This vile government is beyond belief - suggesting that the refusal of perfectly sensible and rightly searching Freedom of Information requests is acceptable because of the existence of critical commentary that is freely available on the internets.
You do not need to be a home educator to be enraged about this.
Make no mistake - if the state cannot police the precious online world (and Ed Balls cannot remove uncomfortable truth blog posts by making a single shitty phonecall) then it will make full use of the endless legislation it has constructed to stick the boot right in.
Lovely Ali has written a post well worth reading here. She makes reference to this pertinent quote from the late Tim Field:
"When close to being outwitted and exposed, the bully feigns victimhood and turns the focus on themselves - this is another example of manipulating people through their emotion of guilt, e.g. sympathy, feeling sorry, etc."
The government continually uses the discrimination card to silence freedom of speech and fair criticism - whilst continually encouraging or engaging in discriminatory activity itself.
The reason I dislike the female PCSO who paces our road is becuase she tries to touch other people's children without their consent. I am not being sexist. She is an appalling professional.
The reason I shouted at the black driver when crossing the roundabout today is because he did not give way to me. I was not being racist. He was not a good driver.
The reason I resent the gay man I once lived with is because he ran off to Ireland with my dressing gown and other belongings in his bag. I am not being homophobic. He was a thief.
The reason I criticise independent expert Graham Badman is because of his complete lack of intellectual rigour and his belated scrabbling around for evidence to shore up his wildly inaccurate assertions and totalitarian recommendations that have the potential to harm my children. I am not bullying independent experts. The man is incompetent and a liar by omission. No amount of government dogma will alter that fact.
If a government department thinks that it is acceptable to refuse Freedom of Information requests because:
- someone has told the truth,
- someone has taken the piss, and
- someone (a child, no less) has produced a piece of animation
and this might, conceivably, hurt the feelings of an extremely powerful, highly experienced, well-paid independent expert, then this tells me that the real bully is not the truth-teller, the piss-taker, or the young animator. The bully is the government, using its legislation to protect itself from scrutiny once again.
