There’s a really funny story in the paper copy of today’s 'Press and Journal' concerning a school on the Shetland island of Papa Stour which is to reopen after 5 years to accommodate a family coming from England to live on one of the crofts.
Shetland Council agreed to appoint a teacher, a relief teacher, and a part time clerical assistant for the tiny school which serves the island with a population of just 12, after a request from the local councillor requested it. The English family’s coming was
dependent upon there being educational facilities available for their two children. He said that a price could not be put on the rebirth of a community on the edge of extinction. (There is only one remaining native “Stourian” left on the island.)
In fact the law requires that adequate provision be made for education, so the authorities were advised that there was no alternative to re-opening the school.
It was closed in 2005 after Jane Walker, the mother of the only children in it, withdrew her two offspring after a “difference of opinion” with the teacher. It seems that this teacher Simon Calvin had given a statement to the police after her (Mrs Walker’s) husband had emptied a bucket of dog dirt over the head of a local minister. Mr Walker was subsequently fined £600 at Lerw
ick Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to assault on the Rev Adrian Glover.
The story does not relate what the poor minister had done to deserve such treatment, what happened to the poor teacher who was left with 100% withdrawal of his pupils, or if the Walkers remained on the island after such reprehensible behaviour.
And you probably thought that life on a tiny island was hard but idyllic.
Huh!
Shetland Council agreed to appoint a teacher, a relief teacher, and a part time clerical assistant for the tiny school which serves the island with a population of just 12, after a request from the local councillor requested it. The English family’s coming was
dependent upon there being educational facilities available for their two children. He said that a price could not be put on the rebirth of a community on the edge of extinction. (There is only one remaining native “Stourian” left on the island.)In fact the law requires that adequate provision be made for education, so the authorities were advised that there was no alternative to re-opening the school.
It was closed in 2005 after Jane Walker, the mother of the only children in it, withdrew her two offspring after a “difference of opinion” with the teacher. It seems that this teacher Simon Calvin had given a statement to the police after her (Mrs Walker’s) husband had emptied a bucket of dog dirt over the head of a local minister. Mr Walker was subsequently fined £600 at Lerw
ick Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to assault on the Rev Adrian Glover.The story does not relate what the poor minister had done to deserve such treatment, what happened to the poor teacher who was left with 100% withdrawal of his pupils, or if the Walkers remained on the island after such reprehensible behaviour.
And you probably thought that life on a tiny island was hard but idyllic.
Huh!
....
I would question the incomers reason for moving to Papa Stour in the first place before jumping to rash expensive decisions. Yes island communities are in a very vulnerable position and unless a full assessment of their viability/sustainability in the the longer term needs to be addressed before saddling communities with services which can not be afforded.
ReplyDeleteAn example of online education could of been a cheaper option without disadvantaging the pupils or is that not allowed by legislation.
I guess it must not be CH. The council was advised by its legal team. I should have made that clear I guess.
ReplyDeleteI just thought that the bizarre carry on of Mr and Mrs Walker was a laugh.
I worry about our island communities. And take a particular interest in it, as I have family up in the outer hebs...
ReplyDeletefirst came the assault on ferries, then came the assault on crofting ... why is everything being dealt with centrally in Edinburgh? These new crofting reforms tell me that before long the damn Holyrood classes won't be happy till island life is eradicated.
Devolution of more power away from Edinburgh, and perhaps problems like this can be dealth with locally. Online education - leave that decision to the community there. I won't as a person in Stirling dictate to them, what is best for their community.
I have to admit to knowing absolutely nothing about it Dean.
ReplyDeleteIt seems here that the local council was able to deal with this situation, by reopening the school. I don't think Edinburgh had anything to do with it.
I really just recounted the story for a laugh about the weird antics of the Walkers and the bucket of dog poo!
Imagine if it was a single parent muslim family with a special needs child and a child with special dietary requirements and a long term heart problem confined to a wheelchair.
ReplyDeleteThat would cost the tight jocks a few pennies jimmy ye ken.
See what us sassenachs have been putting up with.
Dean said..
ReplyDelete" I won't as a person in Stirling dictate to them, what is best for their community. "
Yes good point. We all hate being dictated to by a distant class of people who have no feelings for the area.
A bit like the EU apart from Edinburgh MSP's being elected I suppose. Hopefully you're like me and a keen supporter of UKIP ?
