Barboo

This statement posted to UKIP's website illustrates how unprofessional the party is.

The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, which came into force on 30 April, prohibits discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. A guide to its implications found at: www.communities.gov.uk states specifically that:
quote
The Regulations will not:
i) require schools to promote gay rights or homosexuality to children; Nor
ii) require changes to the current curriculum; Nor
iii) affect existing guidance allowing schools to choose the materials used in sex education classes, nor interfere with parents’ existing right to withdraw their children from sex education classes; Nor
iv) make schools vulnerable to legal challenge if they don’t use specific books to teach pupils about issues related to sexual orientation.
ends

If Derek Clark has evidence for his claims that teachers are having to spend their time promoting gay rights to youngsters, and that the new regulations could see schools compelled to promote gay rights in the curriculum, he should give chapter and verse stating his sources. His vague allegation that certain books are becoming part of the curriculum because of the new Act is unsubstantiated and amateurish.

Secondly, if UKIP is taking a political stand on the issue of material used in schools, why is the statement entitled "MEP fights 'gay' books" rather than "UKIP fights 'gay' books"? Is this a party initiative or not? If it's a personal crusade of Derek Clark's, why is the statement given official backing on the party website when it doesn't even appear on his personal website? And is Clark once again the UKIP education spokesman (there've been four in the last four years - Jeffrey Titford, Mike Wiltshire, Derek Clark and Tom Wise)? Anyone, public or press, wanting to follow this story up has got no sources and no spokesman to refer to, and would justifiably wonder why a statement on education in British schools is being made by a member of the European parliament.

Thirdly, those who take an interest in the goings-on in Brussels will be aware that UKIP MEPs are in alliance in the Ind/Dem group with the Polish League of Families party, whose leader is also Poland's education minister. Roman Giertych has recently introduced draft legislation banning discussion of homosexuality in Polish schools, with teachers to be sacked, fined or imprisoned if they break rules designed "to prohibit the promotion of homosexuality and other deviance". He wants to see a similar ban across the whole of the EU (euobserver 21.3.07). Human rights groups have warned that under this law students would be denied information on HIV/Aids. Is this the direction UKIP is now taking, and is MEP Derek Clark's fight against 'gay' books in schools UKIP's first step down the path forged by his Polish ally?

TonyG

Is that the best they can come up with?
I would have thought that, at least, they would be throwing a hundred EU directives at it declaring it illegal and threatening to take Poland to court!
Haven't they realised yet that they are in the EU and can't just go around making their own laws? :roll:

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Westcountryman

No, further! Ban Shakespeare!

__________________
the cake is a lie.
the cake is a lie.
the cake is a lie.
the cake is a lie.

kernow

Many, many people, me included will never, ever accept that homosexual acts are normal human behavior! I don't care how many famous people have "Gaye" relationships and profess they are normal. Children don't need to be taught about homosexual relationships, they hear about and read about on a daily basis! In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the EU aided and abetted by the BBC don't try make homosexual acts compulsory for everyone!

TonyG

Would that just be in the clubs around the City and Westminster on a Saturday night, or could we choose our own times? 8)
I'd hate to bump into my MP, barrister, judge, bishop, police chief...

__________________
If you don't think you can change the world, who do you expect to do it for you?

----

http://www.mercola.com/townofallopat...ofallopath.htm

Barboo

Further to my earlier posting above, I realise Derek Clark is a little stretched at present campaigning for the subsidiarity principle and reform of the CAP, but when he has a moment to revisit this issue I simply can't wait for his next press release: MEP fights 'gay' Teletubby!
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http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fS...icleId=3854859

Poland to inspect Teletubby with gay abandon
May 29, 2007

Poland would investigate children's television character Tinky Winky because of concerns the handbag-carrying Teletubby promotes homosexuality.
While the Teletubbies were "very nice", Children Rights Ombudsman Ewa Sowinska told the Wprost weekly, "there is ... an issue with one of the characters".
Sowinska would ask her office's psychologists to study Tinky Winky to see if the character was suitable for public television, she told the weekly.
Before becoming the Children Rights Ombudsman, Sowinska was a law maker of the Polish Families League, a junior member of the governing coalition.
The party's chairman, Roman Giertych, who is also deputy prime minister and education minister, drafted a bill prohibiting "gay propaganda" in schools.
Giertych said on May 16 that schoolchildren in Poland should be legally protected from material that "threatens their proper mental and moral development". - Bloomberg

Published on the web by Business Report on May 28, 2007.

SponPlague

We should also ban the Illiad - all the Achillies and Patroclus stuff... :P

What about grown-up stuff, too - is Lysistrata suitable for schoolkids?

Alex McKee

The underlying issue is that nameless officials protected from the consequences of their actions are setting the curriculum.

Education should be about exposing children to knowledge, not selecting random bits and force feeding it to them. More emphasis on original thought would solve the problem entirely, in my opinion.

Let teachers teach what they deem suitable.

Martin Harvey

Alex McKee wrote;
'Let teachers teach what they deem suitable.'
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How about the -parents? Good parents do the best for their children in every way possible, including getting them the best education that they can find. Parents, if neccessary aided by School Governors should have the say in their children's moral and religious teaching. You will always get a very few teachers who need keeping in line anyway. The government should not get involved unless of course, parents lobby their MP for a particular good reason.
The problem here is that the EU is having a big influence if not Total, on education to the extent that it is no longer education as we know it, but social engineering, and brain-washing children to fit them for the EU ideal. Of course that means positive discrimination against the normal heterosexual family, and any thoughts of loyalty to ones Nation. With Labour as it is, and the hopeless Conservative 'opposition' helped by the BBC and media, Parents have a most difficult task.
UKIP already has an excellent education policy, add something similar to the old section 28, and we will get serious support.

Martin Harvey.

tito

Homosexuality is certainly not normal, it is strange. I don't much care what other people get up to but I will not accept that children should ever be taught to aspire toward it or treat it as a normal life option.

Gays are gay, straights are straight: leave it at that.