The weakness of the SNP argument over the closure of South School continues to haunt and embarrass them. The humiliation started when the public meetings were called as night after night the parents destroyed the arguments of the education officers and the SNP administration; their organisation and resilience were very impressive as they fought every inch of the way with very well researched arguments. There was no doubt that the meetings were overwhelmingly won by the parents; the council had to hold on grimly and display great intransigence in the face of this force of angry and determined parents and friends of the school, it looked more and more as if the parents would have to knock their council opponents out to get draw.
The council’s mortification was seen repeatedly as they prevented the children from putting on a display of their work; by forcing the parents to remove signs and balloons etc. from the gates and fences; then in a display of indecent haste they started removing desks etc. while the children were still in the school, they couldn’t get it over with quickly enough to avoid any further discomfiture.
What does this tell us about the SNP led council? Well you might conclude that they did not have a great deal of faith in their own argument over the school such was their attempts to get it out of people’s minds; this lack of confidence in their position was also shown up by the almost total absence of SNP/Lib.Dem. Cllrs. at the public meetings, they all went in to hiding rather than face the parents, definitely not the actions of people with a strong argument. These were more the actions of a bunch of cowards who took a wrong decision and then ran away from the consequences but; as the great boxer Jack Dempsey said when told his next opponent was a fast mover “they can run but they can’t hide” and so it will prove at election time when the boxing ring becomes a polling booth.
Today saw another wretched exhibition of council blundering and callousness; throughout the campaign there has been a couple of banners in support of the school hanging on the gable of a house close by; the council workers showed up to take them down; perhaps a last pathetic attempt to make the South Primary and their turbulent children and families disappear for good but; yet again the SNP council blundered as the guy who owned the house told them to leave them alone as it was his wall. The council acting on the old truism that there are very few situations so bad that the SNP led council can’t make worse decided to tell the guy that he needed planning permission for these banners; honestly I’m not making this up. The man concerned then said that the council should write to him advising that he needed such permission and he would give their letter due consideration, well done sir.
This is not the behaviour of an organisation that have confidence in their position; they are now frantically trying to make the whole thing go away and in carrying on like this they are managing to make themselves look more cruel and stupid than ever. I can also advise that the parents are now pursuing their argument by calling on the audit commission to look at the detail of the council’s procedure which they insist has been badly flawed so; “the fat lady hasn’t sung yet”
If ever a council administration deserved to lose and suffer humiliation it’s this bunch of municipal vandals A.K.A. Renfrewshire Council SNP/Lib. Dem. Administration.
Meanwhile the children suffer.
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35 comments:
Ah, but the banner live's on, it's on my piece about the closure of the South a couple of weeks ago.
By ther way any news on what is to become of the site?
Councillor Kelly,
“It was the best of times it was the worst of time”
There is nothing lower these days than an SNP Councillor in Renfrewshire.
Paisleys "Proud Past, Na Future under the SNP.
I always thought that this Administration would be the bright spark which would lead this proud and royal town back to its glory days.
What a misjudgement on my part, shops closing daily, town in terminal decline, neds hold court in the town centre, investment being ploughed in to the town of Renfrew but at what cost!
I really feel that this towns days are numbered and what of our Nationalist Councillors, their campaign to turn the fortunes of this town are deafening in their silence, we have a Provost who is more in tune with the local squirrel population than the needs of the people of Paisley.
What is the answer! These Councillors need to get their collective acts together, that’s what is required, the question Cllr Kelly, is, are any of these individuals up to the job.
David Owsley.
Yawn!
Oh your back then?
Still leading from the back with a keyboard I see. funny how you never post up the thousands of posts you receive from the school campaign. could it be that they dont exist and in your fantasist world its the nearest you get to storming the winter palace? Yawn.
If the majority parents in the South Primary catchment area chose to send their kids there then there would be no case to close South Primary.
It is the high percentage of parents who choose to send their children to other schools on placement requests that has caused the South Primary to lie two thirds empty.
A great deal of parents in the South Primary catchement area choose to send their children to Lochfield. Why is that?
