Yesterday, Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, stood up in the House of Commons and made a powerful speech, which will have moved anyone furious at the injustice of this year’s education scandal.
Echoing so many parents’ concerns, she called on the government to ensure there is never a repeat of this year's GCSEs and A Levels ‘shambles’.
Speaking as a worried parent herself, and as someone who has seen the havoc wreaked by the education mess in her constituency, she asked Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, to reassure her that school children won’t be faced with an unfair system again next August.
The power of Jess’s words make it hard to watch without feeling incandescent with rage, which is why it’s so important. She makes the injustice of the exams' scandal tangible.
‘If I had one wish, it would be that my children’s lives were not particularly in [the government’s] hands, but here I am as a rule taker, not a rule maker in this situation,’ she spat, on the verge of tears.
‘I wish that the Secretary of State would show more humility. I am the representative for Birmingham Yardley and I have a very eminent predecessor, Baroness Morris of Yardley,’ she went on. ‘When she felt that she had not done her very best when she was in the position the Secretary of State is in today, she said that the children, schools and teachers mattered more than her job. That is the kind of humility that I would expect from a Government, and it is not something that I have seen. All I can say is that he had better pray that he does not find himself in the same situation in August next year.’
Jess’s anger is all of us right now. She points out that, while politicians are busy scoring points against each other, it’s the children from poorer backgrounds - who can’t afford to pay for their education or can’t afford a computer - who are suffering the most. Speeches like this don’t come around every day, but when they do, we can only hope they send a lightning bolt of urgency and humility through the people in charge.
Jess’s anger is all of us right now. She points out that, while politicians are busy scoring points against each other, it’s children who are suffering the most.
It’s hard not to be moved when she tells the Chamber how she had to go around her constituency, giving out sim cards so that parents could access their childrens’ schools on their phones, because they did not have access to the internet.
‘That was how their children were intending to access education,’ she explains.
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Politicians like her, who show empathy, compassion and sound like humans, rather than robots reading from a press release, are few and far between among those running the country right now. Her speech needs to be shared far and wide.
Hopefully it will scare the government into getting their act together so children from poorer families don’t repeatedly bear the brunt of the bad decisions made by those in charge. I think we all know we need someone like Jess in the driving seat to put an end to inequality.