So, the Liberal Democrats at their annual conference voted against the coalition government's Free Schools policy. It is, they say, "divisive, costly and unfair". Nick Clegg tells Channel 4 News that the activists "misunderstand" the policy.
What are we to make of it all? How is it possible to comment and not be thought party political?
When we took Sarah to the Peto Institute in Budapest, Hungary all those years ago we asked simply, "Can you help her?" In truth, we do not really fully comprehend what we were asking at that time. "Yes," said the Conductor who assessed her. "Bring her to us". It was, more-or-less, as simple as that.
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 26 (3) reads:
"Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."
When, after more visits to the Peto Institute, we came home finally not to return, the challenge was quite simple: how to give other parents the same choice and freedom for their children at home in England as we had experienced in Budapest.
Were Paces to be successful in becoming a Free School, then parents who wished to choose Conductive Education as the education for their children would simply have the same opportunity as we did with Sarah in Budapest: "Bring her to us."
I suppose it all depends what value you place on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And the answer to that, I suspect, might transcend the narrow issue of party politics.