Expensive business. I wonder if health services will also be available.
ReplyDeleteSorry UKIPer, I'm not a supporter of 'better off out'. But I very much demand more decentralisation in the EU.
ReplyDeleteDang...just how long did it take to save up a whole bucket of dog-dirt? How many dogs are there on Papa Stour?
ReplyDeleteThe sudden concern for the survival of the community was quite touching until you got to the bit about the existing residents lack of concern for it, when they were happy to let a silly dispute scupper the islands educational facilities five years ago. I believe that Mrs Walker had said she could not have her kids educated by someone who had “grassed” on her husband. Right, better to let the school die then? Never mind the fact that her husband was the sort of person who would employ a bucket of dog dirt to settle a dispute with a man of the cloth, kind of the sort of community you would have thought most people would be looking to get away from.
ReplyDeleteDean I’m touched by your concern for dead hand of centralisation (from Edinburgh) and its detrimental effect on the island communities of Scotland. Wont you spare a thought for the rest of the people in Scotland who similarly suffer under the dead hand of administration from London?
Munguin - Don't be daft! Dean is one of these unionists that is happy to have £millions wasted on all these Scottish MPs at Westminster doing absolutely nothing for the people of Scotland apart from getting rich at their expense.
ReplyDeletebrown settler:
ReplyDeleteYes just imagine!
fellow youkipper:
ReplyDeleteThat hasn't much to do with life on the islands has it?
yes SR, it's expensive, but as the councillor said, it's hard to put a cost on the survuval of crofting communities. If we don't do this kind of thing then we loose them, then we loose small towns in the countryside, and eventually everyone is living in Edinburgh, so in the end I think that it's worth it.
ReplyDeleteAfter all it's up to Shetland how they spend their education money, and a lot of Scotland's wealth comes from that area.
Indyan:
ReplyDeleteI wondered that. I guess he might have mixed in some sheep dirt while no one was looking... or maybe he just thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold!!
Yes Munguin. It's kinda killed the idea of the perect society for me... but then it only takes one, and they sounds like they moved there from a sink estate. Let's hope they have gone back there.
ReplyDeleteGood point about about all these Scottish MPs sitting around Westminster doing very little, or poking their noses into English affairs.
ReplyDeleteLet's withdraw them.
tris said
ReplyDelete" That hasn't much to do with life on the islands has it? "
Well that bloke Dean drew attention to the fact that outsiders were trying to dictate how people should live their lives in a faraway place that they knew little about.
I assumed he was making an analogy about the EU and it's corrosive influence on our lives in the UK despite no one in the UK being interested in what the EU has to say. Especially since they're commission is not elected and are paid handsomely to meddle in our affairs.
But I was wrong. He supports the EU so is obviously just another hypocrite who has his head too far up his EU arse to realise it ;)
Or perhaps he's thought about the advantages that come from the EU as well as the disadvantages and decided to come down on the side of supporting them ;).... It is possible you know.
ReplyDeleteOh and UKip guy.
ReplyDeleteDean and I disagree about many things, but he is not a hypocrite.
He comes and fights his Tory corner on here and much though I disagree with it, I respect him for that. He is often met with a barrage of opposition, but he sticks to his principles.
Like everyone else sometimes it may seem sometimes that his views can be inconsistent... like, for example, those who want to be a part of the UK and not the EU...
tris
ReplyDeleteI'll put my hands up and be the first to admit to sometimes being a hypocrite. It's hard to get through life without a bit of hypocrisy.
" Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have beliefs, virtues and feelings that one does not truly possess."
Claiming to want autonomy for a small island while supporting the loss of autonomy for the UK isn't a slight inconsistency. It's hypocrisy.
Claiming to want 'decentralistaion' away from the EU while knowing it's impossible under the EU Treaty isn't an incositency it's hypocrisy.
But surely being content to have the UK ruled from London which does not understand Scotland, while bemoaning a European dimension for the same reason that they have no understanding of the UK is a very large inconsistency.
ReplyDeletetris...
ReplyDeleteErr haven't I just explained that I agree with you ?
But you call it inconsistency and I call it hypocrisy..
" Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have beliefs, virtues and feelings that one does not truly possess."
Fair enough... :)
ReplyDeleteLet us get one thing straight. It is possible to decentralise EU mechanisms. This is NOT forbidden under any treaty law.
