Discussion Meeting 8th December

Bob Heath

                              DRONFIELD LABOUR PARTY DISCUSSION MEETING


TOPIC:            NEWS FROM NOWHERE :
                                            IS LABOUR GOING ANYWHERE ?

SPEAKER:      BOB HEATH

TIME:               8pm to 9.15pm

DATE:              SUNDAY, 8th DECEMBER 2013

VENUE:           CONTACT CLUB, SNAPE HILL LANE, DRONFIELD

Bob is a regular attender at our discussion meetings and his term "blather" is used to describe this discussion group's blog. He has had wide experiences in the Labour Party as Chair of the Constituency, Parliamentary Agent, Councillor and activist. He started work as a Derbyshire Miner and attended Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Classes. After a period as an adult student, he became a tutor at Sheffield University and Director of Studies for the Derbyshire Miner's Classes which he had at one time attended.

School of Democratic Socialism

The School of Democratic Socialism (SDS) will be holding two separate (but related) meetings on Friday, June 15, at the Aspect Court building [Room 15104] of Sheffield Hallam University.

Aspect Court is on Pond Hill, which runs past the bus Interchange, down towards the ring road and railway line. There will be an afternoon seminar at 14.00 hours on the question of Money and Finance: the Economic Crisis. John Halsteadl has prepared a brief paper to provide a focus for the discussion. Allowing for a break, the afternoon session should end by 16.30 at the latest.

This will be followed in the evening, at 19.00, by Linda McAvan, MEP, speaking on The Future of Europe, under the SDS general theme of 'there has to be a better way forward!'.

This is in advance the SDS preparing its programme for 2012-13. The two themes are related and require a greater political response than we seem to be getting from the political parties. There will be ample opportunity for you to express your views and we hope you can attend. Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone who may be interested.

Aspect Court has a reception, which is manned until 17.00 hours. SHU rent rooms on the first floor, while others occupy the top two floors. There is a porter on the door, who controls admittance after 17.00. The entrance to the Aspect Court building is opposite the old Queen's Head public house.

Those attending both the 14.00 and 19.00 hour sessions, may wish to make arrangements in-between the sessions for a snack and/or drink.

For background on the first year of the School of Democratic Socialism see here.

John Halstead, Ken Curran and Harry Barnes.

Independent Working Class Education

These are students from Ruskin College who went on strike in support of the principle of independent working class education in 1909. This led to the formation of the Plebs League and then the Central Labour College. See our Adult Education thread on related matters. Also link into a history about developments from the time of Ruskin strike entitled "Plebs : the lost legacy of independent working class education". It can be found via the Features section here. (Click onto the photo itself to enlarge it.)


Independent Working Class Education : (Notice of their Day School).

DAY SCHOOL
12th November 2011
10.00 – 5.00
Northern College

We are looking forward to seeing you at the IWCE Day School. Please email now to confirm or book your place to - venablesk@yahoo.co.uk

Themes of the Day

There will be a wide range of presentations and lots of discussion, exploring “can Independent Working Class Education contribute to today’s class struggle?” We’ll look at anti-deportation campaigning, working class heroes, women in the unions, self taught workers, are Freire and Gramsci still relevant to education? what can we learn from the Plebs, Robert Tressell, from popular education? can we use film in our programmes? and more.

Northern College
[Wentworth Castle]
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
S75 3ET

The College is outside Barnsley
Car: Junctions 36/37 off M1. Bus/train. Look at www.northern.ac.uk/
£12.00 includes lunch. We can arrange free overnight accommodation, shared travel pool. Please get in touch now. The Northern College is accessible.

IWCE Project tries to -
* seek to offer a diverse range of education materials and approaches for trade union and other working class and progressive movement groups
* respect the role of the working class in making history, and in making the future

Identifying With Jack

This is a photo of the Labour Cabinet of 1945. The fourth person from the right in the back row is Jack Lawson (1881-1965). He differed from me in many ways, such as working in the pit where he went as a 12 year old , becoming a Government Minister and then a Peer. Yet there are many points on which I can identify with him. Although things often happened to us in a very different order and in a different context. For me, they were also at a much more shallower depth. But I can claim to share aspects of the points below - although unlike Jack I left the Methodist Chapel.

