On Friday 25 March 2011, Lady Herman, independent, was welcomed by the Politics Society of Sullivan Upper School.
Lady Herman started by telling us about the elections of last year, in which her votes were weighed instead of counted. She said it was the first time the vote was counted through the night and that she thought Brown made the right decision by leaving when he did. Furthermore, she commented that it was hard to hold the coalition to account as they had no specific manifesto. Lady Herman feels this parliament is ‘unhappy’ and that Ed Miliband will have a lot to do a lot to show he deserves the leadership. She also thought, as opposition, they were never going to win against the government due to a majority in parliament. She seemed very concerned about the disconnect between the government and Northern Ireland.
After her speech, we started the questions; from which we learned she would not be rejoining the UUP until at least the end of the current parliament. However she did note that membership of all political parties has gone down. She revealed parliament was offended that Cameron did not ask Parliament for a vote of support before the bombing started in Libya. She asserted even Blair had asked parliament before going to War in Iraq. She also thought Miliband was hypocritical for criticising his brother in the election campaign about Iraq yet spoke for going into Libya.
With that, the meeting was concluded and we all showed our appreciation by a round of applause. I, personally, would like to express gratitude to all who attended.
Clare Coulter Deputy Secretary of the Politics Society
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