Karen Lumley MP: Redditch's GCSE and exam results show that, in education, it’s leadership that matters

Karen Lumley is the Member of Parliament for Redditch County and Chairman of the Vaynor First Academy Trust.

It was Bill Gates who once observed, “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” With so much discussion on Britain’s future prominence in the global race, one thing is clear: if Britain is to succeed in an extremely competitive and highly globalised economy it must produce young adults with the skills fit to compete with the rest of the world. As I have seen so pertinently in my own constituency of Redditch, it is headteachers who provide the means for schools to succeed.

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to providing real world, transferable skills. What we saw during the ‘exams boom’ in the 13 years of Labour government was a reflection of how Labour not so dissimilarly handled the economy. An over-inflated bubble economy was masking the real shortfalls in how Britain makes its way in the world. And under the last Government, the number of GCSE exams awarded an elite A* doubled from four per cent to 7.5 per cent while A grades increased from 14 per cent to 23 per cent, despite British pupils dropping down international league tables. GCSEs were in part made easier, the importance of those vital core subjects Maths, English and Science were played down, foreign languages so important in a globalised economy were taken off the syllabus and a huge emphasis on 50 per cent of all students going to University was a catastrophic mistake and a fine example of the ludicrous nature of top down government in British schools.

Karen Lumley MP: Banning Lads' Mags is no step forward for women

Karen Lumley is the Member of Parliament for Redditch and sits on the All Party Parliamentary Group for Body Image.

I must make clear to begin with that I believe that the way in which ‘lads mags’ market their product is at times crass, crude and unhelpful in portraying the role of women in twenty-first century Britain. UK Feminsta and Object have led the campaign to ban the sale of lads mags, teaming up with lawyers who are arguing that selling them could amount to sexual harassment or sex discrimination.

Banning these magazines, however, is not the solution. Censorship in any form is often a self-defeating route to go down, and rarely does much to tackle the actual root cause of the problem itself.  It also leads us down a dangerous road – if we ban lads mags, then why should we not also consider banning those magazines aimed at women which promote an equally harmful obsession with body image? Why should we not also ban all fatty, harmful food which is damaging the health of our nation? Censorship of one item termed dangerous by some leads to the real possibility of censorship of other products. In our society, freedom of speech will always mean that some disagree. This applies not just to books, but to all aspects of our daily life. It is vital though that in a free society people are given a free choice.

John Glen MP and Karen Lumley MP: The coup d’etat in the Maldives must be stopped

John Glen is the MP for Salisbury and Karen Lumley is the MP for Redditch

Most people will perceive the Maldives as an idyllic paradise of sun-soaked resort islands. Sadly this is only one part of the reality. This week, the fledgling democracy has seen a bloody coup d’etat  with the first democratically-elected President Nasheed being removed from office, then beaten and detained by the military loyal to those close to the former dictator Gayoom.  It is true that technically he resigned to be replaced by his Vice-President but this was because, in his words, "they told me if I didn't resign they would resort to the use of arms". The international community needs to condemn the violence and recognise the truth behind what has happened.

The background to the coup has been Nasheed’s attempt to deal with a judiciary which has shown itself to be corrupt, under-qualified, and loyal to the previous dictator and his associates. He has worked tirelessly to rid the country of corruption, to democratise institutions, and deliver on his MDP party’s election pledges.  But it now seems that reform of the judiciary has prompted a backlash from the police and military. Nasheed recently ordered the army to arrest Criminal Court Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed on charges of misconduct and favouring opposition figures.

Karen Lumley MP: The anti-HS2 lobby need to learn the difference between lobbying and mud-slinging

Karen Lumley is Conservative Member of Parliament for Redditch.

The arguments put forward by the anti-rail lobby in the Chilterns are understandable. The concern expressed about changes to the landscape and the potential disruption is reasonable.

However the statistics and propaganda used are unfounded and deceptive. Clearly the anti arguments need to be challenged. The myths need to be proven wrong.

Today’s report by the Institute for Economic Affairs has shown that again today. It’s not so much a report, as a repackaged and padded-out version of a Taxpayers’ Alliance ‘research’ paper from February this year, discredited in public by leading rail figures.

The authors are far from dispassionate: one has a record as a long-time advocate for roads, the other is an active member of a local activist group with a house on the HS2 route. Both fail to declare their interests.