@A_M_S_Group Q&A Supplement

The Guardian diagram shows a chart of connection in an attempt to convey a web of corruption. Connection does not automatically mean that a conflict of interest exists. If I believed that any connections that I have, have caused a conflict of interest, then I would have made the necessary formal declaration when I was scheduled to make a decision.

My professional relationship to former Councillors Long and Sullivan are a matter of record. Both of them had been Councillors of long standing when I was first elected to the Council in 1998. I supported Sullivan in his attempt to secure the selection as the Labour candidate for Lewisham Mayor, for the 2002 election which he lost to Steve Bullock. Sullivan resigned from the Council in 2002. Long was one of my co-Councillors in New Cross ward for 8 years until she stood down in 2014. I try to be on friendly terms with everyone I work with and have dealings with through work. I am still in contact with many former Councillors and Officers of the Council as anyone would expect. I don't believe that the contact I have had with Long and Sullivan since they left the Council would convince an objective, impartial person that we are 'very close friends'.

Going back to the Guardian diagram, I think it is impossible for anyone to prove their innocence. That's why I believe that it was wrong for them to publish it and not something that you would expect from a reputable, broadsheet, national newspaper. People should be judged on the evidence. Where there is none, no one should resort to rumour mongering and innuendo.

Is Canvassing To Campaigning What VHS Is To Home Entertainment?

Many thanks to everyone who came to Edmund Waller School last night for the Fair Funding For All Schools Campaign meeting. I am sure that everyone would like to thank all those who were involved in making the event happen, especially Cassie Raine. Matt Dykes, Co-Founder of the Campaign, was outstanding in his grasp of the subject, passion for the issue and insight into what would make the campaign successful. For more details of the campaign, how to get involved and what you can do, go to their website here (#schoolsjustwannahavefunds). Of the many good points Matt made I would highlight the following:

• Everyone needs to come together to fight the Tory proposals. That means schools, parents, teachers and their unions, politicians and local Councils. We shouldn’t allow the focus to be taken off the government by fighting each other.

• It is Tory backbenchers that are the power in the land, as a government with a majority of 17 is very weak and vulnerable to the threat of a revolt from their own side. The way to use this weakness as leverage is to constantly remind the government that they fought the 2014 General Election on a manifesto that promised to maintain per pupil funding for education not cut it, which is what their Fair Funding proposals are all about. Assertions that education funding is being protected are false, just as the claims that the NHS is being protected from Austerity is false, as witnessed by the current crisis in A&E departments and rising hospital waiting lists.

I would like to reiterate a point I made last night. It’s true to say that there are differences across the country in per pupil funding. But these are not the result of a desire on the part of previous governments to perpetrate an injustice on certain parts of the country. Rather, it is the result of local democracy. For many, many years Labour politicians fought local and city elections on manifestos that prioritised education and pledged to raise the taxes to fund it. Their local communities backed them at the ballot box. As a result places run by Labour, largely urban areas, invested more in education than their Tory counterparts, largely in rural areas. No wonder that Tory run areas are deliverying some of the worse educational outcomes for children, while London, a broadly Labour city, has seen massive improvement and is now a ‘stand-out’ national performer. So instead of being an exercise in righting the wrongs of inequality in funding for education, ‘Fair Funding’ is about robbing money from communities who voted consistently over the years for more resources for education and the taxes to pay for it, and giving it to places who didn’t.

Thanks again to everyone who came and took part. Be assured that despite debilitating cuts with more to come, Lewisham Council is on your side. The Council is led by elected members who are Lewisham residents and in may cases parents of children who are at or have been to Lewisham schools. Many are school governors. We are all determined to defend our schools and to do all be can to ensure that our children get the best education they can.