Oral Answers to Questions — Education – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 7 Mai 1964.
Mr John Harvey
, Walthamstow East
12:00,
7 Mai 1964
asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he is aware that 28 per cent. of Walthamstow's schoolchildren are being educated in schools built before 1900 while only 33 per cent. are being educated in post-war schools; and by what date his approvals of new constructions will enable Walthamstow more closely to approach the national average in educational standards.
Mr Christopher Chataway
, Lewisham North
I understand that 25 per cent. of Walthamstow children are in schools built before 1900 and nearly 34 per cent. are in completely new postwar schools and in schools which have been brought fully up to modern standards. This figure is about the national average.
Mr John Harvey
, Walthamstow East
While I am pleased to note that in terms of post-war schools Walthamstow is thought not to be lagging behind the national average, may I ask whether my hon. Friend considers that the large number of those being educated in schools built in the last century suggests that it is high time that greater priority was now given to replacing these very old schools?
Mr Christopher Chataway
, Lewisham North
My right hon. Friend recognises the claims of Walthamstow on the major building programme approved for Essex, which for the next two years is valued at £3·9 million and £4·1 million respectively; these figures compare with £1·6 million for the current year.
Mr Christopher Chataway
, Lewisham North
Yes, Sir. The record of school building by this Government is indeed a creditable one and it is significant that from the Opposition front bench, so far as I know, there has been no undertaking to implement larger programmes than we have announced.
Mr Christopher Chataway
, Lewisham North
If this undertaking to implement a programme larger apparently than £80 million a year can be equated with what the hon. Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) has said on more than one occasion, I shall be much surprised.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
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Mr Emanuel Shinwell
, Easington