Disestablisment waiting in the wings?
From Blair’s last Prime Minister’s questions:
Richard Younger-Ross: What advice would the Prime Minister give his successor on the relationship between faith and state, in particular with regard to his successor’s reported views on the disestablishment of the Church of England?
The Prime Minister: I am really not bothered about that one.
Now, I could go off and say that it’s pretty obvious that Blair didn’t give a monkey about any separation of Church and State but I’m going to excuse him for trying to be funny, the question wouldn’t have been expected and answering any questions related to Brown would have been a no-no.
What’s less encouraging though is the general reaction in blogs about it, It’s generally considered to a deserving put down to an obscure Lib Dem. Finkelstein over at Comment Central described it as a “long, boring, pointless and complicated question”; long and complicated perhaps, but boring and pointless? Tell that to the students of The King’s Academy, Emmanuel City Technology College and Trinity Academy, who thanks to Blair’s willingness to hand schools over to anyone with money, are now being taught creationism alongside evolution in Biology lesson as well as the historical truth of Noah’s ark. Tell that to the Church of England officials that are desperately trying to get Intelligent Design into science classrooms. Whist American Secularists may be fighting a constant rear-guard action, at least the constitution is technically on their side; here we have no such help and nutjobs like Vardy get to present their beliefs as facts to impressionable young children in publicly funded schools.
The question is an important one: How will Brown handle faith groups? We’ve already seen signs that he wants to hand back appointments of Bishops, an interesting contrast to Blair who used his veto to turn down candidates for the diocese of Liverpool. Even if this leads to the disestablishment of the Church of England, it’s unlikely to bring about the end of faith schools. Brown differs in important regards here, but there’s little cause to rejoice yet.
Admittedly, that Lib Dem fella’s question was long and rambling, but I thought it was a valid question, and, although Blair’s response was perhaps the correct one, I thought he came across as rather snide.
I’m just wondering, do Vardy’s academies (I’m loath to call them “schools”) not have to follow the national curriculum? If so, then I hope they’re soon to be in for a rude awakening.
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12021.asp
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2192888/government-decides-intelligent
nullifidian
28 Jun 07 at 10:01 am
I assumed they did until you asked but according the BHA they’re not! They seem to be ‘freed from some of the requirements of the National Curriculum’, I can’t find any more details of that but I doubt this news will be a major upset to them.
Even for those schools that are unlucky enough to have to teach the national curriculum, groups like Truth In Science” seem to be very knowledgeable about what the curriculum does and doesn’t say and send out lesson plans to schools that follow the letter of the curriculum whilst still managing to get a fair amount of religion in there. These new decisions may have some impact on them, but the cynic in me doubts it.
Alex Parsons
28 Jun 07 at 12:06 pm
Hmm, that article does appear to be quite old (4 years - a long time in politics!) and the NC didn’t previously have any stance on ID/creationism. Perhaps, although I am also, as you say, cynical, this new decision will put pressure on Vardy et al to stop this errant nonsense.
nullifidian
28 Jun 07 at 2:33 pm