Is this Britain or Stalinist Russia?

If you read this quote:-

"If a family wishes to cremate their loved one in anything other than a shroud, the funeral director should contact bereavement services so this can be discussed to clarify what type of garments the family wish to use."

You might be forgiven for thinking that it applies to some communist dictatorship and is not something you need be concerned by.

In fact, the quote comes from Kirklees council who claim to be concerned about emissions from the cremation of the deceased, thus, if you wish to see your father or son cremated wearing his favourite football strip or your child taking her favourite teddybear on their last journey you are likely to be 'refused permission'.

How dare these jumped up little Hitlers interfere in our most personal and private matters in this way, how much pollution do they really think clothes or a soft toy are going to create especially when compared to thematerials used to make the coffin in the first place. This is gross intrusion to deal with a tiny problem with emissions, how sad that our council employees are taking this opportunity to bully families at their most vulnerable.

Read:-

Ken Frost's comments at http://nannyknowsbest.blogspot.com/2009/06/nanny-bans-clothes.html

The Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1193306/I-wouldnt-seen-dead-Council-forces-relatives-cremate-loved-ones-anti-pollution-eco-shrouds.html

Review proposals breach the Human Rights Act

Bishop Hill, raises an excellent point:-

Since the Human Rights Act states:-

...the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.

Is it the intention of the government to breach the Human Rights Act? Since to implement the findings of this review takes away the freedom of parents to provide an autonomous child centred education.

Let me get personal

Time perhaps to get personal and real.....

We home educate, our children went to school for a time BUT THE SCHOOL SYSTEM FAILED THEM!!

Our children were suffering constant major meltdowns all the time they were in school, we tried working with the school and various specialists but got frustrated that nobody would recognise that the system was damaging our children and it was even implied that it was somehow our fault, that we were doing something to prevent them learning in school!

Our children came out of school unable to read, write or understand maths, our youngest had become so harmed that it has taken us 5 years to get over her phobia of reading to others.

Our education has been totally autonomous, our children learn what they want to learn - we do not push them in ANY direction.

Yes there have been times when we have doubted ourselves, we have feared that we maybe should be pushing them - will they grow up to resent our approach?

I can honestly say that those fears are a thing of the past, within a few months of leaving school barely able to read a sentence our eldest was devouring Harry Potter books, he now reads newspaper articles and criticises their misuse of punctuation. He has played in the junior chess world championship, he writes visual basic programmes for fun and finds higher level GCSE maths papers "easy" - if he was still in school he would have another 2 years before looking at them. Our youngest is enjoying drama and is currently rehearsing for her 3rd public performance, she has come from being unable to read (and terrified to try) to touch typing with a speed and accuracy that few professional typists could match.

Far from being "hidden away at home" our children are out in the community, I am able to bring them in to work to interact with a wide range of adults, they meet many people when we visit museums or are just out and about living life.

There is NO distinction in our family between 'education' and life, we DO NOT plan our activities in advance. If our children want to find out about something we will help them do that in whatever way seems most appropriate at the time. Their education is full and rich with variety, completely tailored to THEIR 'age, aptitude and ability', which just happens to be exactly our obligation under the law.

If the authorities think that we are going to impose some other system on our children, which I think will restrict them or even be harmful to them, they had better think again! I am completely prepared to go to prison over this issue and so is my other half, how many home educators does this government anticipate locking up?

My message to the government - PUT YOUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER.

Our state schools are failing so many children, it hurts to see so many leaving school with such poor education that they are consigned to menial jobs and the prospect of having to spend yet more of their precious lives seeking the knowledge and learning the skills that should have been nurtured in them during their childhood.

Our children will never EVER attend school unless THEY choose to.

Badman Review of Home Education

The home education review by Graham Badman has been released, it would seem that we have been stitched up again!

Whilst home educators have been nervously awaiting the outcome of the review, it seems that it has been presented to all and sundry within the establishment, garnering support before being launched on the people it will affect most.

