12-01-2007, 06:27 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Uber Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London
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Jeffrey Titford quoted about EU teaching packs
http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/politics/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=WeekPolitics&t Brand=EADOnline&tCategory=zpolitics&itemid=IPED12% 20Jan%202007%2010%3A06%3A28%3A060
From the East Anglian Daily Times website dated 12th January.
Quote:
EUROPE DOUBTERS HIT OUT AT `ONE-SIDED' TEACHING PACKS
THE European Parliament is being battered by Eurosceptics for issuing teaching packs to schools which have been described as “sheer, naked propaganda.”
Although officials in London have defended the packs as merely being in response to requests from teachers, East of England UKIP Euro MP Jeffrey Titford said he was “aghast” to see the pack.
“It is so blatantly one-sided that there must be conflict with the Education Act, which requires that pupils must be offered a balanced presentation of opposing views.”
He accused the European Parliament's London office of interfering with British politics by seeming to advocate proportional representation, rather than the first-past-the-post method of electing Members of Parliament.
“The most appalling feature of all is this pack has been endorsed by the Electoral Commission as a teaching aid,” said Mr Titford.
“It contains a great deal of misleading, one-sided and highly political material. Completely absent are any references to the EU's huge fraud problem - it hasn't had its accounts signed off by its auditors for 11 years - the serious democratic deficit it is creating, or to the massive and increasing membership fees that Britain has to pay to be in the EU.
“The list of links and resources that teachers and students are encouraged to access, for further information, contains not a single Eurosceptic website or organisation.
“This isn't a teaching guide,” complained Mr Titford. “It is a new low in sheer, naked propaganda and I hope schools in the East of England will have the sense to keep these packs out of the classroom.”
However, Dermot Scott, head of the European Parliament's UK office, said the pack had been produced in response to teachers' requests for information and more than 500 had so far been issued.
“We believe we have made a genuine attempt to be even handed in our portrayal of the European Union and the issues we deal with.”
The packs have been welcomed by the European Movement. David Houseley from Felixstowe, who is chairman of its Suffolk and North Essex branch, said he would like to go further and send supporters of the UK's membership of the EU into schools and sixth form centres to explain the work of the European Parliament and the Union.
“The message we want to get across is that the major issues facing Britain can only be solved by working at a European and international level - global warming, climate change, prevention of terrorism, third world poverty, the spread of Aids, nuclear defence, the problems in the Middle East, and energy dependence on Russian gas and Middle East oil,” said Mr Houseley,
“We can't stand with our heads in the nationalist sands and pretend we can solve these problems by ourselves or that they have nothing to do with us.”
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