Renfrewshire is becoming a dark depressing place under the SNP; one of the things which took pride of place prior to the election of the SNP administration was our reputation for excellence in the field of music in our schools, St. Andrews, Grammar, Park Mains and the Renfrewshire Schools Orchestra have a reputation which is second to none along with the other schools in the area.
This success is now being put under threat by the SNP cuts, music tuition will now be supplied on a fortnightly instead of a weekly basis; this will cause job losses and will hamper the progress of young musicians. It is not a core subject but it shows the callous nature of the philistines who now run the council, music is an integral part of the school community, it’s a valuable component of what makes a school a lively and likeable place to be for everyone in the building. It really is a miserable dumbing down of our education provision to half it’s provision, can you think of a more backward action than this, what does it say to children, parents and the people of Renfrewshire, the soulless dour people in grey kilts are in charge and from now on there will be no more whistling on a Sunday, what a bunch of killjoys.
School pupils were protesting against these cuts at a schools concert last night and will do so again tonight, teachers however are not raising their voices because they are afraid to do so, this is intolerable. The SNP are acting like prison warders, teachers are not even allowed to say the obvious, that is that fortnightly tuition is not as good as weekly tuition, what are things coming to? The SNP should promise that teachers will not be disciplined for speaking their minds, is this the kind of Scotland that they want?
Yet again the SNP have gone very quiet over the matter of compulsory redundancies, surely staff are entitled to know about these things. Under labour we had a policy of no compulsory redundancies which we held for 27 years the SNP have significantly refused to give a similar guarantee to their workforce; this is the reality of the SNP in power.
I urge everyone who cares about our schools and the reputation for excellence which is being corroded by this SNP administration to protest by visiting the surgeries of SNP councillors to protest. People will now be beginning to see clearly why they decided to stop councillor’s surgeries from being advertised in the Paisley Daily Express, it’s precisely to prevent people taking them to task for educational vandalism like this.
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26 comments:
"Yet again the SNP have gone very quiet over the matter of compulsory redundancies, surely staff are entitled to know about these things."
Whilst we are in a climate where virtually nobody has any job certainty can you explain why council workers should be exempt from this?
You may not have noticed but we are now in Gordon Brown's recession and jobs are being lost on a huge scale throughout the country.
Perhaps if the current goverment had done a semi-decent job, then we would all have more certainty of the future and not just council workers.
Ther is a very good reason that teachers are not raising their voices about this.
The suggestion to cut music tuition lessons to fortnightly was was put forward by head teachers at the budget working group as part of a consultation between the council and the schools.
This is an undisputable fact.
The reason you fail to mention this is that yourself and Wendy Alexander once again wish to mislead the public.
Another fine story from Hans Christian Kelly.
Regarding Coucil compulsary redundancies, it would seem that Labour are not exempt from this.
Labour led Haringey Council have announced that they are making cuts of £10 million and have not ruled out compulsary redundancies.
They have stated that
"Some posts are to be deleted and trade unions have been consulted to ease the process.
and
"It may transpire that some redundancies will be unavoidable and the due statutory process will be followed"
Labour - "Which face will we put on today"
(Anonymous) 11:29
This is not Gordon Brown’s recession, had he been responsible someone would have noticed something wrong over the last 11 years.
Labour protected council workers jobs because we had the political will to do it, unlike the cowards who are now in charge, the SNP.
It’s no surprise to see you desperately try to drag the argument away from the comparison between Labour – no compulsory redundancies in 27 years in power even through the dark evil days of Thatcherism brought to you by the quisling nationalists; and the SNP – less than 2 years in power and abandoning their work force.
So how do you defend the situation in Haringey where Labour are suggesting the compulsary redundancies amongst council workers cannot be ruled out
On a different subject. Are you as depressed as I am by Tom Harris having a go at teenage mothers?
None of us want to see our young people thrust into adulthood too early. But is that any reason to attack proud granfathers for displaying an entirely normal human reaction to the birth of their grandchild by accusing them of being proud of their daughter's welfare dependancy.
'They have been indoctrinated with the lie that they’ll never amount to anything' -Hardly countered by Tom arguing that teenage mothers will never amount to anything because they're teenage mothers.
I'm not very active in my local branch of the party just now, along with may lifelong members as a result of specific branch problems which are hopefully being resolved. What can I say you can't pick who else joins your party.
Nevertheless I'm disturbed by this. Some of the best people in the world are in this party but I'm coming round to the view that the careerists have taken over. My only dilemma is whether to leave in protest as most of my family have or stick with it in the hope the party can be reclaimed.
