Ministers prepare to promote the unpopular Named Person scheme

"SNP ministers are preparing to fight back against critics of its controversial `named person` scheme by launching a major new information campaign to win over the public."

"Senior figures in the administration have approved a public relations blitz designed to tell Scots what the named person scheme is and how it works."

"It was derided last night by opponents of the scheme who condemned the use of taxpayers’ money to promote what they said was an unpopular policy."

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/taxpayers-to-fund-named-person-pr-campaign-6mn0stxmd?acs_cjd=true

Will this appear as the Scots are told how it works?

There is much in Scotland to be proud of, but frankly many aspects of our culture and behaviours, the level of some of our social problems and, not least, our failure to give some children the most basic level of protection and support should be cause for us to hang our heads in shame. It is not enough just to turn away, to blame the Government of the day or to leave this to others to sort. We can all do better.

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/343337/0114216.pdf

Or this?

The Named Person offers a signpost to assistance. Parents need to call on that support and, when necessary, be directed and empowered towards a different path. The Named Person is about facilitating ‘a nudge’ − or as it would probably be in Scotland, ‘a shove’ − within the system, to make sure families get the services they need, when they need them...

https://www.celcis.org/files/6514/4922/7367/2015_Vol_14_3_Burns_For_named_person.pdf

 

Like Harry Burns at the launch of the Early Years Collaborative: shaming, nudging, shoving?  I doubt that will be part of a campaign.

So which version of the Named Person scheme will be used in the public relations blitz? The single point of contact version which involves multiple contacts over the weekend and summer holidays? The optional version, unless the Named Person has a number of wellbeing concerns and needs to get the bigger picture? Or could it be the working in partnership version -  and your views really count - unless, of course, ChildrenCount needs to check how many times your kid has had anal sex in the last thirty days?

Let`s skip over the proportionate data sharing that amounts to a non consensual sixty pages on a family`s file, and all the rest, because it`s getting more than a bit seedy, and do think plants !  No PR campaign is going to blot out parental awareness of the devious scheming that has been going on, and for what ? For data that is none of the government`s business.

As for Harry Burns, he should not have been going to Europe and the rest of the world promising them the results of the great Scottish experiment before he`s even asked for parental consent. After all, that is not something a government has the right to give. [Article 8, ECHR]

Glasgow hospital studies alcohol products in babies

"Newborn babies are being tested for alcohol after researchers raised concerns about pregnant women drinking regularly."

"Samples from hundreds of babies born at the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow are being studied for alcohol by-products."

"Results suggest about 40% of mothers consume some alcohol while pregnant..."

"The study found that about 15% of women drink more than one or two small glasses of wine a week during pregnancy."

"The Scottish government warns that drinking in pregnancy can lead to long-term harm to the baby. And the more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk..."

"Mothers will also be asked to complete a lifestyle questionnaire."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36168729

From the British Pregnancy Advisory Service

29 April 2016

"This appears to be a worrying development in what is now the increasing policing of pregnancy. It is known that consuming large quantities of alcohol throughout pregnancy can result in lifelong learning disabilities, but little evidence of this at lower levels. It is unclear how the information gathered in this study will be used, and whether this will set a precedent for more widespread testing of babies - in order to `test` their mothers' claims of how much [they] drank while pregnant." 

"The growing trend towards monitoring pregnant women, and blaming all issues that children face on their mothers' behaviour in pregnancy, is something that should concern all of us involved in women's reproductive healthcare and advocacy. Pregnant women need support, not surveillance and snooping."

https://www.bpas.org/about-our-charity/press-office/press-releases/bpas-comment-on-newborns-in-scotland-being-tested-for-alcohol/

How will the Named Person respond to a mother`s alleged false claims about her drinking during pregnancy ?

In the Scottish garden, Named Persons will be `head gardeners`

"Parents will have their status in the family downgraded by the Scottish Government’s controversial "state guardian" plan, campaigners have claimed."

