It has been brought to the attention of Schoolhouse that Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil MSP is continuing to cause offence to the home educating community in Scotland by reiterating, in the Greenock Telegraph last Wednesday 11 August, insensitive and insulting comments for which he has already been severely criticised.

By steadfastly refusing to apologise for his inappropriate, insensitive and politically motivated attack on a minority group in  the wake of the Riggi family tragedy, and now  seemingly redoubling his efforts to hog headlines over the issue,  he is clearly  intent on squeezing every last drop of political capital out of a desperately sad  human tragedy. Anyone who watched Pasquale Riggi’s dignified  interview last week in which he paid tribute to his murdered children could not have failed to be moved by the man’s loss, and Schoolhouse deplores the unseemly  behaviour of Mr McNeil whose  propriety  appears to have deserted him entirely.

Mr McNeil claims not to have received any communication from Schoolhouse, but we can confirm that a letter was  sent to him on 9 August 2010. To date no acknowledgment has been received and in view of his continuing attack on a law abiding group for no reason other than personal prejudice  and  ignorance of the law, a complaint will now be made to the Scottish Parliament which has a duty to investigate inappropriate and discriminatory conduct on the part of its elected members.

The text of the letter sent by Schoolhouse to Duncan McNeil is reproduced below:

Mr Duncan McNeil MSP

The Scottish Parliament

Edinburgh

EH99 1SP

Dear Mr McNeil

I write with reference to an article published in the Sunday Post on 8 August 2010 in which you are attributed with making deeply offensive, insensitive and entirely inappropriate remarks about home education in the wake of the recent Riggi tragedy, and in which you further sought to mislead the public regarding the law relating to elective home education in both England and Scotland.

At the request of Schoolhouse members, I invite you to retract your remarks in full and issue a public apology for causing immense distress to the Scottish home education community and, most especially, to the friends and family of the children who have died in such appalling circumstances. In seeking to make political capital out of this tragedy, we believe you have engaged in conduct most unbecoming of an elected member of the Scottish Parliament and, in the absence of a full and public apology, we are minded to make a formal complaint via the presiding officer.

Your contention that tighter regulation and monitoring of home education might have prevented this tragedy is frankly astonishing. It would therefore be useful if you could enlighten the home education community as to what sort of draconian measures you would wish to see exclusively imposed on this minority group of law abiding citizens, and how, exactly, such measures might have changed the outcome in this sad and profoundly shocking case.

I further invite you to publish a statement of apology for issuing false information about the law pertaining to home education in England. May I remind you that no changes were made to the English legislation following recommendations in the Badman report, all of which were thrown out prior to the May election. The contents of that flawed report, including the ‘statistics’ you have so cynically misused to smear a minority community, have been discredited by professional analysts and were roundly rejected by the UK Parliament.

You should be aware that it is parents, not the state, who have the legal duty to provide their children with a suitable education, and that statutory guidance issued by the Scottish Government sets out the responsibilities of local authorities in relation to home education. If you wish to familiarise yourself with the law and guidance, you will find the relevant information on the Schoolhouse website.

Schoolhouse encourages Scottish local authorities to provide us with up to date information about their policies on home education and we have created a dedicated web page for each council, but we have so far been unable to elicit any such information from Inverclyde Council which serves your own home educating constituents. Perhaps you would be good enough to look into this on their behalf?

I look forward to your response in early course.

Yours sincerely

Schoolhouse Secretary