Home education update

• The Home Education Review was due to take place in May 2009 but has been deferred until after the Euro Elections in June. It is difficult to predict what the outcome of the Review will be although one home educator has written a well researched article about various speculated outcomes.
• There is concern that the NSPCC might be a fake charity. From their latest annual accounts, the NSPCC receive £14.222M from Statutory Bodies (ie the Tax Payer) and £113,835 from Voluntary contributions. It doesn't take a genius to realise that a charity which receives substantial government (tax payer) funding is highly inclined to lobby for reforms that the government favours.
• Investigation into the Every Child Matters (ECM) programme has highlighted that the EU is behind it. Many sections of the document LISBON EUROPEAN COUNCIL 23 AND 24 MARCH 2000: PRESIDENCY CONCLUSIONS echo the points of the ECM programme. The official government line on the ECM programme, including the Contactpoint database, is that it originated from ideas contained in Lord Laming's 2003 Victoria Climbie Inquiry. This inquiry certainly did contain those ideas, but is being used as a convenient smokescreen by the government to fool the British public into thinking that the leigislation had come from Westminster rather than the EU. We wish to express many thinks to Gill Kilner for her time and effort in wading through many tedious documents in order to unearth this valuable snippet of information. Dissident Congress will be producing our own article about this sinister piece of EU legislation in the future.
• The UK Independence Party has published an astonishingly good statement on home education. They also calling for the sacking of a child protection official from the NSPCC following "dishonest" claims over home education. Godfrey Bloom MEP has stated "It is no surprise that the NSPCC is a government toady given that it ceased to be an independent charity years ago and now is a branch of government. It is heavily funded by the government and does the government's bidding. Today that job is to vilify decent parents."
• In contrast, the BNP appears to have totally overlooked and ignored this nasty assault on home education by the government and the EU. Any ideas why?

Dissident Congress is continuing with its quest, in collaboration with other home education organisations, to uphold the rights of home educators and promote home education as a viable alternative to the tired and failing state school system.

AHED letter and dossier to Graham Badman

AHEd has written to Mr Graham Badman calling for the Elective Home Education Review to be halted and outlining why this should be. The letter contained a number of links and attachments comprising the AHEd dossier.

There is a general lack of confidence in the home education community that the review is being conducted in a fair or impartial way. Dissident Congress holds the view that Graham Badman is an unsuitable person to chair the review panel on Home Education given his strong interests in the very existence of the state school system. His chosen panel appear to have next to no experience of Home Education, but plenty of experience of the school system, education compulsion, and the National Curriculum.

The following articles may be of interest to parents of school age children:

• Home schooling - creating real alternatives in education
• Why not to trust your school

New articles

• Malevolent voices that despise our freedoms
• Why are local newspapers so hostile towards the BNP?

What a prat!

As Dissident Congress predicted, Peter Mandelson openly suggested that protesters could go and work elsewhere in Europe if they were unhappy (in Britain).

The former EU Commissioner is renowned for his pro-EU stance and his staunch support for global free trade, and stated that "Protectionism would be a sure-fire way of turning recession into depression."

We at Dissident Congress disagree with this statement as we believe in replacing global free trade with fair trade using protectionism if necessary.

Mandelson also suggested xenophobia might be the cause of the problem!

Unite concealing the truth about the EU

Derek Simpson, the joint leader of Unite, said:

"The unofficial action taking place across the UK is not about race or immigration, its about class. Its about employers who exploit workers regardless of their nationality by undercutting their hard won pay and conditions. These are rights that trade unionists have fought long and hard for while ultra right wing groups did nothing but stoke hatred in our towns and cities."

What Derek Simpson has failed to mention is that EU legislation enabling citizens of other EU countries to take up jobs in Britain without the requirement for work permits is at the root of the issue. Unite, along with all trade unions except Solidarity, are committed to Britain's membership of the EU even if it means having to embrace EU legislation that is detrimental to the British economy and job market.

One must cast their minds back to 2005 and the total inability of trade unions to save MG Rover from bankruptcy and subsequent takeover by a company from China. The British government actually wanted to rescue MG Rover but were prevented from nationalising the company or offering a loan because it would fall foul of EU legislation on subsidies to industry. Trade unions still haven't learnt from this sorry situation and changed their policy to oppose membership of the EU in order to protect British jobs.

Solidarity trade union lambasts the establishment trade unions

Patrick Harrington General Secretary of Solidarity said:

"This grassroots action shows how out-of-touch the political establishment and their tame Union lackeys are. Their hollow promises have been seen for what they are and workers are taking power into their own hands."

"The first reaction of the establishment Trade Unions in condemning the wildcat strikes is a disgrace and shows how far in bed they are with the Government and big business. Now they are back-tracking in the face of rank-and-file anger. We will see more of these strikes as the downturn bites and workers are forced to take militant action to defend their jobs. The feeling of many is that they have been sold-out and 'enough is enough'. We salute those who are making a stand on this vital national issue."