1. He was born in the north of England in a coastal mining community. 2. He grew up in a Durham County mining colliery. 3. He became a Methodist. 4. He joined the ILP. 5. He joined the Labour Party. 6. He joined the Co-op. 7. He was a bibliophile. 8. He made use of a bookseller in Newcastle in his early days. 9. His wife had links with Sunderland. 10. He had an involvement with adult education. 11. He studied at Ruskin College. 12 He served for two years in the forces. 13. He became a Labour MP. 14. He spent time at Easington Colliery.

I have finally got around to reading his 1932/1944 autobiography "A Man's Life" which I review here. However be warned, my review is a long one and I say nearly as much about myself as I do about Jack. But these are the entitlements of an old blatherer.

A Good Start

Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Class 1980-83 at Hurst House, Chesterfield.

The meeting at Chesterfield on May Day about Adult Education went well. It was based on the experiences of the Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Classes which had run from 1952 to 1994.

40 people attended the meeting, which fitted in well with the fine facilities in the Council Council Chamber of the North East Derbyshire District Council. John Halstead a former Lecturer on the Day-Release Courses started the ball rolling by telling us about Michael Barratt Brown who came to run the whole range of Trade Union Day Release Classes on behalf of the Sheffield University Extramural Department and then went on to become the first Principle of the Northern College which caters for adult students. John then read out a well-appreciated May Day Message from Michael who is now 93 years old.

To provide time for discussion in the best adult education tradition, the three speakers spoke only for ten minutes each. First, John Burrows outlined his own experiences in the Derbyshire Coalfield which led him to attend the Day Release Classes and become an official at Area level in the NUM. Today he is leader of the Labour Group on the Chesterfield Borough Council. Whilst he pointed to the significance for himself and many others of the courses, he pointed out that they could not now be reproduced due to the decline of coal and of similar industries. Neverless, he felt it was an educational approach that needed to be re-established and adapted to radically changed circumstances. Secondly, Bob Heath spoke. As a miner he had attended the courses in the late 1950s before moving into full-time adult education at Ruskin College, then eventually returning to teach on the Derbyshire Miners' Courses themselves and become their Director of Studies. In the study of subjects such as industrial relations, economics and politics; he stressed the significance of examining serious ideas and theories which challenged one's own preconceptions. He saw our whole lives as being shaped by powers and influences; so that an intelligent, lifelong and questioning concern for such matters was needed to advance democratic arrangements and give them substance. Finally, Toby Perkins spoke. He is the Labour MP for Chesterfield and a Shadow Education Minister. He stressed the importance to society of it expanding its educational avenues so that people developed the skills that are needed to handle the demands of the modern world. This being done, at its best, when adults continued to be part of the process.

A steady and ready flow of questions and contributions followed from the floor of the meeting. Half way through this process an opportunity was provide for four bodies who were present with literature stalls and/or displays to outline the ongoing work of their organisations in the field of modern day adult education. These were (1) Post-16 Educator, (2) the Chesterfield Workers' Education Association operating from Hurst House and (3) Chesterfield's University of the Third Age and (4) an initiative associated with the Northern College. On the latter, Sue Rolstone explained the objectives of the Rolstone Heathfield Education Fund to develop annual conferences and study weekends in the areas of trade unionism, politics and campaigning. Sue is the widow of Peter Heathfield, who was both Secretary of the Derbyshire NUM and then of the full NUM itself. He had always showed the keenest interest in the work of the Derbyshire Miner's Day Release Courses and as John Burrows had pointed out earlier, Peter was the person who had encouraged him to join its classes. (For an update on John see here).

Whilst no specific plan of campaign emerged from the meeting, it had drawn together people with a key interest in the form of adult education which had operated for more than four decades in the North Derbyshire Coalfield. We are now in a better position to network together given our shared interests. For how we next seek to deliver on this potential - watch this space. In the meantime, there is plenty to chew over in this think-piece.

Peter Ryley on "Death or Resurrection : the future of adult education"

Peter Ryley sets the scene for our May Day Debate as advertised here.

