MP, Matt Rodda Visits
The MP for the Reading East parliament constituency, Matt Rodda visited Waingels to talk to a small group of students from Year 10 to Year 13 about his role in Parliament on Friday 13th May. Students were privileged to also ask questions to Mr Rodda about his political career and his life as a politician. These included a variety of topics including Mr Rodda’s view about the ongoing human rights violations across the world, what his political party’s priorities would be if they were to be in government, how Mr Rodda learnt his skills for debating and the snacks offered in Parliament!
In answer to the snack q u e s t i o n , asked by one of our Year 10 s t u d e n t s , Mr Rodda said “we get nice fancy cakes”, he q u o t e d Kevin Foster the MP for Torbay ‘don’t eat cake use the stairs’, “I completely agree with Kevin Foster about watching out for our health.”
Jess in Year 12 asked Mr Rodda about the Labour Party’s top priorities if they were in government, Mr Rodda answered “It would be to create a fairer society and introduce policies on the cost of living crisis.” He also said that he would be able to provide more information closer to the elections.
Mrs Ward enquired after Mr Rodda’s debating skills and Parliament etiquette “it is a bit like theatre in terms of defining points, you always have to be polite and respectful and use persuasive language.” He followed up with “it is important to read the mood of people and thank the speaker for letting you speak”. He said that he is going forward with a project to turn Reading Jail into an Art centre and he will need those debating skills to make this project happen!
A Year 10 student couldn’t resist asking Mr Rodda if his political view changed after becoming an MP “sometimes it is possible to see a drastic change in terms of political views when a politician enters a political party, however my views haven’t changed much. Becoming a politician helped me see more clearly about the ways to reach a target; like tackling climate change”.
Mr Rodda also gave us his view with ongoing human rights violations across the world “it is scary to think about rulers moving to authoritarian rulership” he added “we are lucky to live in a country with democracy.” He concluded by saying that there should definitely be actions taken against these violations in Parliament. Citizenship students and members of the Sixth Form really valued the opportunity to meet Mr Rodda and to find out first hand his views on issues which concern our local constituency and the wider world. I would like to thank Mr Rodda for his time and we hope we can welcome you to Waingels again soon.