The First Day of Term - for Parliament That Is
Schools across the UK return today, along with MPs at Westminster
It is sometimes tempting to say that kids in school are better behaved than Members of Parliament are in the House of Commons.
Both return today (Monday 4 September) and there is a keen focus on both in the news media.
The kids probably win over MPs, for turning up, paying attention, and generally behaving, whereas children in some schools won’t be able to turn up today, due to the lack of attention by MPs of recent Governments.
As we enter a new term for both institutions, around 100 schools across England will be partially or completely closed due to a scare about their construction. At the end of last week, it was announced that around 100 schools had buildings constructed using potentially unsafe concrete. The concrete, known as RAAC, has a tendency to crumble and last week, was considered too dangerous to allow children back to school.
Listening to certain parts of the mainstream media over the weekend, this was the leading story at the end of the annual silly season for news when, generally, there isn’t any news. This resulted in some journalists filling pages and airtime with ridiculous statements to build up a frenzy.
One radio journalist on a phone-in programme was heard by the Peacock Report team saying “school buildings which are going to collapse”. They are not going to collapse, the accurate truth is that some may collapse. The going to collapse phrase was used over and over by the broadcaster, which does nothing but stir up fear in parents who have children of school age.
The real question here is who built these schools with the RAAC material in the first place and whether they lack the right level of maintenance.
Needless to say, Labour blames the Conservatives entirely for the current situation.
What they conveniently ignore, (that’s politics by the way) is that RAAC has been used in schools and other buildings pretty much since the end of the war. That means successive governments of both colours have been responsible for construction during their time in office. Today’s situation with these school buildings can’t be laid 100% in front of the Tories.
What can be put in front of the Conservatives, is a lack of maintenance budgets for school repairs, along with a lack of building new schools over the past 13 years in power.
A full list of schools affected was not released by the Department of Education over the weekend, while schools were asked to check their buildings for RAAC. Now, correct me if I am wrong here, but I somehow doubt that the average school head has the vaguest clue on how to identify and decide whether their buildings are made from RAAC or whether they are safe to use today. Heads have about as much knowledge of concrete, as ministers do on planning a school lesson.
The blame game will rattle around the House of Commons today as they return from the summer break and MPs will no doubt be rowdy and disruptive ‘in class’ while hundreds of children miss the first days of their new terms and in many cases, new schools.
In Other News
Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer is due to shuffle his shadow cabinet today, on the first day of the new Parliamentary term. This will see some of his MPs promoted and others demoted, with some taking on positions where they have little knowledge or experience. Those new shadow ministers will instantly be in the firing line from their opposite numbers in the House, who will by now have gained at least some experience in their role. Surely, it would make some sort of sense to have done the shuffle a week or two ago, to give those in new positions some sort of chance to learn about the new shadow department.
Saturday saw 872 migrants using 15 boats cross the Channel and land in England. This is the highest number for a day in 2023. According to government data, 20,372 people have landed using 436 small boats since the start of the year, also revealing that the number is slightly down from 2022.
A by-election is due in the Mid-Bedfordshire seat formally held by Narine Dorries. The writ for the election is likely today, with a date in mid-October expected. At least seven candidates have so far declared their interest in standing for the vacant seat.
And that . . . is politics.