Tag Archives: sarah feather

LibLink: Sarah Teather: It’s clear our system of immigration detention isn’t working

Sarah Teather has been writing for the Huffington Post in the wake of the report on immigration detention released the other day. She started with a shocking story:

One such occasion took place last July. I was sat in a committee room in the House of Commons, chairing the first evidence session of an inquiry into immigration detention. We were talking, via a phone link, to a young man who was being held in one of the giant detention centres next door to Heathrow.

He told us about how he had ended up in the UK. At the age of 16, he had been trafficked from his home on the Nigeria/Cameroon border to Hungary. He told us how he was “put in a basement, beaten, raped and tortured”. He managed to escape and then found himself in London, a stranger. Then he was detained.

I asked him how long he had been in detention. His answer caused those in the room to gasp.

“Three years”.

Three years he had been in detention, locked up not because he had broken the law but for immigration purposes. A young man who had been the victim of some horrendous abuse had arrived in the UK and instead of being given support and treatment, was locked away indefinitely.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments

Sarah Teather shows how to do an exit interview with dignity, empathy and thoughtfulness

Sarah TeatherSarah Teather’s announcement that she was standing down as a Liberal Democrat MP on the eve of our conference in 2013 did create some waves at the time. She was very critical of some of the things that the party had done in government, most notably welfare reform. Since then, she has done what she’s always done – been a strong voice speaking up for poorly treated asylum seekers and was a strong voice in the campaign against cuts to criminal legal aid.

She’s now done an interview with the Telegraph in which she talks about her time in Parliament. She’s thoughtful, reflective and does not show one trace of bitterness. In fact, she shows sympathy for Nick Clegg, despite the fact that he sacked her in the 2012 reshuffle.

Her appointment as Minister for Children meant that she could address special needs education, something which meant a huge amount to her personally:

Back in 2010, however, she found the new job a positive challenge, and felt a particular, personal, satisfaction in bringing forward legislation to transform the teaching of children with special educational needs.

“I have rather an odd educational background, I was very ill as a teenager, I missed four years of school so I suppose I have a particular affinity for children who, for one reason or another, had not found education an easy process.

“I spent a lot of that time wheelchair bound. For me it was a bit of a passion, that reform on special educational needs and disability.

She talked about her struggles over welfare reform, how she fought and won concessions and how she thought she was going to have to resign over the issue. I can understand her dilemma. I remember writing to one minister who might have gone over tuition fees to ask them to stay because of the good things they would be able to achieve for other people in their government role. For Sarah, she didn’t want to leave without making a difference for kids facing the same problems as she had.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 24 Comments

Sarah Teather slams “irrational selfish scare stories” over nurse with Ebola

Sarah TeatherI was furious last night when I saw some social media posts from people who should know better complaining that the nurse now being treated in London for Ebola was let back into the country. Some of them calmed down a bit when you explained that it would have been impossible for anyone to catch Ebola when she was showing no symptoms on the flight. In fact, it would have been pretty darned hard, involving more intimacy than is usual with complete strangers on a flight, even if she had started to develop a fever during the journey.

People were asking why those travelling back from West Africa shouldn’t be quarantined to make sure that they were disease free, despite all the evidence that this would be a costly waste of resource.

Posted in News | Also tagged | 9 Comments
Advert



Recent Comments

  • expats
    Alex Macfie, No, expats is not implying that..On another thread I have already stated that this party is free to criticise Trump.. I'm replying to the assert...
  • Ken Westmoreland
    Just to clarify, the original title was going to be 'Don't blame us for Trump: the Americans whose votes never count', though 'the Americans who couldn't vote' ...
  • Nick Baird
    It's an unfortunate truth that being a populist political party is very much easier than being a liberal one. Populists have the advantage of offering simple...
  • Nick Baird
    An excellent article Zoe - thank you. In Putin we face an ambitious opponent with an endless capacity to sacrifice the lives of other people's children and impo...
  • Alex Macfie
    Starmer will indeed have to deal with Trump, because Starmer is Prime Minister of the UK and Trump will soon be President of the USA, a country with which the U...