Shephard's Watch: Illusions of Power in British Politics

Product Information

Mr Debenham, who has been headmaster of St James since it was founded 22 years ago, said he would cane a boy for telling deliberate and repeated lies to get out of trouble, serious cruelty to another boy, or repeated disobedience. Mr Debenham asked parents for their consent to corporal punishment when their child was admitted to the school. I think now if it’s just ‘jobs for your mates’, that will make it difficult for the party to heal,” the MP supportive of Sunak said. The big question in MPs’ Whatsapp groups, however, is what happens to the conquered leadership rival.

Gillian Patricia Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, PC, DL (née Watts; born 22 January 1940), is a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 1987 to 2005. Shephard served as a Cabinet Minister, and is now Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers. Shephard is currently the chair of the Alumni Association of Oxford University. She was the chair of the Council of the Institute of Education until 2015 and deputy commissioner of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission until 2017. (en) a. Shephard served as Education Secretary from 1994 to 1995. In July 1995, Shephard took over the duties of the former role of Secretary of State for Employment, held by Michael Portillo until the role was abolished. Shephard then became Education and Employment Secretary. (en) It’s very, very easy when you’re interviewed, or you do a piece to support a candidate, to end up slagging off Liz,” the MP said. “So I’ve been sort of maintaining radio silence on the matter.” John Major received the once-in-a-lifetime punishment when he was still in short trousers as a pupil at Rutlish School, Wimbledon, in the mid-1950s. It was administered by the geography master Hubert Walker because the future Prime Minister did not do his homework. Shephard provided considerable information regarding her role as Secretary of State for Education in interviews conducted by Brian Sherratt in October 1994 and March 1996 for his book on the agenda for educational reform which the Conservative Party had developed since 1979. [6] In opposition [ edit ]She was first elected to the Commons in June 1987 and joined the government the next year as PPS to Peter Lilley. I don't object to parents hitting their kids," he said. "I don't like it when I've done it, but I have done it to my own kids from time to time and there are even occasions when I have done it when I shouldn't have done it."

But Mr Major has not always been so vigorously opposed to corporal punishment. The Commons voting record shows that he was on the side of rightwingers in July 1986, when MPs came within one vote of keeping caning in state schools with parental consent. Since then, according to Tory sources, he has changed his mind.Nor was bad behaviour just a qualification for a future frontbench post. Ken Livingstone, the Labour Leftwinger, used to change his bad reports on his way home from Tulse Hill Comprehensive. He has confessed to being "disruptive and always in trouble - I played truant". Some of his parliamentary colleagues might suggest little has changed. And Tony Blair, usually described as a "charismatic rebel" during his time at school, was given "six of the best" by Bob Roberts, his house master at Fettes College, for persistently flouting the rules. "He was the most difficult boy I ever had to deal with," said Mr Roberts. Teachers seemed to reflect society's more authoritarian nature; they undoubtedly punished for offences that would not be punished today. Was this a good thing? There is another interpretation: perhaps they were under stress because they were failing to interest their pupils. Some of the misdemeanours now appear trivial, such as "carelessness" or "turning on electric lights". In the Thirties a boy could be caned for "wilfully breaking his pencil to get to a sharpening machine", "deliberately dropping his pen five times on the floor", "damaging school desks", "playing cigarette cards", "playing in the girls' playground", "playing with a drawing model" or "climbing on windows". It may be that pupils were just plain bored with their education. Liz Truss (Con) 23,753; Stephen Gordon (Lib Dem) 10,613; Peter Smith (Lab) 9,119; Kay Hipsey (UKIP) 3,061; Dennis Pearce (BNP) 1,774; Lori Allen (Green) 830. Conservative majority: 13,140.

Corporal punishment could be useful, he said, "because I think that one of the things that we really need to instil in our children, parents and teachers . . . is a sense of discipline", he told BBC radio. The dossier sent to Shephard’s office gave details of allegations that boys at the school were being groomed by known paedophiles; referred to a report by a clinical psychologist claiming that residents, aged between eight and 16, had engaged in serious sexual incidents; and listed concerns from health professionals that residents were at risk of Aids. The Times, London, 15 November 1996 The cane was once The most frequently occurring offences were "talking", "laughing", "disobedience" ("gross", "extreme", or "atrocious") and "continuous laxity". These trivial offences may indicate the poor quality of the teaching, as well as the overweening power of teachers, though there is evidence that they suffered from exasperation ("this boy has been caned for refusing to take the slightest interest in badly needed instructions"). Another teacher wrote: "Careless inattention - this boy is a 'howler', starting when spoken to". The humiliation of Mr Major was the talk of the bar at the Old Rutlishians Association last night. One contemporary of the Prime Minister said: "We used to wear a beating as a badge of honour. Most of us were caught at least once. John Major must have kept his head down if he only got caned once. It would have been much worse if old Blenkinsop had beaten him. He swished the cane much harder, as I can recall to my cost."She was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Norfolk on 23 July 2003, giving her the post nominal letters "DL" for life. [16] on 22 January 2015 She was moved to the Retired List upon reaching the Mandatory retirement age of 75.

During an early morning radio interview, Mrs Shephard hinted that the Government would support a return of the cane - abandoned 10 years ago - if there was a demand from teachers and governors. A Mori poll for the Mail on Sunday found more than 600 of 1,002 adults questioned would like to see unruly children beaten once again in schools. A DfE spokesperson said: “We are of course aware of the issues in Rochdale. We are working closely with other government departments and any information that the department holds will be submitted to the ongoing Home Office investigation.I thought it extraordinarily luxurious to be in a place where people had no obligation other than to study what they chose; it was certainly an extreme contrast with my life until then, in an isolated close knit Norfolk village where agriculture was all, and where academic work was seen as just reading.