The editorials are gloomy. Local authorities report a massive loss of places. The WEA wrestles with difficult funding rules. Education without accreditation is not funded and is treated as if it is of no significance. The education of older adults is being marginalised and left to the voluntary sector through the U3A. University adult education departments are closing.

So, where do you start a discussion of adult education today? How about with a celebration of its success? Yes, it has been a huge success; not merely popular, but loved. It is emancipatory, transforming people’s lives. What is more, modern education would not be where it is today without the pioneering work of adult educators. Let’s just think of some of the triumphs.

1. The stereotype of university solely as a place to go after leaving school still exists, but should be dead. Mature students make up more than half the numbers in Higher Education. It is no longer an exception to see adults on degree courses.

2. Access courses continue to flourish and are a recognised method of entry into higher education. The Open College Networks continue to provide alternative accreditation routes, specifically aimed at promoting adult learning at all levels.

3. The Open University continues to be an international exemplar of good practice and high standards.

4. The issue of class is firmly on the agenda in terms of access and equality of opportunity, even if it has been bureaucratised through OFFA and appears to aim at rescuing ‘talented’ individuals from their class rather than ending the process of the systematic exclusion of the working class as a whole.

5. Policy makers at least pay lip service to the concept of lifelong learning and make the linkage between it and economic and social development.

6. The health and social benefits of learning throughout life have been recognised.

Millions of people participate, millions enjoy it and for many it is a lifeline, a source of support and encouragement through the turning points their lives. It is popular, successful, and has played a major role in the development of education in Britain. So where is it? Where are the newspaper headlines? Where are the party policies and vigorous debates? Where are the campaigns designed to win the votes of these millions?

It isn’t just that other issues such as health, welfare and, right now, libraries are more salient. Paradoxically, the very success of adult education has helped to make it less visible. It now tends to be hidden within general education policy, rather than being treated as distinct. This has resulted in merging of institutions and the loss of separate adult education centres in favour of integrated and mainstreamed provision. Once that happens, adult education is transformed from a discrete service into a marginal and vulnerable part of larger institutions where it tends to be poorly understood.

That lack of understanding pervades the public arena. Adult educators are left floundering about how to make the case for something that seems to have slipped from view. Once one of the great left causes, it is now no more. Even worse, it is often derided by ignorant leftists as a middle class perk -‘flower arranging for the blue rinse brigade’ - rather than a central part of our social landscape.

It is true that some of it did fit this stereotype. And this has meant that affluent students are now part of a process of privatisation by stealth. Individual classes and tutors self-fund and thereby escape crippling bureaucracy and form exclusive social circles. Profitable and popular areas, such as creative writing, which were once used to cross-subsidise more difficult community outreach, have been cherry picked by, for instance, the publishers Faber and Faber, who now run their own Faber Academy for creative writing. This is all well and good, but where does it leave the rest? What happens to those who cannot afford private provision? What becomes of a comprehensive national service and of universal, open access?

This has created a problem; us adult educators have been struggling to find the language to describe the intrinsic worth of what we do. We search desperately for utilitarian justifications and in doing so indicate our weakness, our lack of confidence to assert that adult education is not merely of social or economic benefit, but is a universal human need and human right; the mark of a civilised society.

So how do we get a more confident view of adult education back on the agenda? It will take a long process of patient agitation and activism and I think that we have to ask ourselves a number of questions before we can proceed.

1. How do we describe adult education? How do we break away from pleading for funding as a supplicant to determinedly assert the provision of adult education as a right?

2. How do we make the case that formal and informal learning are not separate but are intrinsically linked?

3. How do we deal with the issue of ownership and control of services? After all, years of voluntary, municipal and government investment have been thrown away with no concern as to the impact on current staff and students, let alone on future generations. If there is one thing that the long process of contraction has shown, it is how utterly powerless adult educators and their students actually are.

4. Where do the boundaries of state and voluntary provision lie?

5. Finally, and this the central issue for us on the left, how do we rediscover, redefine and understand adult education as a popular cause? Harry Barnes’ and others former work with Derbyshire and Yorkshire miners is a reminder of the emancipatory nature of adult education, promoting social advancement and tapping into a long tradition of working class education.

