HomeSchooler.org.uk

Reprinted from Roger's letter with permission. First shared on the Badman Review Action Group Yahoo List:

The presumption of innocence has collapsed and we are now required in all sorts of ways to prove to the state that we are behaving in ways they require. The Badman report this week on home education is one such case. Home Educators, a peaceable, law-abiding group have been smeared by a government department (Ed Balls' DCSF) prior to the release of a predetermined report that treats innocent parents as criminals. It assumes guilt unless parents allow inspectors into their homes and, grotesquely, permit them then to remove their children for 'questioning.'

The assumption (based on the totally unsubstantiated smear that Home Educators are 'potential abusers') is that in the exercise of our democratic rights we must submit to state control and concede our ancient civil liberties. It is us today. Tomorrow it will be the family of any carer who looks after a young or vulnerable member. You have an under 5/aged parent/sick brother for whom you are caring? How can we, the omniscient state know that you are not abusing them? We must enter your homes, even if there is not the slightest suspicion of wrongdoing, and inspect. Indeed, your wrongdoing is precisely that you have not conformed to our statist conception of what is right and good. You are guilty because you wish to be different. You are guilty because you wish to be free.
This is the ID card mindset. We are becoming conscripts of an obsessive, paranoid state.