Returning To My Old School For Radio 4's 'Any Questions'

Slightly bizarre experience on Friday night. I went back to my old school for the first time in about 15 years (I shuddered when I realised how long it had been since I left). Some things had changed a lot. Plain old Moorside Comprehensive had become 'Moorside Community Technology College'. Some of my old teachers were still there and I was pleased to see that Phil Lewis, my old Physics teacher who sadly died during the Great North Run a few years ago, has been honoured with the Community Centre being named after him.

The reason for this return... Radio 4's Any Questions had hit County Durham. The hall was jammed full and the audience was spirited and vocal. The panel included Pat McFadden (Mandy's number 2 at BIS), Norman Lamont, Clare Short and Jean Lambert (Green MEP).

I asked a question about the decline of social mobility and the fact that New Labour has let down those working class people who placed most faith in it in 1997. This really resonated in the hall - local people are clearly really angry at
Labour's failure to deliver since 1997. People in the North East are rightly
furious about the squandered trust since 1997.

Clare Short was pretty forceful in her response, admitting that failure in social mobility had been a monumental one for the Labour Party. The Minister's response admitted that the problem was a real one but he then became trapped in obfuscation, relying on dubious figures to back up his fairly flaky case.

You can catch it on i-player here. Let me know what you think.