Questions questions...

I think most of us recognise the pattern by now. A set of staged questions like this, followed by an announcement of a consultation like this.

I'd like to know how the system works, and who drives it. Paid lobbyists, obviously, but paid for by whom? And the Culture Secretary this time, not Michael Gove? Could this be because of Gove's words in Parliament of the 11th January 2010? He said then:

I am deeply concerned about the additional bureaucratic burden that will now potentially be placed on thousands of our fellow citizens whose only crime is to want to devote themselves as fully as possible to their children's education.

It is a basic right of parents to be able to educate their children in accordance with their own wishes, and to educate them at home if they so wish. There may be many reasons why parents take that decision: they might be dissatisfied with local provision; their child might have a specific educational need that they feel can be better supported at home; or they might have philosophical objections to the style of education on offer at the local state schools that are easily accessible.

Each of these decisions can sometimes be illuminating, in that they can tell us what is wrong with current provision-there might be a lack of diversity, for instance. Ultimately however, this is a basic human right that every parent should have, and I feel the Bill erodes that right, because, as I read it, it allows the state to terminate the right of a family to educate a child at home if the education offered is not deemed suitable according to regulations that the Secretary of State writes.

I wonder if there's a way of finding out who is doing the lobbying.