"They said documents suggested that children in schools across Scotland had been told their new "named person" should be regarded as the `head gardener` while mothers and fathers are merely `gardeners`."

"The No To Named Person (NO2NP) group said the comparison was made when the legislation was being considered in 2012 by the Children’s Parliament, which describes itself as Scotland’s `centre of excellence for children’s participation and engagement`."

"It spoke to more than 100 children in different schools to help them try to understand the legislation, which will see a named person appointed for one million young people under the age of 18 from August."

"Children were encouraged to imagine Scotland as a garden, with each child a plant growing in it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/28/new-row-over-named-person-as-campaigners-claim-parental-role-to/ 

 

A plant appears at the beginning of the following video which is too big to capture. (See youtube link below picture] As the video scrolls up the plant, it can be seen that each leaf has one of the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators on it. At the top of the plant is the flower which consists of a circle with petals around it. The meaning of that becomes clear.

 

https://w;ww.youtube.com/watch?v=hnE4YesZwhY 

It`s moving away from the previous notion of the silos that we worked in to the spiral diagram that represents Getting it Right for Every Child; which is the child at the centre, with those services [PETALS] that they need wrapped as closely around them as possible, drawing the help they need through positive relationships that exist, rather than passing them on from one agency to another.  

And I thought, that was all there was to it; one joined up Enabling State with a stranglehold on children, until recently. Because if that was not bad enough, what has been happening is even more sinister.
 

I had recognised that children are instructed in school about GIRFEC and the plant analogy is often used. Beyond the convenience of pinning SHANARRI indicators on leaves (sometimes branches of a tree) I had not seen the full significance.

We have approached this incrementally, one step at a time; introducing practitioners to the concepts, raising their awareness, getting health to design the paperwork so that they are part of the solution and then incrementally beginning to use that in practice. So we have tried to manage it in a way that`s manageable for practitioners and not overwhelming.

An eco-approach - let`s not even go there with the symbolism. One step at a time, indeed ! They have also managed Scottish children (via the Children`s Parliament) by getting children to see themselves as plants and the Named Person as the chief gardener - and never a word about that to parents. All incrementally managed just fine as August approaches.

 

Have a look at another video: Children's Parliament: Having Our Say... 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdpZLPnHYLw

 

 Children were given the opportunity to have their say at a fun event with the Children`s Parliament.

 

A girl, given her voice, says this: "Family is the most important thing to me and to other people as well."  It echoes with the other children.

But these children and their parents are being undermined by a one party communitarian state which would put Named Persons in charge, with all the trappings of the joined up apparatus around that.

This government wants parents to be the last people to cotton on to this. They know that day is coming; they just want it all stitched up before that day comes.

Ineos still expects to frack Scotland

 

"INEOS said it still expects fracking to be given the go-ahead in Scotland."

"The comments come after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon openly suggesting she would permanently block plans for it."

"According to reports in The Herald, Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of INEOS said the company is supportive of the current moratorium on fracking being held by the Scottish Government."

"Ratcliffe claimed the company’s position would be vindicated by new research which means fracking could be permitted from next year."

https://www.energyvoice.com/other-news/105028/ineos-hopeful-fracking-will-get-green-light-scotland/

According to Ian R Crane, ex oil man and anti-fracking campaigner, "Jim Ratcliffe (Chairman of INEOS) knows fine well that the SNP will lift the Scottish Moratorium on UGE within weeks of achieving their anticipated majority in Holyrood at the Scottish Parliamentary elections this coming Thursday (7th May) ... the Scots are about to be totally FRACKED by their attachment to the mistaken belief that Nicola Sturgeon has any real intention of holding another Indie Ref ! "

In connection with his ongoing legal battle with Rathlin Energy he said that yesterday he had been: "Royally shafted in the misnamed Royal Courts of Justice!"

