DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Lack of trans guidance is failing our schools

When parents send their children to school, they should have the utmost confidence that they will be safe.

They place implicit trust in teachers to act in loco parentis – to care for all pupils as if they were their own offspring.

But a damning report today by the Policy Exchange think-tank reveals in a troubling number of cases, this is not happening.

Many secondary schools, fuelled by an ideologically driven gender zealotry, stand accused of jeopardising children’s welfare by flagrantly breaking safeguarding rules.

Alarmingly, seven in ten schools said that if a child announced they were trans, their parents would not be informed.

It is difficult to think of a worse abrogation of responsibility. This not only breaks the sacred bond between parent and child, but if a teacher without psychological expertise encourages social transitioning, it risks putting a pupil on a path to irreversible medical treatment they may later regret.

It is also deeply worrying that so many schools have axed single-sex toilets and changing rooms. Whatever transgender ideologues say, this puts girls in greater danger from predatory male pupils.

Teachers who question this bizarre gender dogma, often pushed by the Stonewall pressure group, run into terrible trouble – facing reprimand or worse.

When guidance for schools on trans pupils is so badly needed, it is unforgivable that Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is dragging her heels. Every day the Government dithers, the welfare of children is sacrificed on the altar of identity politics.

Mad dash to net zero

One of the big bonuses of Brexit was finally taking back control of our laws.

Did anyone, however, think diverging from EU rules would mean speeding up, not slowing down, the mad dash to net zero?

Under the Government’s ‘green’ strategy, the ban on new petrol and diesel cars will begin in 2030, rented homes face tough energy efficiency targets and there will be greater reliance on solar and wind power.

But how much will it cost, who pays – and will it even succeed? No one denies global warming. But the UK is responsible for just 1 per cent of global CO2 emissions.

We need policies based on rational analysis, not the hysteria of climate alarmists. We need to ensure energy security and not impoverish ourselves.

Our green dream must be the springboard for a leap forward – not a leap in the dark.

Under the Government’s ‘green’ strategy, the ban on new petrol and diesel cars will begin in 2030 (file photo)

Victory for free speech

Of the many threats posed to Press freedom – and by extension democracy – perhaps the most insidious is Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act.

Stitched up post-Leveson Inquiry by politicians exposed as expenses cheats, this draconian piece of legislation would force newspapers outside state regulation (i.e. the vast majority) to pay the legal costs of anyone who sued – win or lose!

A monstrous inversion of justice, this would have a chilling effect on investigative journalism and hand a weapon to wrongdoers to silence criticism.

It is a major victory for free speech that Lucy Frazer, the impressive Culture Secretary, has pledged to repeal Section 40.

The only losers from scrapping such an unjust law are those with things to hide.

• In another self-serving intervention, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has demanded a crackdown on pension funds’ use of liability-driven investments, which brought the British economy close to collapse last autumn. Yet the Bank itself ignored repeated alerts about their dangers. As far back as 2017, Lord Wolfson warned they were a ‘time bomb’. The Next boss is known for his perceptive economic analysis. If only Mr Bailey possessed such admirable qualities!