To see the children at Highgate Primary in full creative Christmas spirit, drawing entries for her fifth annual card competition, Lynne Featherstone MP on Friday visited the Storey Road school.
This year the Hornsey and Wood Green MP has decided not to set a theme for the competition, instead the children are encouraged to draw what Christmas means to them. The Highgate children were drawing a range of colourful designs, from Christmas trees to stars and snowmen. The competition deadline is the 11th November, and the winner will be announced shortly after that.
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
“It’s so wonderful to see the children having so much fun and getting in to the Christmas spirit as they create their festive designs for the competition.
“The decision this year to have an open theme has worked really well – the kids are really using their full imagination and creativity to make wonderful colourful, sparkling designs.
“I have certainly seen some real contenders here, and can’t wait to see the rest of this year’s entries!”
Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Featherstone 
You didn’t set a theme for this year’s card Lynne. Is that it’s likely that you might set a theme – and then do a U-turn on the theme?
Nick Clegg’s argument that he “should have been more careful” when he signed the pledge not to raise tuition fees is beside the point. The issue goes far deeper than his personal betrayal of a particular commitment and touches on the very foundations of our parliamentary democracy. Clegg’s beliefs are irrelevant: he was elected as a member of a political party committed to a specific party political platform. That is why people voted for him and why he is now an MP.
In changing his mind and enabling the formation of a government which is now implementing the opposite policy – not only on fees but on other basic Lib Dem policies – Clegg has subverted his own election as MP, his party, and the whole UK electoral process. What is the point of parties, what is the point of elections, if the MPs duly elected immediately shape-shift into their political opposites? For this reason, the government has no mandate for its existing programme. But we need to take the argument further: Clegg and the other Lib Dem supporters of the government have cheated the electorate. In these circumstances, civil disobedience is not merely an option for us to consider, but a duty in defence of political rights.
Members and supporters of the Lib Dems must also face up to their own responsibilities. They must do whatever they can right now to take the levers of power away from Clegg and his fellow shape-shifters. If they fail to act, then they will be tarred as accomplices, not only in this unprecedented attack on jobs, services and living standards, but on parliamentary democracy itself.