A View from the Terf

Calton attended the demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament organised by the Glasgow Cabbie a couple of days ago to protest against Nicola Sturgeon in general and her sordid sex education and the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in particular. It was very well attended, unlike the counter-protest, with a variety of protesters from different backgrounds there. Calton has invited one of them to do a guest post:

"I am a sixty-something Scotswoman. When I was wee, girls became nurses when they grew up and boys became doctors. By the time I left high school I had acceptances from three Scottish universities to study medicine. I decided to study maths and physics instead and was one of a growing number of young women to do so. In the 80s engineering was the last bastion of male-only studies at university. So I became a software engineer upon graduating, working for a large electronics company in Scotland. I had to put up with manspreading, mansplaining and pornographic pictures everywhere I looked. I was never paid as much as men doing the same job, which affects my pension today. It was a really sexist, misogynistic environment but it was nothing compared to the misogyny I see today coming from the Scottish Parliament, under a female First Minister, and I never felt unsafe in the ladies toilets!

In the last three decades of the 20th century women's rights were improving. There was still a gender pay gap and some way to go but we felt we were making progress. We had our first female Prime Minister, pornography gradually disappeared from the workplace and women were no longer told they could only do certain jobs. Now we are going backwards fast under a female First Minister who claims to be a "feminist to her fingertips" but doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word. Young boys are being taught at school that porn is fine - go ahead and have fun with it. Young girls are being admitted to hospital with serious anal injuries after experimenting with a type of sex promoted in school sex education which I hadn't even heard of at their age. A primary school teacher caught two kids trying to have sex in the gender neutral toilets after sex education. This isn't progress and it's damaging kids, girls in particular.

I never used to think of myself as a feminist but I do now - a TERF and proud of it. Nicola Sturgeon doesn't know what a man is but I do and they shouldn't be in women's prisons, women's refuges, women's toilets or any other space reserved for WOMEN. That's why I attended Glasgow Cabbie's demonstration - to say SHAME ON STURGEON and ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

WOMEN WON'T WHEESHT - for the sake of the children."

Shot Down in Flames

 Calton has never seen a newly elected government so beleagured by bad press right from the get-go as the current Scottish Government. Usually there is a honeymoon period but that seems to have been cancelled, just like many other wedding plans and honeymoon trips over the last two years. Sturgeon moved quickly to bolster her position by bringing in the Greens after being denied a majority yet again but it doesn't seem to have helped her popularity, or her temper. Regular watchers of First Minister's Questions will have noticed that, lacking real answers to the opposition questions, she plays the man, not the ball, particularly where Douglas Ross is concerned. The Tory Leader is youthful looking, leading Sturgeon to mock him for being infantile. Such ad hominem attacks are not very smart coming from a woman of a certain age who looks like Maw Broon and sounds like a fishwife but intelligence is not one of the First Minister's strengths. For proof of that one only has to listen to the recording of her speaking on the topic of doors and ventilation at today's FMQs: "If a door is hung in such as way that it is inhibiting the natural flow of air, then one of the options the local authority should have is to rectify that." (She means by chopping bits off the door rather than opening it.) Having been chased up this particular tree by Ross's "absurd" line of questioning, Sturgeon refused to come down, rather like the cat in Trumpton. Unfortunately the real life Fire Brigade has refused to come to her rescue, choosing instead to pour fuel on the flames of the controversy by raising issues of fire safety. If only those pesky firefighters were as compliant as Police Scotland ...

Is the SNP Good for Families?

Nicola Sturgeon is currently claiming that she wants everyone to have a family Christmas but is the SNP good for families in general?

Not if you want to be a stay-at-home Mum. The SNP's policies are all geared around getting women back to work as soon as possible with increased nursery provision. The trouble is, the times don't always suit working Mums and the provision is patchy as it relies heavily on the private sector (and this was before Covid made life even more difficult for nurseries).

Not if you don't want your child to be exposed to pornographic sex education and transgender ideology. The SNP looks with scorn on parents who express concern about these issues, to the extent of calling them bigots for not getting on the woke bandwagon.

Not if you want to raise your children free from state interference. The SNP have abandoned their Named Person legislation due to data sharing concerns however they still believe that the state knows best and parents are not the most important people in a child's life.

Not if you want to choose how you discipline your children - the SNP have now outlawed even the lightest smack and will shortly be criminalising parents, in spite of their promises not to. They are also encouraging children to report their parents. This is state interference in family life on a grand scale and it won't stop with smacking - it will eventually extend to children reporting their parents if they get put on the naughty step, or sent to bed early, or are denied that extra sweetie. Children's rights trump parent's rights in SNP land. That doesn't make for happy families.