What attracted me to Labour as oppossed to my parents more niche leftism was that it carried a range of opinion and that the resulting arguemements would keep the left vital. Right now I feel like I accidentially joined the Lib Dems and worse still ended up in a really right wing but not too right wing branch.
I suspect the situation might be healthier where you are (which gives me hope).
So may good people have left our branch, if you were in my shoes how would you get vyour party back.
Sorry for going off topic but I'm close to my wits end.
Something like this can be very dispiriting. When I was at school in the 80's the teachers went on strike. At a stroke all our school clubs went, no school trips, our whole education reduced to a work to rule.
It wasn't the teachers fault Thatcher was in power but they had complete control over how they responded. Their are people out their who went off the rails, took up with gangs and got into drugs after their school clubs were withdrawn. The loss of the football club was particularly devastating for our community.
I'm too young to remember what the teachers were striking for but whatever it was I hope they feel damaging the lives of a generation was worth it.
Perhaps it's time we all agreed that children are important and stopped cutting them to the bone for political gain.
2 questions councillor.
1. Do you accept that the cuts in music tuition was suggested by Head School teachers at the budget working group and not by the council?
2. Do you accept that in other areas Labour have not ruled out complsary redundancies in the council?
Look forward to your reply
I thought I had answered this; I must have deleted it by mistake.
Anyway it is no surprise that you don’t want to stick to the argument; we the Labour Group in Renfrewshire went 27 years with a promise of no compulsory redundancies that promise has been abandoned by the SNP in less than 2 years.
The SNP have abandoned their own work force that what I was blogging about, you seem to be afraid of that argument, comment on what I wrote.
I have often said that I have voted Labour before in spite of certain policies and certain individual members but Mr. Harris based on his writings about single mothers would give me a headache.
I would love to read that he had joined the Tories or the SNP but I can’t make him leave.
We are a mass party of the left and we are the only one; all political parties have to put up with careerists and those whom you find little in common with like Harris but you have to get on with it. We will survive the likes of him we have before.
I would have no hesitation in campaigning for his deselection if he was in my CLP, his remarks were vicious, reactionary and embarrassing.
There are people like Tom Harris in most parties, we in the labour Party fight over it, others like the SNP cover it up, have you ever heard Fergus Ewing, Andrew Welsh, Roseanna Cunningham? We are not that bad really.
(Anonymous) 14/03/09
I believe that everyone should have the right to withdraw their labour and I also have the highest regard for our teachers, I don’t understand why teachers get the blame for ruining children’s lives because they were involved in a dispute, is not possible that the authority could be the guilty party?
My 4 children went through the education system and it was as good as you could wish for, the schools they attended were excellent and their teachers were also.
The SNP put no value on children’s education that is why they can react in this callous way, they are a single issue party and that leads to fanatics holding power, Renfrewshire’s children will continue to pay a heavy price for the SNP.
Hi Terry,
I earlier stated that I thought "Ryan Connolly" was an SNP member, I now wish to correct myself, I think he could be a researcher working for one of the List ,MSP'S, they the list SNP MSP's do nothing all day anyway, so if they are doing nothing all day, I suppose we could conclude that their researchers are doing nothing all day, Dr Bill Wilson's main researcher, a Mr Dave McCartney, a nicer person you could hope to meet ( not as the case may be)this has his dirty finger prints all over these blogs).
Terry, this is the guy who privately is telling his subjects that in 2011, he will be becoming an MSP in Hollywood, I am no maths expert but if Dexy McKay is going to Edinburgh in 2011 and McCartney is going to Edinburgh in 2011, what will happen to the other list MSP's.
Terry, I should explain that the reason "McCartney has been mentioned is the fact that it is he who is carrying all the tales from the Nat's HQ in William Street, directly to Dexy McKay. Honestly Terry, you couldn't write this stuff, the Education Dept is run by a former cleaner called “Cameron”.
One trumpeted up little "Tartan Tory" sucking up to a talentless Spiv called "Dexy sell out on Education McKAY".
I feel sorry for the Labour Councillors who have to work with such a talentless bunch of spivs, not one of them has any back bone; they sit and do as their master tells them, while the Education Dept in Renfrewshire is "butchered". I only hope that the general public will see through this bunch of arrogant spivs.
Roll on 2011.
2 questions councillor.
1. Do you accept that the cuts in music tuition was suggested by Head School teachers at the budget working group and not by the council?