ReplyDeleteA good example would be EU approach to equality transposition in CEECs - increasingly the EU seeks to encourage NGOs, rather than promote the transpositions through centralised brussels institutions. This isn't 'illegal' at all UKIPer. Indeed it is increasingly the fashion in the EU cycles - to seek to promote the acquis communautaire through decentralising mechanisms.
Fact. And I'd like to thank Tris, for the defence. You are right Tris - there is nothing worse than being told by a UKIPer that we Scots should be in union with England for a share in greater resources etc - but object on an EU scale. Hypocrisy. But so typical of the little-Englander mentality, I bet UKIPer that you're the kind of chap who supported notions of 'splendid isolationism'!
Dean
Dean said
ReplyDelete" EU approach to equality transposition in CEECs - increasingly the EU seeks to encourage NGOs, rather than promote the transpositions through centralised brussels institutions."
I'm sorry but I've searched through the logistical protocols of CEEF edits 2 and 3 with reference to sub section (9/1) and it's unfeasable to use this algorithm to explorate similie reliant on that protocol. Unbalanced intergovernmental cohesions only help to subjugate citizens to a singular unorthodox entity.
" Unbalanced intergovernmental cohesions only help to subjugate citizens to a singular unorthodox entity."
ReplyDeleteNonsense. The only people who could ever adovocate this is the types who deny universality.
Are you such a person?
Dean said...
ReplyDelete"Nonsense. The only people who could ever adovocate this is the types who deny universality.
Are you such a person? "
The person singular or plural still doesn't remove the inherent cohesion of the basic principles. Hence is irrelevant when looking at the protocols up to the fourth. Universality becomes too cheesy when aligned in parallel with all the doctrines of intergovernmental CEEF edits.
So you've answered your own question reference 'are you such a person'.
The cohesion is taking place around universal values - coordinating adoption and implementation across Europe. You think that is some kind of creeping centralisation?
ReplyDeleteNo, it is the natural socio-economic response to globalisation and transnationalisation. It not only empowers us as a diverse block on the world stage, but it is very adaptive. More so thatn you, in all your europhobia will be willing to admit.
CEECs, for example have been stimulated into formal adoption and implementation of universal rational values [e.g. the EUs acquis communautaire] and does so in diverse ways.
Right now, the EU is using non-governmental organisations domestic inside these CEEC new member-states to encourage social equality resonance. It is taking a hands off the traditional model of centralisation, and harmonisation.
But you, in all your europhobia, probably care little for the facts. The facts being that the EU is, in acquis adoption and implementation seeking a more hands off approach, and has done so post-conditionality and transposition.
Ergo - your accusation that the EU is some kind monolithic centralised block is crap, frankly crap. It is possible to decentralise EU policy approaches, just as it is possible to decentralise UK policy approaches.
Dean said...
ReplyDelete" CEECs, for example have been stimulated into formal adoption and implementation of universal rational values [e.g. the EUs acquis communautaire] and does so in diverse ways."
This, to me , is the crux of the matter and highlights the reverse of your claims on diversity as written in the CEEC's references and undemocratic mandates. It's similar to the Frankfurt School of marxism where the person is an inorganic number as opposed to an individual. The EUs acquis communautaire only furthers the subjigation of this marxist post WW2 ideology and sidelines free thinkers who dare to face up against the ugly ( in both physical and ideological terms )Von Rumpey and Ashtons of this world. Individuals shouted down in the cause of a common good ( ie a dictatorship reminiscent of the 'democratic peoples rep of Norrth Korea ) will eventually rse to the top as individuals seek freedoms and rights long denied them under the 'Treaty' of EU subjigation.
UKIPer,
ReplyDeleteMy references to the EU acquis communautaire and the CEECs [central, east european countries] is an example - one you have failed to refute - that the EU is adopting decentralised strategies to achieve its goals.
The issue whether you think the acquis is 'democratic' is seperate, but in my view it is democratic. The EU is democratic, Lisbon improved matters, but what we really needed was the constitutional treaty.
And your comparisons of the EU, which is a voluntary union [unlike N.K or USSR] to mad hatter countries is just silly. The EU is a voluntary organisation; which is developing organically - despite your claims.
There is a natural coalesance around the EU, its acquis communautaire, and the EU supranational project. It hasn't been trusted upon an unawheres European folk!
p.s it is spelled 'subjugation'
Dean said..