Not if you want to have a three-generational Christmas dinner round an actual dinner table - the SNP are warning us to get ready for a "digital Christmas". Calton can't think of anything sadder or more horrible. He also can't think of anything more likely to spark mass civil disobedience!

Not if you want to see an elderly relative in a care home. Having killed off a lot of grandparents by transferring Covid positive people out of hospital into care homes, the SNP are now paranoid and the restrictions around care home visits, not to mention the conditions within care homes, with residents effectively in solitary confinement, are now inhumane for residents and their families.

Not if you want to see your student son or daughter for Christmas. Having bowed to pressure from universities and let students return in September, even although they could have studied from home, the SNP are now faced with the problem of how to let them go home safely after Covid has rampaged through campuses. A problem which could have been foreseen and avoided.

No, the SNP are not good for families.

Basic Geometry for Politicians

Nicola Sturgeon doesn't seem to be very good at maths or science but that doesn't stop her trying to get Head Teachers to square a circle and pour a quart into a pint pot (1.14 litres into a 568ml pot for the young amongst us). She's absolutely wedded to the 2m social distancing rule and so schools have been planning the return of pupils on that basis. Basic geometry dictates that if pupils have to stay 2m apart from each other and the teacher, the maximum class size in an average classroom will be 10 instead of 30. That's why so many schools were, until yesterday, planning on having pupils back one week in three. John Swinney had even invented a term for it - 'blended learning'. Now teachers have had to go back to the drawing board because our populist First Minister realised yesterday morning that the Education Minister's plan was not going down well. You've heard of pester power. Now we have parent power and a hashtag #usforthemScotland. We even have a former First Minister wading into the row.

The result of all this is that Nicola has now learned what happens when two objects collide - the smaller one goes into reverse. Forgetting the 2m rule, Sturgeon now wants kids back at school full-time as soon as possible. If only she wanted businesses back open as quickly, but then economics is another of her weak points. It's not wrong for a politician to listen to people, or for parents to want their kids back at school, but full-time education for all plus 2m separation is an unsolvable equation. Even 1m social distancing makes it impossible. So which is it going to be First Minister? School or social distancing? Calton awaits the answer with interest, as will many businesses.

Sir Ian sees the wood from the trees

With youth unemployment running at nearly 20%, Calton welcomes any initiative to get our young people into work and the Wood Report, published today, seems to have some very positive ideas. It is good to see that the report recognises the importance of vocational training for the businesses which exist in a particular geographical area and recognises that academic studies are not the best way into work for all youngsters. It is now up to the Scottish Government to start implementing the ideas in the report. What concerns Calton is the fact that, if the SNP persist in their aim of bringing thousands more immigrant workers into Scotland, our young people will still be up against it when looking for a job. Businesses may want to employ Scottish youngsters but if their communication skills, plus their motivation, are not up to it, the jobs will go to immigrants who do have the skills employers are looking for. Put more simply, the unrestricted immigration from the EU in recent years has hidden the fact that some of our young people are unemployable and the Scottish Government seems to have been quite happy to allow a lost generation of unemployed to grow up under our noses as long as businesses were not complaining and the wheels of commerce kept turning. It's just not good enough. Parents need to take some responsibility for kids who can't get out of bed and do a decent day's work but if they can't read and write properly, there's something wrong with our education system. Businesses have told the Government what they need - it's now up to the Government to come up with the goods and simply increasing immigration to fill the jobs is not the right answer.

Time to teach the difference between fact and theory

If it is true that teacher Leonard Rogers told a science class that the theory of evolution is "not proven", as reported in the Sunday Herald, he was quite correct. Any scientist worth their salt knows that you cannot prove a scientific theory - you can only disprove one. Complaining parent Adrian Smales should know that as a scientist himself. All that scientists can say with any confidence about any theory is that it fits the facts as we currently know them. Should other facts emerge, the theory may be disproved. Evolution is not a fact - it is a theory. So is creationism. Now, if Rogers has been teaching creationism as fact, he is wrong. It can't be proved any more than evolution. However, if he has been teaching pupils the difference between facts and theories, that is all to the good and will stand them in good stead in the future. Facts are things which we can observe and measure. None of us can observe what happened even hundreds of years ago, never mind millions of years ago, because we were not there. All we can do is observe what has survived until the present time and make deductions about how it came to be there. Those deductions may, or may not, be correct. It is time the myth that evolution is a fact is exposed and children are taught to think and make deductions for themselves, based on the real facts. Is that not what Curriculum for Excellence is all about?

