Unpleasant sniping at MP needs to stop

The unpleasant sniping at our MP, Rosie Duffield, exemplified by Robert Cambridge’s letter last week [‘Labour MP must be having a laugh’] really needs to stop.

I heard what Ms Duffield said about grammar schools at the Christ Church hustings.

Her words had resonance. A number of parents who have sent their children to our excellent grammar schools had said much the same to me when I canvassed them as the Conservative candidate for City South during May’s KCC election. There are some real problems that need to be addressed.

To begin with, there are grounds for suspecting that performance in the KCC test can be materially improved by coaching. That gives an advantage to money.

I believe Theresa May got it absolutely right when she said of our school system: “I can think of no better illustration of ... why ordinary working class people think it’s one rule for them, and another for everyone else. Because the message we are sending them is this: we will not allow their children to have the same opportunities that wealthier children enjoy.” (Birmingham Party Conference 2016).

There is real concern in this city that many of our children are not receiving the education they should be given, that the Kent Test is not a just way of allocating places, that the majority of our children who do not get into our excellent grammar schools are not receiving the support that they need and that not enough has been done to identify and support children with special needs.

The question as to whether more grammar schools should be established is of course part of the debate that we need to have, but it should not be conducted on partisan lines and it does not need to be.

It is very easy for those who seek to make trouble to sow division.

There is no reason why we should all agree on the policies that should be pursued to fix the problems we probably can agree exist in schooling, in health provision and the environment.

But we do need to listen to our Archbishop when he urges that we disagree well.

Rosie Duffield was elected by the people of this city to be our Member of Parliament – she received votes from students, professionals, manual workers, public service workers and the retired, including a number who had previously voted Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green and still regard these parties as their real home.

As a Tory I regard the leadership of Ms Duffield’s party as thoroughly dangerous so to be denied office. But as a democrat I respect her as our MP. As a constituent, I have noticed that she comes to meetings and listens with conspicuous care to those who have substantial, well-founded arguments to make.

There is no reason why we cannot disagree well and by disagreeing perhaps find solutions that we all support. The sniping is not just unfair – it is damaging, irresponsible and ultimately evil. Joe Egerton, Palace Street, Canterbury