Read about the case: https://drillordrop.com/2016/04/28/surveillance-on-anti-fracking-campaigner-revealed-in-court/

Warrant issued for man whose son was placed for adoption

"A man whose son was placed for adoption could be jailed after social services bosses complained that he harassed staff and placed material on the internet identifying the youngster."

"One of Britain's most senior judges issued a warrant for the arrest of Matthew Newman after analysing complaints by lawyers representing social services officials at Gloucestershire County Council during hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London."

"Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division of the High Court - and the most senior family court judge in England and Wales - concluded that Mr Newman breached orders and was in contempt of court."

"He made findings against Mr Newman in a ruling published on Monday - and also issued a warrant for Mr Newman's arrest on Monday."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3559196/Top-judge-issues-arrest-warrant-man-son-placed-adoption.html#ixzz4766A03Ly

Southern Health NHS Trust was not safe

"An NHS trust knew of failings at a care unit 10 months before a teenager drowned in a bath there, the BBC has learned."

"A leaked 2012 review found staff did not feel Slade House, Oxford, was safe and that it was dirty and difficult to track the care of patients at the unit."

"Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, died at the site in July 2013."

"Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust said a post-review plan had not been completed before his death."

 

 

"Dr Sara Ryan, his mother, said she would be asking police to open an investigation."

"She said the leaked documents were the `missing piece` for a corporate manslaughter charge, and described seeing the 2012 report as `devastating`."

" `Numerous things were wrong that were clearly important failings. To think that was known about… is awful, shocking, and harrowing,` she said."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-36141808

GPs, housing officers and charities to spy on families

"The Scottish Government’s `named person` plans will involve recruiting family doctors, housing officers and charities to `spy` on families, campaigners against the legislation have claimed."

"The `No to Named Persons` campaign based its claims on documents produced at meetings held to oversee how the scheme, which will be rolled out across Scotland in August, will be put into practice."

"Every child will have a `named person`, who will act as a single point of contact, with the ability to share information with social and other services if there is cause for concern about the way a child is behaving or being brought up."

"It is being operated as a pilot scheme in several areas of the country including the Highlands, Edinburgh, Fife, Angus and South Ayrshire."

"The documents were for `named person implementation board` meetings, chaired by the children’s minister Aileen Campbell and involving police, civil servants, councils, social workers, health boards, children’s charities and public sector unions."

"The Home Education Forums, which support the No to Named Persons (NO2NP) campaign, have analysed detailed documentation from the board meetings."

"One document suggests that Ms Campbell was keen to involve GPs, even though doctors were reluctant to breach patient confidentiality."

"The document, dated February 2013, said: `Issues with GPs, due to their structures and contracts… The minister was keen that more work with GPs was done to break the barriers."

"Another document mentioned the role that could be played by housing officers. Dated March 2012, it said: `importance of linking in with housing personnel was also raised, as they are often the only ones going into a house`."

"Nearly a year later, another document said: `working with housing was very productive as they had access to information and were supportive`."

"The role that could be played by charities and voluntary groups was discussed in a document dated June 2012."

"Last night, an SNP spokesman said: `We are clear that we want everyone to take responsibility for protecting and promoting children’s well-being.  Most people would view this as a good thing.`" [Out of touch with reality, I think.]

Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/named-person-plan-may-involve-gps-and-housing-officers-1-4113042#ixzz478PJ6jgI

Although they were meant to continue until August 2016, the committee meetings were scrapped after Police Scotland raised concerns about the effects of the Named Person process on high risk children.

 

Getting the data, by any means, seems to have been the priority for the Children`s Minister.

See http://no2np.org/curious-incident-disappearing-expert-committee/

Social worker removed from register for sharing confidential information

"A child protection social worker who used a personal laptop to create documents containing confidential information about families she worked with has been removed from the Welsh social care register."

"A Care Council for Wales fitness-to-practise committee concluded that she had asked another person to type four documents containing sensitive information on a laptop owned by a third person."

