19/06/2011 The Politics Show North East and Cumbria

Here: Are schools in the North being pressurised into becoming

academies with promises of extra funds? We report from Cumbria.

This woman can't get the internet at home - we are in County Durham

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2231 seconds

finding out what life is like in Hello and a very warm welcome to

your local part of the show. Coming up: This woman can't get onto the

internet, and she's not alone. We report from County Durham on life

in the broadband slow lane. And we'll be finding out why a

North East peer is walking 3,000 miles from Greece to London.

First, the worst performing primary schools, 16 of them in Cumbria and

the North East, are going to be closed down and re-opened as

academies outside the control of the local council. It is the latest

Government move to create more academies, an idea conceived by

Tony Blair a decade ago. As well as greater freedoms, new academy

schools can expect to receive more money. But is that promise of extra

resources forcing some schools into taking on academy status for fear

of losing out if they don't? Emily Unia reports from Cumbria. Lunch

time at this Academy in Workington. Leicester Pembroke it was the first

school in Cumbria to take up the new offer from the government for

Outstanding Schools to leave local a authority control and convert to

academy status. For pupils there is a new name a new uniform, but for

those running the school it means no more queuing for handouts.

Primarily for us it was about freedom. Money was a factor because

having the full funding entitlement for our children was also very

important. Local a authorities take at portioned of all school budgets

to spend on their behalf and schools like ours that do well

achieve good results, don't cause any problems, don't get overlooked

when the carving up of the General Pot's is made. Fight this all to

Muff 50 more schools in Cumbria could become academies and it seems

money is a motive. The fact is most of them are converting because they

cannot afford not to convert. government give councils money to

spend on education. The councils give most of that money to schools

but they keep come of - - some of the back. But Academy Schools

sidestepped the councils and get the money directly from central

government. None of it is taken away. They paid for support

services themselves. That is the attraction for schools like this.

Critics say that the drive for more academies his divisive. It is

trying to bribe the better schools into becoming academies. This is a

good school. Why should it take it money from other schools in the

area? That is quite an immoral stance, because you then think it

is I'm all right, Jack. If you look much wider and have properly funded

education throughout, then that is much better. The pleas from bomb

macro this school decided not to become an academy. Mistakes and

education budgets may mean that figure is revised, but that this

central academy in Carlisle there is a word of warding two heads

pursuing academy status for money alone. I hope they are not. If they

are it is really naive and a short- term approach. Education is about

the life chances of the children in our care. That is a long business.

Any school that becomes an academy just for money has not worked out

what this is all about. At the County Council, a decision by two

leading schools to stay with the local authority is a vote of

confidence in uncertain times. But there is no room for complacency.

If more and more start to leave it will impact upon what money we have

available for services. We're hopeful that by strengthening our

services that people can buy them from us. The government says that

academies have raised standards. But by once the worst performing

primaries to make the switch, too. It expects high-achieving schools

like this one to lend a helping hand.

Well, let's talk about academy schools now with Mary Glindon, the

Labour MP for North Tyneside, and Darlington councillor Ian Galletley,

who is chairman of the Conservatives in the North East.

You voted against the Government's Academy Schools legislation.

Government has really turned is on the head. It was about turning

schools around, about failing schools and helping people. Now it

seems that money is an element and it isn't just about redressing

inequalities. The announcement by Michael Gove that feeling primaries

should become academies, that is tackling the schools that have

failed. But, again, the worry is that he is taking 200 out of 1400.

That premise school we just all, it was a primate that was performing

well. The other issue is, is that the right way to do it? If the

schools are failing... I suppose the idea is that it has failed

under the council so let's give it another chance. But at what cost?

Expanding this programme and slicing many of the education

Budget, taking more schools out of the control of councils who I

believe to a good job, to me does not seem right. He is doing this in

a week and there has been a chaotic situation around money that is

going to the schools, as well. There is a funding inequality being

built into the schools. If you become an academy you do a lot

better. There is a dispute about how this funding has been arrive

that that has to be resolved. There is a fundamental argument here

about the future of education in the whole country. I just want an

answer as to whether or not this is bribery. That would seem like a

good argument for not having local a authorities at all because the

schools are funded directly there would not be a need to proportion

its in line with somebody else as criteria. I can we have a model of

education based on a model of being funded by the government, provided

they are professional people and the clients being families. Like a

we just have those three? Were his this local authority to income

from? It is history. Is it not making sure that certain services

are provided on a cost-effective basis centrally? Yes, but it is

justifying the way education is currently organised saying that

schools must fit in with local authority. You are democratically

elected as a councillor. Surely that is a good thing that these

councils have some authority over local schools. By people who have

never worked in schools have to say so on how schools could be

organised? What right have they got to tell teachers how to run schools

and to instruct parents on what to demand of the school? My camper to

just go straight to each other? Headteachers are in the best

position on how to run a school. But everyone has the role to play.

All schools have governing bodies and largely the governing body

operate the Budget and they make the decisions within the schools.

As a school governor who has never been a teacher of a smiling their

because working with their head teachers you have a vast array of

people on the governing bodies. I think that works very well.

this double can still be on the governing body, it is just making

sure that the head teacher has control of the Budget. That is how

the link is made. The local- authority is always there as their

main stay he can refer back to you have the expertise to advise. When

we are talking about funding, the schools to decide to remains within

the local authorities are going to suffer when the schools that go

through two academies take more of the funding. Why should the most

successful schools gain while some of the schools that stay in the

system but do not successful lose? Let's look at what the point of

this week's statement about the 200 schools been taken out of local-

authority control. There is a really good argument for change.

But why isn't that happening at secondary schools? Why isn't the

Government not just saying that every school become an academy?