It seems to me that the council is taking the blame for a situation caused by the local parents not wanting to use the school
And Labour continue to close schools in Glasgow that are better utilised than South Primary.
Labour hypocrisy knows no boundaries
(Allan) 14/07/09
No news of the site but the banner and everything else involved in the campaign will be remembered especially the behaviour of the SNP/Lib. Dem. councillors.
Oh God this is so boring give it a rest man.
(Anonymous) 14/07/09
“I always thought that this Administration would be the bright spark which would lead this proud and royal town back to its glory days”
This administration is nothing more than a collection of prejudices and nonentities who aspire to mediocrity. They are finding out the hard way that they are just not up to it. Meanwhile the electorate suffer their inadequacies.
(Anonymous) 14/07/09
If after the campaign which the South Parents have run you think the opposition to the closure doesn’t exist you are either a liar or spectacularly stupid even by SNP standards.
(Anonymous) 10:53
Why would parents want to bypass a new school with an excellent MIA report? You seem to have a rather simple view of this, there are 3 other schools in Renfrewshire where it costs more to educate a child, would you like to try to explain this instead of repeating the same mantra over and over; do you have an explanation?
What happens in Glasgow or anywhere else is a diversion; it simply means that you are incapable of defending the wretched SNP administration in Renfrewshire.
(Anonymous) 14:52
I can only assume that you don’t have children or if you do you don’t care much for them.
I agree with you close Locgfield and save the South School.
If half of the parents in the South School catchment area DON'T WANT to send their childen to it that has to tell you something.
Shurely is why it is 70% empty. How are you going to make them ????
If you want to close Lochfield and send the children to the South School please explain how you get 500 childen into a school designed for 300 ???
Do we parents at Lochfield not have any rights ???
(Anonymous) 15:14
I don’t know who you might think you agree with but I can assure you that it’s not me, nor is it anyone involved in the South School Campaign, the SNP have been trying to smear them with that lie since the start.
You lot will never be accused of being subtle will you?
(Anonymous) 15:16
This is truly pathetic;how low can you SNP lot get? you want us to believe that now that the school is closed we have a parent from Lochfield complaining about South Parents wanting to close their school that is a lie! A big fat SNP lie it’s a smear to damage the South parents and try to turn the parents against each other you SNP mob really are beneath contempt.
I am confident that the parents of both schools will see through your SNP dirty underhand stunts.
Terry let me ask you a question or two, which party asked people to vote for them and they would deliver small class sizes. what school in paisley was perfect to start to deliver this PROMISE. The SNP are trying to divert people away from this by trying to smear the parents of SOUTH PRIMARY SCHOOL. The parents have made it clear they never have and never will ask for ANY school to be closed,in fact the ONLY person who mentioned closing another school was DEREK MACKAY
(Anonymous) 16:19
The idea that the parents of South Primary wanted Lochfield to close was floated by Council Leader Mackay and Education convener Councillor Cameron, a sneering devious lie designed to smear the South Parents and cause friction between them and the parents of Lochfield.
There are no depths to which these people will not sink but I’m sure that the parents of all Renfrewshire’s schools and the staff will see through them.
You can't have it both ways
South School open = Lochfield closed
2 things Terry taht have never been mentioned:-
The % of children going to South School not in the catchment area
has never been highlighted
Labour Council in Glasgow are closing "Crumbling Schools" whereas our SNP led council would rather send children to crumbling schools in Paisley South.
In correspondence from the parents of South Primary to the council, they asked why the council were not closing Lochfield as opposed to South Primary.
I am afraid that is a fact and not a lie as you suggest.
It is not a suprise that you cannot differentiate between facts and lies.
You are a member of the Labour party.
You also seem to suggest that parents in the catchment areaSouth Primary are not bypassing SP to go send their children to Lochfield.
I am afraid to tell your readers that you are lying to them again.
You as a councillor should know that there is a very high % of parents in the catchment area of South Primary who send their childern to other schools leaving South Primary in the very vulnerable position of being two thirds empty.
This is indisputable and yet you try to deny it!
In the world of Hans Christian Kelly, there is no difference between truth and lies as long as it is designed to damage the opposition.