"The person believed to have typed the documents, which included names of families and information about their personal problems, subsequently made a complaint to Denbighshire County Council that led to disciplinary action against the social worker."

"The committee agreed with the council that the complaint was maliciously motivated but said that made no difference to the fact that the social worker had deliberately disclosed confidential information..."

"One family, the committee noted, had threatened to sue the local authority over the incident."

"In addition by releasing the information to third parties the social worker risked damaging the council’s relationships with other agencies and professionals, which in turn could have undermined the information sharing that is crucial to child protection work."

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2016/04/27/social-worker-struck-disclosing-details-families-using-personal-laptop/

Norway: Parents Against the State

Vilhelm Hammershøi

An upcoming exhibit has recently led me to a renewed interested in a painter whose work I admire, Vilhelm Hammershøi.  He was a turn of the century Danish painter (May 15, 1864 - February 13, 1916) who trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1879 -1884.  He participated in the Charlottenborg Exhibition of 1885, however in 1888 he was rejected from the annual exhibition which led to his forming a group with other artists known as Den Frie Udstilling (The Free Exhibition). 

Hammershøi painted several subjects including portraits, landscapes and cityscapes, but he is best known for his interior spaces and was called De Stillestuers Maler (The Painter of Tranquil Rooms).

Vilhelm Hammershøi, A Room in the Artist's Home in Strandgade, Copenhagen, with his Wife, 1901, Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK), Denmark

These paintings of light infused interiors drew me to his work, I have seen them in person at The National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The apartment that Hammershøi and his wife Ida lived in at Strandgade 30 in Copenhagen served as his studio for a decade. He painted dozens of views of the apartment at different times of day to capture the changes in mood due to the effects of light, much as Monet famously did of the Rouen Cathedral.

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior, 1899, The National Gallery London

The words most commonly used to describe Hammershøi’sinteriors are tranquility, quietness, introspection and solitude.  While many contain a figure, such as his wife Ida, the figure is never the main focus of the painting.

As I look at these works I feel as though we the viewer have entered the house unnoticed when we weren’t expected.  In that way the artist is painting scenes of daily life and it's exactly that view that allows these works to resonate with the viewer across time.  His paintings capture the beauty in quiet moments and in the every day.

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior with Ida Playing the Piano, 1910, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan

Hammershøi cited the American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler as a source of inspiration.  Whistler famously described his own paintings as “Art for art’s sake.” As can be seen in both his painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 and in Hammershøi’s interiors, a limited palate of colors is used.  More commonly known as Whistler’s Mother, the work is less a portrait than a study in tone and form, an important element in many of Whister’s paintings.

Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (1871), also known as Whistler's Mother,

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

I'm particularly drawn to the below painting, Interior With Potted Plant on Card Table, it's compelling in the choice of details that were included; the movement of daylight across a wall, shadows and glints of light upon a brass lamp.  I personally see in the squares of light a reminder of the passage of time and an acute awareness of the temporal nature of beauty.

The absence of color creates a calm mood; the painter focuses on tone and temperature.  It's interesting to think how our perception of these would change if bright colors or figures were included.  When a figure is in a painting it becomes the central focus in the work, in Hammershøi’s works a central focus doesn’t exist, though the artist was thoughtful in his compositions.  Without figures the room itself becomes important, the choice to exclude people in his paintings as central subjects create a more subtle narrative.

  

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior With Potted Plant on Card Table, 1910-11, Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden

Hammershøi’s work is interesting not in the stories it tells, but in the stories that the viewer creates for the work.  It reflects his life and our own lives in relation to it.  Do the paintings evoke a sense of loneliness or of tranquility? A sense of serenity or one of melancholy?

Hammershøi was influenced by Dutch Baroque artists such as Hoogstraten or Vermeer who also painted interior spaces in the 17th century.  His works are frequently compared with theirs.  However there are many key differences, the most important being that the earlier paintings are filled with moral and religious symbolism rather than “art for art’s sake.”  Let’s look at Hoogstaten’s painting The Slippers.
 


