9:16am Thursday 1st November 2007
By Peter Luff
Every year, the state school I went to in the 1970s either ran out of cash entirely so we couldn’t even afford chalk for the blackboards, or it was suddenly asked to spend thousands of
pounds that would be ‘lost’ if left unspent.
Feast or famine – that was my school’s experience.
So the news that the government has done a U-turn on its decision to fine schools that carried some money over from one financial year to the next is really welcome.
Quite why ministers ever came up with the batty idea that schools should always spend every penny in the financial year they get the money I just don’t know – and why Worcester’s
own MP so enthusiastically backed the scheme is an even greater puzzle.
Schools in a poorly funded area like Worcestershire need to be able to plan their spending over more than one financial year to buy things schools in other places like Birmingham take for
granted.
Thank you to all the schools in my constituency who wrote to express their outrage – our success here should encourage us to believe that we might yet win the bigger battle to get a fairer
share of the country’s education spending.
Another thing that really heartened me this week was the magnificent Falklands Islands 25th anniversary parade and service.
I know our troops have been asked to fight some unpopular wars recently by the politicians, but they have done so uncomplainingly, bravely and professionally.
In return we should be doing more as a society to support those who return wounded, the wives who are widowed, and indeed every military family of whom we ask so much.
That’s why I support the Royal British Legion campaign to urge the government to honour ‘the Military Covenant’.
But all of us can do more to support our armed forces by showing our pride in what they do.
Local papers like this one have a magnificent record of honouring our troops, and last Saturday was an opportunity for the whole county to join in.
The service was a moving and stirring occasion which rightly avoided triumphalism, but rather commemorated the courage and sacrifice of all those who fought in the Falklands campaign in a dignified
and uplifting way.
I was proud to be there in our city’s great cathedral for an important occasion that will live with me for a very long time.
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