(Anonymous) 15/07/09
Is there any reason that you can’t back this statement up ?
(Anonymous) 16/07/09
You clearly subscribe to the SNP theory that if you tell a lie often enough people will believe it; the parents decided very early in their campaign that they would not under any circumstances call for any other school to close, they are not as stupid as you and the SNP would like to think.
This is an orchestrated attempt by the SNP to smear the parents and to try to save something from their humiliation but; people will remember.
Terry,
To close the argument and to justify your stance.
Why do you not publish the % of pupils that are sent outside of the catchment area of South Primary, to other schools.
As a councillor, you have these figures at your fingertips.
This would let people decide on the viability of the school.
Of course you will not, because you can not defend these statistics.
It is time that they are published.
The weakness of the SNP closure of 1 school in Renfrewshire is the the strength of the Labour closure ofg 22 schools and Nurseries in Glasgow.
Labour build schools under private finance with money from others (that taxpayers will finance forever) and close council owned schools and nurseries on a huge scale.
The party of the people.
I think not by a long way!!!!!
"In correspondence from the parents of South Primary to the council, they asked why the council were not closing Lochfield as opposed to South Primary."
Are you saying this is untrue!!
The figures you refer to are not in dispute; the parents still won the argument. (Anonymous) 18/07/09
If the figures are not in dispute then there is no question that the school is not viable and should close.
Why have a 2/3 empty school in an area where the large pecentage of of parents don't want to send their children to it. God it's not rocket science.
19/07/09
You and the SNP are getting more and more desperate; the campaign to save South Primary never called for the closure of any other school.
You SNP liars are trying to smear them because of the damage they have done to you and the humiliation they have caused you.
(Anonymous) 15:40
If you believe that money is the important thing then you have an argument but let me quote you again what was said by the education officials and the education convener Cllr. Cameron " this closure is not about money; it's about what is best for the children"
do you understand what they said? you don't seem to.
Anonymous.
Assuming that you are a parent at Lochfield, can you explain why you quote the statistic that the majority of parents in the South Primary School catchment area choose to send their children to other schools. Is it the quality of schooling, or is there other factors at play?
Here we see another case of the council telling partial truths. It is indeed the case that 40% of children who lived within the South Primary catchment area attended other schools. The council's own figures demonstrate that reasons for this were given as childcare, siblings, travel arrangenments etc.
What the council failed to publicise is that 50% of pupils at South were there as a result of a placing request. Unless I was't listening to my maths teacher, that says that more parents CHOSE to send their children to South than chose not to. Strangely enough, that wasn't one of the facts memorised by Cllr Cameron to be repeated ad nauseum in answer to any question.
As far as Lochfield is concerned, South parents fought for a four school system. They continually demonstrated the need now and in the future for all four schools in the area. Fiona Hyslop recenly said she would remove responsibility for education from individual councils if they failed to show progress in reducing class sizes - here was an opportunity for Renfrewshire to really set the standard. However, the parents made no secret of the fact that, should the council force the issue of closing a school, financialy (and let's remmber this was about saving money) it makes sense to retain newer buildings and close an older building in need of multi-million pound refurbishment. Funnily enough, the First Minister agree.
I wonder if the council will be equally keen to provide statistics on the number of South Primary parents choosing not to send their child to Lochfield, despite it being their new catchment school.
(Anonymous) 10:37
The SNP have suffered a heavy defeat over this they have won the battle to close the school and now they are desperately trying to save their skins in the war, that is why they came out with the smear about the parents calling for the closure of Lochfield; these are nasty people.
One of the quotes which keeps biting them back is Cllr. Cameron’s ludicrous statement that “this was not about money” this one will not go away she has no credibility left.
The SNP promise on class sizes of 18 was never anything other than a cynical lie and the South School Closure confirmed that, people will remember their dishonesty and lack of compassion for these children and families as well as their lies.
(Anonymous) 16:17
I’m not sure what you mean by this; the council cannot deny this information to anyone who seeks it.
You will also find that the children of South Primary were scattered between 3 other primaries; that was one of the reasons for the campaign.
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