Defending ourselves from the State, yet again

The UK government has announced YET ANOTHER inquiry into Elective Home Education.

This reminds me so strongly of those referendums where politicians keep asking the same question until they get the answer they wanted. Unfortunately for the government, I think they continue to underestimate the connectedness, articulateness and legal and procedural savvy of the home education community. And how important it is to us to protect our way of life.


We only have four weeks to respond.

To do list:

1) write to your MP to protest against the length of the consultation time, the waste of public money implied in having yet another consultation on this topic - what, not getting the right answer yet? - and perhaps also wondering gently why the Forced Marriage red herring (surely a welfare issue not an education one) and why the LAs have a quite different set of consultation questions to answer from the hoi polloi. There is a splendid form letter on the Facebook group here.

2) Join said facebook group and invite all your facebook friends to join it too. Time to get the word out.


First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller


3) Think of anyone you know who might be able to spread the word. Newspaper or media journalists? It's really time for this story to run. I've emailed Sarah Ebner at the Times Schoolgate blog, so we'll see if she picks it up. At least two of my facebook friends are journos. I'm hoping one or other of these people will smell a story.

4) and then, well, respond, yet again, to a bunch of statists who have no respect for family life