Samuel van Hoogstraten, The Slippers,

1654-62, Louvre, Paris, France

At first glance we see a quiet interior setting with two slippers in the foreground.  On closer examination the work is an allegory of lust and temptation.  The slippers are not a set, one is a man’s and one a woman’s.  A broom in the foreground has been left to the side as if to suggest that there was a woman who was cleaning and was interrupted by a man and they are in the bedroom together.  The painting in the background is a well-known brothel scene. A contemporary Dutch viewer would have clearly understood the allegorical message. Here the vice of lust wins out over the virtue of cleaning.

Vermeer too was well known for his careful use of light and color in interiors, but his work was also symbolic in nature.  In his painting Woman Holding a Balance, the woman in the painting is dressed in the finest clothing, surrounded by jewelry and pearls.  She holds up a small scale as she admires her riches. 


Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., United States

This scene takes on an entirely new meaning when the background is taken into consideration; it's a painting of the Last Judgment.  The analogy can be made that Jesus Christ will also be holding a scale, weighing the souls of mankind.  The message to the viewer is that regardless of your social status, it's important to live a life of virtue and realize your immortal soul will ultimately have more weight than your possessions.

Both Hoogstraten and Vermeer paint in such a way that emphasizes the visual beauty and light of an interior space, but unlike Hammershøi their interior spaces weren't the main focus of the art.  
 

Hammershøi was certainly influenced by their use of light and composition, but he created a new genre in painting with his interiors, one that continues to captivate audiences a century after his death.

This summer 30 of Hammershøi's works are traveling from the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen to the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, on view from July 16 – September 25, 2016.

The roots of CSE

It`s already in Scotland as part of Health and Wellbeing:

There is a long list of people and organisations at the end of the Joining the dots document who were part of the discussions about GIRFEC. Cathy McCulloch and Dr Colin Morrison, co-directors of the Scottish Children`s Parliament are there, as expected.

What is less well known is that Cathy McCulloch and Dr Colin Morrison are partners of TASC (Scotland) Ltd, founded by them in 1992.

This is what they say about TASC:

"TASC provides a range of services including social research and service evaluation. We have a real interest in people - how they experience their lives and what their hopes, dreams and ambitions are for their families and communities. We work with policy makers and service providers to help ensure the needs and interests of service users are recognised and met."

Some of their work has included:

"Learning Together: A Review of sex and relationship education resources for parents and carers NHS Health Scotland (2009-10)"

"An evaluation of Feel Think Do Sexual Abuse Prevention Programme (2009) for NHS Forth Valley. Feel Think Do is a sexual abuse prevention programme for P6 pupils. It is designed to be delivered over 8 sessions and uses a DVD of dramatised scenarios. Children can also work on their own learning logs."

"Parental Feedback on School-based Sexual Health and Relationships Education in Glasgow for Glasgow City Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Young People’s Sexual Health Steering Group (2011)."

Chapter 1 for under 5s

http://www.tascagency.co.uk/parents-and-carers.html

In Scotland, CSE tends to be called Sexual Health and Relationships Education. It starts early and never stops all through the school years. Because `health and wellbeing` is spread throughout Curriculum for Excellence, it is impossible for parents to disengage their children from Sexual Health and Relationships Education entirely. All very cunningly planned. No-one in the role of Named Person has ever said some of this might not be appropriate for very young children.

At the heart of GIRFEC are little businesses working in partnership with government which provide `services` to children and families to address `problems` that never used to exist. I`m sure they`ll dream up a few more.

Joining the dots at UK Column

 

UK Column 22 April 2016 [continued from previous post, and going through an excellent piece of work by David Scott.]

 

Speaking to David Scott, Mike Robinson says, "David, we`re starting off with GIRFEC here."

