Stewart Dimmock's legal team told London's High Court that the former US vice-president's Oscar-winning film contained "serious scientific inaccuracies, political propaganda and sentimental mush."

Dimmock has taken the government to court in the hope of blocking their pledge to send more than 3,500 secondary schools in England and Wales a DVD of the documentary to demonstrate the need to fight global warming.

His lawyer Paul Downes said that even though some schools may have already received DVDs, it was not too late for the court to prevent further copies being sent.

"Given the serious inaccuracies in the film and the misrepresentations it contains, the film is irredeemable," he told the judge.

He said he hoped to persuade the judge that Gore's documentary contained "just over half scientific material, 30 percent pure politics and about 20 percent sentimental mush -- must there to soften up the viewer for persuasion."

On the science, "the majority of the arguments advanced are false, or falsely exaggerated on the basis of the government's own evidence," he added.

Guidance notes accompanying the film "go nowhere near correcting these flaws -- indeed they don't even set out to do that," he told the court.

Dimmock, a lorry driver from Dover on England's south coast, has two children aged 11 and 14. He said before the hearing that he wanted them to have the best education possible "free from bias and political spin."

Gore's film fell short of those standards, he said, adding: "Climate change is important but it should be taught to children in a neutral and measured manner.

"Indoctrinating schoolchildren in this manner is unprecedented and unacceptable."

Dimmock is a member of the fringe New Party, which describes itself as "a party of economic liberalism, political reform and internationalism." Its supporters include industrialists and small- and medium-sized businesses.

While accepting that climate change is a major issue, its environmental policy states that the argument that it is man-made is not unequivocal. Instead, it argues for developing new technologies, building new nuclear power stations and providing "positive incentives" for developing countries to support cleaner technologies.

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