Election Fever
Election fever hit the sixth form on Wednesday May 5th with the organisation of a pre – election “Question Time” event. Well over 100 sixth form students poured into the packed side common room at lunchtime to listen to candidates from UKIP (Ashleigh Harper and Liz Rabone) Conservatives (Melissa Lee), Lib Dem (Bryn Rogers) and Labour (Marc Tilley) defend their policies and Parties.
Chairperson Harriet Rudden successfully managed to keep the best of order. After an opening statement by all the candidates, (which resulted in a round of applause for Bryn Rogers after his populist appeal to his fellow students!) the questions began with a devastating attack on proposed Conservative tax cuts by upper sixth Politics student Juliet Eales. That question set the tone for the rest of the proceedings, with Conservative candidate Melissa Lee coping superbly with the barrage of questions directed at Conservative policies.
The questions asked ranged from topics such as reform of the electoral system, student loans, devaluing of university degrees, gay equality, to retaining a nuclear deterrent, resulting in a lively but courteous debate. The sixth formers conducted themselves with maturity and intelligence throughout the proceedings, demonstrating an excellent understanding of some complex political arguments. Indeed Mr Wallace had not heard Ashleigh Harper speak in two years, never mind hearing him speak so eloquently!
It was an absolute pleasure to see our Sixth Form so engaged in current affairs. They did us proud.
After a bitterly contested battle, upper school went to the polls this morning and cast their votes in the Whitchurch High School Mock election. The votes have been counted and the results are as follows:
Plaid Cymru - 28 votes
Conservatives (Melissa Lee) - 63
UKIP (Liz Rabone and Ashleigh Harper) - 108
Labour (Marc Tilley) - 152
Liberal Democrats (Bryn Rogers) -376
A landslide victory for the Liberal Democrats!
The politics department would like to congratulate the candidates on a vigorous campaign. They all conducted themselves with maturity, and performed well in the debates yesterday. The Politics Department are very proud our students, all of whom were actively involved in the mock election. Year 10 and Year 11 pupils also deserve credit for their excellent behaviour when voting this morning.
A big thank you to staff for allowing their classes to vote this morning. We appreciate that it is a very busy time of the year, and lesson time is precious.
We will have to wait until tomorrow for the results of the real thing!
