SURELY John Swinney’s solution to his named person travails (“Swinney plan for new named persons bill is very simple. He should include a clause unequivocally stating what his boss, the sainted she-who-can-do-no-wrong First Minister, categorically assured us all in March 2016 – that it is merely “an entitlement” for parents who are “not legally obliged” to use it and which will “not undermine families”, in other words which will entitle parents to opt-out without “having anything to do with it if they don’t want to” (albeit that her Supreme Court QC denied that the original Bill’s wording allowed for an opt-out) – and that in such cases the Government will not appoint a named person against the parents’ wishes.
John Birkett,
12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.
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