Leys Geddes

On 23rd June BSA Vice-Chair Leys Geddes gave evidence to the Speaker's Conference, which is looking into under-representation of various groups in Parliament. A transcript of the evidence is linked at the bottom of this page.

The Speaker's Conference is a Parliamentary committee looking into the fact that women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities are under-represented in the House of Commons. As we said in BSA's written submission:

"No Member of Parliament stammers audibly. No high-profile leader in business or any other career stammers audibly. Stammering hardly ever features in the broadcast media unless as a dramatic device - and usually for comic intent, or to denote psychotic tendencies. So, as a result, people who stammer have virtually no public voice, literally."

Andrew George MP Andrew George revealed in the committee hearing that he has had to cope with a stammer, and still needs to work on it. He is MP for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk www.andrewgeorge.org.uk Three conclusions After the meeting, I thanked the Conference organisers for asking the BSA to contribute and we submitted the following conclusions: 1. In terms of local democracy and the Disability Discrimination Act, as we suggested in our original Statement, there do not appear to be any councils which have a 'speech friendly' policy in place for those with any kind of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). They seem to think that the words 'disabled' and 'disability' refer only to those with mobility, vision or hearing difficulties. For example, people with SLCN, and even Councillors with SLCN, might wish to have additional time to speak at meetings, but this does not appear to be happening. 2. Prospective MPs with SLCN fear that the Selection Committees of the political parties will prefer candidates with fluent speech. 3. We would be grateful if MPs might consider the needs of those with SLCN more often. Some 750,000 children and adults stammer, yet we are virtually invisible and inaudible. If anyone in the House of Commons wants to learn more about stammering, or to involve us in any way, we would be delighted to help.

Giving evidence to the Conference, I was sitting alongside a blind man from the RNIB (charity for blind people), a man from the RNID (deaf and hard of hearing) and someone in a wheelchair (mobility disability charity). I would never have imagined a few years ago that I would be teamed up with them. But then, of course, they all spoke absolutely fluently and, when it came to talking politics, it was me who had the obvious disability!

Selection

Candidate section is very probably the main issue for us who stammer. Before I was grilled by the Committee, I had made sure that I had spoken to a few city and local Councillors who stammer. All of them said, unprompted, that being a local or city Councillor was not too demanding, speech-wise.

They all thought, though, that trying to move up from being a Councillor to becoming an MP would be very difficult since the political parties prefer fluent candidates - because they look better, sound better, can give out the party line better, are better at greeting a thousand voters a day on their doorsteps and are less likely to be labelled as single-issue candidates. It's exactly the same kind of "we're not quite sure if you are right for us" attitude that most of us have probably experienced when going for any job that requires a lot of speaking, or is a position where you have to represent the prospective employer to the outside world.

Expenses scandal

There is one good point though, which I think I made to the Conference when they asked us all how the recent Parliamentary expenses row might change things. It is that, these days, politicians in the UK Parliament tend to be seen as professional politicians, whereas in the not too distant past people went into politics because they wanted 'to do good' generally, or were driven by some personal issue. They were less likely to be thought to be in it 'for themselves' or 'for the money'. So if we did want to encourage someone to become the first stammering-openly MP for a very long time, now might be a very good time.

However, when speaking to the Conference, I acknowledged that, if we want stammering MPs, there needs to be more of a pull from the political system and more of a push from all of us who stammer.

Increased awareness

Importantly though, just 'Being There', at the Conference, will have had some impact. Even if I had only got eight words out, it would have made some kind of point.

As it was, I found that the microphone and speaker system there provided a slight delay in hearing my voice (a DAF effect). So although I did plenty of stammering, I think I got my points across fairly well. In fact, at one stage, I felt confident enough to tell them that my speech seemed to be going pretty well today, which was a nice surprise for me. I hope that my appearance also helped to dispel any of those old ideas about the stereotypical personalities which people who stammer are supposed to have - that we are nervous, shy and indecisive, and dislike talking to people.

Transcript of oral evidence given by Leys and others, 23rd June (on UK Parliament website).

Speakers Conference Interim Report, 16th July (pdf on UK Parliament website). Its recommendations include:
- where the sitting MP will not contest the general election, political parties should commit to ensure that a significantly greater proportion of candidates who identify as disabled are selected than at the 2005 election;
- parties should report the result of selections by constituency, including candidates' identifications of disability;
- parties should appoint a named party officer responsible for supporting the access requirements of disabled candidates.

www.parliament.uk/speakersconference/.

Updated July 2009

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