Old Elizabethan George ‘The Poet’ Mpanga brought his trademark eloquence and sharp insights to BBC TV’s flagship political discussion programme, Question Time.
George (OE 2002–2009) repeatedly challenged the stance of the Conservative Government on topics including housing, positive discrimination and the Russian government’s suspected involvement in the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
The Government was represented on the panel by International Trade Secretary Liam Fox. Other guests on the programme were: the Shadow Minister for Labour, Laura Pidcock; chef, restaurateur and Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith, and Roma Agrawal, a chartered structural engineer who has worked on major projects including the Shard. Hosted by David Dimbleby, the programme was filmed at a venue close to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
George, who mostly received enthusiastic applause from the audience, told Dr Fox that the Government’s “measured tone” over the nerve gas poisoning was “actually quite damaging” and that President Putin “does not seem to bat an eyelid”.
On the prospect of a global trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump, George called for Britain to have “an honest conversation with itself about who our friends are”. He added that “free trade goes both ways”, charging that rich nations too often “siphon off the best of [poorer nations’] resources and talents”.
Responding to a question referring to the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of planning reforms and her comment that young people were “right to be angry about housing”, George was scathing: “It’s another one of her beautiful truisms. Of course, young people are right to be angry about it, but the question is, what is actually going to be done? And promising planning permissions is not tantamount to actually taking control of the situation.”
As the programme came to a close, George spoke in favour of positive discrimination schemes being used in recruitment, stating that they tackled a “deficit or inherent bias in society” by compelling “employers or people in positions of leadership to reassess what their bias is and what they are thinking when making these decisions”.
George read Politics, Psychology and Sociology at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 2013. Since then, he has earned growing fame for his spoken-word work: last year, he performed in front of the Queen at the Commonwealth Day Service in Westminster Abbey and released a two-minute video on hate crime in collaboration with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to coincide with the anniversary of the murder of MP Jo Cox.
After being introduced by Nikhil Shah, of Year 12, Mr Joshi told the boys that security covers a broad range of issues and regions. It concerns not just weapons, but is about everything from climate change (insofar as it affects security) to investigating how a large bet against the value of Borussia Dortmund’s shares helped the authorities track the perpetrator of the recent attack on the football team’s bus.
Research is also important, and it was essential to gather views from diverse perspectives: “You can’t do this from your desk; you have to travel and speak to people,” he said, although he conceded that ‘open source’ research could also be valuable. “A lot of what we do is about making educated guesses… having gathered information from a range of perspectives.”
Mr Joshi then posed some questions around the psychological impact of countries having nuclear weapons, and inter-continental ballistic missiles, in particular. The acquisition of such weapons is considered a ‘game-changer’: it changes thinking in the US and UK, for example, if suddenly we think we can be hit. But, he asked, would we act to protect a third-party nation if we could be hit in retribution?
Q. Are we at risk of another global conflict?
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Mock elections constitute an excellent means of engaging boys’ interest in politics and current affairs. They develop debating skills, while at the same time giving pupils an insight into the democratic process.”
Mr Enright thanked the six boys who stood as candidates, all from Year 10, commending them both for their research and for the passion they evinced during campaigning. He also thanked the poll clerks, who issued ballot papers and checked voters’ names against the register, and the pupils who voted, as well as Head of Politics Liam Hargadon and members of the History department, who organised the election.
The six candidates debated issues central to the real-world election at a special Question Time-style hustings, including austerity, Brexit, education funding and security. During the event, which was was chaired by Head of History Helen Macgregor, an enthusiastic audience eagerly asked the candidates questions. The six boys also cross-e xamined each other, requiring them to think on their feet and testing the depth of their research.
Voting in the mock General Election was open to boys in Years 7–10. (Boys in the older years are currently on study leave for their public examinations.).png)
A rising star of the literary world, Anthony is a poet, publisher and educator, who won the 2015 Groucho Maverick Award, which is given to those who have broken the mould and made a significant contribution to culture and the arts. He recently led a six-week workshop for QE’s Year 9 and 10 pupils as the School’s poet-in-residence..JPG)
Busby highlighted Out-Spoken Press, the poetry press founded by Anthony. “Anaxagorou, like many BAME [Black and Minority Ethnic] poets, didn’t feel like the traditional publishing houses represented the people who looked like him and the kind of poetry he was writing,&rdqu o; Busby wrote.
The article recounts his successes as a live performer and his work to establish Out-Spoken Live, as a platform for emerging poets.