An Audience With Lord Haskel

Our A Level Politics students and a few of our younger students had a private virtual question and answer session with Lord Haskel, who is the Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords.  Lord Haskel began by telling the students a little bit about how the House of Lords works before taking their questions.  Each of the 20 students were able to ask a question of Lord Haskel.  These ranged from how Lords decide on bills and what the best things about being a Lord are to how does the Deputy Speaker keep order in the House of Lords and which committees are most important. 

Students also asked the hard questions about inclusivity, social justice and what specific stances he held on controversial issues such as immigration.   Lord Haskel was also one of the founders of the finance and industry group and he told the students how he made sure that what they had to say came to the attention of policy makers.  Lord Haskel was candid and honest with the students in his answers which prompted the students to ask even more questions.  Our students were really pleased to be able to speak in such an close manner with a real member of the House of Lords and said that it provided a new perspective of those in power. 

After the experience they commented that they can’t wait to do something like this again, that it was very informative and that they are very happy to see their lessons coming to life in the real world.  They further commented that this experience shows that politics is not always argumentative and calm debate can happen between people of different opinions.    Overall, it was a fantastic experience for all and the students left buzzing about their brush with real political power.