Ellee Seymour

I came across Labour MP Paul Flynn’s blog during the course of my research project into MPs who write blogs and two-way communication. And I really think it is a good read.

Paul is not afraid to speak his mind, he understands the essence of political blogging - that writing propaganda will turn people off, that the last thing you want to write is a political leaflet. Oh, and at 72, he is the 10th oldest MP and is currently up for re-selection in Newport West. In fact, could he be the oldest blogging MP in the UK? I would imagine so.

He has written a great post today about Iraq and the Campbell diaries, describing the forceful bullying and bribing of reluctant Labour MPs so Blair could win his vote.

“Where were these sick-with-doubt cabinet ministers? They were running around cajoling, twisting arms and mouthing threats. All of them. Can it be true that members of the Labour Cabinet were no more sentient that Thatcher’s ‘vegetables.’?”

He has just celebrated 20 years as an MP and his wife made the following toast:

“Here’s to the Honourable member’s 20 years. He has never taken a bribe, or ever been corrupt. Yet we still love him.”

It made me smile.

It’s a sad reflection of  life today that teenagers need to be taught how to manage their debt as part of the school curriculum.

Isn’t school meant to be the happiest days of your life?  While it makes good sense to prepare our young people about the realities of everyday life, it also highlights the gloomy future they could face.

We are told our future generation of children face the prospect of even more years in debt than their parents, even before they get on the housing ladder.

Iain Duncan Smith, who chairs the Conservative social justice policy group, this month warned that personal debts will have reached the equivalent of an average £54,452 per household. His team discovered that nine million Britons have confessed to serious debt problems. What will their future be? Now we told this number will continue to rise, our schoolchildren today are tomorrow’s debtors.

I’m certainly concerned about my son David taking on thousands of pounds of debt to pay for his university education, the fact that he will start his working life with a huge millstone around his neck. Everyone says “it’s normal”, which is another way of saying that being in debt is normal because there is no alternative.

So no wonder our school kids need lessons on happiness, they have so much worrying ahead of them. I would suggest that the lesson on happiness follows the one on debt management, that they end the day on a positive note.

*And this makes me question changes to the Maths GCSE being introduced from September which could result in fewer pupils being able to achieve good grades. For some reason, there are presently three different Maths GCSE papers - a higher, intermediate and lower. Why we can’t simply have one paper, I do not know.

My eldest son passed the intermediate paper last year with the highest grade possible - a B. We will never know if he could have passed at A as the paper did not include work to that level.

From September, the intermediate grade will be dropped. It means my youngest son James has got to be entered for the new higher paper to reach a B grade as the new foundation paper only goes as high as C. James did really well in his maths SATS, but missed out on a level-7 by two points. A level-7 is above the national average, and several pupils  also reached a level-8, which is astounding. A level-6 is deemed average for these 14-year-olds.

James’ predicament is that he must pass maths at B-grade to apply for good business studies degree courses; this is what I have discovered is a minimum requirement during my recent trawl of universities with David, and James is thinking along the same lines. If James works hard at maths this year, there is a chance he could be entered in the higher paper, it is a lot of stress and his future career could be affected by this result. He would have been perfect for the intermediate paper which has been scrapped.

I wonder how many other parents are aware of this, and its implications. Why is it so complicated to take a maths GCSE? Why can’t there just be one paper so all students stand the same chance to show their ability?

Let’s spend more time working on teaching quality maths - as well as English. We are told increasing numbers of teenagers are not achieving good grades in these vital subjects, these are the core subjects where a high standard needs to be achieved to help secure future employment and higher education. To ultimately keep debt at a minimum.

The helplessness must be multiplied thousands of times when a child goes missing in the Far East, somewhere like Cambodia.

Eddie Gibson has not been heard from since 24th October 2004 when he emailed his mother to say he was planning to return to UK from Cambodia on a flight due to leave Bangkok on 1st November. He never arrived.

His parents Jo and Mike have worked tirelessly to keep his profile raised and have issued posters throughout Phnom Penh. They re-visited the country in January this year to again appeal for information. A reward is being offered and private investigators are employed by the family in Cambodia.

Eddie had dropped out of course at Leeds University and took a flight to Thailand, before moving on to Cambodia. His father admits there is an atmosphere in parts of Phnom Penh that leads people to consider doing things they would never dream of at home; it is a country with easy access to girls and drugs.

His mother posted this desperate message on a BBC News website of missing persons following the tsunami:

Please, Please i am desperate for news of my 19 year old son Eddie Gibson he is back packing around Asia, I last heard from him in Cambodia and he could have been on his way to Phi Phi Island, i have not heard from him which is out of his character, please help.

In memory of those who are still missing.