The BBC is all at sea over gender

Some folk think the BBC is biased. Calton thinks it is just plain bonkers. Nowhere is this more evident in its attitudes to gender. Today, John Beattie introduced us to Tom Daley's "husband" in Australia, swiftly followed by the presenter back home falling over himself to apologise for referring to another male presenter as "her". Earlier in the week Kaye Adams hosted a discussion on young people accepting their bodies, which is fine, except that when it comes to young people accepting their gender and genitals, Kaye would be one of the first to be advocating hormones and surgery rather than acceptance, judging from previous comments she has made. Well guys and girls, you can't have it both ways. If a man can have a husband, what's the big deal about referring to a man as "she"? If the answer to not being happy with your body is hormones and surgery, why should that be restricted to unhappiness about gender?

It's not surprising that young people today are confused about their gender and their sexuality given the way the BBC is promoting ideas such as "gender fluidity". It'ssad that so many of them hate their bodies, including their gender, and want a quick fix for their perceived problems. It is utterly tragic that adults who should know better are not helping them to accept themselves as they are, not only in terms of body shape and appearance but also gender. Because the fact is, our sex is written into our chromosomes. It's as fundamental as that and we change it at our peril. Calton is particularly concerned with plans being put forward by the Scottish Government to allow any man to self-declare as a woman. This will put women and girls at risk by allowing men into women's changing rooms and other safe spaces. And when it comes to sports, only those who are XX should be allowed to compete in women's events. Not XYs, even if they have artificially lowered their testosterone and grown their hair long.

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.

Running scared - the political elite

It seems to Calton that the main political parties are running scared of UKIP and with good reason. The trendy liberal political elite are completely out of touch with ordinary voters. They seem to have no idea what it is like to see your grown up children spending their days either in bed or on the computer playing games because they can't get a job. For many parents the fear of the empty nest has been replaced by anxiety over whether their offspring will ever manage to fledge and fly the nest. Many of these youngsters have been through further education, supported by their parents and yet they still can't find a job. For people like these, the news today that there was a 7% increase in the number of NI numbers issued to workers from overseas in 2013, compared with 2012, is not good news. The government can say all it likes about controlling immigration and bringing down the numbers but, as long as we remain in the EU, we have no control over immigration from the EU, which makes up the bulk of that 7% increase. UKIP are on course to win the EU elections, with the possibility of an MEP in Scotland, because they scratch an itch the other parties are not reaching. They are also constellating an anti-EU sentiment which is not able to be expressed in any other way. If the main political parties were really serious about spiking UKIP's guns, all they need to do is take us out of the EU, thus removing UKIP's raison d'etre in one fell swoop. Or at least offer a referendum. Instead, the old-boy establishment (including the BBC) has ganged up on the newcomer who is daring to challenge them and has resorted to playing the loony/racist card, conveniently ignoring the loonies/racists in their own woodpiles. It is a strategy almost certain to backfire. Voters are not that stupid.

Young people - smarter than the SNP give them credit for?

Calton was very encouraged to hear the young voters asking very pertinent questions and making very salient points in today's independence discussion on Radio Scotland. It is clear that quite a number of young people are not impressed by the lack of information, and, in particular, costings, coming from the SNP Government. They are also not impressed by the SNP party line on the currency union dutifully trotted out by Humza Yousaf. The SNP may have hoped to boost the yes vote by including 16 and 17 year olds but it looks like that might backfire on them if the roasting given to Humza was anything to go by. Those youngsters were not letting him get away with anything and neither was Jim Murphy, who was the clear winner in the discussion, in Calton's opinion. The SNP should really take Jim's advice and admit that not everything in the garden of an independent Scotland is going to be rosy. They would be a lot more credible if they did. Instead, it was the same old refrain of "It's our pound too, if we can't have it we'll not pay our share of the debt." The needle is stuck in a groove of pathetic petulance.

A sad start to 2014

It is sad that, only two days into the new year, The Prince's Trust is reporting that more than three quarters of a million young people in Britain think that they have nothing to live for due to unemployment and almost a third of young people who are long-term unemployed have contemplated suicide. This is a problem which is just not going away and will only be made worse if competition for available jobs becomes greater due to an increase in immigration from Eastern Europe. What is really sad is that employers would rather advertise for workers in Romania and Bulgaria than employ our own youngsters. It's not the employers' fault - we live in a competitive, capitalism society and they want the cheapest and best workers. It's not the fault of the immigrants - they are just trying to better their lives and they are entitled to come here due to decisions made by successive UK governments. In Calton's opinion, the root of the problem goes back to when we started talking about rights without talking about responsibilities, when discipline became a dirty word in schools, when we started inculcating a sense of entitlement into our children without teaching them that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The result is a generation who are unemployable. The Prince's Trust manages to pick up the pieces for some but what is really needed is prevention and that means a change in attitude. Perhaps if the Bank of England stopped printing money, children would learn that it does not grow on trees.

Hobson's Choice - the army or unemployment?

