School Visit to Parliament c1976

Mr Anderson (aka Jock) and Miss Lambert: Another influential teacher who came to teach me later in my school life, probably when I was about 15 was Mr Anderson, also know affectionately as Jock. Mr Anderson was quite a character He was about 6ft 3in, had a full beard, and was probably in his late 30s when he taught me but he was great fun. Jock, as I shall call him, was my history teacher after Mr Boast (more of him later) and I just loved his lessons. But it wasn’t the history class where I got to know him it was when I was about 16 and a new subject came on the syllabus. This new subject was called British Constitution, later changing to British Government & Politics.

I had always had a passing interest in politics when I was younger. My dad and grandad where staunch Labour Party supporters and it was only natural I suppose ,that I became a Labour Supporter too. Jock’s lessons were absolutely fantastic, they were very interesting, funny because Jock was funny, informative and he involved all the class in political debate in which everybody joined in. It was a great way to get people involved in the lesson and it made for a very enjoyable hour or so which I really looked forward to.

He explained how government worked, how MPs are elected, the Civil Service and generally how this great unwritten constitution of ours has evolved over the centuries. Later, when we were in the 6th form, he would take us to the pub (Dog and Partridge) and even tried to get me fixed up with Diane Lucy who I was mad on at the time (Here we go again, infatuation number 356). During my time at Woolston there was hardly a moment when I didn’t have a crush on a girl (apart from when I had a crush on David Cassidy but I think I was a bit confused at the time) and when I was about 16/17 it was Diane Lucy‘s turn. Jock was aware I had a crush on Diane and one day, after a History lesson he asked me to stay behind when everybody else had left. When the class had dispersed I went to the front of the class to see what Mr Anderson wanted with me. He rambled on about something or other while his hands were flicking through this book, then he just said, Diane Lucy and then gave me the book, a paperback novel I think it was. I looked inside the front cover of the book and it had a name in it; Diane Lucy. I said, this belongs to Diane Lucy and Mr Anderson, said yes I know, I want you to return it to her.
Well, I was a bit taken aback, I was mad on Diane but still very shy of girls, especially the ones I was mad on. No matter how hard Mr Anderson tried to get me to return this book to it’s rightful owner I just wouldn’t do it; far too shy.

We had been doing Government and Politics for about a year or so when Jock was joined by a new teacher called Miss Lambert. Miss Lambert was a young attractive history teacher who joined Mr Anderson to teach us politics. She was just as enthusiastic about the subject as Mr Anderson was and just like him was very approachable and I sensed that we were being treated more like young adults than children. Miss Lambert, just like Mr Anderson came to the pub with us too.

It was during this time, when I was about 16 or 17 (1976/77), when we had both teachers, that it was arranged for the Warrington Labour MP, John Evans# to come and give the sixth form a talk. (He was actually the MP for Newton-le-Willows ,Newton covered the Warrington North area at the time). We were all sat in the 6th form common room, which incidentally was the old staff room prior to the completion of the J Block, but anyway, we were all sat there waiting for this important man to arrive. When he did arrive we were all very excited and some of us had questions to put to the MP, but I didn’t.

Mr Evans introduced himself and continued to speak to us about a whole host of subjects from the abolition of Grammar Schools to unilateral nuclear disarmament, a subject that was much debated at the time. His views on Grammar schools was quite simple, he wanted to abolish them all. I can remember him saying , it’s not fair for children at the age of 11 to be divided up into what he called, Sheep and goats. He probably spoke to us for about an hour or so and I think Miss Lambert asked a question but I can’t recall what it was.

After Mr Evans’s spiel we were asked whether we had any questions, and several people stood up and asked some questions, but probably the funniest was David Floyd’s question. David was sat next to me and he stood up and faced the MP and asked, “Do you believe in unilateral nuclear disarmament? And if so……………………….”, then David froze, he dried up completely. He just stood there with his right hand on his chin, looking round and waiting for Scotty to beam him up, he just couldn’t complete his question, he‘d forgotten the rest of it. I just wanted to burst out laughing and had to put my hand over my mouth to stop me from laughing out loud, it was so funny but a little embarrassing for David I think. I believe it was at this event that it was arranged for the 6th form Government and Politics class to meet John Evans in the lobby of the House of Commons in a few weeks time, a meeting that Mr Evans was more than happy to do.