And it is here that I would start my personal advocacy, drawing on the work of the pioneering adult educator and Scottish polymath, Patrick Geddes. Because that is where I ended up working, my focus would be on universities and their role in providing adult education. Geddes wrote about what he called the University Militant. This was not a precursor to Sixties sit-ins, instead it was the idea that the university, in the broadest sense of the word, is the driver of the intellectual development of a society, intrinsically linked to its communities and an open resource. At the moment we are seeing universities justify their high fees by rushing to become ever more like gated communities, importing the middle classes to be educated in some of our great cities, whilst a number of latter day Jude the Obscures gaze through the ornate ironwork, muttering about it ‘not being for the likes of us’.

University adult education was and still can be, if any survives, an alternative mission, one that opens the gates and does not simply teach ‘outside the walls’, but demolishes them. A university should be an open institution, a place of learning for all the community, one that invites people in and goes out to meet them. And by all the community, I mean all the community: employers, employees and trade unionists; people from council estates and Barratts estates; young and old, both role models for learning in their communities; and the poor, the homeless, the marginalised and offenders. The current model that sells higher education for its economic benefits will eventually run aground on the rocks of reality. My campaign would be for an inclusive system that sees education as of intrinsic worth rather than simply a route to a bigger payslip, and central to that would be adult education as community engagement. Doing this would mean abandoning the patronising language of aspiration raising and, instead, getting down to the hard work of meeting the aspirations that already exist, changing the institution to fit the people, rather than people to fit the institution. To my mind, this would be a progressive agenda that should be a part of any contemporary, progressive political movement and a starting point for the renaissance of an adult education that this time round will not be lost because of the whims of politicians.

Peter Ryley has worked in adult education for around thirty years in local authorities, further education colleges and, latterly, the University of Hull’s Centre for Lifelong Learning before taking early retirement following a restructure of the Centre. See here for his blog.

Important May Day Meeting In Chesterfield

What Now For Adult Education? Lessons from the Derbyshire Miners.

A Discussion Meeting.

Speakers

Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield and Shadow Education Minister

John Burrows, Leader of the Labour Group on Chesterfield Borough Council.

Bob Heath, former Director of Studies for the Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Courses.

Time

1.30 pm (after the May Day March and Rally)

Date

2^nd May, 2011

Venue

Council Chamber of the North East Derbyshire District Council, Saltergate, Chesterfield (Entrance and car parking facilities via the back of the building)

ALL WELCOME

What Now For Adult Education? Lessons from Derbyshire's Miners

Some of the members of a group of Derbyshire Miners in 1960 who have just completed a three year Day Release Course. They are presenting miners' lamps to their tutors who are the men wearing glasses. On the left is Noel Williams of the Workers Education Association who taught economics and on the right is the politics tutor Royden Harrison from Sheffield University Extramural Department who was a leading Labour Historian and whose final book was to be "The Life and Times of Sidney and Beatrice Webb : 1858 to 1905 the Formative Years". From left to right, the students are Les Ralley who became a leading figure on both his local District and Parish Councils, a 27 year old Eric Varley who four years later was to embark upon his parliamentary career and became a Cabinet Minister, W. Whitaker, E. Lawrence presenting the lamps, E. Bradbury and N. Wade. The nature and significance of such courses is indicated below. A meeting is to be held on May Day in Chesterfield to discuss how far the tradition they were part of can be revitalised in modern circumstances. Details of the meeting appear at the close.

Under Bert Wynn who was Secretary of the Derbyshire Miners, a programme of Day Release Classes was established in 1952. These continued in operation for the next four decades, but finally ended as a consequence of the closure of the local pits. Miners attending studied subjects such as industrial relations, economics and politics.

A new class of 20 miners was established each year. They came to span a three year period and involved a total attendance of 120 days. The tutors on the courses came from the Sheffield University Extramural Department. The Derbyshire Miners having an agreement with the National Coal Board (NCB) to release their members from work to attend the classes.

