Vale MP Alun Cairns visited Wick Primary last week as part of their learning about democracy. Mr Cairns gave a talk about the Welsh Assembly and Parliament, explain how they work, and asked the children questions about what they had learned.
When the time came for the tables to be turned, and the children had the chance to ask questions of their MP, Mr Cairns came in for an unexpected grilling. Instead of being asked simple questions about the democratic institutions, he faced questions on the UK’s relationship with the US under Donald Trump and about the European Union. One pupil asked why the UK couldn’t retain full single market access through membership of EFTA, citing the Norway model.
Mr Cairns did his best to answer the Year 5 and 6 pupils and expressed his delight at the quality of their questions. He said, “I am deeply impressed by the challenging, thoughtful questions posed by the pupils at Wick Primary. Their knowledge was far beyond what is expected for their age and their questions were better than some of those posed by journalists at press conferences. They are a credit to their teachers and parents.
“I expected questions such as ‘What does the Prime Minister do?’, and got questions about the Norwegian model of access to the single market through EFTA?”
Mr Cairns invited the school to arrange a trip to Parliament to give pupils the option to see the home of British democracy and learn even more about our political system.