SNP’s state snoopers can’t tell you what to give your kids for Xmas... not yet at least

IN a thousand different ways, parents the length and breadth of the country are doing their utmost to make sure their children are looked after, happy and loved. As families gather at Christmas to mark the most celebrated date in the Christian calendar they can give thanks that – as yet – there won’t be a Scottish Government-sponsored state snooper to spoil the celebrations by telling mums and dads what they can and cannot do.

There will be no Named Person to instruct them what presents they can and cannot buy. (Yes, one mother I know really did have this conversation with a Named Person.)

And no one waving official leaflets about letting children decide the colour of their bedrooms in order to meet Government ‘happiness’ targets.

Yet that could all change if the Scottish Government gets its way and creates an army of officials to spy on families.

It is a horrifying scenario that would have become reality without the determination and resolve of all those involved in the long-running No To Named Persons campaign group which managed to challenge the plans in the Supreme Court – where they were blocked as a breach of privacy laws.

THE plan was to harvest information on every family in the land and share that data with countless public bodies – just in case the parents weren’t complying with the state’s vision of child happiness. The privacy of children and their families would have been sacrificed on the altar of do-goodery and everyday parenting decisions subjected to the harsh scrutiny of clipboard wielding bureaucrats.

Sounds creepy, doesn’t it? Positively Orwellian. Perhaps even entering the realms of a totalitarian regime?

There would have been no chance for families to opt out of this invasion of privacy. Very often they would not even know what information had been captured, stored and shared – or whether it was even remotely accurate. The scheme would be imposed from on high, like it or not.

Here is an example of how it could have worked. Doctors prescribing the contraceptive pill to teenage schoolgirls would have to inform the Named Person – but not the parents.

Medical confidentiality would go out of the window as an army of bureaucrats was emailed the news, while the parents were blissfully unaware.

Incredibly, the Scottish courts waved the scheme through despite two legal challenges. It was the UK Supreme Court that blew it out of the water. It declared it defective, unlawful and a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The judges declared that Holyrood had exceeded its powers by making a law which allowed public bodies to share sensitive private information about children and parents without consent and contrary to existing data protection laws.

The withering verdict must still ring in the ears of the Government which tried to force through the dogmatic proposals. Striking down the law, the judges observed: ‘The first thing that a totalitarian regime tries to do is to get to the children, to distance them from the subversive varied influences of their families, and indoctrinate them in their rulers’ view of the world.

‘Within limits, families must be left to bring up their children in their own way.”

Thanks to the Supreme Court, bringing up happy children remains the responsibility of parents.

Education Secretary John Swinney has been trying to resurrect the scheme for the past two years. But the ‘expert panel’ he set up to try to navigate a way through the Supreme Court ruling seems to have run into the sand.

It is now clear that the scheme Mr Swinney originally wanted to impose on families is history. The advice of Named Persons (currently operating without a legal basis in various ‘pilot schemes’) is just that – advice. If you find it helpful, fine. If you don’t, you can ignore it.

But many parents are nervous that the Scottish Government still wants to find a way to keep the scheme. The whole notion of Named Persons has become so toxic that most parents will never trust it.

The scheme as proposed was perhaps the most audacious power grab in the history of parenting. On the whole, parents are best placed to look after their children.

Where they are not, the state and all of its agencies can and should focus their efforts on protecting the children and helping their families. They should not be targeting decent, conscientious people who are simply trying to raise their children according to their own beliefs and values.

MILLIONS of pounds have already been frittered away on the Named Person scheme and the philosophy behind it. That money could have been better spent on other much-needed priorities. It could have been used to increase resources and target help for those children really at risk. As we campaigned, we were accused of scaremongering and exaggeration. But it wasn’t only us. Opposition cut across all sectors, including police, lawyers, social workers, and even health visitors and teachers who were to take on the role.

Teachers didn’t want to act as Big Brother, spying on families. But that is what was planned for them, as they would have been the Named Persons for children aged five to 18. Meanwhile, children up to five years old were to have a health visitor as their Named Person. But health visitors, too, denounced the scheme when surveyed by their union.

More than half said they did not think the scheme would be ‘a good thing’ and said making them into state snoopers would damage their relationships with parents and children.

It was a joy when the Supreme Court told the Scottish Government: ‘The child is not the mere creature of the state.’ It would do well to remember those words, as should all parents this Christmas who are free to celebrate without the shadow of a Named Person at their shoulder.

But parents should also remain vigilant to the next inevitable threat from out of touch politicians who live in the Holyrood bubble.

Lest you think I have fallen short of the spirit of this season, let me finish by wishing Mr Swinney a Merry Christmas, and asking him, in turn, to give Scotland’s families the perfect Christmas present by binning the Named Person scheme once and for all.