2. Do you accept that in other areas Labour have not ruled out complsary redundancies in the council?
Look forward to your reply.
You have not answered this and I can only assume that you cannot without embarrassing yourself and Wendy Alexander and exposing both of you as liars.
To avoid this can you please answer the questions 1 and 2 above.
(Ryan Connolly) 15/03/09
1. Who suggested the cuts is irrelevant; who is responsible for the cuts is the salient point so; I’ll ask you again, do you blame the head teachers for the cuts in music tuition or do you blame the SNP/Lib. Dem. administration who have cut £6.9Million from the education budget in less than 2 years?
2. I have also answered this; I wrote about the cuts in education and the loss of Labour’s guarantee of no compulsory redundancies in RENFREWSHIRE COUNCIL, you want to discuss anywhere but RENFREWSHIRE.
I’m happy to let anyone who reads this decide for themselves who is running away.
I am running away from nothing.
1. I am glad that you have now admitted that the cuts to the music tuition were instigated by the suggestion from head teachers.
This was not an idea put forward by the council.
I am pointing out your lie about teachers not wanting to speak out when it was teachers that suggested taking this action
2. I don't disagree that Labour gave this guarantee in Renfrewshire and not in other areas. It seems that you are a party of divided approaches and if the shoe fits at the time etc. etc.
Why should council workers be given such a guarantee in a climate when everyone in the country faces job uncertainty due to the financial mess that has been created by Gordon Brown.
Your hypocrisy shown in your approaches to school closures I.E. shout about it in areas where you are not in power but close hundreds of them in areas where you are in power.
Hypocrisy is far too nice a word for it.
Pure and utter shamelessness is closer.
(Anonymous) 15/03/09
You seem well informed about the tartan ferrets fighting in the sporran; Wilson is a joke figure and I think the men in grey kilts would like to see the back of him so that might be one vacancy.
There is a history of backstabbing in the SNP around here, one of there MSP’s was a guy called Campbell an ex head teacher and amateur military historian.
An unfailingly polite patrician kind of fellow, he was done in by McFee and the SNP mob that surrounds him; McFee was described as a “tackety boot politician” by the speaker George Reid SNP MSP.
The grey kilts took revenge and McFee jumped before he was pushed 4 years later, there appears to be no sign of him ever having been at Holyrood so left out was he by his colleagues.
Stir in the ever vigilant and betrayed old Bill Martin and the boay Vassie; both of whom will go to their graves consumed by burning hatred for the traitors in the SNP who took the wee daggers from their socks and plunged them in “Et tu Brucie”.
It all adds up and you have a recipe for a vicious farce.
(Ryan Connolly) 11:45
As I said I’m happy to let people decide abut who is shameless so, I won’t bother asking the questions again you clearly have no intention of telling the truth.
“I am glad that you have now admitted that the cuts to the music tuition were instigated by the suggestion from head teachers”
A lie.
About teachers speaking out – your comments are borne out of either lies or ignorance.
“financial mess that has been created by Gordon Brown”
Facile nonsense.
Workers should be given guarantees of no redundancies, just like royals, lords, bishops, admirals, policemen, doctors etc. etc. you seem a bit out of touch.
School closures? Labour in power in Renfrewshire just built 10 new schools, where have you been, you must be able to do better than this it’s boring me.
terry
your blog resembles an intranet in a mental institution.
It reminds me of the BBC motto but in a perverse carictature "Let nutter speak unto nutter" you could probably get it translated into latin.
Terry,
You comments From Anonymous, Re SNP infighting are spot on, I am a former member of Paisley North Branch, I became very disillusioned with the party, I can recall the wee tartan numpty, Brian Lawson marching into our branch meeting and I quote directly, In walks the wee tartan terror " right Ceila Lawson and I have to be selected for this ward cluster" then out he goes, no talk, no discussion that was it, you were also spot on, stick on some bagpipe music and wee Brian's eyes start a watering and his wee hips start a clicking) who was the chair of the branch, George (Man of Straw) Adams, you mention hard work, out goes George in the other direction, I loath that man, he is lazy, sucks up to his leader, McKay says "stand on your head" George man of straw, "yes Derek, whatever you say our glorious leader".
