Those who do not follow this blog regularly might not know that I write a weekly column for the pro-independence National newspaper in Scotland every week.
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The article is not behind a paywall, I can confirm.
Thanks
I just went to the article now, and it is behind a paywall now. It said “subscribe” so I clicked as often papers like people to subscribe even when it’s free to do so. No luck this time!
Sorry….
I am reluctant to raise the issue I propse to discuss, because I confess I know precisely nothing about home schooling. But I am struck by what the Judge said in the ghastly Sara Sharif case, about the stark dangers of home-schooling vulnerable children. That seems understandable; but then I recall that Liam Kerr, MSP the Scottish Conservative spokesman for education, said in May, 2024: “It is of course the right of any family to choose to homeschool their child” (Telegraph, 10th May, 2024).
What troubled me about this was not the statement in itself, but the political context. The SNP Government had been rightly concerned about protecting vulnerable children, and attempted to introduce un-persuasively drafted legislation, to provide some protection with teeth; well intentioned, but not thought through or politically well delivered. The Scottish Conservatives mounted a successful political campaign against the legislation in and out of Holyrood; but it was largely an emotional defence of the absolute sacrosanct right of the family against the State. A great emotive political peg on which to hang your hat, but lacking adequate intellectual resilience; where does this take us – and where do the Scottish Conservatives stand on Mr Justice Cavanagh’s considered opinion, and what the Scottish Conservative propose is done to make sure vulnerable children are protected; and we do not go through more of the endless hand-wringing and failure we see in Britain every few months when disaster strikes some poor child, simply because the ‘family’ is emotionally and politically untouchable?
It is a fair question. It was a fair question before the Judge delivered it.
Well over 200,000 children are missing from education right now.
Are they all being home-schooled? I doubt it.
Where are they?
A brief comment, admittedly not regarding home-schooling, but about children missing from school.
A retired Scottish head teacher explains why local authorities in England cannot answer that satisfactorily.
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/12/13/a-retired-scottish-head-teacher-explains-why-england-has-no-idea-where-many-of-its-children-are-or-what-they-are-doing/
That is undoubtedly partly true, but some authorities are missing children of all ages they know, for example, to be on GP registers in their areas. That is very worrying.
Politically, Where does “The Scotsman” fall?
Unionist
Right wing.
A Scottish Times.
Thanks!
Politically, Where does “Irish Independent” fall?
Irish estaboiushment, but the concerned end of it. So, right of centre, but with a conscience.
@Richard,
Thanks for the clarification!
I have been reading the wrong news feeds! LOL! LOL!
Other than “The Independent”, are there any left-of-center UK newspapers left?
Is the Independent left of centre? I don’t think so.
The National in Scotland is.
I write for it.
https://www.thenational.scot/
It has a very impressive, young team of journalists.
“It has a very impressive, young team of journalists.”
The National is a bigoted one eyed rag. Nothing is impartial. If that suits someone then fine..
If supporting a political position is bigoted, then that is true.
You ignore that the rest of the Scottish media are bigpted against it.
And if being one-eyed is dedication to a cause, again, that is true. But at least it can explain its cause when the rest of the Scottish media cannot.
And that cause does have majority support in Scotland right now. No doubt you will deny that, but that does not mean it suits someone, it suits most people.
Yes Richard: The sale of RM to the Czech billionaire was approved before the Independents Day July 2024 General Election. In the very-same month as the election, senior union management at CWU were mounting zoom ‘roadshows’ to sell the deal to union membership (many of whom have since rejected it).
Thanks for explaining that Starmer’s Trade Sec., Jonathan Reynolds, could have used Boris Johnson’s national-interest block on the deal, unless Sir Keir instructed him not to.
Labour’s acceptance of Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group deal will one day be part of a wider investigation – probably, carried out by historians, not journalists – into Keir Starmer’s relationship with the likes of Sarah Melvin, Managing Director, Head of BlackRock’s UK, Rupert Murdoch, Larry Fink and other anti-state capitalists.