Tyrannosaurus - alive and well in South Lanarkshire

Oh for goodness sake. When Calton first heard on the radio about an 'extremist Christian sect' trying to influence schoolchildren he thought they must have been indoctrinating them into being suicide bombers at a gay pride march or mosque. What else would justify the removal of two head teachers and the exclusion of the religious group from the school? It turns out that, actually, a local church had handed out booklets on creationism to primary school children. Some people (and South Lanarkshire council) have no sense of proportion. Calton tends to agree with the EIS when it says that "schools should not be a place for any interest group to push its activities", provided, of course, that it also applies to Stonewall pushing books such as King and King in primary schools. And if primary age children are "too young to assess the contents" of the creationist books, as asserted by the Secular Society, they are also too young to assess the contents of King and King and other books promoting homosexuality. It sounds to Calton like this whole thing is a storm in a teacup whipped up by a few vocal parents, backed by a politically correct council and stirred up by the Daily Record. Have they not got more important things to worry about than whether or not man co-existed with dinosaurs?

It's payback time

Calton is not convinced that more college places is the answer to our youth unemployment problem. Let's face it - we've tried it, with a huge increase in the number of young people going on to higher education in the last 20 years, and we still have a problem. What we really need is a return to good, old-fashioned apprenticeships, where school leavers learn a trade, and the discipline of working, while earning at the same time. Ploughing money into supporting businesses to provide such places would be worthwhile and Gavin Brown's idea of raising it by introducing a graduate tax is worth considering. If you have received free higher education and are now earning a good salary as a result, why shouldn't you pay a little back? Calton also thinks that free bus passes should only be handed out to those who have reached state pension age - it's a nonsense giving them to 60 year-olds who are still working. However, Calton parts company with Tory MSP Brown on limiting free prescriptions, as regular readers of this blog will know well.

Mike Russell - nil points

What has got lost in all the recent calls for resignations and fulsome apologies is the fact that funding for Scottish Colleges has indeed dropped this year. We have also seen the resignation of a College Head amidst accusations of spying on the one hand and bullying by the Education Secretary on the other. This does not give Calton confidence that the Scottish Government are tackling the problem of the number of NEETs in Scotland. Not that he would have any more confidence if Labour were in power - they were the ones who removed a large number of school-leavers from the unemployment figures by the simple expedient of keeping them in school or further education, regardless of whether or not that led to a job in the longer term. Calton thinks it is high time the Education Secretary got round the table with business leaders and worked out a plan to ensure that our young people are employable when they leave education, at whatever point they choose to leave it, instead of indulging in party political point scoring. At the moment he gets nil points from Calton.

NEET - Not in Employment, Education or Training

How to worry a rat

Calton is surprised to find that Labour has never called for Alex Salmond's resignation. That glaring omission may well be rectified in the light of the First Minister's subsequent admission that the figures he quoted at Johann Lamont in FMQs today were in fact wrong. Looks like a ding-dong argument has been followed by a right clanger. It wouldn't be so bad for the First Minister if he hadn't kept on repeating the incorrect figures. As it was, he reached bedrock in his enthusiasm for digging and so has all the further to climb to get himself out of the hole. It will be interesting to see if he dumps all the dirt on his hapless Education Secretary Mike Russell. Given that Salmond trotted out the incorrect figures in defence of Russell at FMQs, the question of the Education Secretary's future is still moot, especially since it is clear that Johann Lamont is not going to let the matter drop any time soon. A terrier with a rat would hardly be more tenacious.

Martha's meals

Good to see Jim Murphy talking about an in-out referendum on our membership of the EU, although postponing it until after the economic crisis ends and the Eurozone stabilises sounds like a kick into the very long grass indeed. So long that Scotland might be independent by the time the rest of the UK gets round to voting on the EU. If that should be the case, will Scottish Labour campaign for an in-out referendum? It would certainly put some clear blue water between themselves and the SNP if they did.

Scotland has long had links with Malawi, and Calton is not just talking about one former Labour First Minister, so it was fitting that the money raised by schoolgirl Martha's blog NeverSeconds should be spent in that country, providing meals and schooling for children. Martha has been on a visit to Malawi to see what their lives are like and you can watch a short video of her trip here. Amazing  what one blog can do.

Sour grapes feeds lots of starving children

There's an awful lot of sour grapes around this summer - must be something to do with the weather. This week's award goes to Argyll and Bute Council for their decision to ban schoolgirl Martha taking photos of her school dinners and posting them on her blog NeverSeconds. Fortunately, council leader Roddy McCuish has seen sense and reversed the ban and the publicity on today's media has resulted in a huge increase of donations to the charity - Mary's Meals - which the blog was raising funds for and, hopefully, an increase in the size of the portions they dish up at Martha's school. Some of the dinners featured on the blog would hardly keep a sparrow alive, never mind a growing girl! However all's well that ends well and today's stushie will ensure that lots of hungry children in Malawi are fed, leaving them at least with a sweet taste in the mouth. Well done Martha.

