The report that a hospital in West Yorkshire has banned visitors from cooing at new—born babies is, in fact, only the second dumbest thing the Brits have lately done.

They've also removed science from the school curriculum.  New regulations just announced by the Blair government, and taking effect next year, will allow students to bypass the hard sciences in favor of courses deemed 'relevant.'  More precisely, students will be permitted to choose between traditional courses that teach the Periodic Table, ionic equations, the structure of the atom, Boyle's law, and Ohm's law — and newly—designed courses that will teach about the drugs debate, slimming issues, smoking and health, in vitro fertilization, and 'the nuclear controversy'.  According to The Times of London, the new regulations were adopted after Tony Blair's ministers received a report from academics at King's College, London, which concluded that 'science lessons were often dull and boring, and required pupils to recall too many facts.'

Not surprisingly, the new courses — officially called TwentyFirst Century Science — are a hit with students.  At North Chadderton upper school — one of 80 at which the new program has already been pilot—tested —— students who previously had been forced to learn physics and chemistry were, instead, taught what foods to eat.   According to North Chadderton's head of science, Martyn Overy,

'The proportion getting higher grades in science went up from 60 percent to 75 percent.  The course kept their interest, had more project work, and was more relevant.'

It's hard to imagine anything a government could do that would be more likely than this to condemn its people to technological and economic backwardness.  That it would happen in Great Britain — which has given humanity so many of its very greatest scientific minds, including Issac Newton and Francis Bacon — is beyond belief.  Well, almost beyond belief.

Those poor, un—cooed—at babies in West Yorkshire have no idea what's in store for them.

Herb Meyer   9 27 05