ReplyDelete" There is a natural coalesance around the EU, its acquis communautaire, and the EU supranational project. It hasn't been trusted upon an unawheres European folk!
p.s it is spelled 'subjugation' "
You say 'subjugation' I say 'under the heel of Von Rumpeys faeces covered boot'. But thank you for helping me with my spelling. As a product of the marxist EU education system I struggled to rise above my proletarian level. By the way I shall be researching 'unawheres' to confirm that you aren't slipping back into the festering black Chilianesque minehole of Hippokrissy ( sp altered for effect a la EUSSR mind bending techniques).
But I diverse ! You diversed me you EUSSR diversifier and spreader of untruths and lies.
You mention the EU, its acquis communautaire, and the EU supranational project . Again this is the apex of the matter before us. Shall we fall into this snake filled swamp or shall we be free Britons as envisioned by Churchill, the great leader and hater of Frenchies and Jerries ! How he wished he had strung the Frenchie leader instead of letting him ponce back to Paris a liberator. Liberator ? He spent the war shitting himself under his British duvet while his proles fought brave battles against Jerry. And then he set up the EUSSR and the only thing 'organic' is the stinking garlickylicky breath of the filthy Sarkozy ( meat smell on weekends admittedly - licky beggar).
So while the ecvolutionary coalescences go on we are organically grinding the beans of our own destruction. God help us and God save the Queen.
I hope you two are enjoying your discussion... You'll pardon me if I leave you to it....;)
ReplyDeleteBit steep to have god save the queen on a republican blog though lads.... :))))
UKIPer,
ReplyDelete"Shall we fall into this snake filled swamp or shall we be free Britons as envisioned by Churchill, the great leader and hater of Frenchies and Jerries"
Churchill was a fan of the EEC, and would have supported the EU. Indeed, Churchill called for a federalist union for Europe .. so erm .. are you sure you are not just projecting your racist bigotries onto the grand old man?
Let me quote the old man:
"The structure of the United States of Europe, if well and truly built, will be such as to make the material strength of a single state less important. Small nations will count as much as large ones and gain their honour by their contribution to the common cause. The ancient states and principalities of Germany, freely joined together for mutual convenience in a federal system, might take their individual places among the United States of Europe"
- http://www.ellopos.net/politics/churchill-tragedy.htm
So, erm - Churchill was a fan of the project.
Nice one Dean!
ReplyDeleteCheck and mate I think ;)
ReplyDeletetris...
ReplyDeleteI came home from the footie last night a bit blootered and quoted some nonsense in reply to Dean's comments.
My first drunken comment was...
" I'm sorry but I've searched through the logistical protocols of CEEF edits 2 and 3 with reference to sub section (9/1) and it's unfeasable to use this algorithm to explorate similie reliant on that protocol. Unbalanced intergovernmental cohesions only help to subjugate citizens to a singular unorthodox entity. "
I'm still amazed at the way the mind works while under the influence ;)
I've no idea where my mind found "CEEF edits 2 and 3 with reference to sub section (9/1)" Maybe they do exist and I should be on the telly doing readings !
Anyway I digress. Dean seemed to think I knew what I was talking about ( if I didn't) and took it seriously and run with it ... Sorry Dean but thanks for the fun :)
Being bored I ran out my extra strengh line beachcaster with a huge lugworm dangling on the end and went for it !
Apologies for using up your bandwidth ;)
tris..
ReplyDeleteOh and I even dropped in some piss taking blog names in amongst the nonsense to see if Dean cottoned on. Can you find them ?
Lordy no fellowukiper...when it gets all technical and difficult and people use big words my eyes glaze over and I skip to the next comment... ooops, sorry.
ReplyDeleteI just assumed you knew what you were talking about, and I'll give you that it sounded just like the EU (or indeed any other governmental sort of thing...ie long, and weary, and dull and complex all in one), so I though....yeah whatever... and went on to the next thing...
LOL. Sorry matey!
UKIPer,
ReplyDeleteI should have realised you were talking crap, you are a UKIPer after all.
Apology accepted.
Dean..
ReplyDeleteCheers mate. At least I now know I can debate with a student schooled in EUspeak and get away with it ;)
tris...
" Universality becomes too cheesy" was a reference to the Universality of Cheese blog. The original cybernat and hero of free thinking Scots !
I'm a big fan..... :)
ReplyDeleteReally? Never had much time for him tbh.
ReplyDelete