yay!

Just got this message from facebook: (if only this was around last year when I was writing my essay on religious education in the UK!)

SUCCESS!

The amendment to allow Local Authorities to impose quotas on the admissions to new faith schools was overhwelmingly defeated 119 votes to 37.

This marks a fantastic victory for faith schools in Britain. Watching from the galleries, there was a real sense of accomplishment amongst Parliamentarians that this retrograde measure had been defeated so convincingly; only the most ardent secularists sided with Baker. Thank you to all those who wrote in.

In the last two weeks faith schools were threatened by the Government, the Opposition, and by a minority of secularists excited at the chance of undermining faith education. Through your action and the actions of others, we have seen:

-a U-Turn in Government policy
-a change in Conservative policy
-a change in Liberal Democrat policy
-an important debate about the contribution of faith schools to British society
-a preservation of the great success story of British education

A job well-done, and a job that may need doing again.