In April 04, I got into an argument with a journalist who wrote what I considered to be a very biased article on the Vardy foundations latest school at Thorne. I emailed him complaining that the article was almost wholly favourable to the Vardy Foundation & made almost no attempt to highlight the real issues & dangers involved. I went into great detail explaining what I thought these issues were & also queried his motivation in writing an article which so thoroughly misrepresented the issues involved.

Not surprisingly his reply was far from pleasant. He accused me of “impugning” his reputation amongst other things. I cannot show our e-mails because I have been threatened with legal action if I reproduce them. However, the following is a paragraph by paragraph reply to his e-mail which he will no doubt read (hi Xxxx, you bloody coward!). As he has asked for his reply not to be published, this is not shown.

Xxxx,

I would like to know who will be footing the bill if you did not win, you or your newspaper? Because I am just wondering whether or not your apparent bravado at going down this potentially ruinous route (For either or both of us) is based on the opinion that you would win, or the fact that you would not be exposing yourself financially. I did attempt to find other articles to counterbalance the one under discussion as I have explained below (I did not find any). However, it was not your other articles I was criticising & therefore your professionalism in them is irrelevant.

I personally would have preferred you to have at least attempted to answer some of the many issues I raised, rather going on so much about your “reputation”. I am now really kicking myself that I allowed you the opportunity to divert attention away from the shortcomings of your article in this way.

Having reviewed my email, the worse thing I seem to have said is that you display personal or editorial bias. You are perfectly at liberty to simply deny this if you wish, but to start sounding off about an attack on your “personal & professional integrity” & threatening me with legal action just makes you sound stupid.

Also, the vast bulk of my email consisted of statements which I believe highlighted your one side treatment of this issue. I note the only attempt you made to defend this was to put forward (in a rather sneering & contemptuous manner) arguments that give me little confidence in your ability to remain impartial.

In other words you want to hit & run.

I never agreed to enter into a private debate with you on what is an issue of public concern. I responded to an e-mail address which I assume was meant for public comment, including negative ones. As requested I will not show your e-mail, but it’s my website & I have every intention of replying to it. One of the good things about the internet is that anyone can voice their opinion about anything. You may not like people contradicting your one-sided view of the world but as far as I am concerned that’s just tough.

The reason people have shown no interest in this locally is simply because they have not been informed of all the issues, which I seem to remember was exactly the point I was trying to make.

I used your paper’s search engine to check for articles on the Vardy Foundation & creationism & it came up with the article we are discussing here & no more. I tried various search engines again they only came up with this article & no more.

I personally find these comments Bizarre. You have written an extremely one sided story in a newspaper with XXX XXX readers & when someone complains about it, you accuse them of wanting to trot out their personal beliefs to a total stranger! What sort of journalist are you?

Further, I am not the one running around spending millions of pounds trying to influence this society with biblical absolutism, especially where it is liable to do the most damage, in our schools. All I am trying to do is point out the dangers to people & make them aware of the controversy surrounding this issue. I am not doing this because I am some kind of nutter like you insinuate. I am doing it because I genuinely believe that it is totally wrong to allow these people to be indoctrinating impressionable (contrary to what you strangely think) school children with their extreme beliefs. In order to do this I have had to spend my time & money purchasing web space, investigating the subject & uploading the results. I would just call this taking effective action. Would you have a better opinion of me if I just sat back mumbling about the fundies in the school? Would that then make me an okay guy in your eyes Xxxxx?

Hasn’t anyone ever told you that it is a low down dirty rotten trick to quote out of context? You know the truth I was referring to related to your article not my so called “religious” beliefs”. Secondly this thing about atheism being a form of religious belief has been doing the rounds for decades now. It has been refuted over & over again but that doesn’t stop people like you from continuing to state it.

Peter Vardy & his creationist associates are seasoned debaters on this issue with a slick & well oiled presentation (backed financially with millions of pounds) that attempts to play down & conceal their true motivations & aims. By allowing him to put forward his views without any sort of critical questioning simply plays straight into their hands. Well done.

I have never criticized the ability of the teachers at these schools to teach, they appear to do this very well. But that is not & never has been the point I have been making, which has always been more concerned with religious fundamentalism & scientific denigration. As regard Ofsted, they have come in for criticism for their stance which some consider biased in favour of the Vardy Foundation. Members of the Vardy Foundation have made it very clear in both their verbal & written communications what they intend to teach 6000 year creationism in their schools & undermine the teaching of science. Ofstead & the government will have no doubt have had this information made available to them & have for their own very curious reasons decided not to act on it. There is nothing to be gained by me or anyone else now repeating themselves to them. There are dozens of sources of information on the internet regarding this issue & I gave you just two. I would have thought these would have had some influence on you, but judging from your comments, obviously not.

I personally find it not so much touching as dam right depressing that I can spend so much time refuting an assertion (I dealt with the issue in some depth), only to have you repeat it in all its glory a few hours later. You really are beginning to sound like a creationist. This is what is really annoying many people, debating creationism is like punching a boxer’s punch ball, which you hit with your hardest shot only to find it right back in the same spot 20 seconds later.

Of course family influences are part of the equation, but they are also far from the whole story & that is why the Vardy Foundation are so keen to get into schools & others are trying to keep them out. I find your opinion on this subject very strange. You seem to be implying that what a child learns at school has little influence on what they will believe in later life. What part of .0001% of other educationalists do you think would agree with you here Xxxxx? No wonder you do not wish your e-mail publishing!

No one in Doncaster (to the best of my knowledge) has expressed the remotest interest in examining the more negative aspects of the Vardy Foundation. This is in contrast to the Middlesbrough parents who even started a website on the subject. (More Nutters) this can be found at, www.coulbynet.free-online.co.uk/frames/SMCA

I strongly suspect that the support for this from the Doncaster authorities is a result of religious bias towards this issue & as a result they are only ever going to see it as a good thing. I personally consider it outrageous that access to vast amounts of taxpayers money for education are not made on the basis of some objectively arrived at need, but are made available only to those who are willing to accept the imposition of religious fundamentalism in their schools. It is sickening to see council officials such as the Mayor of Doncaster just pushing their way to the front of the queue & helping themselves (without any serious consideration of the issues involved & without making them known to the people they are supposed to be representing). These are issues I believe people have a right to be made aware of, even if you don’t.

People can only reach judgments based on the information given to them, which in your case is not a lot.

I do not accept that your article was balanced & your reply has done nothing to resolve the issue. I suspect there is nothing in my criticism of your article that could result in you winning any legal action. However, I am not inclined to take the risk & have decided instead to simply ignore you & your newspaper. There are better sources of more balanced news available & in future I will use them. You & your newspaper can just get stuffed.

Alan.