CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE FOR ONE SECOND WHAT THIS IS LIKE?

TRY TO IMAGINE IT, AND IF YOU  STILL WANT TO CRITICISE FRAU MERKEL FOR WHAT SHE DID WITH REFUGEES, WITH ALL ITS ATTENDANT PROBLEMS, ASK YOURSELF "WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE?"

WARNING: THESE IMAGES MAY DISTRESS YOU

Seriously: Do not read on unless you have a strong stomach.

I wanted to share this with you.

Not everyone who reads this will feel as strongly about this as I do. We've talked about it on here quite a few times, and I know there are some who at least to some extent, disagree with me.

That's fine. I have no problem with disagreement, but it won't make me feel any less wretched.

The refugee crisis is horrific. I'm not sure that horrific is quite strong enough a word, but it is the best I can do for just now. Maybe you can improve upon it.

My Twitter feed keeps throwing up pictures that I find seriously distressing. It would be easier to simply unfollow the people who are tweeting this, but that won't make it go away.

Just for example, here is Homs in Syria. A before and after pic. This is what people are fleeing. 

It used to be a nice place, busy, clean, greenish... and now it's not.

People used to live in these houses, work in the shops, go to the schools.

This is where some of these people are now. (Don't go any further unless you are prepared for a shock).

I don't know whether these dead people came from Homs or not. The chances are that they didn't. They may not even have come from Syria. They may be Libyan, or Iraqi, but Homs is typical of the kind of place they are leaving. And the conditions there aren't a hell of a lot different from those in Tripoli or so many other places in the Middle East or North Africa.

This has happened to too many people. Too many people desperately looking for a new life have found death at the hands of people traffickers who have charged them their life savings to get away from the bombing and killing.

Humza Yousaf, our minister for external relations, has said that Scotland and the Scottish government stands ready to do its part in the international effort to help the refugees, along with countries like Germany, Sweden, Austria and even little Iceland. Nicola Sturgeon has backed him on this.

London, it appears, does not share his humanitarian outlook. 

It seems the British Prime Minister, whilst busily reminding us that "we" are a Christian country, hasn't got past page 2 of his Bible and his boss, whose every action is  mindful of the teachings of Christ, must be on a day off.

These kids could be your kids, or my kids. How can we do so little?

SNAPS ON SUNDAY

Notice on door.

Because we are all one great nation ...

The Alexander BOTHERS

Lazy bitch. Get down the food bank and help out
if you don't have a job.

So... they might as well not bother publishing Chilcot.

What kind of inhuman society is responsible for this?

Ah, yes, the plague that is IDS.
Just think, starving this kid will probably save £5,000.
As ye sew, so shall ye reap, you bastards.

That's why all four nations must agree to withdraw
before any action is taken.

Just as well that I'm not in charge.
They'd freeze before I gave them a cent.

Easy. She doesn't matter, and being big shots does.

But you don't get Congressional Medals for feeding
hungry kids, do you Mr Blair?

Bunch of profiteering scum.

PAKISTAN TRAGEDY

In the last post, we somewhat tastelessly used a picture of the front page of the Daily Mail to tell the story of the threat by Conservative MPs to scupper the granting of a few powers to the Scottish parliament. There were two stories on that page, the other was the attack on school children in Pakistan, by the Taliban.

Niko pointed this out and we changed the page.

Officials say more than 140 people, mostly children, have been killed in the Taliban attack on an army-run school in north-west Pakistan.

Pakistan's security forces say their operation has now ended, with all seven attackers killed.

Pupils who escaped have said the gunmen went from classroom to classroom, shooting children indiscriminately.

The Taliban say the assault is in response to army operations in North Waziristan and the Khyber area.

It is hard to imagine what kind of mind could come up with this. It is even harder to get your head around the fact that someone thought that killing children was a reasonable way of dealing with unwelcome army operations.

The Scots have clearly been moved by the tragedy and the Pakistani Consul General in Edinburgh has thanked Scotland.

I am sorry, as I said on the last post, if my careless juxtaposition of a frivolous story about the Tories and this horrific tragedy carried out by monsters, caused any offence. 

Of course none was intended.

WHICH ONE DO YOU THINK IS THE BIGGER MUPPET?

Oh really! Don’t politicians make you laugh out loud?

So, who is responsible for all my mirth so late on a Sunday night? Not for the first time, it’s the hapless Phil Woolas muppet. (Remember him from his encounter with, and thorough beating by, the lovely Joanna Lumley?)

So Woolybrain has been complaining that the education of his own children has been adversely affected by immigrant children who don’t speak English properly. Now that would be weird, given that he’s a junior minister in the Labour government, but it becomes farcical when you remember that he’s actually the minister responsible for......... wait for it......

.........Immigration.

The wool-brained minister admitted that the influx of immigrants had put local authorities in England under strain. Children are being taught in multi-ethnic classes with a large number of different language speakers in each class, at all different levels of ability in the understanding, reading, writing and speaking of English. As a guy who for a short time taught languages, in both Scotland and France, I can appreciate just how incredibly difficult this must be for teachers.

Interestingly this is a far larger problem in England than it is in Scotland, where the immigration requirements are entirely different. (This is a very good reason for having a separate authority to deal with this problem in each country as Scottish needs are totally ignored in the interest of England’s greater good.)