Your Blogger mentioned wee David McCartney, Terry, please never allow yourself to be in a room alone with this guy, he has a short fuse, I can recall at one Party Conference, we all sat in a bar and some by standard made a comment about wee Dave, next minute we Dave erupted, shouting, swearing, finger pointing, causing a major scene, it took ages to calm this wee chap down, Terry you have no idea of the delights that now inhabit and run the SNP in Renfrewshire, to be honest, I am glad I left, I was brought up to know “right from wrong”, the big problem I see Terry is the fact that some of Derek’s group have “skeletons in cupboards” which might be making an appearance!!!!!! That’s all I can say and I know Terry that this is all you would want me to say, I don’t want you to get hassle from these people, they can’t touch me know but can still touch you, don’t be fooled by Derek’s charm and hand shakes, smiles and warm words, they mask an all together different McKay.
As for big, not so fat McFee, you are spot on, totally isolated in Edinburgh, jumped before he was pushed, loathed by Salmond & Sturgeon, the ironic thing is, Bruce was once Derek’s boss, now the tables have turned, this once proud and talented chap, now sits and says to Derek " Please Derek can I have some more". I can recall being told that Nicolson was orchestrating Press Releases against the Boay Vassie, while he was still in the Party, I was totally sickened by this fact and wrote to Sturgeon, still waiting on a reply, now some 3 years on, she is another one, I have really gone off her, I thought she had standards, how wrong I was, At times Derek receives his fair share from critics on you page, he took the bold step and got rid of olde Bill and the boay Vassie, then stamped his athouirity, turned a blind eye to the actions of Nicolson and Cameron, and appears to be holding his ship on course (maybe not a steady course) I just got really sick with all the back stabbing and talk of sides and camps, I said at one meeting, "aren't we all on the same side". I was clearly wrong and left the SNP and voted for Labour at the last elections, at least Terry, when the chips are down the labour Party look after their own. The SNP use and abuse, they are tartan traitors who are hell bent in destroying the U.K.
You may find this hard to believe that now I am out of the SNP, I really can see things clearly now.
Aye Yours
Allan.
Correct me if I got this wrong Terry, But I phoned the Cooncil to check. We Council Tax payers have been paying over half a million pounds a year for EXTRA (one to one in some cases) out of hours music lessons for some kids.
The schools don't provide extra French or English or Maths lessons so why for music ???
Why should we be asked to pay for these extas at the expense of the core teaching subjects ?
I would cut the remaining £200,000 plus of this budget and spend it on teaching real core subjects to real kids.
If mummy and daddy want their kids to play the trombone let them put their hands in their own pocket like the rest of us !
Dave.
Anonymous - Monday, March 16, 2009 8:29:00 PM
I very much doubt that but I’m no expert, perhaps you are just more familiar with mental institutions than I am.
(Anonymous) 16/03/09
Allan – You have my sympathy; it is terrible to get involved in politics to serve people and find yourself “fallen among thieves” it must have been a soul destroying journey; the cracks in the SNP edifice are becoming more and more noticeable.
The picture you paint is reminiscent of Julius Caesar and the plotters and assassins around him; not good for anyone, particularly the people they were elected to represent.
Old Bill Martin and the Boay Vassie are still present like the “kings over the water” revenge is a dish best served cold and they will wait and wait, when their chance comes they will show no mercy. I confess that I am surprised that they have not lifted the lid on the traitors who let them and the party which they gave everything for down. They must have enough stories to destroy some of them, stir in the malevolent brooding presence of McFee and you have to conclude that for the Boay Mackay the saying “uneasy the head which wears a crown” is one he should think on.
(Anonymous) 17/03/09
It depends on what you think schools should be about; if it’s the 3 R’s then life is much easier for the delivery of the product, you could save lots and lots of money and just stick to core subjects.
If on the other hand you think that schools should reflect life and the community where they are located then the 3 R’s do not suffice.
A school without music, drama, sports, debating societies, clubs etc. etc. would take us back to the dark ages and would in time lead us to a country without these things as well; an SNP country probably.
Perhaps that would suit someone who tries to justify the cuts in music tuition, a nationalist perhaps and a fully paid up Philistine.
You said 'A school without music, drama, sports, debating societies, clubs etc. etc. would take us back to the dark ages '
I don't think we are paying over half a million quid for the drama, sports, or debatng clubs. So why for music ???
We need our kids to be able to read and write first then maybe we can look at the extras.
Anonymous
“I don't think we are paying over half a million quid for the drama, sports, or debatng clubs. So why for music ???”
Perhaps you can let us know how much drama, sports, debating clubs, school trips etc. cost and; once you have done that you could tell us which ones can be financially supported and which can’t, and then tell us the financial cut off point and how you arrived at it.
The more I hear from you the more you sound like a knuckle dragging Nationalist; like them; you know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
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