Because a volunteer is worth 10 pressed men. You can just instruct

people when I did change education. Let's look at the school stands

have become academies this week. 200 schools. Hundreds of thousands

of children who have been in the care of local authorities for

generations and still those schools are failing. I think you'll find

very soon... but the fact that these schools are going to be

�300,000 per if they don't become academies. The Labour Party is

wedded to local authority control. They're keen enthusiasts of

political control of schools in some regional council role. We have

a difference of view. We think that the best relationship for schools

is government money, teacher provides a service, families accept

it or don't. But is the new model on which schools should be built.

If you have this discussion in seven years' time, it will be

abnormal to be in a local authority school. It seems that people like

Tony and Clare - - it seems that Tony Blair would still be doing the

City was in government. Looking at the actual fact, the issue is this

government is about competition. We have seen it in the health service.

This is going to set schools against each other and schools that

become academies will be the top of the heap. Thank you both very much.

Now, many of us take the internet for granted these days whether

booking train tickets, doing your shopping or catching up on the news.

It's even more important if you are running a business. The Government

has promised to provide the "best broadband in Europe" by 2015 and is

funding four pilot schemes to help connect rural areas. One of them in

Penrith. Yet in large parts of the North there is still no fast

broadband connection available, and in some places no access to the

internet at all. I went to County Durham to find out more.

The car is a vital part of staying connected in the countryside. When

this may be get some, the connections are not so good.

Getting online in this part of TI's deal is nearly impossible. We can

get anything. They have sent 13 in juniors around, British Telecom,

but they can help. We can do shop, book tickets, research. The

children's education in the area is suffering. On a neighbouring farm,

the lack of the services causing problems. The government is

expecting our farmed the sent off VAT, income tax, like stock

movement records all through the Internet and it is becoming

impossible. This community is not alone. 36 % of those in Bishop

Auckland can get a decent broadband connection. Backers of but 30 % and

North Durham and 46 % in north-west Durham. 87,000 people in the county

are struggling to connect. The council did bid for 9 billion - -

�9 million to help getting people get connected. On this occasion �50

million was told that the Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon, and

County Durham got nothing. there will mean is that will put

places like the north-east into digital still lame. That has a

massive impact on businesses, maintaining businesses. We have

been told of house-owners not been prepared to move to the area. We

need this. It is important to business as access to roads,

realNetworks etc. In North Yorkshire more communities are

getting connected. People like Carol have had to fight for it. She

decided to do something about it. Be printed off 400 letters and went

round putting them through all the letterboxes of the neighbouring

villages and arranged a meeting in the local pub and it went on from

there. They resulted in the service we now have. The Conservatives said

that rural communities can make a difference by taking control of

their own destinies. This is a distancing feature between this

government and the last one. Looking at my constituency in North

Yorkshire, the most rural county in England, those communities are

coming together and defining what they want for their businesses and

the environment and then defining that am working with the providers

and central government. Will people power be enough? Labour says rural

areas will not be connected unless the Government invests more. That

two megabytes by 2015 target seems very minimal. Of the state is

better than nothing. To do most of the pains that businesses and

schoolchildren want to do, it won't really meet their needs. What about

Mary? There she hopeful of a new done by 2015? I am not holding my

breath. Maybe we will have moved by them because he wants to live in a

place where you have got no communication with other people.

Rural communities and the government can only hope that other

people are prepared to hang on a bit longer.

And you can find out which parts of the North East and Cumbria have the

best, and worst, broadband connections on my blog. Just log

onto bbc.co.uk/richardmoss. That's if you've got the internet, of

course! Now, most talk about the Olympics

so far has centred around the difficulty of obtaining tickets.

And, no, I didn't get any either! But for one member of the House of

Lords, the North East Peer Michael Bates, there is far bigger issues

at stake. To prove the point he is currently walking from Olympia in

Greece all the way to London. That is an incredible 3,000 miles. The

aim is to try and bring some peace to parts of the world beset by

violence and war. This sun is beating down and the

scenery is spectacular, but this is no stroll in the park. It is a walk

with the purpose for Conservative peer Michael Bates. He is taking

time out to try to raise awareness of one aspect of the Olympic Games

that most people have never even heard about, the Olympic truce.

problem is that fighting men cannot lay down their arms voluntarily

because they look weak. You need to provide them with an opportunity

where they can look manly and yet stop killing each other. The idea

of the Games was conceived. A period of truce covered it. That

ran for 1200 years. Violations were extremely rare, one or two in 1200

years. The truce still accompanies every Olympic Games and is now part

a of a United Nations resolution. Rarely does any country do anything

to make it happen. The resolution only asks that you take initiatives

for reconciliation during the period of the Games. If other

people don't agree to the truce, there can be no truce! What it is

saying is we have given a solemn undertaking the four of the General

Assembly of the United Nations that we will do something. If we don't

that we can do it, we shouldn't sign it. If we do signed its, we

should implement it. This time Michael Bates wants it to be

different. He hopes that by October they UK government will take the

tray seriously. Local seer are willing to give him the benefit of

the doubt. I am walking to London. But this critic - - quite a typical

reaction. I am 75 years old. I will never stop saying that we are crazy.

It is a very good action doing this, because I cannot do that. So, 500

miles into the 3000 mile journey, there is a long way to go. But for

Lord be its this to be a price worth paying for a short pause in

conflicts around the world. Our thanks to Sam Farmar for

letting us use those pictures. And we'll keep you posted with Michael

Bates' progress over the next few months. And, finally, if you live

in Darlington there is a chance to put your questions directly to the

man running the local council next week. Bill Dixon will be taking