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Please note: during the coronavirus lockdown we can still provide speakers for online events and discuss participating in future, post-lockdown events.
The Parliamentary Outreach Trust celebrated its formal launch on 26 April 2018. Hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, our guest speakers were the then Deputy Speaker, later Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, MP, and the then Father of the House, Rt Hon Ken Clarke MP.
Professor Justin Fisher of Brunel University spoke of the value that former MPs bring to the education of students of politics. We also heard a report from a recent visit of POT members Dick Tracey and Eric Moonman to the King Edward VI School in Stratford upon Avon:
“Your visit to K.E.S. during the EU referendum was rated as the best session of the Politics and Economics Society by the students of the outgoing Upper Sixth.
The positive and pleasant exchange between the two of you, despite being from opposing political parties, will live long in my memory and in the minds of the students who were present.”
Although the then Mr Speaker, John Bercow MP, was unable to attend the event he sent an encouraging message:
“No-one is better able to give an informed view of what it is like being in Parliament than a former MP – which is why the work of the Parliamentary Outreach Trust is so important. With years of experience to draw on, these are people who can give students a bird’s eye view of life as a Member, being elected and accountable to voters, juggling constituency work with taking part in Commons debates – even achieving ministerial office. They can offer insight into the parliamentary process and how government departments work, how Bills become law and the role of government.
They really are the ambassadors of Parliament.
I very much welcome their willingness to share the fruits of their own contribution and experience – and I am sure their efforts to spread the word will inspire and interest the next generation, not only in the Palace of Westminster but the work that we do.”
The meeting remembered the late Eric Moonman with affection; he was a pioneer of outreach working by former MPs.
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Latest: (February 2020) Full list of POT Patrons announced: Our patrons include Rt Hon Gordon Brown, (now former) Lords Speaker Lord Norman Fowler, former Commons Speakers John Bercow and Baroness Betty Boothroyd, and Lord Campbell of Pittenween (Menzies Campbell)
Latest: read here about POT helping develop democracy in Myanmar
PARLIAMENTARY OUTREACH TRUST 