2024 – 2025 Highlights: Politics

Congratulations to the students who took part in the two Model United Nations (MUN) conferences we attended this year. The MUN group meets once a week, and I have been greatly impressed with their enthusiasm and willingness to be thrown into the deep end by attending a conference, debating with students from many other schools and thinking on their feet. I hope the students enjoyed the experience and that they will continue to attend MUN next year, when many of them will be in Year 12.

The Year 12 students were very fortunate indeed to welcome David Sumberg, former Member of Parliament and Member of the European Parliament, who came to talk to them about his career in politics. Mr Sumberg is also the grandfather of Sophia S, a Year 12 Politics student! I am old enough to remember the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, partly prompted by a famous resignation speech in the House of Commons by Sir Geoffrey Howe. What I hadn’t realised was that Mr Sumberg was seated behind Sir Geoffrey in the now-famous photograph from that speech. He talked with great humour about how a fellow MP, Norman Fowler, arrived with seconds to go before the start of the speech, forcing all the MPs to squish together, thus leaving the impression that Mr Fowler was sitting on his knee!

Mr Sumberg said no one anticipated the drama that would ensue after Sir Geoffrey famously denounced Mrs Thatcher for undermining policies on economic and monetary union in Europe that were backed by her colleagues and the governor of the Bank of England: “It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only for them to find, as the first balls are being bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.” Mr Sumberg also spoke about his career in the Commons and gave the students some sage advice about the benefits of working hard and never giving up.

In February half-term, 40 joint History and Politics students visited four southern states in the USA for a civil rights trip. In what was my final trip at Channing, it could not have been bettered. My highlights were the Martin Luther King Centre, the Rosa Parks Museum and New Orleans, where we were fortunate to be there at the same time as Mardi Gras. What a wonderful experience. A huge shoutout to my colleagues, Mr Raine, Ms Feeney and Mr Martini-Phillips, who were the best travel companions.

One of the highlights of the academic year in the Politics department is always the trip to Westminster for a conference where a range of MPs and political figures talk about the issues of the day and take questions from the student audience. The theme of the conference this year was ‘the state of the state’; speakers included Richard Tice MP, Emily Thornberry MP, Daisy Cooper MP and Alastair Campbell. I am pleased to say that this year’s audience was respectful and asked some very searching questions of the speakers, many of whom always look nervous when being quizzed by young people!

Ms Devine