Those attending required no prior educational qualifications; nor were any exams, tests nor marks ever provided. However, because the supply of places on the courses was always outstripped by the demand, selection conferences were held in the Miners Offices on Saltergate by the tutors where the applicants met together in discussion groups and participated in a note-taking exercise. A Saturday morning class also came to be run for those who it was felt would benefit from a preparatory development of their student skills; many of these miners moved onto the full Day Release Courses and made highly effective use of the abilities they had developed.

The miners on the courses also engaged in private study and produced a steady stream of written work. After their time on the courses, the participants went on to make a variety of uses of their studies. Some becoming more deeply involved in the work of the National Union of Mineworkers, other progressed through the NCB, numbers became involved in the work of the wider labour movement including those who became local councillors, whilst the late Eric Varley and Denis Skinner became local MPs, others moved into full-time studies at Adult Education Colleges and then often went on to obtain degrees at University before taking up posts such as social workers, educationalists and full-time trade union officials. Others remained in their established roles in their communities, taking their newly developed interests with them and also influencing communal developments.

I was lucky to be a tutor on the courses for 21 years from 1966, before becoming a local MP for a further 18 years. I have always claimed that the standard and seriousness of the investigations in the classes was more substantial than was the general run of my experiences in parliament. This is because serious adult education is about making well thought out judgements on complex issues, whilst parliamentary politics is too often about point scoring.

The pattern which was established in Derbyshire was pursued elsewhere. The Extramural Department were involved with similar courses in areas such as the South Yorkshire Coalfield, the Steel Industry, the railways, engineering and with Shop Stewards Courses which drew people together from differing firms.

It was not, however, just because of the decline of large industries mainly concentrated in the public sector, that such courses were ended. Another pattern of adult education (which had always had its own separate existence) took over but was manipulated under Margaret Thatcher. Unfortunately, it became a growing trend that was then pushed under New Labour. What remained of day-release work was often placed under the influence of employers, whose interests were to see their workers being trained to undertake tasks strictly relevant to their employment duties. More emphasis was placed upon adults attending courses in their own time, which would be carefully accredited to meet specific and limited purposes. Certification became the order of the day. The way for adults to progress via education came to be seen as requiring studies to be broken up into specific and limited modules and tested at each stage, so they could act as stepping stones (or some would say stumbling blocks) to higher qualifications. The scope for investigating key issues about life and society were restricted and were seen as secondary. The old form of equality and socialising between tutors and students, in which each learnt from the other, was seen as being unnecessary. Increasingly course fees were expected to cover the bulk of the provision of adult education.

It is not that there should be no room for some forms of today's dominant trend in adult education, but it should never have happened at the expense of the invaluable approach which the Derbyshire Miners had participated in and developed.

Nothing in life is, however, ever too late. Some of us have always attempted to replicate something of what used to be called the liberal education tradition by running and attending a variety of discussion groups. But it is now time to campaign for what was taken away from us. We are not alone in this.

Why not join us at the meeting advertised below? Former participants in the Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Classes will be present. But we know that we can't somehow just try to re-cycle the past. It is a matter for all of us to seek new ways in which what was once achieved in a period from the 1950s can be refashioned to meet the challenging conditions of the 21^st Century. We owe many debts to Coal Mining in Derbyshire; serious adult education is one of them.

What Now For Adult Education? Lessons from the Derbyshire Miners.

A Discussion Meeting.

Speakers

Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield and Shadow Education Minister

John Burrows, Leader of the Labour Group on Chesterfield Borough Council.

Bob Heath, former Director of Studies for the Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Courses.

Time

1.30 pm (after the May Day March and Rally)

Date

2^nd May, 2011

Venue

Council Chamber of the North East Derbyshire District Council, Saltergate, Chesterfield

ALL WELCOME

We Are Women, We Are Strong

This was the logo of Women Against Pit Closures during the 1984-5 Miners Strike. It is in the colours of the Suffragettes.

To mark the 25th Anniversary of the Miners Strike, Barbara Jackson addressed a packed meeting of the Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group on Sunday to outline both the nature of the strike and her and her colleagues' roles within it. Not only did she work with Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures, but she was also on strike herself with others who were members of the Unions' White Collar Section, COSA. They were employed at the NCBs Regional Administrative Office at Queen Street in Sheffield and picketed the site (see below).


