Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, Luciana Berger, has visited JMU Journalism at Liverpool Screen School for the first time since taking office following last May’s General Election.
MP Berger was taken into a number of lectures and workshops to see what the university’s courses have to offer its students at LSS, and she told JMU Journalism she was impressed with what she saw on her trip to our Liverpool Innovation Park home.
She said: “I was really keen to come and do a visit. It’s so good to be here because I didn’t know what was behind the doors and seeing so many students and the fantastic facilities that are here, with everybody so enthusiastic and keen.
“I’d seen the Twitter feed before but I didn’t realise that JMU Journalism was based here and it’s great to see what is going on in the constituency.”
Ms Berger also tweeted about her visit to her 5,000 Twitter followers, saying: “At Liverpool Screen School in the News Workshop where @JMUJournalism students are learning to use Twitter for broadcast.”
As a former executive committee member of the National Union of Students, Ms Berger also spoke of her deep concerns over the hike in university tuition fees and cuts to higher education funding, confirmed by the Coalition Government in December last year.
She told JMU Journalism: “I’m incredibly concerned, not only about higher education and the introduction of £9,000 fees, but also the scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance. There are 7,700 young people across Merseyside that currently receive £30 a week for getting to college, paying for their lunch and buying books.
“I met a student at Liverpool University the other day and she said that if she hadn’t received her EMA she would never have graduated from college and be in the position she is in today, about to graduate with a first class honours degree.”
The MP also said she made a mistake at the start of her Wavertree campaign after admitting she didn’t know of Liverpool FC’s legendary former manager Bill Shankly, though she shared her opinion on the Reds’ current form under new boss Kenny Dalglish, after being put on the spot by JMU Journalism.
She said: “I wasn’t selected to stand for Liverpool Wavertree off the back of my football knowledge… I wasn’t selected to be the next Rafa Benitez. Liverpool are doing OK at the moment. Obviously I know that the result with Chelsea last week was a big surprise, so we will see what happens.”
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