The barmy Republican plan to scupper Diamond Jubilee parties

Feb 5 2012 by Paul Cole, Sunday Mercury

BARMY Republican protesters are trying to scupper schools’ Diamond Jubilee parties and cooking competitions – because they say the patriotic projects are ILLEGAL.

Primary pupils and secondary scholars across the UK are planning playground parties, pageants, projects and even a Great British bake-off to mark the right royal occasion.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is enthusiastically backing the 60th anniversary and almost every school in the nation is expected to stage some sort of special event.

There is also a national schools competition, in which pupils battle for the chance to cook for the Queen.

But pressure group Republic claims that, just by mentioning the festivities or pageantry, teachers may inadvertently be in breach of the law, and could find themselves in court.

The group’s chief executive, Graham Smith, cites Sections 406 and 407 of the Education Act 1996, which ban schools from “the promotion of partisan political views” and require a “secure balanced treatment of political issues”.

If teachers celebrate the Queen’s reign without giving other views on the monarchy, they will be breaking the law, he says. And he has written to Mr Gove to stress the point.

“We know that many schools are planning to hold their own jubilee celebrations,” he writes. “It is quite clear that most of these events and activities will treat the monarchy as self-evidently benign and universally supported, without any indication of the controversy that surrounds it.