Reactions

Following the revelation that our Government is considering new legislation to ban secular organisations from registering their views and objections on educational matters such as the illegal behaviour of certain Faith Schools there have been a number of voices raised in the media today; most have advised against these proposals for a number of sensible reasons, here are some examples.

In the Guardian we have an ex-advisor to the Government on education saying it's time to end the special favours shown to faith schools, Jamie Martin expresses concern that faith schools can lead to cultural isolation and that this is not a good thing! I agree, you only need visit Northern Ireland to see where that road leads.

In the Independent we have an article making the point that the very secular organisation that Nicky Morgan seeks to silence have actually been the most thorough in investigating the activities of faith schools and the most successful in exposing the law breakers.

In the Mail we have a discussion around the problems of isolated communities; as the author points out when you have a young girl aged 8 years being "promised" to a middle aged man this is not a "Muslim issue" it's an equality issue for our whole society. Banning organisations from registering challenges to such behaviour going on inside selective and secretive schools is not going to improve the lot of vulnerable people.

In the Messenger today we have a story about abuse going on inside a Catholic school; another example of what can happen when you put religious establishments beyond scrutiny because of "faith".

In a local London news source today we have a story about an Islamic school who allegedly suspended a pupil for talking to a member of the opposite sex, again, behaviour that needs to be exposed and challenged, not covered up!

It's scandalous that we have a Government in modern-day Britain that thinks banning organisations from making complaints against law breakers and from representing individuals with grievances against selective schools is the right thing to do in order to "unclog" a system that is so clearly "clogged" because it is so corrupt! I've seen the term "gerrymandering" being applied to this in several conversations over the last 24 hours, it seems appropriate.