There is still time for you to contact your Member of Parliament about arranging a meeting with them at some point during the day of the CALL Lobby on 25 February 2009. Your feedback on these meetings will be vital to the future of the campaign.

To read the CALL Lobby Briefing with useful tips and advice about the day and about contacting your MP, click here

Adult education cuts continue to make headlines in both the specialist and mainstream press.

These include recent stories like:

• Funded adult education places falling, say Tories, Guardian – 13 February 2009
• Adult learning slashed, Times Online – 13 February 2009

There is a great deal of public interest in the future of adult education and we need to ensure that the CALL lobby is a success to keep the pressure on the Government to fix it.

CALL campaigners at Tower Hamlets College are building for the lobby on the Wednesday 25 February (see CALL Bulletin 8 for more details).  They held a meeting in the college last week and are now sending a letter to all students encouraging them to talk to their teachers about attending the lobby.

You can download the letter here (doc, 28kb) if you want to adapt it for your use locally.

As of today 93 MPs from all the main political parties have signed EDM 533: ALLIANCE FOR LIFELONG LEARNING. 

The more that sign the more attention the government and the media will pay to the campaign so if you MP hasn’t signed yet email or write to them now to ask them to do so, you can download a model letter here (doc, 71kb).

So far more than 150 people have registered to attend the CALL lobby on the 25 February.  Here are just a few of the reasons people are joining the lobby:

“Because it’s my passion. I want to ensure that the Government listens to our message loud and clear so we can continue to give those people who need it most the chance to get out of poverty and ignorance and secure funding for future generations.”

“Learning is the most important thing we do in our lives- it keeps us open to possibilities. People appreciate Adult Ed – a second chance – more valued than the first chance.”

“I strongly believe that learning is a part of good living and that affordable provision should be available to everyone, whatever their age.”

“We are concerned that adult education will become the preserve of the better off if fees go on rising.”

If you are planning to come but haven’t registered you attendance please do so here: CALL lobby registration.

When: New date: Friday 13 February, 5-6pm (was the 6th)

Where: Tottenham Town Hall, Town Hall Approach Road London N15 4RY

Come and lobby David Lammy, Minister for Skills and Member of Parliament for Tottenham at this public meeting.

CALL Bulletin 8 is now available to download.  This edition focuses on two areas, more detail about the lobby of Parliament on the 25 February and some new evidence about the scale of the cuts ot adult education in England in the last three years.

Download the bulletin here: CALL Bulletin 8 (doc, 578kb). Alternatively we have also made a version without graphics for a smaller file that is easier to distribute via email: CALL Bulletin 8 no graphics (doc, 90kb).

Please distribute the Bulletin as widely as possible.

Posters and flyers are now available for local CALL members to promote the lobby of Parliament on the 25 February. Click the links below to download the materials, all are available in full colour or black and white for easy reproduction. 

• A3 CALL Lobby poster: full colour (pdf, 438kb), black and white (pdf, 249kb)
• A4 CALL Lobby poster: full colour (pdf, 262kb), black and white (pdf, 165kb)
• CALL flyer: full colour (pdf, 209kb), black and white (pdf, 141kb)

Check the materials page for more campaign downloads to use locally.

Where: 8-42 Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, N4 2DG (near Finsbury Park tube/bus station).

When: Wednesday, 4 February at 4:00pm.

Speakers include: Sally Hunt, General Secretary of UCU; Paul Mackney, Director at NIACE; Sean Vernell, UCU activist.

For more details download the event’s flyer (pdf, 790kb).

For other local CALL activities please click on the “local activities“ button on the right hand side of this webpage.

So far more than forty MPs from six parties have signed the CALL early day motion. This is a great start but we need many more.

MPs will only sign if their constitutents ask them to so please check to see if your MP has signed by visiting the House of Commons website and if they haven’t write to them now to ask them to do so by using the WriteToThem website or the model letter of the CALL materials page.