I’m interested in the fact that Poole Borough Council put the Paton family under surveillance because they thought they might have fraudulently applied for a school place for their daughter. I’m also interested in Liberty’s response.

I feel like an incredible reactionary this week: but I will be again here. It’s all very well Liberty’s arguing that this use of powers is “ridiculously disproportionate” – though incidentally, the line taken by Alex Gask in the video embedded in the link I’ve given (that it’s always OTT to use this kind of power at all for checking up on school applications) is not the same as the line another spokesman took on Newsnight tonight (he thought it’d be okay if subject to prior judicial authorisation). The real question is, should councils simply be prepared to let this fraud go? If you think parents should be stopped from cheating their children into school places, then councils have to do this type of thing in some cases: apparently Poole has done it in three cases, two of which were revealed to involve fraud. If you’re happy for pushy parents to take the liberty of fibbing their kids’ way to privilege, then you’ll take the libertarian line.

I’d be happy if judicial authorisation were needed – but to argue that the powers can never be used proportionately is (sorry) in itself a disproportionate view.

2008-04-11T22:57:00+00:00Tags: , , |