I nearly wrote this blog on Thursday 16th February. I nearly wrote it again on Monday 20th February. I find myself unable to maintain my silence any longer and so I am writing this on Thursday 23rd February.
I was, initially, going to write about my recent time spent in Englandshire and the differing ideas of, views of and attitudes to Scottish Independence and right of self-determination that I experienced. As usual, my/our BBC, that bastion of neutral news reporting, has intervened to disrupt my plans.
Blatant (adjective): describes something bad that is very obvious or intentional
On Thursday 16th February, an historic event occurred. Whatever your political opinion or persuasion, the two most powerful politicians in Scotland held a meeting in Edinburgh. Our own First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, welcomed to his official residence the Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, for informal talks about Scotland's constitutional future. I would question whether such an historic meeting has EVER taken place before. I would argue that it shows the extent by which the profile of Scotland, as a nation, has been raised since the SNP first came into power in 2007. "Goodness me" my voices muttered, "how will your BBC report this one?" The honest answer? They surpassed any and all of their previous efforts at the broadcasting of distortion in this country. It was blatant. The first B of our BBC.
At 4pm we welcomed the start of BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive programme, billed as:
Breaking news and sport from Scotland, the UK and around the world.
The programme started off as expected with a sound clip of an excerpt of Cameron's speech from earlier in the day. Realistically, it had to be either Cameron or Salmond, it couldn't possibly have been anyone or anything else. At this point, our BBC imploded and suffered what I might call an aberration. Instead of an excerpt of Alex Salmond commenting on the meeting, the BBC took the decision to broadcast a diatribe by Johann Lamont! "Where the heck did she come from?", I shouted to my radio. Forgive me, Johann and Scottish Labour but what relevance did the view of Johann Lamont have at this point in the broadcast? Someone within the corridors of power at the BBC had made a conscious decision to go down this route. It cannot have been a mistake, there is no benefit of the doubt here. Incredibly, we had to wait until an astonishing 18 minutes past 4, nearly 20 minutes into the programme, until we heard our first excerpt from the First Minister and the first positive mention of anything to do with Independence. It was blatant. B
Bias (noun): often supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way by allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment
During a speech last week at the London School of Economics, Alex Salmond declared a desire to create an oil fund similar to Norway's. He clearly stated that, when economic circumstances permitted, it would be a good thing to do. Surely, few can disagree? Fast forward to this morning and the lovely Catriona Shearer woke me up by telling me that The Centre for Public Policy for Regions (sic) had claimed an oil fund was not viable and that they questioned whether "anything would be left" after public expenditure to contribute to such a fund. Sorry, my BBC, but they, most certainly, did not claim it was not viable. They clearly stated that such a fund was, indeed, viable. They, also, clearly stated that a budget surplus might not be possible in the short-term due to economic circumstance and questioned whether any surplus achieved might be better placed to boost the economy and growth. They wondered whether the rate of return sought by the First Minister might be optimistic and suggested that a return of between 2 and 3% per annum might be more realistic. The clear implication was, though, that an Independent Scotland has the possibility of budgetary surplus whereas the current UK does not. Why present this in a negative light? Why not present something positive? There can only be one answer. It suits those in power at our BBC to portray Independence, at all times, in a poor light. It is bias. B
Cluster (noun): a group of similar things that are close together, sometimes surrounding something and (bomb) an explosive device which throws out hundreds of smaller bombs when it explodes
I have touched upon Seonag Mackinnon, our BBC's Scottish Education correspondent before but this week has seen her continuing (with the able assistance of our BBC) with her crusade against the Curriculum for Excellence (CoE) recently introduced into our schools. This week, she has renamed East Renfrewshire Council (ERC), dropping "flagship" and replacing it with "Scotland's most successful education authority". Really, Seonag? Today's BBC News bulletins are leading with "a cluster of Scottish private schools have abandoned the new Curriculum of Excellence" with "one even choosing to take English exams".
All week, I have listened to her state that children in fourth year of secondary school will be sitting 5 exams. Here goes, then: that is a LIE, Seonag, and I am amazed if you do not know that. It is factually incorrect.
