MembersNEWNew in the Members’ Room: Josie Appleton critiques anti-consumer culture and John Ozimek takes on new pornography laws; Ceri Dingle presents a pro-immigration video; Mark Harrop reports on his campaign against the smoking ban; and Manick Govinda calls for the abolition of the 2003 Licensing Act New on the Vetting Blog: CRB checks stop work experience; investigation of the Jersey skull fragment story; child protection coaching becomes more bureaucratic. Read on… |
Campaign: The Case Against Vetting
Those now being vetted include 16-year-olds teaching younger kids to read, parents volunteering at school, and foster carers’ friends. Running an after-school club is now subject to more stringent security tests than selling explosives. The Manifesto Club is campaigning against UK legislation such as the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act, which makes vetting compulsory for all adults who work or volunteer with kids. We argue for a commonsense approach to child protection, that recognises the value of informal interaction between the generations. REPORTS The Manifesto Club has published a number of reports showing how the expansion of vetting is damaging community life. The Case Against Vetting (October 2006) provides an overview of the dramatic expansion of vetting, and shows how this feeds a child protection bureaucracy, while undermining everyday relationships between adults and children. How the Child Protection Industry Stole Christmas (December 2006) shows how overregulation is affecting seasonal celebrations; and Hobby Clubs (April 2007) documents how some mixed-age clubs are banning children. A Briefing Document (April 2008) shows how the government's new vetting laws will be late, over-budget and over-stretched. PETITION We coordinated a Letter to the Times on 16 October 2006, opposing the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act. Signatories included Johnny Ball, Fay Weldon, the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, the Mayor of Oxford, and Mary Kenny. This was made into an online petition, which was signed by hundreds of teachers, parents, volunteers, and other concerned individuals. PUBLIC MEETING On Thursday 26 July 2007, we held a London meeting, Checkmate: Has vetting gone too far?, at the east London gallery The Spitz. The event was a lively and passionate affair, attended by youth workers, teachers, and many others. See the video and transcripts for the evening. BLOG We also have a blog that keeps a track of damaging child protection measures - such as parents banned from photographing their own children in public, or university lecturers vetted to teach 17-year-old students. If you have a story to tell, email Josie Appleton. MEDIA COVERAGE The vetting campaign has featured widely in the UK media, including BBC Newsnight, The Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, PM programme; and also on radio in Australia and the USA. For more details, see the Manifesto Club in the news page. |
'Enlightenment is humanity's emergence from self-imposed immaturity. Dare to know! Have courage to use your own understanding!' Immanuel Kant 'What characterises man is his extreme abundance of imagination; therefore, that man is a fantastic animal and that universal history is the gigantic, continuous and insistent effort to go, little by little, putting some order into the crazy fantasy.' José Ortega y Gasset |
NEW: The Manifesto Club has launched a 