While Calton can understand calls for the army recruiting age to be raised to 18, he does not agree with them. No-one is forcing 16 year olds to enlist and they cannot do so without the consent of their parents. They also do not see active service until they are 18. Yes, joining the army may result in significant mental, emotional and physical injury or death. So does becoming one of the many unemployed youth with no hope of finding a job. A recent review by the World Health Organisation has highlighted joblessness as a major health risk to young people, with suicide an immediate risk and chronic diseases such as cancer and stroke a risk in the long term. In an ideal world there would be no wars and there would be plenty of jobs for school-leavers. This is not an ideal world and closing the door to one viable career option for 16 year olds will not make it any better. Staying on at school until 18 is not appropriate for all young people - for some, the alternative of going into the forces provides them with the discipline they need and training which will stand them in good stead. On this day, as we remember the fallen, we also demonstrate our support for our armed forces. We need to take better care of them when they come out of the army, whether by choice, by redundancy or through injury and we need to take care of the youngsters who stay at home and struggle to find a job. Our young people deserve better than Hobson's choice.

Getting it badly wrong for every child

It may seem like a good idea, especially in a week that has seen details of the horrific abuse suffered by Daniel Pelka at the hands of his mother and partner, to assign every child in Scotland a 'named person' or sort-of guardian angel to ensure their wellbeing, as proposed in the Children and Young People bill currently going through Holyrood. In fact, it is the complete opposite. Our social services are struggling to cope as it is, with many social workers not feeling confident that they could identify children at risk from internet grooming, just to take one example. Assigning an approved adult to every single child, whether they need it or not, is just going to take resources away from where they are really required. Legal experts are concerned, and so is Calton, that such legislation could be illegal under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which protects a parent’s “private and family life”.Whereas, previously, the criterion for intervention was that a child was 'at risk of significant harm', under the new legislation, the named person will be able to intervene if he/she considers that the 'wellbeing' of the child is at risk, 'wellbeing' being defined by the Government. This sounds to Calton like a charter for politically-correct liberals to impose their view of an appropriate upbringing on families whether they want it or not. Religious families who wish to bring their children up in the faith may well be told that it is not in the childrens' best interests. It could be a way of outlawing smacking, and other forms of discipline, by the back door. Instead of children, it will be parents on the naughty step. If, like Calton, you are concerned about the ramifications of this dystopian legislation, you can read more and sign a petition urging MSPs to reject it here. Calton strongly believes in protecting youngsters but interfering in family life to this extent is not the way to do it.

For adults only

It's nice to see that Scotland is already leading the way in making the possession of rape pornography an offence. Calton also welcomes the proposals to have an opt-in for 'adult content' online - if you want to view such stuff you should be adult enough to admit it and, if you don't, you will welcome the automatic filtering. It is naive to expect parents to be internet-savvy enough to censor their children's viewing. This measure will help to make parents aware that their choice of whether or not to allow pornography will have an impact on what their offspring can see and will hopefully make them think twice before removing the family friendly filters. They are there to protect our youngsters from material which will disturb and corrode them, giving them a wrong view of relationships. Childhood innocence is under threat as never before in this country and anything that seeks to address this problem is welcome as far as Calton is concerned.

We need to talk about immigration

The publication of The Prince's Trust Youth Index 2013 Report yesterday has triggered quite a bit of debate about the plight of our young NEETs. Basically, young people who are Not in Employment, Education or Training are twice as likely to feel that they can't cope with life compared with their employed peers and many young people despair of ever finding a job. There has been much discussion on the part family breakdown plays in all this (major) and the effects of the recession (great) however no-one seems to be mentioning the obvious elephant in the room - immigration. Easy availability of hard working young people from other EU countries who are willing to work here for low pay has kept businesses going and has allowed our politicians to ignore for too long the fact that many of our own young people are unemployable. No wonder politicians think that immigration is a good thing! They have been hiding the failings of our education system and the bitter fruit of easier divorce laws behind it and our youngsters are now paying the price. Youth unemployment has rocketed and won't get any better once the Bulgarians and Romanians are also allowed to come and work here. How can any country control its economy when it can't control its borders? Unfortunately, immigration has become the new taboo subject - if you don't believe Calton, just try mentioning it at the next dinner party you go to!

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.

Right to Work wrong on work experience

One of the big things our young people need these days is work experience. The longer a person is out of a job, the harder it is to get one, irrespective of what age they are, and the problem is compounded when the person is young and has never worked. Calton therefore thinks it is really unfortunate that the latest UK Government scheme to give young people work experience has been tarnished to such an extent that companies are exiting it in droves. Of course it is wrong for companies to use unemployed youngsters as cheap labour with no intention of giving them a permanent job at the end of it, however, a properly run scheme with real jobs for those who make the grade has much to commend it. Hopefully something can be hammered out between the DWP and businesses so that those who are not content to sit around on the dole and who would like work experience can get it. No-one has a right to work but those who want to work should be given every help and encouragement.

Poles apart - more's the pity

Two items on Radio Scotland caught Calton's attention today - one was the program Poles Apart on Polish immigrants in Inverness and the other was a report on youth unemployment in Newsdrive. Some think that the two issues are connected. The simplistic argument is that lots of Eastern Europeans have flooded into Scotland, taking all the jobs, and so our young people can't find work, hence the rise in youth unemployment. Calton thinks the issue is a lot more complex, one of the problems being that some of our young people are, quite frankly, unemployable. They aren't interested in menial work, they have no self-discipline, they have no qualifications and, as long as the state pays them dole money and their parents provide free board & lodging, they have no incentive to get a job. Maybe it's time to get tough on our able-bodied, unemployed youth because, if Poles can come over here and get jobs, so can they.