The title of her talk was "We are Women, We are Strong" which was the anthem of Women Against Pit Closures. Here are the words -

We are women, we are strong
We are fighting for our lives,
side by side with the men
who work the nation's mines.
United by the struggle,
United by the past.. and it's
Here we go, here we go
For the women of the working class.


Don't need government approval
for everything we do,
We don't need their permission
to have a point of view.
Don't need anyone to tell us what to think
or what to say
We've strength enough and wisdom of our
own to go our own way.


They talk about statistics, about the
price of coal; the cost is the communities,
dying on the dole.
In fighting for our future, we find ways to organise;
Where women's liberation failed to move,
this strike has mobilised.

Ours is a unity that threats could never
breach; ours an education
that books could never teach.
We face the taunts and violence of Maggie's
thugs in blue;
When you're fighting for survival, you've got
nothing, nothing left to lose.

Barbara (left) pointed out that the NUM had to struggle against the full power of the State. The Thatcher Government prepared its ground by building up coal stocks, having already picked off the Print Unions and the Steelworkers in conditions of mass unemployment. Under what was known as the "Ridley Plan" it had introduced a set of anti-trade union laws, which it went on to use to the full against the Miners.

Whilst the NUM had imposed an overtime ban to counter the building up of coal stocks, during the strike 11 people were killed including 3 miners and numbers of young people mainly picking coal, 11,312 were arrested, 7,000 injured, 5,600 placed on trial, 200 imprisoned and 960 sacked.

The full power of the State was used against the Miners by a Conservative Government who resented the Miners Victory in the 1973 strike which led to the defeat of the Heath Government in the subsequent General Election. They turned Police Forces into a centrally controlled operation; whilst Power Stations were taken out of mothballs, Gas from the North Sea was squandered and Nuclear Power was used to the full.

The ability of the Miners to hold out for so long was a result of their own determination and their communal strength, supported by the international trade union movement in nations such as Australia, Russia and France.

This source explains something of Barbara's role in the strike, stating -
"She had a white collar job at the National Coal Board offices on Queen Street near Sheffield Cathedral. Although she had no family mining connections, Barbara felt so strongly about the Miners Strike that she was one of a handful of women who went on strike for the whole year. Nine people from her office picketed the National Coal Board building for the duration of the year-long strike, and Barbara quit work there within 24 hours of the strike ending in March 1985. Barbara had one teenage daughter at the time of the Strike. She is now retired and lives near Graves Park in Sheffield."

In Barbara's own words - "We welcomed all women and supported 30 support groups throughout South Yorkshire, we met weekly from May 84 to 87 when we closed the group at the point where we had our book published "We are Women , We are Strong" about our experiences during the strike. We raised hundreds of pounds through collections, jumble sales, benefit concerts, selling tee shirts, badges, Christmas cards, calendars. We talked to groups all over South Yorkshire, Belfast, Manchester and Germany. We picketed at the local pits with local women and tried to support other workers in dispute as well as the Greenham Common Women. We regarded ourselves as supporting the miners and their families but equally importantly making the political arguments and links about state power in all its forms. We were proud that South Yorkshire women and children were invited to the Soviet Union by the Soviet miners in the spring of 85 for a 5 week holiday in Moscow and the Black Sea coast."

Amongst the efforts Women Against Pit Closures undertook locally was the support they gave to Miners taken before the Sheffield Magistrates Court. When the strike was over, the Miners marched back to work behind their Colliery Bands and NUM Banners. But this wasn't an option at the Queen Street Office. Barbara decided not to return to work and was instead accepted as a Mature Student onto a Degree Course although she lacked the paper qualifications. As with many of the women who supported the strike her experiences were positive and life changing. A sentiment that came to be expressed by many Miners themselves.

Should We Get Into Step?

Kevin Barron (right) with Chair Rob Quick, addresses Sunday's meeting. Below 13 of the 21 present. (Photos by Dave Hill)


Kevin Barron addressed our Discussion Meeting on Sunday. He has been the MP for Rother Valley since 1983 and is Chair of the Select Committee on Health in the current parliament.

