Gray Sergeant for St Luke’s
April 29, 2014 7 Comments
Gray Sergeant, between Cllrs Julian Ware-Lane and Anne Jones, demonstrating that politics can sometimes be fun
Name: Gray Daniel Sergeant
Age: 21
Occupation: Full-rime Student at London School of Economics (3rd year International Relations and History) also part-time waiter at local golf club
Where were you born/where do you live: Was born and have lived in Southend all my life
Have you stood for election before? In 2012 I stood in West Shoebury
Why are you Labour? I think Labour talks about the issues that really matter to people. While it’s important, I didn’t get into politics to obsessively debate the pros and cons of the European Union. Rather than speculating the consequences if we are in or out there are bigger questions we should be discussing such as the type of economy should we promote, improving health and education services and the society we want to live in. Even though we are broad-church all Labour members, candidates and MP’s want to see a more equal society where everybody has a fair chance to succeed.
Why are you standing? St Luke’s is a great community and a nice residential area of our town with good facilities. People in St Luke’s like the fact they have a local Library in Southchurch and parents use both Hamstel and Temple Sutton Children’s Centres. These services are facing cut backs, the area needs someone to stand up a fight for them. The current councillors (2 Independent and 1 Conservative) have seemed to be quite on these issues.
What are your hobbies? Running/hiking, eating and drinking out, growing stuff/cooking, reading mostly non-fiction (histories/biographies) and I do enjoy writing although have not blogged recently (I know Julian you are keen for me to start up my blog again – I might in a couple of months)
Are you active in the community? Before going to university I regular helped out as an assistant leader with a local Scout group. Since then most of my community activity has been going out and getting things done for residents in St Lukes from potholes filled in, pavements repaired, streetlights fixed and trees trimmed back. These small things help make peoples streets nicer to live along.
Email: gsergeant1@gmail.com
Twitter: @GraySergeant
Website: gray4stlukes.blogspot.co.uk
Julian's musings 
Must be a bright chap to have got into LSE but can’t help wondering what was the school that helped him to get there? Could it be that he is being shy about a grammar or, even worse for a Labour candidate, private school background?
I have no idea which school he went to. Does it even matter? He would have had little say in his parent’s choices.
It doesn’t seem to stop Ed Milliband regularly raising David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s parents school choices! Would have been nice to have a success story coming out of one of the local comps. In any case you have given me confidence that I will eventually win the ‘Chase over my dead body’ discussion that I am currently losing to my very willful 10 year old!
There were plenty of bright chaps and girls at my comprehensive, some of them went to Red brick Universities and some made their way in the world via the University of Life. Some like me learned as an adult, because family circumstances meant I had to wait a little later in life. Whatever your route it is what you do with knowledge that counts. I can tell you of many successes from my school.
Thanks for the complement Andy.
I went to King Edmunds from year 7 – 11. So yes a comprehensive.
Once I had my GCSE’s (aged 16) I went to a sixth form college at one of the grammar schools for two years and then off to LSE. So the same educational start in life as most others… Definitely not private school!
Thanks for that Gray.
Cheryl, I agree to a certain extent. What triggered my interest in the first place was that I also went to LSE (a few years ago though!) from a comprehensive in West Yorkshire. Indeed the LSE kindly reduced its entry requirements to let me in, as the school I went to sent few candidates to university – I wouldn’t have got the grades otherwise. Some may say this was discriminatory but it worked out for both parties in the end as I ended up with a first. It could also be said that coming from a school with 3 people doing A Level maths and little in the way of resources was not a level playing field!
I went to Fairfax High School for Boys – which eventually went co-ed, and changed its name to Prittlewell then The Chase. I got most of my education from Westcliff Library.