Friday February 25, 9:02 AM
Yahoo! News
By Kirsty Scott
The Scottish executive yesterday tried to end the escalating row over the repeal of section 28 by announcing it will be replaced with a new clause stressing the value of stable family life.
The vaguely worded clause, drawn up after days of tortuous debate, is seen as a desperate effort to try and reassure parents, satisfy supporters of repeal, and keep the coalition with the Liberal Democrats in place.
But last night, Brian Souter, the Stagecoach tycoon who has bankrolled a public campaign against repeal of section 28, which bans the promotion of the acceptability of homosexuality in schools, said the new clause was an insult to Scottish parents.
"It offers no protection against the promotion of homosexuality and it places homosexual relationships on the same moral basis as marriage," he said. "We have to ask ourselves; who have the government been listening to? The gay pressure groups or Scottish parents?"
The Scottish executive's move is likely to be seen as a precursor to a compromise over section 28 in England and Wales.
The education secretary, David Blunkett, is searching for a way to placate church leaders and ensure that the bill to repeal the clause makes it through the rebellious House of Lords.
Yesterday Scottish first minister Donald Dewar said his executive was committed to the repeal of section 28. He said the new section, which will be put in the forthcoming ethical standards in public life bill, was not a u-turn and offered a child-centred response to concerns.
The clause says: "It is the duty of a council in the performance of those of its functions which relate principally to children to have regard to the value of stable family life in a child's development."
Mr Dewar declined to define "stable family life" but said the clause was designed to be inclusive.
"I have no doubt that some will cry surrender and others bitterly complain that the proposals do not go far enough." But he insisted: "Our new provision is a sensible buttressing of local government's duty of care and a practical support for the decent sensitive regime that has been the rule in our schools and in the delivery of local government services to children over many years."
The Liberal Democrats backed the compromise. Many had wanted outright repeal with no replacement.
But SNP leader Alex Salmond said the new wording was woolly and
might cause problems in future.