MP discusses Syrian Conflict with School Council
It started with a letter. Following a meeting of the Student Council, junior pupil Azsvin Mariathasan was very concerned about the plight of Syrian refugees so he wrote to the Prime Minister inviting him to the Royal Alexandra and Albert School to discuss the situation. Unfortunately the Prime Minister was unable to visit but local MP, Crispin Blunt, agreed to come and discuss the Middle East crisis with pupils.
On Friday 22nd January Crispin Blunt, who is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, met with the members of the Junior School Student Council in Gatton Hall. It was a formal meeting and pupils had prepared questions about how Britain is responding to the situation. Pupils were concerned about how the Government is protecting British citizens from attacks in this country. Mr Blunt explained how the Police and Secret Services are working to prevent attacks here and how they carrying out checks on people that come to this country. Pupils also asked how our intelligence service is monitoring and preventing the spread of radical views on social media. Mr Blunt explained that this is something the Foreign Affairs Select Committee is actively looking into. They are trying to ensure that people who might be radicalised on social media, see both sides of the argument, not only the ISIL point of view.
Head of the Junior School, Ines Salman said “I would like to thank Mr Blunt for taking the time to visit pupils to discuss this very important issue. The children have put a lot of thought into how they can help the Syrian refugees and it was good to hear about the work the Government is doing to improve the situation in Syria. This meeting has given pupils a much better understanding of the reasons for, and the consequences of, the Syrian conflict.”
22nd January 2016