The separation between ‘members’ and ‘strangers’ always struck me as being one of the most archaic aspects of the House of Commons. When Natasha Barley, the brilliant director of the Children’s University in Hull, asked me (as the charity’s patron) to arrange a meeting with the Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, I felt obliged to accompany her on my first journey back since retiring as an MP in 2017. Damian graciously agreed to meet us in his Commons office so I led Natasha to the 1 Parliament Street entrance that I’d used for 20 years and showed my ex-MP’s pass to the uniformed officer on duty. ‘I’ve told you before,’ she barked (inaccurately), ‘you can’t use this entrance and you’re not entitled to bring in visitors.’ Natasha stood behind me, horrified that the man she thought might carry a residue of influence was now, like her, a ‘stranger’.
Last week and next you can hear me presenting a programme on Radio 4 that traces the modern history of education in England through the trials and tribulations of a single school opened in 1884 as St Michael and All Angels, which, as the Ark All Saints Academy, occupies the same site today.
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