WHY PARLIAMENT NEEDS DETERMINED WOMEN LIKE THESE
CONTENDER: Police chief Julie Spence
By Jimmy Young
AT THE height of her power as Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher famously declared: “If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”
So, would we all be better off if, once again, we had a woman running the country?
Two possible candidates spring to mind, although it’s not likely that either of them would welcome taking on the mess we’re in after 11 years of Labour government.
Julie Spence is the head of Cambridgeshire Constabulary and is hotly tipped for even greater things. She joined the Avon and Somerset police service in 1978 when life for a woman in an overwhelmingly male-dominated environment was far from easy.
Indeed she has remarked that when she began to compete seriously with men they often didn’t fight fair. Surprise, surprise!
She has not endeared herself to the Left by highlighting the Government’s failure to count immigration accurately.
She has spoken out frankly and fearlessly about the challenge of policing a multi-cultural society and the pressure that immigration and crime put on her police force.
She is very popular in the area she polices because she understands people’s concerns and wants to make policing more responsive to the public.
She says: “Straight talking is what’s needed. We dance around the elephant in the room but actually I want to be seen as someone who is telling it like it is. No bull, now let’s work on the solution.”
Caroline Haynes, my other nominee, is a head teacher who has transformed her school’s results by adopting a zero-tolerance approach to bad behaviour.
In 2003 the academic results of the Tendring Technology College in Essex were rated below average by Ofsted. Mrs Haynes joined the school in 2004 and initiated a much tougher regime including extra work, detentions and being placed on report. If pupils fail to attend two after-school detentions they face being excluded for one day.
They face longer exclusions for bullying, stealing, disruption, abuse of staff or fellow students, vandalism
and racism.
Mrs Haynes stresses the importance of pupils knowing when they have crossed the line and learning to deal with the consequences of their actions. They, and their parents, must also meet her to discuss how to improve their behaviour.
Caroline has handed out 478 exclusions at Tendring Technology College over the past year and the results speak for themselves. When she joined the school in 2004 the percentage of pupils getting A* to C grades at GCSE was
48 per cent; this year it is 74 per cent.
Julie and Caroline are determined women who have achieved success and respect by sticking to their principles, speaking out clearly about the standards to which they aspire and imposing discipline where it is lacking.
I hope we shall see many women like them in Parliament after the next election.
E-mail Jimmy at jimmy.young@express.co.uk
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