School children ask pertinent questions!

Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Thu 4th Feb 2010

A group from Selwood School visited the Houses of Parliament this week and asked me questions about life as an MP and areas of policy, questions which wouldn't have disgraced an adult audience.

What is always amazing about schoolchildren is the sophistication and interest they show, and the refreshing refusal to accept a glib or a fudged response. So we covered whether I thought taxes were too high (yes, I did, at least for people on the lower end of the income scale), whether we were doing enough to combat climate change (no, neither locally, nationally or, most importantly, internationally), and whether the scandals of MPs expenses and the like will make people less likely to vote (sadly, probably true, although the right response ought to be a steely determination to support those committed to putting things right).

Another pupil asked me if I thought we needed to spend more on schools. Yes, I think we should, and I think there's money in the education system that should be redirected to the sharp end. But I also think schools funding should be distributed more fairly. Somerset loses out from a schools funding system which is basically unfair, with every pupil in a Somerset school funded several hundred pounds each year less than the national average, and thousands of pounds less than some leafy London suburbs. That strikes me a bad deal for schools like Selwood.