Great debates give Mansfield students powerful voice

The first panel to be given the Question Time treatment consisted of executive director of primary care in Mansfield and Ashfield David Ainsworth, Church of England priest and LGBT activist Jeremy Pemberton and one of the college’s welfare coaches, Wayne Golding.

David, Jeremy and Wayne joined students to discuss the subject of identity, focusing on sexuality and gender.

Students brought a range of questions to the panel, such as asking them what gives people confidence in the workplace to speak about sexual orientation and gender identity. The guests drew experiences from their personal lives and their professional roles to highlight their responses.

Other questions posed by the student audience were focused on what services each panel member’s organisations do to support trans youth who have experienced discrimination and what their views are on the criminal justice system’s attitude to gender identity related to trans rights.

Jeremy gave his personal account of how he became the first priest to enter a same-sex marriage. Before this, he had undertaken the role as an Anglican priest. Because same-sex marriage is not accepted by the Church, he was denied the job as chaplain for the NHS, by the Archbishop of York. This action led to Jeremy suing the Church for discrimination, but the tribunal upheld the Church’s views on marriage.

A further debate took place with Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust director of nursing Shantell Miles and the college’s A-Level politics teacher Megan McQueen. The subject of the debate was the “state of our democracy”.

Students quizzed Mr Anderson about parliamentary issues, such as why the British public does not choose which party leads in situations such as 2022, when the country saw three Prime Ministers. Students and the panel also discussed the desire among some young people to have the ability to vote at the age of 16.

Students also posed the question to the panel whether they consider the UK’s democracy to reflect free choice and whether it truly is “democratic”, specifically regarding the impacts of Brexit.

Irum Pervez, teaching head of department for A-levels, said: “Both debates provoked some interesting questions from our student body, on topical matters.

“Our students researched their questions very well and showed great confidence not only with asking the panels a range of initial questions, but also questioning panel members again when a response was given.

“We value the time given by healthcare seniors, MPs, industry leaders and well-known members of our communities to bring a variety of debating experiences to our academic students.”