I'm from Northern Ireland where there is also compulsory RE. I have mixed feelings about it. One one hand, if the teacher is born again it may be the only time certain members of the class hear the gospel. However our school took the route of turning RE into philosophy meaning that we spend most of our time on secularist or Catholic philosophers!!
I was just wondering why something so major didn't make breaking news - but perhaps it will come up tomorrow. I was too young to vote anyway so I'm a bit removed from the whole thing
Even if you are living together without sex (which is unlikely), you are still unduly putting yourself in the way of temptation and it is not a good witness to your neighbour