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Graeme Brown: The greatest debates

Graeme Brown reviews the debates about slavery between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

During the past few weeks, Americans have had the chance to watch their two Presidential candidates take part in three 90 minute debates. The general consensus seems to be that the debates were a disappointment – that neither candidate quite lived up to the significance of the coming election, that neither candidate made a compelling case, that neither candidate seemed to understand the causes of, nor was able to offer solutions to, the major issue of the election – the crisis in global financial markets.

This year is a significant anniversary of the forerunners of the modern Presidential debate. 2008 is the 150th anniversary of the debates that took place in Illinois in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for one of the Illinois seats in the US Senate, a contest that was of course repeated two years later during the Presidential election of 1860. Just like today, in 1858, there was one issue dominating the election above all others. It was a moral issue rather than an economic one that dominated the debates between Lincoln and Douglas. And that issue was slavery.

Slavery had always divided North and South, from America’s birth. The Constitution protected slavery in states where it already existed. But as America acquired new territories that were destined for statehood, arguments about whether those new territories should allow slavery threatened to tear the nation apart. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which set geographical limits on where slavery would be allowed, settled the question for a while. 30 years later, the issue was re-ignited due to territory (including California) captured during the Mexican wars, and the Compromise of 1850 again found a balance between the interests of north and south which both sides could live with. Four years later, Kansas and Nebraska sought statehood. The Kansas Nebraska Act gave the citizens of those new states the option to be slave-holding or free states, enraging many in the North, as it over-rode the geographical limits set out in the Missouri Compromise. In 1857, the Supreme Court pronounced its infamous opinion on the Dred Scott case. Dred Scott was a slave suing for his freedom. Mr Scott lost. The court ruled that because Mr Scott was black, he was not a citizen, and therefore had no right to be heard in a US Federal court. The Court further claimed that slaves were private property protected by the Constitution. Mr Scott was bought, and promptly freed, but the Supreme Court's judgement further inflamed opinion in the north. This was the atmosphere in which Lincoln, the candidate of the newly formed Republican Party prepared to fight the well-known supporter of slavery Stephen Douglas, a much more prominent national figure, and the incumbent Democratic Senator.

Graeme Brown: Literate prisoners teaching illiterate prisoners

Graeme Brown is the former PPC for Ashton-under-Lyne and a volunteer in Wandsworth Prison with The Shannon Trust.

There are now more than 82,000 people in prison in the UK, higher than ever before. I seem to have read the Headline, “Prison Population hits new high” on a monthly basis for the last year. Anne Owers, The Chief Inspector of Prisons has said that the prison system is oscillating between, “panic stations to just about containing crisis.” Our prisons are bursting at the seams, thousands of prisoners live in over-crowded jails and thousands of prisoners are being released early under the government’s Early Release Scheme. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is pressurising Magistrates to use non-custodial sentences in a bid to avert the crisis. 

So, what is the answer? Some, such as the current Lord Chief Justice, and his predecessor, would like to see sentences passed match the resources available, which suggests sentences passed down by judges and magistrates should be based as much on the number of prison places available as on the seriousness of the crime committed. This cannot be right. Criminals must be imprisoned based on the seriousness of their crime, not on whether there is sufficient space in our prisons. 

Graeme Brown: State schools should encourage their pupils to apply for independent schools

Graeme Brown, a primary school governor and former PPC for Ashton-under-Lyne, says independent schools need the co-operation of state ones if they are to help poorer children.

The Charity Commission announced last week that it would publish guidance for independent schools that would require them to show that they offered a public benefit if they wanted to retain their charitable status. In particular, independent schools must prove that they are not 'exclusive clubs' but are 'outward-looking and inclusive'. Dan Hannan and Melanie Phillips among others have already written, far more eloquently than I can, about whether the Charity Commission should be publishing such guidance. I would like to offer some thoughts, from my own experience, of how the state can help the independent sector help children from poorer backgrounds.

I am a governor of a primary school in South London. It's in the middle of a relatively deprived area. Many of the children who attend the school have English as a second language, many are recent immigrants, and more than 50% qualify for free-school meals. The choice of state secondary schools open to the kids and their parents is not inspiring. About a year ago, I approached a well-known independent secondary school in South London, to make tentative enquiries about encouraging the kids at my Primary to apply to the school and about the scholarships available. The independent school could not have been more helpful. It invited me to bring a teacher from my Primary to look around the school and discuss how we could work together to enable kids from my Primary to apply. Optimistic with the enthusiasm of the independent school, I asked the Head of my Primary to give some dates when a teacher and I could visit the independent school. Despite repeated reminders, I never got a commitment on a date, and no-one from my Primary has visited the independent school with me.

Graeme Brown: MPs should lead, as well as listen

Graeme Brown was the Conservative Candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne in last year's General Election.

As someone who was born and grew up in Burnley, I always keep a look out for Kitty Ussher, the new Labour MP for the town, and was eager to read her article in the New Statesman last week. Kitty begins her article by describing her visit to a Muslim friend in Burnley who asked her, "Why are you allowing our people to die?" Her friend was referring to the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.  Kitty then discusses how she responded to her friend's question, and she expresses her views on the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

She organised a public meeting in Burnley to allow her constituents to discuss the situation in the Middle East. In the conclusion to her article, Kitty repeats a question which was put to her at the public meeting, "Why is it that Muslim blood is seen as cheaper than Christian or Jewish blood?"

It is of course part of an MP's job to listen to and represent to the government and the media the views of their constituents. It is also an MP's job to explain the views of their government, especially when they are a member of the governing party, to their constituents. Her article, and one assumes therefore, her discussions with her constituents, takes an extraordinarily narrow view, both of the Prime Minister's foreign policy, of who died during the conflict in Lebanon and Israel, and what is at stake in the Middle East.