The review can be downloaded at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/_download/?id=6080

and Ed Balls response can be downloaded from http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/_download/?id=6081

We have not read the report properly yet but the little we have looked at so far has been very disturbing, essentially following the government trend to deal with people outside the established legal process by shifting the rules so that you become guilty of breaking a law you have no defence against; for example:-

The current position is that the LEA can determine (reasonably or maliciously) that you are not providing a satisfactory education and issue a school attendance order which you have the right to challenge in court. It is then down to the court to decide whether your education provision is satisfactory or not!

The new position (as far as we can see) is that you will have to apply to be registered as a home educator in order for your child not to be registered to a school, if the LEA decide that they don't like your education provision then they will simply revoke your registration as a home educator and your child will be enrolled with a school, if you continue to home educate then your child is truanting and you can be sent to prison! No recourse to the courts, no need to prove you have done anything wrong, they have decided, they have acted, you are now guilty and can be punished!!

Before any changes can be implemented, the government must now carry out a consultation, this can be viewed at :-

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1643&external=no

We need to take action NOW and do everything we can to tell this government that their proposals are outragous and totally unacceptable, many home educators have declared that they will not comply with the new rules even up to the point of being prepared to go to prison if necessary. We believe that the goverment may be opening the floodgates to legal action by home educated children for the harm done to them by the interference of state officials.

Hopefully it will not get that far and the state will recognise the mistakes they are making BEFORE the damage is done.

Suggested action:-

Respond robustly to the consultation.

Write to your MP.

Write to the DCSF.

Talk to people around you.

Contact the media.

If you have a blog, put your feelings online.

A British Constitution?

I've been wondering on and off for some time about the idea of a written constitution similar to that of the US.

There have been times when I've thought that our quirky system of common law seems altogether too haphazard and unpredictable, liable to the whim of senior judges. I've thought that perhaps if our 'rights' were enshrined in a written document then we could always hold any future government to account should they attempt to remove those rights.

Today I've been doing a bit of reading over at the Devil's Kitchen and came across an entry debating that same point. (For those of a tender disposition - he does tend to the odd swear word or several).

I'm now pretty convinced that it would be a tall order to put in place a written constitution that preserved our rights rather than restricted them and perhaps our system of common law is the best we can come up with so far ..... go read and think at http://devilskitchen.me.uk/2009/06/british-constitution.html ....... things are never simple are they?

Welcome to animal farm

What concerns me even more than our MPs ripping us off through their expenses (and goodness knows what other scams), is the way they seem to think that we ordinary people are some sort of subhuman species that need to be managed in much the same way as pets or zoo animals.

We are subject to or threatened with compulsory vaccination, compulsory ID cards, recording and monitoring of our every move financially, on the road or online.......

Now we have a new children's minister - Dawn Primarolo, who is responsible for children's well-being, safety, protection and care; family policy including parenting support; teenage pregnancy strategy; Sure Start, childcare and early education, the Every Child Matters agenda, and extended schools.

Reading her job description I would expect her to be a person who cares about the health welfare and wellbeing of children, putting their needs first...... imagine my surprise to read the article from the Daily Mail where she advocates "Why we should sterilise teenage girls ... temporarily at least". Saying "At what age? Well, doesn't 12 until 17 sound rather sensible?".

Who does she think she is? Better still - Who or what does she think we are? If I were a girl aged between 12 and 17 I would be seriously concerned about the prospect of being forced to take drugs to prevent my getting pregnant. What about the many women who have adverse reactions to the pill? what about our human rights to refuse medical treatment should we so wish? 

HOW DARE this woman think that she can treat us like farm animals!

As I have said before, the politicians need to remember that THEY are OUR servants not the other way around, if any politician dares to force my children to take any "compulsory" medication they had better be ready for my reaction because they might find their needle stuck somewhere they'd rather not have it!

Police State? A quiz

Over on the off-gridder site there is an interesting article for those who doubt that we are living in a police state, makes me think that Communist Russia had nothing on our beloved NuLabour.........

Take a look at http://off-gridder.com/2009/05/28/police-state-britain/