Tuesday the 24th of June 2008 will go down in Woldingham history! The Greenwell Society held its first ever summer lecture. 

Mr Soames at Woldingham School

We were extremely lucky to have ‘The Right Honourable’ Nicholas Soames MP agree to speak to the sixth form on the current state of world politics. Nicholas was born in 1948 and was educated at St. Aubyns, Sussex and Eton College.  He is the son of The Late Lord Soames and grandson of Sir Winston Churchill. He is married with two sons and a daughter and lives in Sussex.

Mr Soames has been a Member of Parliament for 25 years. He has represented Mid Sussex since 1997 and he previously served as MP for Crawley.

His Ministerial career included serving as Parliamentary Secretary and Minister of Food at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1992-1994 and as Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 1994-1997.
 
Between November 2003 and May 2005 Nicholas served as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence and as a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

Mr Soames spoke for 30 minutes on many aspects of world affairs. He focussed on the fields of defence, Europe, international affairs, trade and industry, aviation and the countryside.   The lecture was extremely interesting and informative and certainly created some debate amongst the audience of sixth formers and parents.

After his lecture Mr Soames agreed to answer questions. The sixth form were excellent, raising many important issues of the day. Topics such as, ‘Devolution’, the resignation of David Davies, the life of an MP, the problem of Robert Mugabe, the next American President and how to get young people to vote were just some of the areas in which Mr Soames was questioned.

Overall Mr Soames spoke for just under an hour. He was not only extremely interesting and informative, but also extremely witty and amusing. It was really pleasing to see almost the whole of the lower sixth attend a lecture which could have been regarded as irrelevant to many. It was also particularly pleasing to hear non-politicians discuss current affairs with such interest. In fact, one sixth former may now take ‘AS’ Politics in the upper sixth to broaden her knowledge as she was so enthused by the talk.

Afterwards The Greenwell Society held a formal supper in the Stephens room. This was further opportunity to talk to Mr Soames and learn from his wealth of experience.

The Greenwell Society members were a credit to the school. They listened to Mr Soames and respected his point of view on many issues, but they were not afraid to challenge him when they disagreed. This, I believe is testament to their growing confidence, independence and maturity. Mr Soames for one was impressed by the candour shown.

All in all The Greenwell Society’s first lecture was an unqualified success. All the girls in the Lower sixth were a credit to the school and the society members should be proud of their achievements to date.

Unfortunately Mr Soames had to sit across from Mr Bentley!

Finally I would like to thank the catering department for putting on a fantastic meal, the many parents and staff who came to support the event, the sixth formers for being such an enthusiastic audience and most importantly, to Mr Soames himself, without which we could not have had such a wonderful evening.

I for one am looking forward to the lectures we have planned in the Autumn term. Please keep checking the ‘Greenwell Society’ notice board and the blog site for more information.

www.mattbentley34.edublogs.org

Matt Bentley
25th June 2008