Is it worth Training as a Teacher? Dividing the Celtic Fringe; ‘Wartime’ Restaurants; … but first …
The Programme for Government:
To improve Health Outcomes…. Cut Health Boards
If you think the health service is currently unaccountable, just wait till the 14 health boards in Scotland are cut down to just TWO, which has caused an outcry given that communities are asking for more local engagement, not more centralisation. This is the headline in the new Programme for Government, along with cutting 135 quangos down to fewer than 100, who will also have fewer responsibilities. All in the name of ‘improving’ a system currently judged too slow, too cumbersome and involving too many people. The specialist boards covering NHS24 and the ambulance service, among others, will be reorganised.
There will be no compulsory redundancies in the NHS and, due to the links between the health and social care services, NHS Scotland will be ‘taking the lead’ on social care reform, which sounds quite ominous given that the NHS gets £22 billion and Social Care gets only £2.5 billion yearly. Seems like Social Care risks being swept aside when it should be getting more dedicated funding.
Misogyny ‘to be tackled’
The First Minister has said tackling an ‘epidemic’ of misogyny is one of the priorities in this year’s Programme for Government, which will also be tackling Public Sector ‘Reform’ (also known as cuts); environmental bodies like SEPA and Forestry Scotland will be brought into one entity; and he will also be considering a single ferries body for the Clyde and Western Isles routes. He hopes that by 2031 no one will have to wait more than 26 weeks for treatment. The £2 bus fare cap will be extended to parts of the West of Scotland next week, and to the rest of Scotland by 2031.
There will be a 3-month intense engagement with councils and opposition parties about a new Local Government structure; Transport Scotland will be brought back into the core of the Scottish government; food standards and locales will be brought into the Food Standards Scotland orbit, with a Food Prices Bill establishing mandatory price ceilings on a range of essential supermarket items. Finally, a Rural Renewal Bill will aim to drive rural growth.
The Scottish Greens are unhappy that the proposal for a ‘Conversion Therapy’ ban has been shelved, but the rest of us are just grateful that the friends and families of confused youngsters cannot now be criminalised for just speaking to them.
Cut down Big Councils Too
The Scottish Greens are calling for the return of two-tier councils, regional and district, to bring democracy closer to the people, but with economies of scale allowing regional councils to function better, with regional councils responsible for strategic functions like health and care, transport and economic strategy. They think the 32 unitary authorities should be reduced to between 8 and 15 councils, and they are also calling for reform to the present council tax system.
Scotland ‘dangerously exposed’ to Wildfires
That is the estimate of landowners’ body Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), who claim Scotland relies too heavily on other businesses for help when wildfires hit, relying on goodwill, improvised mobilisation and uncertain helicopter availability. The Scottish government’s first crisis meeting about this year’s wildfire emergency took place NINE days after the Cairngorm fire started. SLE is calling for a dedicated helicopter and pilot service framework for wildfire response, guaranteed availability and moving from being an ad-hoc to a professional response including joint exercises to test responses before they are next needed.
SNP will do a Deal with Farage …. Oh, no, they won’t
The statement by SNP Westminster group leader Dave Doogan that he would put a Reform government into power if it would get them a second independence referendum was quickly and firmly quashed by First Minister John Swinney, whose favoured independence strategy seems to be to keep asking for a section 30 order/grow independence support/use a plebiscite election, or any combination of the three.
Divide and Conquer the Celtic Fringe
The First Minister is working to identify powers which can be devolved quickly to Scotland, but it is unclear why he’s bothering as UK PM Andy Burnham has already ruled out a second independence referendum. So much for his ‘listening tour’ round the UK.
British policy seems to involve giving differing powers to each Celtic nation within the UK. Wales has an energy company, but Scotland does not; Northern Ireland has a right to self-determination enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement (although it gives nothing more than Scotland’s right, which it is not allowed to assert); Scotland has to just keep begging.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Burnham is devolving more powers to the English regions, as well as devolving policing to Wales, but he has already blocked a second Scottish referendum, and seems at odds over Northern Ireland. First Secretary of State Louise Haigh, when Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, believed in 2021 that it was up to the people of Northern Ireland ONLY to decide their future, although the people of Eire would also have to vote in favour. But Burnham recently ruled out a poll on Irish reunification. And if Eire has to vote also on Irish reunification, does the rUK have to vote on Scotland leaving?
