Campaign for an English Parliament

I received an email from Bob Spink MP today regarding a debate he took part in on the compulsory education and/or training of English children to the age of 17 (later to be increased to 18).

Bob argued that this is an unnecessary extension to “big government” and the control they have over our lives.  He argued that it was yet another way of criminalising young people, something quite unnecessary when there are so many young people criminalising themselves already and what they really need are opportunities, not more rules.

Personally, I agree with him although the CEP obviously has no view on big government or the criminalisation of young people as a single issue campaign group.  However, what isof interest to the CEP was the fact that none of the MPs seemed to be asking questions about Scotland and Wales.

Education is a devolved issue and the new rules keeping children in school until the age of 17 or 18 only applies to England.  I haven’t checked to see how many Scottish or Welsh MPs involved themselves in the debate but that’s a different and recurring problem.  What they don’t seem to be considering is how many children will move to Scotland or Wales to avoid extended compulsory education (something that will no doubt come to be known as “avoiding the draft” once the tabloids catch up)?

It might not sound likely but there will conceivably be large numbers of children near the borders, particularly in rural communities, who will move over the border to avoid staying in school until they’re 17 or 18.  There are a lot of farms, for instance, that cross the English/Welsh border and it would be very easy for a family to change their address to another property on their farm for the purposes of keeping their children out of school and on the farm and what 16 year old is going to complain about being taken out of school early?

The British government - and Gordon Brown in particular - are constantly telling us how we’re strong together than apart and talking about these nebulous shared values that nobody ever seems to be able or willing to elaborate on yet here they are further emphasising the divide between England and the rest of the UK that they created in 1997.