Stuart Smith Jnr

Parents should be allowed to take their children out of school for a very limited number of days per year, over reasons they choose. Let's show a bit of common sense here. The prices are so wildly different out of term time, it is often the difference between a family being able to afford a decent holiday abroad, or not go at all. Will a child missing a week of school a year damage their education? Perhaps, a little. Will that quality time spent with their family more than compensate? Yes, yes it will. And that is a decision for the parents to take, not the state. I have pushed the Department on this, with zero progress. They just don't want to know. Let's remember - MPs have very generous time off from Westminster, timed to coincide with the school holidays. Others do not have that same luxury, particularly in areas that are reliant on tourism - like my constituency All of this from the same people who shut schools for months when the virus posed almost zero risk to children, and were desperate to do it for longer. Forcing boys and girls to learn from a kitchen table, and many had no access to proper outdoor space. THAT did far more damage to children's education than a few days away in the sun with their family. PLEASE. Let's just show a modicum of common sense, FOR ONCE. If parents want to take their child out of school for a limited period of time, very occasionally, as they believe that experience will benefit their son or daughter? I say that's their choice.

I truly despise what the incompetent and spiteful British establishment has done to our country, I really do. Not too long ago, we knew who we were - confident, assertive, optimistic, unafraid, calm, funny! Now? The joy has been sucked away, replaced by this dour pessimism and boring hate for anything that made Britain so great. I don't want that, and I don't think the vast majority of Brits do either. Watching Trump and the Americans today, it's honestly made more determined than ever to restore what we had. I don't particularly care if we're liked by the rest of the world, I care if we're respected. Because right now, we're a joke, and have been for some time. Learn from Trump - let's be unapologetically patriotic. Slash tax across the board, enforce the border, deport those with no right to be here, accept biological reality, fight back against woke, bulldoze nonsensical foreign aid, eradicate DEI, deliver sensible infrastructure, carpet bomb public sector waste, and plenty more... I love Britain. I really do. We've got the best people in the world. We need a Government that will put us first, protect our interests and get the hell out of our way. The Americans have given the West a lifeline. We need to grab it with both hands. Britain's relentless decline, under numerous inept and pathetic governments, comes to an end at the next election.