David Cameron Incident [Wiki]
On April 27th 2010, as Conservative Party leader David Cameron made his way to a car after a General Election campaign event in South London he was confronted by Bartley, accompanied by his disabled son, Sam. Mr Bartley claimed Conservative manifesto plans encourage placement of disabled children in special needs education, rather than mainstream, and that this amounted to unfair exclusion of children like his son. Cameron, crouching to be level with Bartley and wheelchair-bound Sam, tried to more fully explain the policy and that it was under Labour he was having problems finding his son appropriate schooling, but was continually interrupted by an angry Bartley.[3]
The Daily Telegraph and many other media outlets suggested this meeting was a politically motivated stunt by Bartley,[4] a Liberal Democrat supporter and left-wing campaigner,[5] at a time when the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Parties were close in opinion polls.
Bartley later described himself as a “floating voter” and denied he had planned the incident, claiming Conservative Party officials invited him to speak with Cameron, though he was “very, very angry” about Conservative special needs education proposals.[6]
I support mixed tenure housing to give much needed social experience and mobility to those renting from the social landlords. Similarly I support mixed and inclusive education for all where the mainstream eduction, in the opinion of the school governors, is unlikely to be adversely affected by such inclusion [although the need for special education depending upon the level of disability is unlikely to go away].
Anant M Vyas 