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Wales has been a battle ground for the past two and a half years, and the week ending the 19th of November was a massive landmark for our country. It was the week when Wales made history and the Welsh government was made to be answerable for their education policy, which pushes Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) under the guise of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) The former is a global sex education and the latter, the name chosen for it by our government. Furthermore, it is a curriculum that has been not only endorsed but mandated by our government, allowing no parent to opt their child out, and one which, because of the "whole school approach " favoured here in Wales, is embedded throughout every other subject in the school. Five courageous claimants, representing 5,000 petitioners, got their day in court. The judicial review took place over two days, the 15th and 16th of November.
With the odd notable exception of articles from a selection of media outlets, and citizen journalists, the most high-profile case in the UK was met with a media blackout. Despite its location, just yards from Media Wales and BBC Cymru, no cameras were to be seen from these venerable companies. This came as no surprise considering the nature of the people who stood outside the court. The media were reluctant to show so many common-sense, concerned individuals from every walk of life and multiple ethnicities, who spoke at least 5 languages between them, and who represented a country united by their children. Individuals of different religious persuasions, of different sexualities and cultures, all standing as one and speaking with one voice. A voice that was enhanced by those of the children who added their own powerful displays of defiance. This was not an uneducated rabble, but rather a sample of a country united by a common cause; a true representation of empowerment, of children exercising their rights, and advocacy of the highest standard. The media love to demonise and victimise in cases such as this, but the truth was so apparent that they would have found it impossible to do so. It was obvious that the victims were the children and their families gathered outside the court, and that the demon was CSE/RSE, a curriculum that proposes a power grab of children from the age of 36 months. The media is hardly likely to demonise the truth.
OUR DAY IN COURT.
A judicial review is quite different from other court proceedings, since there is no cross examination or oral delivery of evidence from claimants, and the statements are the evidence. The legal team lays out much of the case.
On day one, Wales laid out its case. Paul Diamond, the barrister representing the people, took much of the floor and the public gallery was full, with over a hundred people viewing online and others listening to the proceedings from outside the court. Wales argued that parents have a right to opt their children out and that Welsh government ministers do not have the power to override them. Those who would like more detail on this can access Darren's version of events in his interview on Liberty Tactics (from approx. 52min). In layman's terms, the Welsh government had overstepped the mark. The Welsh government's barrister, Johnathan Moffat, then closed the first day's proceedings by reiterating claims of "misinformation", as referenced in Jeremy Mile's statement. The minister for Education's words were published in almost all newspapers and were embedded in information letters and emails to all headteachers to be passed on to parents.
Photo Credit: Gari Jones
On day two, Moffat presented the defence of the Welsh government. This was quite simple and concise and in effect, said that parents' rights do not exist and even supposing they did, they would be negligible. He continued by saying that if parents were unhappy about their children's education, then they had the option of putting them into private, fee-paying education or of home-schooling them. Did he not realise that if Welsh parents could afford private education, then the state schools would have been empty decades ago? And what of home education? Well, the Welsh government have an ambitious plan to get every home-educated child onto a registration system which would entail DBS checks for parents and the insistence that children be required to access elements of the curriculum. In other words—there is no escape, and if we do not win our case, then the home education community stands set for a huge overhaul. The Welsh government will be carrying on in its traditional style of ignoring the will of the people and treating them as an irrelevance. However, it has done us an indirect favour, by instructing these statements and by putting them on record for the public.
WELSH GOVERNMENT PROVEN TO BE THE SOURCE OF “MISINFORMATION”
Paul Diamond then continued to close proceedings by ironing out some facts; he succeeded in refuting the government's claims of "misinformation”, quoting compelling evidence from the witness statements. He then launched into the much-touted concept of "age and developmentally appropriate" which has been part of government mantra all along. Once again, evidence was referenced from the witness statements, which included official government correspondence proving that there exist no tools to define or determine how this will be implemented in a classroom environment. Paul Diamond summed up by reinforcing the fact that the claimants are not opposing the teaching of RSE but rather, its mandatory nature, from age three. Furthermore, that they are against "the whole school approach”, the lack of parental choice and the secretive behaviour of schools which have denied parents access to lesson plans and resources. Resources which we know to be graphic, confusing, and littered with dangerous ideologies such as gender ideology and Queer Theory. He stressed the claimants' need for choice and transparency and their desire for a system which they can trust to educate and safeguard their children. He stressed that secrecy jeopardises the very notion of safeguarding.
WE WON THE DAY WE STOOD UP; WE CHANGED THE WORLD THE DAY WE STOOD TOGETHER.
The outcome of the judicial review is not expected until sometime between the end of this year and the beginning of 2023. Regardless of what happens, both sides will appeal, and this fight will be continued. The legalities of a court are irrelevant compared to the moral triumph of the Welsh people. We won on the very day we stood up for what is right, and we changed the world the day we stood together.
Something special and magical happened outside that court. Our unity meant that the system and its organisations that would keep us divided have now expired. They are defunct, and the power they once had has been returned to its rightful owners, the people. The children brought us together and the children will lead the way. We need to honour this by continuing to grow, learn and build in unity behind them. Wales, that week, witnessed the start of something beautiful whose energy is electrifying. All were blessed by the overwhelming and priceless feeling of warmth and love which were in the air around us. It was a sensation that ministers of the Senedd can only hope for in their wildest dreams.
The Welsh government's legal team already knew exactly what the public think of them-hence their choice of exiting by the back door. The public had made its feelings towards them perfectly clear only a few hours earlier when they were bold enough to walk past the crowd on their way to lunch. It was a case of once bitten, twice shy as they made an ignominious exit from the back of the court. All this was in sharp contrast to the man who played our David fighting the government's Goliath. Our barrister, Paul Diamond emerged through the front exit to be confronted by a sea of Welsh appreciation and repeated chants of "hero". The discerning people of Wales had seen his integrity and loved it. He was their rightful hero and the true star of the day, and they were not about to let him forget that. Not only had he acquitted himself admirably as a barrister, but he had also given a human voice to anxious and concerned parents who had to fight above the white noise of bureaucracy in order to be heard in a court of law. He defended the right of parents to determine what their children should be taught. He defended decency, common sense, family values, and above all, humanity. Little wonder that the crowd adored him.
UNITE THE KINGDOM.
It takes a village to raise a child, a country to keep them safe, but the only way of protecting them from CSE is to do what it says on the tin and UNITE the KINGDOM.
Please continue to support us. This is just the beginning; we have a long way to go. With your help “we will move mountains with toothpicks for our children”.