Coercion or compulsion?

Labour MP with a Stalinist streak

Can you imagine Cllr. Jimmy Foreman announcing to South Tyneside parents that they cannot have a school place for their infants unless they have all had the MMR jabs and can provide a certificate to prove it?

No, neither can I.

Yet a Labour MP, Mary Creagh (Wakefield) has proposed just such a Stalinist measure, somehow thinking that compulsion is so much better than coercion and persuasion. What sort of warped thinking is this? It’s hardly the way to get parents on your side is it?

My view is that there are many benefits to be gained from these inoculations but they are counterbalanced by some small risks that I, as a parent, was willing to take. Others are not, and see the risks as much greater than I do, I respect their views and have no objections to them exercising their choice. There are many who prefer to have separate inoculations rather than the combined dose, and some GPs still harbour doubts about the risks attached to the combined vaccination.

Creagh wants to influence debate within the party as it begins to prepare its next general election manifesto. She chairs a group of Labour MPs which will make public health proposals that can feed into the party’s policy forums, but stressed yesterday her idea was in its infancy.

As far as ideas go, this one should be denied a place in the nursery of educational thinking, compelling people and removing choice is unlikely to lead to a greater uptake of these important vaccinations. The state should never be elevated to a position of principled morality assuming that individuals are incapable of making reasoned decisions.

Nanny needs to be ignored from time to time!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::