And while former PM, Scot Gordon Brown, believes Irish unity is ‘inevitable’, he continues to oppose a second referendum for his own country, saying that Scotland is geographically, economically, socially and culturally linked to the rest of the UK.
So Scotland is too linked to be independent, but Northern Ireland is not? It almost looks like British policy is dedicated to pitting the Celtic nations against each other…..
British Restaurants Debut in … Dundee
Wartime Britain’s scheme of British Restaurants provided cheap, nourishing meals to boost a population whose soldiers had entered the war smaller, more unhealthy and less able to fight as a result of 1920s and 1930s government policies which deliberately did not invest in people’s health, putting them at a distinct disadvantage versus the Germans.
The UK should have learned our lessons on neglecting the poor, but policies targeting the poor, cutting support, have led to a renewed need for cheap and easily available food.
The new British Restaurants are not food banks or meant for the homeless. They are for everyone. In Latvia, restaurants under the Baltic Kitchens label provide much the same service. There is no stigma and they are open to everyone unconditionally and at very cheap prices.
Meals will be strictly healthy options, with no crisps or fizzy drinks. They should appeal to students, families with little time for creating healthy meals, in fact to everyone.
The Dundee Restaurant will open on Dundee High Street in the coming weeks. The scheme for Dundee and another restaurant in Nottingham are being funded by the UK Research and Innovation Agency.
Turntable Ferry Petition hits 30,000
The petition calling for MSPs to step in and change the rules relating to the Glenelg-Kylerhea turntable ferry has garnered 30,000 signatures. The ferry hit the headlines after it transpired the Isle of Skye Community Interest Company must pay increasing amounts of money to the Skye-side landowner Richard Oliphant of that Ilk to keep it running, despite the owners of the rights on the Glenelg side never charging any fees and transferring their rights to the community. The fees due to the Skye side are down to the peculiar arrangement the landowner has, which must keep increasing yearly and which also allow him free travel on the ferry on demand.
Oliphant of that Ilk was strangely reticent when asked for comment.
Don’t Bother with Teacher Training
if you want a job at the end of it. Despite the crying need for teachers, permanent contracts for newly-qualified teachers have plummeted over the last decade, with fewer than 25% of the 2024/25 cohort finding permanent work in their first year, a 60% drop from those qualifying in 2016/17. And if you get anything, you may well have to move, not so easy if you have a family, and many teachers only have their one-year post-training probation period guaranteed, then nothing.
Scotland is failing to attract trainees to secondary school teaching, unsurprising given that they often do not get employed after their probation ends, with the lowest numbers gaining employment being geography (22%), history (28%), modern studies (26%) and music (27%).
Are Probationers used as Cheap Labour?
Short-term funding and the resulting uncertainty over how many teachers a school can afford leads to the situation where some secondary school contracts end at Easter, possibly to enable the local authority to save money. The Education Institute of Scotland has blasted the ‘over-reliance on temporary posts’ being disadvantageous for teachers who cannot settle or plan for the future, and for pupils faced with a constant ‘churn’ of teachers giving them no continuity in their studies.
The Scottish government said it offers bursaries to encourage greater uptake of STEM posts (Science, Technology and Maths). Fair enough, but don’t we need history or geography teachers any more? What happens when we raise children who don’t know their history, or know anything about land management’s interaction with climate? Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.
Not a great prospect.
Finally,
Finding True North
Next year you can find your True North in June just off the island of Foula, when the three norths – geographic north, grid north and magnetic north – will be rarely aligned when magnetic north coincides with the other 2 norths, which always line up from Poole to Berwick.
The 3 norths coincided in Fraserburgh in July this year for the first time in Scotland since records began 400 years ago, but the next one is due near Foula next year. It is currently in the North Sea heading north, and the three norths will then not align again for hundreds of years.
It is difficult to predict alignments because magnetic north is speeding up due to magnetic field changes, and it is already 6 months ahead of where it was predicted to be.
Magnetic north may even stop moving or start moving southwards, even turning the poles completely upside down, although the last time it did this was 780,000 years ago, so we probably don’t need to worry about it just yet.
https://www.facebook.com/IndyforScotParty;
https://ko-fi.com/independenceforscotlandparty