Why not send them to Runnymede?

News that the Government are going to send two pupils from every six form on a trip to Auschwitz just shows how skewed our education system has become.

Coming fast on the heels of calls to take pride in our own history out of the classroom this just shows the goverenment at it's shallow worst.

The best protection against the possibility of another holocaust must be and understanding of who we are. Sending children who do not understand the growth of Liberty in our country on horror tourism to the gas chambers of the Shoah gets us nowhere. I cannot believe that there is a single six-former studying history who has not studied the rise of the Nazis. The growth of National and International Socialism is littered by examples of the destruction of individual liberties.

What we in the UK can be proud of is that we stood out against the Nazis with the Empire, almost alone. It was our belief in freedom, a belief nutured by an understanding of our own history that gave us the confidence to oppose the great totalitarian regiems of the 20th Century.

So I am calling for the Government to start concentrating on those landmarks of freedom; Runymede, Plymouth Hoe, Tamworth, St Peter's Fields, Tolpuddle and others rather than chasing after some collective guilt of which we are not guilty.