Features

Blunkett still believes in Britain

By Paul Garbett
Published: 23/10/2009

Blind at birth and brought up in a underprivileged family in Parson Cross, few would have predicted that David Blunkett would become one of the most powerful men in Government.

While many of his colleagues at Westminster have gone through the familiar cycle of independent schools and top universities, Blunkett faced a battle to gain his education.

After growing up in one of Sheffield’s most deprived areas and facing the tragic death of his father when he was just 12-years-old, Blunkett’s opportunities in life seemed limited. But through hard work and determination, he graduated with a degree in Political Theory and Institutions from this University.

"There are massively more opportunities now compared to when I was a child," he said.

"Only eight per cent of the population went to university when I was studying at the University of Sheffield.

"It took me six years of going to evening classes and getting my employer to give me a day off each week so I could go to college. Nobody within a square mile of where I lived in Parson Cross had any experience whatsoever of university. It was a totally alien world.

"Now we’ve got over 40 per cent of the population going to university."

Despite students leaving university with an average debt of £20,000 and concerns that fees are discouraging poorer students from attending university, Blunkett believes that a university education offers good value for money.

He said: "While the struggle to pay back loans is a very big one, people are prepared to borrow money to buy a car and set up a home, so I feel that being prepared to go for it is absolutely crucial to the wellbeing of those who have the capability to do so.

"It’s vital for the rest of the country to have more people gaining degrees, because our economy in the future will depend very heavily on people gaining the high level skills that university brings."

While Sheffield has a student population of over 45,000, the former Education Secretary accepts that there are still difficulties encouraging those from the poorer areas of the city to continue their education after leaving school.

"Over the last 10 years we’ve opened two sixth form colleges in the north of Sheffield where there was previously no immediate access to post-16 education.

"Very few people stayed on in my constituency of Brightside and now that’s beginning to transform. The number of people in the last five years who have gone to university has doubled.

"While still only 16 per cent of people from that area are going to university, it is major progress and now with the sixth form colleges, youngsters are staying on in very large numbers and they are learning that they are bright and not thick.

"They are learning that potential exists if they choose the right course, they’re learning that there are all sorts of opportunities and professions that they’ve never even dreamt of. It’s absolutely crucial to their wellbeing but also to the regeneration of the communities that they grew up in and for us as a nation."

While Blunkett says opportunities for underprivileged young people have improved, statistics show there is still a lack of social mobility in Britain.

Over half of professional occupations such as law and finance are currently dominated by people from independent schools which are attended by just seven per cent of the population. Seventy-five per cent of judges and 45 per cent of top civil servants were privately educated.

He said: "I think it’s absolutely vital that people from poorer backgrounds have access to higher education and we face an enormous challenge to encourage more social mobility.

"The challenge we face is engaging children from areas where there is mass unemployment and showing them that there are better opportunities. We need schools to bring in more speakers and use local role models to inspire. Volunteering can also have a role in bringing unemployed people back into work environment.

"On a visit to a school in a poor area of Bristol, my secretary once asked a nine-year-old boy what he wanted to do when he was older. ‘I want to draw my benefits on a Tuesday,’ he said."

Earlier this month at the Conservative Party conference, David Cameron pledged if elected, his government would act on child poverty and become a champion of the poor.

He said: "I see a country where the poorest children go to the best schools, not the worst; where birth is never a barrier."

Blunkett disagrees that the Tories are now the party of the poor.

He said: "I think cutting public services and expenditure is exactly the reverse of helping those who are absolutely dependant on the support systems and investment that has transformed already the life chances for the children of Sheffield.

"It’s the literacy and numeracy programmes, the extra teaching assistants and the complete rebuilding of schools that are the outcome of investment in our future. If you don’t invest, you don’t have a future and you don’t have change.

"People who can buy their way out of cuts in education and health spending don’t have a problem, it’s the people who are least likely to vote, who are alienated and disadvantaged who lose out most.

"I think we’ve got to break that cycle and persuade people firstly to get engaged as citizens, secondly to get engaged in voting and more importantly being engaged in actually helping to transform their own lives and the lives of people around them."

Having just re-married at the tender age of 62, the University of Sheffield graduate shows no signs of slowing down ahead of the biggest general election in decades.

He said: "I’ve been very lucky to have such a long political career, and I’m ready to enter the final third of my life. I say final third, because when you marry a GP you expect to keep going forever. At the moment though, the only advice she’ll give me is to take two paracetamol."

If you believe the polls then sometime next May, David Cameron will be announced as Britain’s next Prime Minister, ending 13 years of Labour control. But Blunkett believes the fight to win votes is far from over.

He said: "In 1969 and again in 1978 we were in the same position we are in now and we only just lost those elections.

"It is perfectly possible to persuade people in the next six months if we communicate better and talk simpler language. We need to show people that if Labour do lose the election, Britain will be a worse place to live."

"We’ve got to put the scandals of mistrust in politicians behind us, because obviously if you already hold more seats than your opponents then it is those individuals who are going to be scrutinised the most as the governing party. We’ve got six months to get over that."

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