How do I know? My son is, currently, in his 2nd year at High School and he requires to choose his 8 subjects (yes, Seonag, 8) to sit examinations in during year 4. He will choose them by the 2nd of March this year. In 1974, I sat eight exams in 4th year. In 1981, my wife sat eight exams in 4th year. In 2014, my son will sit eight exams in 4th year. The main difference with my son's curriculum is that, until the end of 2nd year, he will have experienced considerably more subjects than either my wife or myself had experienced by his age. Yes, it is too early for him to know definitively what career path he might or might not go down but, and it is a crucial but, he will, simply, revert to the same situation that his parents were in throughout High School when he returns to commence his year 3. Myself and my wife both then went on to sit 5 Highers and the aim of my son's school is that he will sit 5 similar exams in his 5th year. So all this talk about what I would call 5 O grades is false. It is a lie, pure and simple. My son must take Mathematics and English and is relatively free to choose 6 subjects to accompany them. His school and all his teachers have been wonderful in their guidance. The booklet they gave his mum and I clearly explains the outcomes in terms of Further Education for each and every subject offered. The same booklet quite clearly spells out, as an example, the core studies for History and/or Modern Studies to be taught in years 3 and 4. It really is quite clear. Yes, there may or even probably will be teething troubles. Yes, it may or not be a pity that my son is in the first year of those who are taught using CoE. It might be, though, that he will receive a better education than his predecessors and he certainly seems to be receiving a better education than I did (I thought mine was okay, incidentally, but I never enjoyed it).
Now, let's be honest, the Scottish Borders can hardly be described as a hotbed of Scottish Nationalism (although it is growing significantly) having historically been Liberal or Conservative territory and is, therefore, unlikely to impose SNP policy that they object to in a quiet and studied manner. We are, after all, in the middle of Johnson Press country with The Scotsman and the awful Southern Reporter being the local papers of choice (not in my house!). Scottish Borders Council, though, the schools under their control, each and every teacher and, most of all, the pupils have embraced the new curriculum and are enthused by the changes it has brought. My son is loving school - I could never say the same. My son, recently, brought home the most detailed report card covering each and every subject from Spanish and French through to PE and RME (religious and moral education - I know!). In all my years at school, I never once came close to such a positive report card. My congratulations go to everyone involved with education in Borders Council. You do many things wrong, you have some very strange Councillors but, by God, you have done well with the new curriculum.
So we reach "Scotland's most successful education authority", East Renfrewshire Council. It might surprise you to know that education professionals here in Bordersville ridicule ERC for their apparent inability to meet the CoE requirements. Their explanation is simple and seems, to me at any rate, to make some sense. It is claimed that ERC chased "league table positions" by concentrating on Intermediates (I assume they are or were O levels!) when every other authority concentrated on providing their children with the best possible education and placed more emphasis on what I might term Highers. I have no idea whether this is true or not, I have no idea whether it is relevant or not and I have no idea why ERC are unable to continue with CoE without a year's delay. I do know that it, sadly, seems all too possible or, even, probable. Words like "flagship" have to be achieved, after all. Here in the Borders, we don't see houses advertised as being in a school's catchment area and it strikes me as conceivable that ERC's problems stem from this very mindset so please, Seonag, stop presenting them as being hard done to or authoritative. You have either been conned or you are trying to con your viewers.
When I was at school, we had public and private just as we have now. When I was at school, my understanding (maybe wrong) was that the private schools sat different exams to me. I understood they sat exams much more like those down south. Seonag, today, tells me that a cluster of private schools (3 to be precise! Yep, 3 - three, not four, 3 - a cluster, a group!) have opted not to use the CoE. I wasn't even aware it applied to them! One of them even wants to sit GCSEs! I, naively, thought that private schools did this as a matter of course. Who would spend thousands of pounds on a private education if they were taught exactly the same things in exactly the same way as the plebs? I really wasn't aware that Mike Russell had any input into them whatsoever! I was aware, though, that the so-called Free Schools introduced down south are more than keen to use CoE in their institutions as they regard it as being pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. It is early days but, from what I have seen and my son has experienced, I would agree with them.
I have asked Seonag to point me in the direction of her last positive news report on my BBC. She is, obviously, struggling to find records that go back far enough as she has yet to come up with one. She has, though, come up with a record low amount to be classed as a cluster. 3. 3 is now a cluster! C
How to sum up? It has to stop, my BBC. It is Blatant, it is Bias and it is C***.