The topic he introduced for discussion was his Select Committee's recent wide ranging enquiry into the important "NHS Next Steps Review" which had been undertaken for the Government by Lord Darzi who is a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and is also a leading surgeon at Imperial College.

A major aim of Darzi's Report was to place quality services at the heart of the NHS, with patients being treated with compassion, dignity and respect. In pursuing these ends the Select Committee had welcomed the supervisory role designated for the Strategic Health Authorities, but it doubted whether Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were currently capable of performing the tasks they were being set. For PCTs are seen as having poor commissioning and planning skills and, also, exercising variable qualities of management.

The Daszi Report had also recommended the adoption of an NHS Constitution. For the first time setting up rights and responsibilities for patients and staff in a single document.

The Select Committee welcomed the rights that would be established to enable patients to obtain drugs prescribed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), but they expressed fears about proposals that might lead to the operation of a "Lawyers' Charter.

The new NHS Constitution would also provide rights for patients to gain information about the quality of alternative NHS provisions. In supporting these proposals, Kevin pointed out that a local elderly widow had opted to enter a hospital in the south of England because she had family in the area she selected.

21 people attended the Dronfield meeting and Kevin's presentation led to an intense and lively debate. There was a major discussion over whether the "choice" agenda merely led to isolated individualism and the expansion of market principles into the NHS, instead of looking to the development of democratisation which would enable people to press for shared interests.

A wide range of other topics were pursued such as worries about MRSA, the post-code lottery, healthy food (the Select Committee had interviewed Jamie Oliver), patient's subjective judgements about their treatment and the widespread absence of NHS dental services. On the latter Kevin pointed out that the Health Select Committee had pursued the matter some 18 months ago, but found the Government to be in denial about the issue.

Personal : I was Kevin's politics tutor in 1974-5 when he attended the third year of a Day Release Course run for Yorkshire Miners by the Sheffield University Extramural Department. At the time he was a pit electrician. He went on to full-time study at Ruskin College in Oxford and gained a Diploma in Labour History. Kevin and I next met up in the Commons where I was a fellow MP from 1987 to 2005. Amongst the common activities we shared was meeting with the Conservative Minister of Higher Education, Tim Eggar in a failed attempt to save the traditional Diploma courses at Ruskin College. I had myself studied on such a course 14 years before Kevin had.

Note : The Discussion Group has now been running for three years. The above is our third meeting on the NHS. In September 2006, Dave Hincliffe (Wakefield MP 1987-2005 and the previous Chair of the Commons' Select Committee on Health) addressed us. Whilst for the 60th Anniversary of the NHS, Dr Jack Czaudema of the Darnall Community Health Centre was the speaker.

Blathering To Some Purpose

The photo below is taken at the close of last night's discussion meeting. As our discussions then continue in the lounge bar afterwards, three people had already left to get their orders in. Dave Hill is behind the camera. The speaker was Geoff Bratley-Kendall who is centre-front with his arms crossed. We all felt that we had had an excellent and fruitful meeting discussing the problems being experienced in Adult Education.(Click onto the photo for a larger image).



Geoff's Kes Experience

Geoff set the scene by describing his own experiences. These resonated with his listeners as was revealed in the power of the subsequent debate.

When he was 14 he had what he called his "Kes experience". At school he was called in to discuss his future and he said that he would like to be an architect. The career advisor abruptly told him that he had only three options. (1) The armed forces, (2) Staveley Works and (3) the pit. As he had no military aspirations and did not like the smell that came from Staveley Works, he opted for work at the pit.

One saving grace was that in becoming an electrician at Markham No.2 pit, he gained vocational qualifications at Clowne Tech. The other was that with a group of his mates he became active in the NUM. It helped that they met in the Barley Mow pub.

Into Adult Education

Because of his NUM interests he moved on to attend a three-year Industrial Day Release Course for Derbyshire Miners run by the Sheffield University Extramural Department studying Industrial Relations and Political Economy, topped up with TUC and WEA week-end schools. As the provision moved to its close, the bulk of his day-release class showed an interest in moving from part-time study to full-time residential adult education. With two of his mates he embarked on a two year course at Coleg Harlech.

