After a painfully long period of horse trading in the wake of the hung parliament delivered by the UK electorate, we finally have a new government at Westminster. Despite a significant swing to the Tories – except in Scotland, which inexplicably stayed in a 2005 political time warp – they did not achieve a majority, and the public waited, and waited, and waited, for a deal, which eventually produced a Conservative Lib Dem coalition. So it’s good riddance to Gordon and welcome to the Dave and Nick double act; bye bye Balls and g’day Gove.
Perhaps a coalition government will prove to be what is needed to curb the excesses and downright megalomania we have witnessed from Labour for 13 years, which to be fair was also part and parcel of the previous dark Tory regime. Time will tell, but from our point of view, the re-branding of the DCSF (which placed schools between children and families) as the Department for Education is a welcome start, as is the abolition of ContactPoint and firm promises to restore some of our long lost and deeply mourned civil liberties.
For home educating families in England, the election represented an end to 18 months of hell in which the Labour government, and Ed Balls in particular, had sought to destroy their way of life. Although cautious about what the future may hold, we are celebrating the end of an administration which set out to smear and criminalise a law abiding minority community.
Orchestrating a sham review of home education, holding a sham consultation and rubber stamping a sham report based on fabricated ‘evidence’, which was publicly discredited by independent professionals, demonstrated just how low Labour was prepared to stoop. Evil Ed Balls plumbed even greater depths by spinning the lie that Khyra Ishaq was home educated when she was never formally deregistered from school, just as the wicked NSPCC had previously lied about Victoria Climbie’s educational status in an effort to shift the blame from themselves by discrediting home education.
At last, home educated children in England can once again sleep soundly in their beds, safe in the knowledge that Balls, who came close to losing his once ‘safe’ seat, is now an irrelevance in their lives. Of course, cries of indignation are already being heard from those who make a nice living out of interfering with children and families. To them we say: stay out of our lives unless we invite your assistance and concentrate your efforts on vulnerable children who are known to be at risk and who are so often failed by the very professionals who are supposed to be ‘safeguarding’ them. They should get their own houses in order before trying to force their way into ours.
To everyone else out there, regardless of political persuasion or posturing, let us make our message abundantly clear: our children come first and we will defend them, whatever it takes.
