Gay Star News has an update on the “return of Section 28” story, written by Jane Fae. It is still very unclear whether the schools that adopted these policies did so deliberately or not, and whether any of the schools who have withdrawn such policies from their websites will ever issue updated policies. We do now know, however, that there are at least 45 schools involved. My guess is that we’ll find more.

I noticed from Twitter yesterday that Bristol MP, Stephen Williams, has been on the case regarding Colston Girls School for some time. That’s good to know. Thanks Stephen.

The question that is exercising me most is what role the Civil Service has played in all this. Jane seems to think that they share some of the responsibility. In particular she notes that a “national curriculum framework document” required that schools confirm to the Equality Act, and therefore should not discriminate on the grounds of any of the protected characteristics. But, Jane notes, while some of that language has been adopted, all mention of gender identity was removed by the Department of Education.

I note also that it was civil servants, not ministers, who were responsible for introducing the odious “spousal veto” to the same sex marriage act.

As with all laws, getting them through Parliament is only part of the problem. Getting them enforced is often more difficult.