When the three went by car to the College in Wales, it was the longest journey he had then made in his life. The students and tutors were friends. Life was so uplifting that 40 years afterwards he still visits the College three times a year.

He then went to Hull University, which in comparison he felt was elitist and unsatisfactory. But after a stint back as a pit electrician, he moved into work as a Further Education (FE) Lecturer who taught adult education classes, eventually lecturing at Sheffield College for 21 years. When he retired, he returned to being an electrician. But not at the pit, which had in any case been closed.

Lessons

He learnt that education does not have to happen at a particular time in one's life. He had seen the regular tapping of unknown talents. He saw the strength of educational provision which started out on a voluntary basis, where those studying did not have to be present if they weren't interested. He also knew he had to stay with Trade Unionism and he became an Executive Member of NATFHE.

Decline and Fall

He saw the decline of such forms of adult education as arising from the time of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Bill where the funding restrictions of the FE sector were spread to bodies such as Adult Education Colleges at Coleg Harlech, Ruskin, the Northern College, Fircroft, Hillcroft and Newbattle Abbey.

Unemployment, Student Loans, the Foster Report claiming that Colleges were not for older students, employer-led educational qualifications, education by the stepping stones of modules and certificates had all led to a loss of adult educational provisions. Some 2 million places in FE and Adult Education have been lost in England since 2005 and Age Concern point to a 24% cut in provisions for the over 60s.

What Is To Be Done?

Geoff is Secretary of the Coleg Harlech Association of Old Students (CHAOS) who have moved to form links with other student and ex-student organisations of Adult Education Colleges to seek to influence public policy on adult education.

He participated in the lobby of parliament organised by the Campaign for Lifelong Learning (CALL) on 25 February. Although CALL was only founded last summer it has gained the support of 150 organisations; numbers of whom can be found here. And it was able to mount a lobby which attracted 400 people including Marianne Quick the Secretary of the Dronfield Labour Party, who contributed to our discussions. As part of the campaign people are urged to get their MP to sign Early Day Motion 533.

The debate around Geoff's talk revealed a depth of interest and experience in his topic. To see where we go next, watch this space.

The debate continues...

MORE CHAOS AT WESTMINSTER

This is a photo of Natascha Engel MP and Geoff Bratley-Kendall at the Commons. They are in the corridors of power - or more precisely a Commons' Committee Corridor.

Geoff is the Secretary of the Coleg Harlech Association of Old Students (CHAOS) and Natascha is his local MP. She is also the local MP for Dronfield, where we blather.

Geoff will be at the next meeting of the Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group, giving a talk entitled "Adult Education: Experience and Issues". The photo was taken last Wednesday when the "Campaigning Alliance For Lifelong Learning" organised an important lobby of parliament to press the case for Adult Education and to reverse the trend which has seen many of its best services cut. 400 to 500 took part in the lobby, as is shown here. The lobby itself and other campaigning activities will be discussed at our meeting.

Here is a further report on the lobby from the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE).

Natascha Engel has herself addressed our Discussion Group on"Pension : Problems and Policies" and is regularly informed about our activities. We will send her a link to our report of the meeting with Geoff, which we will publish next week.

CHAOS IN DRONFIELD

This is a photo of Coleg Harlech, with Harlech Castle in the background. Hardly a scene for the spread of CHAOS you might think.

















It is significant that Geoff Bratley-Kendall the speaker at the next meeting of the Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group was today on a lobby of parliament pressing for significant improvements in Adult Education services. For he will lead a discussion on these matters at our next meeting. His talk is entitled "Adult Education : Experiences and Issues".

Geoff is the Secretary of the Coleg Harlech Association of Old Students (CHAOS) who have acted to work with other ex-students organisations from Adult Residential Colleges to influence public policy on adult education.

Geoff lives in Dronfield and attends our meetings. He knows that he will face a lively and firmly interested audience. Our regulars include former adult education students from the Northern College, Newbattle Abbey, the Co-op College, Ruskin, Coleg Harlech, University Access Courses and Industrial Day Release Classes. Some who have had a foot in more than one camp.

Why not use the comment box on this thread to get your tackle in first? There's CHAOS for you.