On screen appears a letter to Sally Ann Kelly, Chief Executive of Barnardo`s from the Local Government and Communities Directorate, Third Sector Unit.

"And this is a grant? £750,000 is it?" 

"Yes, just under 3/4 of a million pounds and that`s gone to Barnardo`s and a few other charities and they`re running a system of integrating the third sector with the general GIRFEC framework... So this is the system of looking after children in families, through education, in healthcare, that permeates every aspect of the Scottish Government."

"We`re now seeing the third sector, the charitable sector, brought into that fully in detail. So they`re involved in the planning of new developments - they`re involved in every aspect of it - there is in functional terms no difference between the government and these charities."

Mike Robinson asks: "And this is the gentleman who`s done this; is that correct?"

"This is Gareth Allen of the Scottish Government.  He`s all over this. If you google, you`ll find a lot by him encouraging charities to come on board and talking to charities and you can even look at his slide show presentation which explains exactly how it`s all done and how wonderful it`s going to be in the new Scotland. Now the letter there, that award letter was written to the, then, head of Barnardo`s Sally Ann Kelly... Martin Crewe is now head of Barnardo`s... She`s moved on to another charity and this is also a charity dealing with children in Scotland, receiving Scottish Government grants, backing the Named Person scheme wholeheartedly overall for the state snooper scheme... And they are entirely in the pocket of Government. And this lady is running the show there and I`m sure she has lots of contacts which will ensure the Aberlour Trust here will see a great deal of financial support from the government."

Brian Gerrish interrupts: "David I`m fascinated by that website because again we`ve got this look. The website is very childish but, of course, it`s not designed to be read by children. It`s designed to be read by adults and so we`ve got this inversion going on; silly, childish writing about a very serious subject to do with children."

"Yes and little piggy bank for the donate button. It`s all very jolly and as though it`s child friendly but you`re quite right. It`s not there to be read by children."

Mike Robinson puts another document on screen. Funding for the Getting it Right for Every child GIRFEC third sector national project.  "And you wanted to highlight this:"

"This project will work with CPPs to develop an approach to GIRFEC in which there is full recognition and contribution of the Third Sector."
"There are three aims which include:"
"... to embed the role of the Third Sector in GIRFEC at local and national level..."
"To conduct a three year project in which the Public Social Partnership will work with the Community Planning Partners to reinforce and embed the role of the Third Sector in the implementation of GIRFEC."

"Right. What that means, because it`s a bit, you know, central government gobbledygook; what that means is that there`s going to be a whole series of things called Community Planning Partnerships. They will then enter into formal written agreements with central government. They will involve, not only local authorities and police.. NHS and other services but they will also involve... integrated... third sector charities ...Barnardo`s and Aberlour. So they will have a seat at the table. They will form these written agreements with central government. They will then apply government policy, including [the] Named Person, data gathering and complete state surveillance of the family."

"Now the effect of this is that there is nowhere to go. If you then go to any major children`s charity in Scotland with any sort of problem - and those of us who follow the Hollie Greig case know the sort of problems those might be - then you`re dealing with the Scottish Government. You`re dealing with the state; you`re dealing with the great big singular entity that is the Scottish model of government. But it`s not just that there are no functional departments within the government ...almost the entire third sector ... has been rolled into government as well."

Gerrish responds: "This is the third sector or the Third Way which, of course, Tony Blair was absolutely boasting about back in 2001/2002 - if I`ve got my dates right. So unaccountable people in the NGOs` quasi-government systems. Now it`s all being rolled in together. This is Big Society...It`s communitarianism is the closest description I think we can get to it."

Mike Robinson continues: "Well David, tell us about Joining the dots."

