Heads and Governors in Cambridgeshire schools who are falling over themselves to take up the new academy status are either naive or highly deceitful. They paint a picture of themselves as standing up for local schools and communities. They have either swallowed or are promoting David Camerons 'localism' mantra - which is a euphemism for handing public assets to the private sector and opening up new markets.




The academies bill is pushing schools to set up as businesses and it endangers the whole concept of the community schooling. Schools will be competitng against one another and will sink or swim. To be successful the new school businesses will have to expand to meet economies of scale, those that don’t will be taken over. The accountability of schools to their parents and students, already limited, will be virtually nonexistent and those with specific educational, emotional and behavioural needs will feel it hardest.



The real term funding for all schools is being reduced and that is partly why some heads are now fighting each other over the few extra scraps being top sliced to academies. The ‘extra’ funding is comming from other schools and central services. Many Schools will still struggle and the Governors, many of whom are already out of their depth, will now be personally responsible and fearing the loss of their own houses will hand the school over to others to run. This might not be the next School up the road but one of the vast edu-businesses who are licking their lips at the prospect of running hundreds of schools for profit. Heads and governers who value education as a right should resist the acadamies shock docterine and stay with the local autority and fight to make it better.

http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/

It appears that Julian Huppert is yet another one who does not understand the basic issues around the Postal Service.  He says in his response below that the volume of mail is dropping.   This is wrong on two accounts. Firstly if he cared to visit the sorting or deliveries office in cambridge and spoke to those who deliver the mail he would find out that they are working at capacity. Secondly the volume of mail on the UK road (across all carries) has massively increase.  It doesn't take a genius to work this out.  Junk mail is on the rise and royal mail currently delivers this at a loss or at best the profit from this service goes to down sorting houses that are privately owned. And of course the internet, through online shopping, has increased the need to delivery and distribution networks.

Julian Huppert spent all day yesterday discussing cycling in the city of Cambridge yet he can not grasp that hundreds of different mail distributors add traffic to our roads and undermine the public mail infrastructure that is the most efficient and environmentally sound way of getting post to our doors. 

With regards the Pension - well Gordon Brown took 5billion out of the postal scheme in 1997 and has not put it back.  Postal workers, like everyone else deserve good pensions.

From the Office of Julian Huppert 

Member of Parliament for Cambridge 

House of Commons, 

London 

SW1A 0AA 

Telephone 01223 304421

 Email julianhuppertmp@gmail.com 

 02 March 2011

 Dear Tom, 

 Thank you for contacting me about the future of the postal services.

The Government published the Postal Services Bill on the 13th October
which sets out its vision for the future of the Royal Mail and the
Post Office. I understand that there are concerns over the proposed
changes. However, I hope you will allow me to explain why I believe
these are changes for the better.

The Royal Mail and the Post Office are two different businesses, which
require different approaches. 

The network of over 11,500 Post Offices
is enormously valued by the public. The Liberal Democrats have
campaigned against post office closures for years. That is why the
network is not for sale and there will be no further programme of
closures. Instead, new ideas have been proposed to sustain this unique
national asset. The Government is proposing that, in time, the Post
Office could be converted into a mutual structure. This would mean
handing the ownership and running of the Post Office over to
employees, sub postmasters and communities, in a similar manner to
success stories like the John Lewis Partnership or the Co-operative
Group. 

 The Royal Mail, which collects and delivers your letters, is facing
business environment that is vastly different from twenty or thirty
years ago; mail volumes are far lower in the digital age, there are
more competitors who have been able to devise new, more efficient
working methods and there is scope to integrate new technology. The
only way to save it for the future is to bring in new private capital
to drive modernisation. The Postal Services Bill will also provide the
employees of the Royal Mail with greater security, over their pensions
and also the future of their employer. 

They are facing a multi-billion
pound pension deficit but pensions will now be safeguarded in a public
sector scheme.
Overall, I believe that the Postal Services Bill is the best way to
secure the future of these two organisations by enabling the Royal
Mail and the Post Office to meet the new challenges they face in
today’s world.

I hope this helps to clarify my position but please feel free to get
in touch if you wish to discuss this matter further. 

Yours sincerely, 

Julian Huppert MP 

Member of Parliament for Cambridge

Labels: Environment, Huppert, Pensions, Royal Mail