03/10/2012 Party Political Broadcasts - Labour Party

Every young person should

feel they can have a career,

a future, like I had.

You know, it shouldn't be the lucky few.

In the early '80s I was the deputy head of a local comprehensive school

called Haverstock in the London Borough of Camden.

That is, of course, where I met Ed Miliband.

I think the education that I got in this comprehensive

was so much more than how to pass exams.

It was about how to look after yourself.

It was about the world as a complex place with people of all kinds

and all nationalities, all classes, all races.

And that is a really important lesson in life.

I hung around with Ed from about the age of 12 onwards.

He was like a very bright guy.

Umm...picked everything up so, so quickly.

And to be honest, when it came to maths, kind of,

the way that that his kind of brain works, was incredible.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ed gets what these schools need.

It is someone that can be trusted, and someone who was quite,

quietly, but determinedly getting on with what needed to be done

and not being influenced, not needing to change who he was.

I will always be grateful to Haverstock because I don't,

I honestly don't believe

I would be leader of the Labour Party if it wasn't for the grounding,

the education, the learning about life that I had from this school.

Ed was an incredible lecturer.

He has got this incredibly wide range of knowledge and thirst

for more knowledge, and I think

to make the journey like that from your local comprehensive school

to teaching at Harvard, you have probably got to have that knowledge.

So my sophomore year at Harvard, I took a class called "What's left?"

And there was Professor Miliband,

it was a really difficult class to get into, actually.

I had to stand in the hallway for the first class

because it was so packed.

You have got to reflect all sides, all different points of view.

Because you are a teacher,

you're not somebody who is trying to sort of tell people,

"This is what you should think."

And so you have got to listen to all sides.

But in the end, you have got to say to people where you're coming from

and what you're...what you believe.

And, uh, I had a blast, it was fantastic.

Coming from a comprehensive like I did and like Ed did,

maybe that does give you a slightly different perspective

when you end up somewhere like Harvard, I don't know.

But all I do know is he came across as very down to earth

and like a decent bloke.

One common theme from Haverstock to Harvard to training in economics,

is hard work.

And that came from my parents.

Not because the said all the time "You must work hard,"

but they instilled in us a sense that

if you wanted to get something out you need to put something in.

If you are appointed, well in my field, a headteacher, it is sensible

to get to know the people you are supposed to be guiding, leading.

If you are a teacher, it is sensible to get to know

the children that you are moving on.

If you're going to be Prime Minister,

well, for heaven's sake, if you don't so anything about

most of the people in the country,

how can you make a rational decision?

So, to start your life in local schools,

meeting a huge range of people, a cross section

of that part of London,

had to have been an advantage to him later in life as a politician.

I think anybody with Ed's experience and background

in that kind of school environment must be good for this country.

I want every kid at Haverstock, at this school, who can,

wants to go to university and has the qualifications to be able to do so,

but equally, I want those who don't want to go to university

but have huge talent and ability in other ways,

I want that to be tapped into,

I want them to be able to not be bored at school

or just sort of drift through life with no qualifications,

let's get them the best qualifications,

the best vocational qualifications.

Let's celebrate what they can do.

When I have people coming up to me, saying, "I am a young person

"I can't find a job, I have sent off my CV to so many people

"and nothing seems to be going right for me,

"banging my head against a brick wall."

That makes me angry and frustrated and think,

"Actually, I could be doing a much better job than this lot

"and we could be doing something about it."