about it all is that it is the only way to secure the necessary investment (and a direct conversation with the relevant Government Minister has confirmed this) especially for the new buildings that will be required to avoid the Government intervening directly and taking control of at least Temple (and eventually possibly both schools) away from local people.

Yes, it's a form of blackmail, and yes, it is not ideal; but if we retain control here, we can make it work well. However one feels about the Academy option, as things stand today it is the least bad option by far -- but that shouldn't be the case! Let this be a lesson in whether to allow outsiders of any kind to dictate to us, because that is the one and only really fundamental question.

Remember: I was here myself, some forty years ago. If you want to look it up, it was the amalgamation of my school (Canterbury Road) and Garth School, both in Morden, Surrey, in 1966. I therefore know what it's like, and will always work towards the best possible way forward, in spite of the pressures and threats aimed at us here on the Council whose intent is to undermine rather than to enhance.

In the words of Mr Bester in the Babylon 5 third-series episode Ship of Tears: "I won't have it!"

Reality Bites

I have just seen an article in one of the local newspapers showing the highly unsavoury Councillor Teresa Murray with her customary (and obviously) fake smile -- always enough to put one off one's supper...

The article was presumably intended to promote her electoral chances as Labour's parliamentary candidate for the Rochester and Strood seat -- as the Medway constituency will become known with effect from the next General Election -- after having been selected recently from an all-women short-list of candidates. I suppose this is a kind of self-publicising "start as you mean to go on" approach...

Her selection is of course a hardly-unexpected outcome, as a result of this female-only shortlist (as per Labour Party diktat -- they're good at that sort of thing). Not much competition, then, especially as the other two local elected candidates are both male, and the rest are unknowns. Realistically, who else stood a chance under those largely artificial conditions?

As usual with such articles, I flicked through it without particular interest, but was amused by Mrs Murray's contention that "Rochester and Strood is very much a Labour area."

This really is priceless!

Reality check: 18 of the 22 council seats that fall within this constituency are held by Conservatives. Two of the four Labour-held seats are on very small majorities: a mere 16 votes in Strood North, and 52 votes in River ward -- both of which will almost certainly be overturned next time, turning those wards completely blue, and leaving Labour in just one ward, if that.

The trend during recent years has been away from Labour and toward the Conservatives, especially in Strood, as successive local election results have clearly shown. Medway people are generally trading-up! Labour is the only party in permanent decline in Medway, as the above graph shows. This gives the proportion of seats held by each party at every election for Medway Unitary Authority, rather than the number of seats, so as not to be skewed by the reduction of overall number of seats from 80 to 55 a few years ago. Click on the graph for a larger version.

Note that the only reaon for the "plateau" in Labour's line in the graph between 2000 and 2003 is that it was the Labour Group's proposals for new boundaries that were accepted for the urban (i.e. most of) seats/wards in the Boundary Review, and -- surprise, surprise -- they had geared the new boundaries to favour themselves; hence some strange "niches and notches" in the new ward outlines.

Oh, and of course the Labour membership on Medway Council went down from 17 to 16 in between the 2003 and 2007 elections, when Cllr Rehman Chishti came over to the Conservatives. Looking at the trends, I'd say there's every chance that the LibDems will overtake Labour at Medway's next local elections, pushing Labour into third place and taking from them the mantle of main opposition group.

At parliamentary level, the same broad trend is well established in this part of the country. Indeed, the real reason that Bob Marshall-Andrews is not contesting the seat himself this time is because he knows he hasn't a chance of holding it. He even (erroneously) conceded defeat at the 2005 General Election, though a recount afforded him a very small win.

The future was (and still is) obvious to anyone with a working brain: Rochester and Strood (and neighbouring Gillingham and Rainham, which also nearly changed hands in 2005!) will almost certainly become represented by a Conservative MP after the next General Election -- whenever "Bottler" Brown has the guts to call that election.

Thus the sheer hubris of Mrs Murray (a characteristic that seems to be endemic within the Labour Party as a whole, as recent events have demonstrated so very well) is really no more than light entertainment for those of us with any kind of idea about what is going on and why.

Very few people want a Labour MP anywhere around the Medway area. There will always be those with a personal vested interest, especially (often misguided) Trade Union members, and some others with a chip-on-shoulder attitude, plus a few other categories -- but they are diminishing in numbers year by year, fading away into the previous millennium's historic perspective and nothing more.

The world -- and Medway -- will move on, and Labour will be left ever further behind at both local and (increasingly) national level. It's all "out there" for anyone with eyes to see, and the Teresa Murrays of this world will simply fade into history and obscurity, and rightly so.