CSF bill debated in the House of Lords

Recorded TV coverage of the Childrens Schools and Families bill being debated in the House of Lords on 8th March is now available here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/ ... 552100.stm

It's a very interesting debate with almost all the Peers opposing registration and monitoring of HE children. Points raised include the unreality of Badman's statistics, the anger caused by assuming parents are guilty before being proved so, and the vast amount of correspondence received from HE parents.

I think it's safe to say that the tireless work of HE parents and activists over the past year or so has now finally been recognised and taken seriously by most of the people in the House of Lords.

The current situation is that amendments have been tabled in the Lords, including one that opposes Clause 26 of the bill altogether. (Clause 26 is the one that would require HE registration).

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... m036-a.htm

These amendments would be debated at the next phase of the bill, the "Committee Stage", in the House of Lords. However, no date for such a Committee Stage in the Lords has yet been tabled - see:

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/200 ... tages.html

There is a strong chance that the bill will run out of time before the general election and will not become law. Both the Conservatives and Lib Dems have made public commitments that the parts about home education must be abandoned or the bill won't get through the wash-up. Unless Labour wins the next general election, it's very likely this vastly unpopular bill will die a quiet - yet celebrated - death in the next few weeks.

This is probably true if the election is held in May. If the election is held in June then the government could fast track the bill through parliament. I'm not going to celebrate too soon. A hung parliament could see the bill resurrected.

It's a bit difficult to say what will happen, especially in the medium to long term. I definitely think the EU is behind it all. This means that it could all flare up again under a Conservative government later this year. Something that worries me is if HE monitoring ends up being financed by EU money - and they have lots of it.