One potential positive about the coalition Government's new agreement, is its policy on faith schools.

We highlighted the inherent tension in the Conservative policy before the election. On the one hand the Conservatives want faith groups to be able to run new schools. On the other, they have been reluctant to say that faith schools should be able to discriminate in admissions - and possibly employment. The Lib Dems, whilst supporting faith schools, have also been opposed to allowing faith schools to discriminate in such ways.

So despite David Cameron’s promise on national TV to meet with the parents of disabled children who attend mainstream schools, and Channel 4’s FactCheck which showed that the PM didn’t know the contents of his own manifesto with regard to the treatment of disabled children, the Lib Dem-Conservative agreement has taken on board the Tory pledge to “remove the bias toward inclusion” of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in mainstream schools

We will get a better idea of some of the detail regarding the new coalition government's approach to a range of issues today.

A fascinating paper has been published by Maria J.

The news that human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is to speak at this year’s Greenbelt Arts Festival, was met by a small number of conservative Christians with a call for a boycott, on the grounds that the Christian event is being ‘gayified’. Others have expressed puzzlement as to why an atheist like Tatchell would want to speak, when he has previously attacked the church’s unjust practices.

The Daily Telegraph reports today that

There are three very worrying features to the new LibDem-Tory coalition agreement, which raise many fundamental democratic questions:

So the Conservatives are offering the Lib Dems a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) system. Both Hague and Osborne have now said that they would whip their MPs to support the bill in Parliament on the basis that it is right to give voters the choice in a referendum. Note, they have made the case in moral terms because they think it is the right thing to do.

The crucial question about Philippa Stroud, the prospective Tory MP featured on the front page of today’s Observer, has not yet been asked.

The paper has focused on her views about homosexuality. But there is a far more important issue, and that is who would have influence and ‘authority’ over Mrs Stroud if she were elected?

This morning, my son Samuel had an appointment at the Evelina children’s hospital.