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Eight things we learned from a Tory MP about sex education

Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley and infamous Conservative rebel, spoke out against proposals by Green MP Caroline Lucas to make PSHE compulsory in schools. Here’s what we learned from him…

1. We’re getting parenting wrong…

“The message we should give to parents is that being a parent is a position of great responsibility and that certain things are the responsibility of parents and parents alone: they cannot just be farmed out willy-nilly to the state to do on their behalf. In my opinion, those things include the values with which children are brought up, and part of that involves sex education and violence against women and all the rest of it.”

https://twitter.com/NatashaDevonMBE/status/621344088156184576

2. Teachers are inflicting their values on children…

“Parents who do not want their children to have the values of their teacher inflicted on them when they may be against the values of those parents should be supported by this Parliament in being able to remove their children from such lessons if they see fit. Parental responsibility, parental choice and the freedom of parents to allow children to be brought up with their values should be protected in this House, not just trampled over because we happen to have different individual opinions.”

3. Sex education isn’t helping to stop teenagers getting pregnant or the spread of STIs…

“In this country, we have been trying sex education in schools in various forms for decades. In that time, the level of teenage pregnancies has gone up, gone down, gone up again and gone down again, and the level of sexually transmitted diseases has gone up, up and up even more. There is no evidence that this makes any difference whatsoever.”

(In fact, the ONS reported recently that the teenage conception rate had fallen to its lowest level since records began)

4. There are “sex education fanatics” in England and they really like Holland…

“The sex education fanatics use Holland as a prime example of why we should have more sex education. Holland has lots of sex education in its schools and very low levels of teenage pregnancy. Of course, the sex education fanatics never mention Italy, which has very low levels of sex education in schools, but equally low levels of teenage pregnancy. Clearly, it is not sex education that makes the difference, so it must be something else.”

5. If we want to stop teenagers getting pregnant, we should be less “generous” to single mums. Like they are in Holland…

“What Holland and Italy have in common in respect of teenage pregnancy is that they are spectacularly lacking in generosity through their benefits systems to single parents and they do not give single mothers priority on their housing lists. If we want to reduce the level of teenage pregnancy in this country, we would be much better off looking at the benefits system and the housing allocation system than faffing about with more and more sex education, which seems to make not a blind bit of difference.”

6. Teachers can’t be trusted to give sex education because some of them have turned out to be criminals in the past…

“The hon. Lady says that parents may not always be the best people to provide sex education. Who is to say that teachers are always the best people to do it? I keep reading in the paper about more and more cases of teachers being convicted for inappropriate sexual relations with their pupils. What about those teachers who are teaching sex education in schools? Why would she trust those people over the parents to teach sex education? It is a complete and utter outrage.”

7. Sex education leads to rape…

“Not that long ago, we had the case of a teenage boy. I am glad that everyone finds this very funny. I am talking about the case of a teenage boy who raped a female classmate shortly after a sex education lesson. The reason he did it was that after the sex education lesson, he wanted to try having sex with somebody. He raped a classmate off the back of it. I am glad that Opposition Members find that funny. I do not think that the parents of the victim found it very funny. That is how trivial Opposition Members find these issues.”

8. Caroline Lucas would be better off campaigning for harsher sentences for violence against women, rather than “faffing about”…

“Finally, the hon. Lady mentioned that the Bill would make a big difference to violence against women and girls. In a recent answer to a parliamentary question, I found that 23 per cent of women and 45 per cent of men who were convicted in court of violence against the person were sent to prison.

“If she really wants to tackle violence against women and children, I suggest that she joins me in calling for harsher prison sentences for the perpetrators of those crimes, rather than faffing about with sex education, which will not make a blind bit of difference.”

Ms Lucas wasn’t allowed to respond to her colleague’s comments before her bill went to a vote, but we feel her face said it all…

Lucas parl

Plus, she can also celebrate the fact her bill passed its first reading with 183 votes to 44.

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