Chris Grayling, the shadow home affairs spokesman said it was ridiculous that the minister could defend policies which had brought about this situation. Of course it is fair to say that Grayling is no stranger to controversy himself with inordinately dubious expenses claims; offensive comments about a part of Manchester; and a corker of a faux pas regarding Richard Dannett when he was critical of the general's suggested appointment as an advisor to Gordon Brown, only to find out that he had, in fact, been touted as an advisor to David Cameron, which he then thought was a splendid idea. A rather wooly-headed guy too then.

It’s quite worrying when you look at the calibre of politicians holding some sort of office in the Westminster parliament, but surely Woolhead after his encounter with Princess Joanna, and his idiotic support for bonuses for executives of the Borders Agency, which must surely be one of the least efficient organisations in the world, must be pretty near the top of the list for politicians your granny knitted, but there's not a lot to chose between them......

Pictures: Phil Woolass and Security scanner. Phil’s the one with the suit on. And Chris Grayling pretending he’s an ordinary person using some public transport. Chris is the one on the hard left (joke!)

++++++

CAMERON PROMISES BRIBES TO GET MARRIED AND MORE RESPECT AND DEFERENCE

There is no doubt in my mind that there is something wrong with some of the parenting in Scotland, or indeed in Britain, and I look forward to a challenging debate on how, in a new parliament, with a new government in London, we can make changes that will help children to have a happier and better start in life. Today David Cameron set out his stall on this matter.

In a departure from previous Tory administrations, Mr Cameron said that as Prime Minister he would promote active intervention in families to build a “responsible” society. The institution of marriage, the best environment in which to raise children, would be supported by tax breaks, and schools (a devolved issue here) would see a return to traditional values of respect and deference.

He called on the entire community to ensure that children picked up responsible messages, and warned businesses and advertisers that unless they stopped “sexualisation and excessive commercialisation” of young people, legislation could follow.

Mr Cameron pointed out: "What matters most to a child's life chances is not the wealth of their upbringing but the warmth of their parenting. Of course there's a link between material poverty and poor life chances, but the full picture is that that link also runs through the style of parenting that children in poor households receive.”

He also set out a new policy on Sure Start Centres for parents with young children. He said he wanted Sure Start to focus on the most “disadvantaged and dysfunctional” families, with staff paid by results.

Well... that’s enough to be going on with. A mixed bag of good, bad and indifferent here.

His warning to business and to advertisers is good. Stop treating children like adults. They are not. They have been exploited and sexualized for too long and it is a relief to hear someone, not so much in the pockets of big business as the current government, promise action.

I worry about a return to “respect and deference” though. Both of these things are good of course, and I’d love to see more of them, but before you encourage people to demonstrate them, there has to be something worthy of that respect and deference. I wouldn’t want to encourage kids to show respect to, for example, our lying, cheating politicians, just because they think themselves up there and us down here. Too much deference is the reason that they managed to steal so much from us without fear of being found out.


And I have a real worry about the mixed message Mr Cameron is sending. Children don’t necessarily thrive where there is more money, he tells us, but he proposes to pay couples to get married (children or no). Is this to please the Daily Mail?

Finally I note that after years of “paid by results” organisations, usually private sector ones, it still hasn’t got through to the people at the “top” that TARGETS DON’T WORK. I know. I’ve been there. Guess what Dave... Everyone, and I mean everyone, CHEATS. The people who really need help are ignored because it can take months, maybe even years, to tick just one box with them. The easy to help are helped, because within a week, all their boxes are ticked. Simples!

More thought required..... please!

I'LL DO IT MY WAY

Another piece of democracy appears to have died in England, as the English Secretary of State for English Schools and Children, the charmless tubby bullying buffoon that is Mr Ed Cooper Balls, has overridden a committee of MPs and insisted that HIS choice for the Children’s Commissioner was the right choice.

Barry Sheerman, the chairman of the education select committee, said that it was a bad day for democracy when Mr Balls decided to override the body's recommendation and install Maggie Atkinson in the job.

The decision to turn down Ms Atkinson was taken unanimously without a vote by all eight committee members from all three major English parties.

Mr Sheerman is a Labour politician, albeit one opposed by and large to Gordon Brown (and presumably to his closest ally Ed Balls), but he knows a thing of two about children, being, outside of parliament, a trustee of the National Children’s Centre, as well as having had 4 of his own.

These parliamentary committees are a very important part of the democratic process where ministers are held to account and sent homeward to think again about policies and individual decisions.

The decision to reject Ms Atkinson was taken on the basis that the committee felt that she lacked the independence to stand up to a Secretary of State that liked his own way.

Apparently he likes his own way so much that he overrode their decision not to allow him to have it.

Mr Sheerman told the “Today Programme”: “Most of us know that Ed Balls is a bit of a bully and he likes his own way and we have seen a track record of problems over Ken Boston at the QCA and Bruce Liddington the schools commissioner, who was very independent - he has gone and the school commissioner has been abolished. Time after time, we see the secretary of state wanting to have people who will do his bidding. He is more of an executive man, rather than a parliamentary man and I think it is a bad day for parliamentary democracy when - if we are having these pre-appointment hearings - the very first one to say it didn’t agree with the appointment gets overridden.”


The pre-appointment hearings were introduced on a trial basis last year to improve accountability in the appointment of a range of public figures.

As a Scot it makes me very relieved to know that this unpleasant know all is nothing whatsoever to do with education or children in my country.