One of the things that really energised me as a candidate during the general election campaign was education – yet it received scant wider debate. VAT on private education grabbed some headlines, along with financial stresses in higher education and teachers’ pay. But there was little discussion of education in general. Exam results will be out this month and we will celebrate. No doubt we will also have the ritual fuss about exam regimes, and Labour will talk about its planned review of the curriculum and assessment. The real scandal, though, is in how we fail 16 to 21-year-olds in further education (FE) and training.
This issue has great relevance to us here in North Dorset.
Kingston Maurward College is merging with Weymouth College from the beginning of August. Kingston Maurward faced acute financial pressures, and might have been forced to close without drastic action. The college is important for our rural economy here in North Dorset as both a centre of excellence and also the closest provider of agricultural and horticultural courses. A merger of two universities in the troubled higher education sector might command national media attention, but not this merger of colleges – because it is in the equally-troubled FE sector. Yes, there is a difference in scale, but I am drawing attention to an ingrained and unjust indifference to further education.
The FE sector has been underfunded and undervalued for years, and recently it has been under acute financial pressure. A drive to give parity between vocational and academic qualifications led to the introduction of T-levels by the Conservative government. These T-levels were dumped in the dying days of that administration, for lack of money and direction. Successive governments have talked the talk on apprenticeships and further education, but they have not then walked the walk.
We have a desperate need in the UK for a more skilled and motivated workforce – and the most obvious route to it is to provide attractive, well-funded training to young people.
We are simply not doing enough. Department for Education statistics show a 40 per cent reduction in under 19-year-olds registered in apprenticeships since 2010. That’s at least 50,000 fewer apprentices, with the greatest reduction since 2016.
Labour says it will set up Skills England, make some changes to the Apprenticeship Levy, and will turn FE Colleges into specialist Technical Excellence Colleges.
What progress will we actually see on this in five years’ time?
The path to growth in our economy is through investment in people and capital. The new government needs to stop paying them lip service and instead demonstrate that it really values further education and training for young people. Businesses invest where there are skilled people, and people are in turn attracted to where there are good jobs. We need a virtuous circle like this in North Dorset if we are to thrive, and it all starts with strong FE and HE colleges nearby.
I send best wishes for the future to the staff and students at Kingston Maurward College and our FE colleges across Dorset. We need and value what they do.

Gary Jackson
North Dorset Liberal Democrats

When it was finally over, the media smoke billowing off the election battlefield somewhat obscured the fact that as well as winning all four of its target seats, the Green Party came second in another 39 constituencies. Growing numbers of us are obviously grasping the severity of the unfolding environmental situation.
Around two million people voted for the Green Party and its vision for a better future, and more than 3,000 new members have joined since the election ended.
No doubt many more would have voted Green had it not been for widespread tactical voting. On which point, as well as being grateful for those people who contacted me before the election to express their support, I appreciated the messages of those who apologetically let me know that they were reluctantly going to vote tactically this time round. Shame it didn’t pay off in North Dorset – close, but no coconut.
If we are to enjoy a true democracy, then we need to change the way we elect our politicians. Yet again the first-past-the-post electoral system has given us a government that only received a minority of the vote. This time it was Labour who benefitted, their 34 per cent vote share gaining them 63 per cent of the seats in Parliament. The Conservative’s 24 per cent vote share gave them 19 per cent of the seats, while the other parties’ 42 per cent share of the vote gave them just 18 per cent of the seats. Little wonder the Electoral Reform Society has called the result the most disproportional on record.
At the hustings events leading up to the election, there was a noticeable lack of questions about the environment. For far too long now, many politicians – and most of the media – have either denied or down-played the severity of the ever-worsening environmental situation. The unexpectedly rapid onset of the changing climate that we’re now experiencing is a massive wake-up call. We have to halt both the destruction of the natural world and global warming.
Not next year. Not next decade. NOW. Time is no longer on our side. The future can still be bright, but only if we work to make it so.
Ken Huggins
North Dorset Green Party

Navigating politics with humility – MP Simon Hoare reflects on the election aftermath, his duty to North Dorset and promises constructive opposition

Well! Quite a lot has happened since the last edition of this fantastic magazine. As the June and July editions were during the election campaign the editor, in her infinite wisdom, pulled the usual political columns. Thankfully, normal service has now resumed.
My first and very pleasant duty is to thank the electors of North Dorset for re-electing me to continue my public service on their behalf. It was always going to be a difficult and challenging election – and so it proved. Perhaps more so than I had anticipated when I look across our depleted benches in the Commons. I must confess, and I know I am not alone, that I have felt survivor’s guilt – it was doubtless the same at Rorke’s Drift or in the Crimea following the Charge of the Light Brigade. It is a side to the craft of politics that is not necessarily talked about. Politics is a human business and very much a family team effort. So are lots of jobs, I know, but sometimes the personal side of politics is not recognised. To win is an emotional experience; to lose even more so. I saw some fallen colleagues, visibly controlling their emotions as they emptied their offices after years, sometimes decades, of serving their communities.
While our politics is brutal (think Gladiator but with Order Papers) it is also civilised here in the UK. We smile and shake hands with the victor and the vanquished (everyone did in North Dorset save one, who may remain nameless) and then we promptly get on with the job. We should be proud that election results in this country are not met with Trumpian revolt or States of Emergency being declared. A removal van turns up and shortly afterwards the new tenant arrives. The timeless monarch provides the constitutional link between old and new.

Not wearing the badge
During the last Parliament, I saw several ‘oh he/she must be embarrassed to put “Conservative” on their Twitter or Facebook pages’. I never have used the label on my own social media, but it is not out of embarrassment. Let me explain why. When I am a candidate I put on party colours – a blue rosette. I stand as a Conservative and badge myself accordingly. Having been elected, however, I serve as the Member of Parliament.
I am, of course, a Conservative. I take (and sometimes abide by) the Conservative Whip in the House of Commons. But – and it is a big but – as the MP I serve all of North Dorset, whether they voted for me, for someone else, or did not vote at all.
If they have a problem then they need to come and see me as their MP, not as ‘a Conservative’. I am here to serve all of the communities that make up North Dorset and will always be as inclusive and welcoming as possible to one and all.

Badger and berate as usual
We are fortunate to live in a fantastic country. Not one without problems and challenges – we all know that. Stuff needs doing here at home, and the whole world seems less safe and sure than we would like it to be. I want to wish the new Government well. They serve us all and we have to hope that good fortune shines on them – when it does, we all benefit.
I have been asked a number of times how I would conduct myself in opposition: let me try to answer that question. I will speak up and stand up for North Dorset, as I always have, without fear or favour. I shall badger and berate on behalf of my constituents (indeed, I have declined a shadow ministerial role to allow me to do so). I shall oppose the Government where I truly believe they are getting it wrong BUT I won’t oppose for opposition’s sake.
I will endeavour, as I believe my party will, to be constructive – there are a lot of issues which will benefit from cross-party working. I am pledged to play my part in that approach. And I know that is what you will want me to do.