Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: A ‘toaster in the bath’ mood

By-election win

First up, congratulations to Lib Dem Caroline Ward who won the Haywards Heath North West by election for the Town Council. It was a great result, with the Lib Dems getting more votes than the Conservatives and Reform combined. 

Elsewhere in the country, the Liberal Democrats have had a good few weeks in local government by-elections, and since the local elections in May, we have won more council by-elections than Labour, the Conservatives and the Green Party combined. 

In Wales, the Caerphilly result saw a historic loss for Labour - but at the hands of Plaid not Reform - showing that perhaps the relentless progress of Reform is not as baked in as some might think. More widely in terms of Labour’s national fortunes, there have been pessimistic write ups of Starmer’s leadership, with one article saying that there is a ‘toaster-in-the-bath’ mood among MPs.

International Baccalaureate funding cut

A couple of weeks ago, state schools and colleges like Varndean in Brighton which offer the highly regarded International Baccalaureate (IB) as an alternative to A-levels, were told that something called the “Large Programme Uplift” is going to be cut. I think this is a real error - and Lord Ashcroft agrees. 

Without this funding, Varndean says that they are likely to have to stop offering the IB to future students.

In Mid Sussex, lots of our young people choose to study the IB at Varndean. It’s the only state provider of the IB anywhere in Sussex, and it’s a brilliant programme that opens doors to top universities, often studying STEM subjects as well as helping students develop a wide range of skills beyond the purely academic. 

As well as writing to the Secretary of State, I challenged the Minister about this in Parliament last week, asking whether he really thinks it’s acceptable for the IB to become something only privately-educated students can access.

I’ll keep pushing the Government to rethink this. Every young person deserves access to the best education, not just those whose families can afford school fees.

A menopause ‘gold rush’?

A number of newspapers including the Guardian and the Daily Mail have reported research from UCL that has described a ‘menopause gold rush’ - poor quality information about the menopause accessed through social media platforms like Instagram. I questioned a health minister about this research last week, and that was reported in the Independent. 

What do you think? 

I am interested in readers’ experiences of getting advice about the menopause, and whether a public health education programme to help women approaching and during the menopause would be a good idea. 

If you want to share your thoughts, please email alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk.

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

Best wishes,
Alison

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