EASTER RECESS OVER

The Easter recess is now finished and now that the better weather is here I have restarted my surgeries on some of the smaller islands. I have been on Islay and Mull several times over the winter, but I have been able to hold open surgeries on Iona and Lismore in the last fortnight and will be on Coll, Tiree and in many other places over the next few months.

Cowal residents though can see me at any of my Dunoon office days – all they have to do is ring Marie Claire on 01369 702011, who may be able to help you herself.

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT MINISTER’S DUNOON VISIT

During the recess some Ministers get to travel a bit more than they can during the Parliamentary session, so it was good to see Angela Constance MSP, the Minister for Youth Employment, in Dunoon for a day last week.

Angela met Argyll College and Argyll Training to discuss what they were doing for young people. She then visited the construction firm Stewart McNee up at Sandbank who have won national awards for the support they give to apprentices.

Ian McNee has a strong commitment to giving young people a chance which has paid dividends for so many who have gone on to have good careers with his company, and has benefited the company too.

Later in the day Angela met a wider group of local businesses to hear their needs and then rounded her trip off by discussing youth opportunities with some young people who are part of the HELP project, based in John Street.

It was a useful visit, that left me, as the local MSP, with a list of things to follow up in order to try and help to bring down the number of young people who are registered as unemployed in the area.

Of course the first of April saw the introduction of the Scottish Government’s new “Opportunities for All” scheme which guarantees a place in training or education for those 16-19 year olds who are not in work – and that should support more of Cowal’s youngsters get a start in life.

MARSHALL’S ‘PREJUDICED AND ILL-INFORMED ELECTION RANT’

I am sure that most people don’t read all of the leaflets that get delivered at election time. but during the run up to the current local polls there have been some real corkers in election materials in the Cowal and Dunoon wards. Most, however, can be taken with a smile and a pinch of salt.

It is, after all, very encouraging to see so many people wanting to serve in what can be a thankless job as a councillor and I wish them all well – though I have been working extra hard to ensure that my own party’s hopefuls get returned.

However there is one local production that hasn’t produced many laughs. Indeed it has been drawn to my attention by quite a few irate local teachers and parents.

Published in funereal colours, Bruce Marshall’s badly designed and appallingly punctuated leaflet starts with the statement that a vote for him will “help to keep politics out of local government in Argyll”.

That will be news to the Tory party, which it is strongly rumoured turned Mr Marshall down as a candidate for this election. Little wonder, as he had betrayed them the last time he stood as a Tory – being elected as such, and then turning his coat almost immediately so that he could get a council post.

But another reason the Tories may have balked at embracing him again can be found further on in the leaflet.

For in the midst of what I would – somewhat generously – call a prejudiced and ill informed rant against the SNP (so much for keeping politics out of local government) he launches a vitriolic attack on the current process of Scottish educational reform, called Curriculum for Excellence, citing (he claims) opposition from teachers unions and “eminent educationalists” and raising the spectre of exam failures as a result of CfE. The implication is that he will fight against it and always has done.

Curriculum for Excellence has been underway for eight years – it is not new. And far from opposing it, the Argyll and Bute administration of which he has been a senior member for almost all of that time has been, and remains, a keen supporter of CfE, as are all 32 Scottish local authorities.

Even East Renfrewshire – the only authority that is delaying its introduction – has publicly backed the changes.

The EIS which is Scotland’s largest teachers union and all the other teaching unions have endorsed its principles though there has been a dispute about the timescale for its introduction.

In fact the EIS have just negotiated a new package of support measures to help teachers with its continued implementation .

There is no loss in academic qualifications – in fact every political party, including the Tories, have supported the changes because the new qualifications are likely to be even more valuable to employers.

And the quotes Mr Marshall claims are from “eminent educationalists” are actually lifted from a Labour Party News Release! International experts regard it as amongst the best set of educational reforms in the world.

Mr Marshall is, in other words, talking nonsense and even the Tories wouldn’t want to be associated with such destructive and dangerous tactics, for Mr Marshall appears to be scaremongering in order to get votes, cruelly playing on the natural fears of parents and undermining the prospects for our children just to try and boost his flagging electoral chances.

And moreover, doing so whilst knowing that Curriculum for Excellence is here to stay.

 

The last time Mr Marshall was in educational hot water was when he suggested that teachers wages be cut in order to fend off some supposed funding crisis in this local authority, which he and his Tories-masquerading-as-Independents pals were meant to be running.

Such ridiculous actions turned out to be completely unnecessary, as did his later demand for school closures for financial reasons.

Mr Marshall’s report card as a councillor, and a candidate, shows that he needs to do much, much better. Till he does so he should be sent to the back of the class.

COUNCIL LOOKS ‘DAFT’ OVER SPYGATE SCANDAL

The re-emergence of “Spygate”, the scandal that has been sweeping Argyll and Bute Council’s media relations department, has made the authority look daft to all outside observers.

The first part of the problem was allegations about the use of social media to attack critics of the council and its operation – and there lots of those, as my inbox proves every day.

Despite taking place two and a half months ago, there has still been no public accounting for what happened.

This second phase now appears to have been about petty name calling on an internal message service. It is the type of thing that happens in every office and is normally dealt with by good leadership and the encouragement of better relationships.

But once more the senior managers of the council have chosen to keep the public – who pay for all this – in the dark.

 

The fact that these incidents are now making regular headlines in the national press tells us all that something is far wrong at Kilmory and needs more than internal inquiries and the suspensions of junior staff to put right.

*Michael Russell MSP has his constituency office at 81 Argyll Street, Dunoon and his assistant Marie-Claire Docherty can be contacted during office hours on 01369 702011.