Those few weeks soon passed and we were very happy to go down to London on the train to have a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament by our MP Mr John Evans. I don’t think Mr Anderson came with us on this trip but Miss Lambert did. As we got off the train we headed for the nearest pub because we had an hour or so to kill before we were to Meet Mr Evans in the Lobby of the House. When we came out of the pub I can remember Miss Lambert saying, “Why is it always bright when you come out of a pub”. We then made our way over to the Houses of Parliament and were all very excited at the prospect of being shown round this great palace.

When we arrived in the lobby we were told to wait there by Miss Lambert while she went to find Mr Evans. No sooner had she spoken when we saw Mr Evans descending a steep stone staircase, he was walking very quickly and seemed in a bit if a hurry. We were stood at the bottom of the steps and I don’t think he realised that it was he who we were waiting for because I got the impression that he was going to walk straight past us. Miss Lambert approached him and introduced herself and in that moment I heard Mr Evans say something like I’m sorry, but I’m very busy at the moment. Well, on hearing that Miss Lambert became very annoyed to say the least, she raised he voice and angrily said, “We’ve come all the way from Warrington and you can’t be bothered to show us round” And she really laid into Mr Evans. After a short while Mr Evans asked us to wait where we were and he would see what he could do. I’d never seen Miss Lambert that angry before, she was almost as angry as Mrs Fullerty, but not quite. After a few minutes Mr Evans returned to our group and proceeded to show us round the Palace of Westminster.

One of the first places he took us to was the House of Commons, We were all in amazed at the sight before us. We were very impressed with the lovely green leather seats, the architecture of the place and the artwork. One lad in our group, I can’t remember who it was, was about to sit on one of the seats where the Members of Parliament would sit but as soon as Mr Evans realised what was about to happen he ran over to the boy and told him not to sit down because only elected members of the house were entitled to sit there. After the Commons we went through the lobby again and into the House of Lords, the Lords was even more impressive with it’s red leather seats; the place was amazing. We were then taken to the Great Hall, which didn’t look as grand as we were led to believe. We were told that it was bombed during the war and had been rebuilt as a result of the Nazi bombing. The tour probably lasted about two or three hours and after this very impressive tour Mr Evans arranged for us to watch a live debate in the House of Commons from the visitors gallery.

When we got to the visitors gallery we were given Order Papers which described what they were going to debate. This bit was a bit boring I seem to recall, but I was star struck. The Prime Minister at the time would have been James Callaghan and the leader of the opposition, Margaret Thatcher but I don’t think they were in the Chamber the day we went. I did however, see Enoch Powell stand up and ask a brief question and I must say I was slightly star struck.

When we left the Visitors Gallery we hung about Parliament for a while until it was time for us to make our way to Euston Station to catch our train and return to Warrington Bank Quay. But unfortunately (for Me) we left it a bit late and as we passed through the gate that led to the platform we could see that our train was pulling out of the station. Shock, horror was my first reaction, then Miss Lambert said, “ QUICK EVERYBODY, RUN“, so we all ran as fast as we could down this slope, but about half way down the speed and momentum overwhelmed me and I fell and as I did so I probably did about a dozen somersaults and cartwheels down the slope moving intermittently through the air. As I was airborne I began to hear all the coins leave my coat pocket and as they did so they quickly began to overtake me. If that wasn’t bad enough I could hear my best jacket ripping and tearing as I continued my unrehearsed and reluctant gymnastics routine. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, I came to rest on the platform at the bottom and when I looked up I could see the Warrington train was still moving very slowly away from the station. I remember girls in our group screaming and trying to help me (the boys just carried on running), Then I heard Miss Lambert screaming like some poor damsel from a Hammer Horror film. I quickly picked myself up, left my change on the platform and we all managed to alight the moving train Phew, is everybody alright Miss Lambert asked, “well apart from loosing all my money and ruining my best Sports Jacket, I’m fine”, I said. Then everybody burst out laughing just like they used to at the end of Star Trek, including me.