Something Sinister Is About To Happen To Scotland's Children

While the people of the UK are spending their time obsessing over which party will win the general election on May 7^th and who they might have to do dodgy deals with to actually secure power there is something more sinister and Orwellian taking place in the Scottish parliament.

The ranks of the Scottish National Party (SNP) who are in power in the limited Scottish parliament have swelled since the Scottish independence referendum last year and there has been much evidence of them being the most authoritarian party in Britain. But for me (and many others I know) their scariest plan is their Named Person scheme.

In the words of the Scottish governments own website “The Getting it right approach includes making a Named Person available for every child, from birth until their 18^th birthday (or beyond, if they are still in school)”. Sure it sounds innocuous enough, almost as if they want to say “the friendly state will provide someone to look out for your child during their young lives”. That is absolutely the way that some see it in this country but (especially with the No2NP) movement gathering steam most are seeing through this scheme for the Orwellian nonsense that it really is.

So what's exactly wrong with it? Well if you look closely a lot of things. For one it undermines the family and this is a very important point. Many families and carers simply don't need someone from the state snooping into how they raise their children, they have been capable of doing this themselves for a very long time. I wonder personally what kind of questions these state “Named Persons” may ask kids. “What do Mummy and Daddy do in the evening?” for example, “How much do they drink?”, “How clean is your house?” and I think before you know it good parents who maybe have a flaw or two are having their houses inspected by the state and the possibility of their children being taken from them for no good reason at all. It may even be that the states named person takes issue with certain parents because of their lifestyle habits or political or philosophical beliefs and then that child could end up lost in the system for no good reason. But that's my concern, there are many more learned people than me who are equally (if not more horrified) by this scheme.

For example the Faculty of Advocates (who are a body of independent lawyers in Scotland) described the Named Person proposals as as a plan which “undermines family autonomy”, “dilutes the legal role of parents”, and could provide a platform for interference with private and family life.

The Church of Scotland criticises the Named Person proposals because of the potential for a “general diminishing of parental responsibilities” and warns that the scheme may in fact be “counterproductive” to helping the children who need it most (para. 7). It is here we hit on another point. It's clear the Scottish government don't trust us to take care of our kids properly but with constant state intervention into parenting then it encourages (in my view) people to sit back and let daddy government swan in when things start to get a bit rough. There is no doubt that this legislation could actually be more harmful to the well being of children. The British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) in their submission to the Education and Culture Committee highlighted that the universality of the Named Person provision “may get in the way of ensuring that those who really need support actually receive it” (para. 9).

The concerns I have brought up so far are real and very worrying but there is also a legal challenge to this Named Person scheme too. On No2NP.org we can read: It may be in breach of European Convention rights to privacy and family life: Leading QC Aidan O’Neill says the policy: “may not be lawful on the basis that the blanket nature of this provision constitutes a disproportionate and unjustified interference with the right to respect for individual families’ private and family life and home.”

The other legal problem is confidentiality. I find it hilarious that during the Scottish independence referendum the SNP were big on Scotland being independent from England, Wales and Northern Ireland politically but staying in the European Union (EU). So, to the SNP is makes sense to leave one government saying it interferes too much in Scotland's affairs but stay in a larger one that interferes so much it's actually quite hard to figure how many UK laws are made in Brussels (between 5% and 50% is the best I could find because it seems that everyone defines 'law' differently), ah classic political logic. But it also seems that their Named Person scheme could in fact breach EU law on data confidentiality, you see the legislation makes it easier to lower the threshold for officials to pass around confidential data, like kids medical records!

It's not hard to see how damaging a scheme like this could be for generations of young people and it may only be just being tested here in this small country of only about five million. I am not a Christian but the Christian group CARE in their evidence to the Education and Culture committee summed it up nicely for me when they noted that the Named Person provision “reflects an ideological view which denies the primacy of parental authority in relation to child rearing” and expressed concern that children are viewed “essentially as the property of the state” (para. 11). So if you feel like your kids are property of the state then “yay!” for you. You must be so pleased, however if you think that the state should butt right out of your family life then you can only be but opposed to this Orwellian state control of the most vulnerable in society.

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