The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:
How will you respond to the new drinking guidelines? (choose all that apply)
Selection
I will reduce my consumption to 3 units a day - 3 votes
I will go without alcohol for 2 days a week - 1 vote
I will go without alcohol for the whole of 'Dry January' - 2 votes
I will ignore the new guidelines completely, they are a load of nonsense - 182 votes
Good. I was with the majority on this. And an excellent turnout, thank you to everybody who took part.
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Moving from one bit of creeping Islamification of this once great nation to another…
Pupils taking GCSEs and A-levels face timetable shake-up to accommodate fasting Muslims
Personally, I am absolutely appalled by this on so many levels. I'm an atheist, I'm a default Christian, I'm modern and liberal, I believe in education and what underpins it, i.e. routine. Ramadan moves forward by eleven days, so if they bring it forward each year for two years, in the third year the whole academic timetable will have to be pushed back by a month so that exams fall after Ramadan etc. FFS, if people want to do this stuff, then there are plenty of other countries where they can go and do it, there is no need for the UK government to muck up the lives of our own children.
And as a more rational Muslim (to the extent there is such a thing) wrote in yesterday's Evening Standard letters:
When we fast, we give up our natural right to eat [in order] to worship God and ingrain a sense of sacrifice. This is well understood in many Muslim countries, such as my grandparents' native Pakistan, where exams continue as normal during Ramadan.
The spirit of Ramadan is to tolerate our normal routine while sacrificing our right to eat. yet here, instead of sacrifice, we find Muslims being afforded extra rights to make their lives easier.
While the intention of the exam boards is admirable, in this case I don't think it's necessary - especially as Muslim children shouldn't be fasting until they are older anyway.
Syed Ahmed
So that's this week's (slightly belated) Fun Online Poll.
Changing the exam timetable to accommodate Ramadan: what do you think?
Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.
Debate Magazine
