I’m reading David Laws’ Coalition at the moment and one of the recurring themes is the drama and tribulation around virtually every budget and Autumn Statement. Pulling all the measures together involved tortuous and protracted intrigue as both coalition parties tried to advance their own policy priorities – and the Liberal Democrats usually came out on top.
So it amused me when I saw an article in his local Sheffield newspaper showing Nick practising some different but no less important budgeting skills – helping young children learn financial skills at a primary school in his constituency.
It had been a Lib Dem priority to get some sort of financial skills education on to the curriculum. The Star has the details:
The former Deputy Prime Minister helped teach children about the value of money through the use of real life examples, such as planning a party or caring for a pet, with the aim of giving children a better financial future
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I suspect the discussion was much more mature than he found from Cameron and Osborne in the Quad.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social



One Comment
From my years of experience at CAB , budgeting skills is one of the things I’d have loved to have been dealt with from early years on.
The need ranges from those with low ability to learn and manage; to those with the ability in some ways but so easily led by partners etc where self confidence was an issue too, to the “must have” mentality which runs through all abilities.
Most people have absolutely no idea what they spend or what they owe and it takes many sessions often to get those basics done.
What is very sad is that I had no idea nick or anyone else in our party had achieved this. Says a lot