Can't work, won't work

Calton highlighted the fact that some of our young people are unemployable some time ago. Now the training arm of Arnold Clark has confirmed this and it's not just some - it's over 80%. They are poor communicators, poor team players and they don't want to work a 40 hour week. If they've been to college after leaving school, they are even worse. Surely this calls for a complete review of our educational system, which is failing and spoiling our children but no, the Scottish Government's response is that most children leaving school are employable. Just what planet are they on? Calton doesn't blame the teachers - they are trying their best with new curriculums, new terms and conditions, less classroom support for special needs children and more pressure not to exclude disruptive pupils. The problem is the political correctness that says that all children should be in mainstream education, when some would do much better in specialist units, and the lack of political will to get tough with problem kids. Instead they are just shunted around the system. The educational experiments of the last 20 years are coming home to roost. It's time they came to an end and we got back to basics, starting with discipline.

Free tuition - costing us dear

Calton has already highlighted the ridiculous situation whereby EU students can benefit from free tuition in Scotland whereas English students can't. Now we have Northern Irish students applying for Republic of Ireland passports to try and benefit from the same loophole. Something has got to be done about this crazy anomaly before it bankrupts us.

Calton's Easter Message

Calton thinks that the secularist lady Clare on Radio Scotland's Call Kaye program yesterday was at least 30 years out of date with her call to have the influence of religion taken out of schools and the state. You have only to look at the number of people in Scotland's supermarkets, garden centres and DIY stores on Sunday morning and compare it with the number of people in church to realise that Scotland is already a secular state, with more people worshipping the Easter Bunny which lays the chocolate eggs than worshipping the risen Christ. These days, ministers of religion are severely circumscribed in what they can say if invited to school assemblies in state schools and the festivals associated with other religions are celebrated in the classroom in addition to Christmas and Easter. No-one is forcing anyone to believe in any God, however it seems that even the mention of religion is enough to get the secularlists up-in-arms. They are the ones who are intolerant because they will not tolerate anything other than their own secularism, which is becoming increasingly, and worryingly, militant. They also ignore the influence which christianity has had in our history. A nation which forgets where it has come from and what has shaped it is a sorry nation indeed. What we should be aiming for is not a secular society but a tolerant one, where people of all faiths and none are free to live and worship as they wish and wear the symbols of their faith openly and without fear.

Stop experimenting with education

Calton thoroughly agrees with the idea of promoting Scottish studies in schools, if only to educate the likes of the caller to Radio Scotland this morning who thought that nothing of any note happened in Scotland before the Parliamentary Union! However the real priority has to be making sure that our young people leave school with the right skills to enable them to find a job. It is particularly depressing that a significant percentage of employers find that school leavers lack basic literacy and numeracy. They also seem to lack the soft skills so essential to enable them to fit into the workplace such as teamwork, problem-solving and communication. Calton hopes that the Curriculum for Excellence lives up to its name because we cannot afford to fail yet another generation of children by playing around with their education. It's time politicians realised that our schools are not laboratories for their political experiments.

Red card for sideline bullies

Calton is not surprised that the nation's children spend most of their time indoors on the playstation, given the findings of a survey conducted by Children 1st into behaviour at sporting events. Children reported being called names, sworn at, threatened and physically abused by adults, usually parents. They also told of seeing adults fighting each other and threatening match officials. No wonder the poor kids are put off sport! And it's not just football - the same thing happens at events like fencing. Have none of the adults involved heard the phrase 'it's only a game'? Do they not know they are supposed to be setting an example? As it is, their conduct is shameful. Hopefully the Sideline Bad Behaviour campaign which has been launched by Children 1st today will help address the problem. Some parents certainly need to be given a red card.

Misinformation on the EU? Moi?

Regular readers of this blog will know that Calton is not a fan of the EU. It was therefore with no little concern that he discovered that the EU Commission is busily handing out free teaching resources to our teachers with the stated aim of reaching children before they  “form prejudices and are misinformed by other sources”. That would be "other sources" like this blog then. The EU Commission claim that the publications "offer a balanced introduction to the European Union" - readers can make up their own minds after watching the clips on this page. UKIP have taken the matter up with Nigel Gove, Minister for Education in Westminster. Calton would do likewise with Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education in Holyrood, were it not for a sneaking suspicion that schoolchildren are not the only ones who have been brainwashed by the EU.