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Kent man's legal challenge to climate change film

00:00, 27 September 2007

updated: 12:57, 27 September 2007

STEWART DIMMOCK: "Climate change is important but it should be taught to children in a neutral and measured manner"
STEWART DIMMOCK: "Climate change is important but it should be taught to children in a neutral and measured manner"

A JUDGE is to view Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth as part of a challenge by a Dover man that it should not be shown in schools.

Stewart Dimmock, who is a school governor, is being supported by The New Party in a legal challenge against a government decision to circulate the film to all 3,850 English secondary schools.

The application for a Judicial Review will be considered at an oral hearing today at the Royal Courts of Justice.

"I wish my children to have the best education possible, free from bias and political spin and Mr Gore's film falls far short of the standard required," said Mr Dimmock.

"Climate change is important but it should be taught to children in a neutral and measured manner. Indoctrinating school children in this manner is unprecedented and unacceptable."

The case has generated a vast amount of expert evidence. Mr Dimmock is being supported by an internationally acclaimed climatologist and a former advisor to 10 Downing Street.

The Government has had to enlist the services of the Met office’s Hadley Centre and senior civil servants in an attempt to justify its decision to distribute the film.

In February, Education Secretary Alan Johnson said: "Influencing the opinions of children is crucial to developing a long term view on the environment among the public."

However, Mr Dimmock said that under Sections 406 and 407 of the 1996 Education Act it is expressly forbidden to introduce biased or partisan material into the school curriculum.

A campaign website www.straightteaching.com is helping to raise funding support for the case.

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