Sir Peter Vardy

Wikipedia article: Sir Peter Vardy is a successful British businessman from Durham specialising in the automotive retail business. He appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List 2004. He is one of the UK's most generous philantrhopists, via the Vardy Foundation. Vardy took control of the car dealership Reg Vardy plc in 1976, after the death of the founder. Vardy has funded the building of a number of City Academies. The bulk of these form the Emmanuel Schools Foundation, a coalition of Christian schools based in the north of England. These are run as part of the mainstream of England secondary school education, and in some cases were formed by taking over schools that had low performance previously. This is part of a wider trend: church schools have a long track record in the UK of achievement and are usually over-subsribed, and successive governments have encouraged their growth. However in the case of the Emmanuel schools, despite their obvious success, some have voiced concern over the apparent promotion in such schools of doctrines such as creationism.

There have been a number of media reports about this issue - for example ^[2] that Vardy rejects the theory of evolution in favour of creationism. However, in an interview with the BBC Today Program^[3], broadcast 15th April 2006, Sir Peter pointed out that he did not hold fundamental creationist beliefs stating, "I believe that God created the earth and created man in his own image, quite how long it took him I don't know". He claimed to exert no influence over the curriculum of the schools he sponsors beyond insisting on a "chrisitan ethos" and that he would be concerned if creationism was taught as fact in his schools. Vardy complained that a comment made 5 years ago in which he intended to convey only a belief in a "creator God" rather than a literal belief in the bible creation stories, had been mis-interpreted and blown out of proportion by the media.

1. ^ BBC Article announcing Vardy's Honour, 15 June, 2001. [1]
2. ^ The Guardian discusses Vardy's plans to teach creationism in UK schools, 15th January, 2005. [2]
3. ^ Interview (RealAudio stream), BBC Today Program, 15th April 2006. [3]