Lords Second Reading

Watching the second reading of the CSF Bill in the Lords, I was heartened by the fact that many Lords were expressing reservations about the home education provision. We will undoubtedly have unfinished business with them during the next Parliament because several consider that something must change. However, they seemed to understand our concerns and will hopefully be open to an informed debate.

However, Baroness Deech gets a special mention. She produced an amazing outburst of bile and vitriol against home educators. She expressed several opinions that were totally irrelevant to home education, including a concern about forced marriages, which can happen to any child, regardless of educational status. She has managed to demonstrate all the reasons why home educators do not wish to engage with government, with a very statist and totalitarian viewpoint wanting us to be inspected four times a year and under a very tight regime of how we could educate our children. She has totally missed the point of why we opt out of the state system and has proposed to penalise us even more for doing so. I think she's our new poster child(!) highlighting why we don't want state interference because she represents all that is bad about state control.

It is notable that they are all of the opinion that change is coming, and it is up to us to drive that change and make sure that whatever surfaces next is acceptable to all of us.