"Right, so Joining the dots is the core document that underpins GIRFEC. This is the Named Person and all of these things. So this is the defining document. Now you will be pleased to hear it was an independent document; it was an independent report, so that`s ok and it was headed by a former Labour MSP but she clearly didn`t write it. The person who seems to have written it is, in fact, this lady, Laura Meagher. [James Hutton Institute] Now she`s a very interesting lady... She came to Scotland ... from America, and she came to Scotland at a very interesting time, 1999.  And this is not the first time I`ve found this. When you look at the people who are actually generating the ideas, they all arrive in Scotland in 1999. Why? Because we`re getting a new parliament."

"What happened was people came from all round the globe - globalists if you like - to influence the policies of that new parliament because it was a clean slate. So where Scotland thinks it received a degree of independence, what`s actually happened is we`ve got globalists, think tanks and people influencing the policy behind the scenes and the change from Westminster to the Holyrood parliament simply opened up a new opportunity for these people to control what we actually do. And we`re seeing the policy of the Scottish parliament actually being set by people such as Laura Meagher."

 "And we`ve got a number of other people involved in producing this document. One is the Centre for Confidence and well-being.  Now the Centre for Confidence and well-being is meant to be Scottish because Scots are meant to lack self confidence, ok? I don`t know if you noticed that; that`s the allegation.... [It] is in fact Common Purpose sitting on a thistle because all of the people seem to have huge Common Purpose links, including Mr Alf Young here. Very friendly looking chap. I like the smile ...and what`s his background?"

Mike Robinson says: "Well from 2007 he chaired the Glasgow Advisory board for Common Purpose."

"Yes... so what you`ve got is the import of the ideas from America [and] the UN via American universities. That`s brought in. We`ve got Common Purpose providing the organisational infrastructure to actually get everything set up and ... then we have assorted charities and quite a few PR companies ... Charities give cover and the appearance of it being from the people and the PR companies get the message out. And that`s what we`ve got. That`s the origin of GIRFEC. That`s the origin of the Named Person. It did not come from Scotland. It did not come from our politicians. It came from elsewhere."

The ideas also came via Westminster: See http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/thinking-about-future.html

The missing statistics

From UK Column News 22 April 2016:

Coverage about children begins about 36 minutes.

They show a graph which reveals the sharp rise in children taken into care between 1994 and 2015, from just over 45,000 to 70,000.

A supporting graph indicates a significant increase in adoptions between these two dates. An email was sent to Brian Gerrish along with these graphs, about a Sunday Times article [2009] by Daniel Foggo, in which he said `more stupid mothers were prevented from fighting adoptions.`

"He was pointing a very long finger at the official solicitor, Alastair Pitblado," says Gerrish, "who had been responsible in some 588 cases - essentially for breaking up families - but the charge was a lack of mental capacity. [That would be for the mothers.] So we can see a massive surge in the number of children being taken by the state and of course recently the British state has taken away the five day old baby of a Portuguese mother. So it does not matter your nationality if the child`s ...in the UK, David Cameron`s government thinks it has a right to take that child away."

"Well, by strange coincidence, shortly before we became live today, I received another email saying: `Brian, I thought you might like to see this`. So it`s an article saying that very same solicitor, Pitblado, had just lost a private dispute in the High Court and this was a planning issue. He took on some local councils, acting as a litigant in person. He lost the case and this is what the judge had to say:  He described the couple`s claim as `overblown and wholly unsubstantiated... and their approach to the planning application had been misconceived.` So what we`ve got is an overview of the man who`s been responsible for helping to lever children away from their families, that they`re not competent and we really have to ask `is this man fit for purpose himself?`"

Turning to address David Scott, "David, it`s really obscene the power of these officials when it comes to taking children away. We can`t deal with fraud or corruption or banking crime but if we`ve got a parent who should be getting support from the state, because maybe they do need a little bit of help, what we`re seeing is `No let`s take the child away and get them adopted as quickly as possible`."

"Yes and, `I`m from the government; I`m here to help` is still the scariest phrase anyone is likely to hear," says Scott.

"What we`re seeing here though is something almost darker. It`s very reminiscent of the eugenics campaign in.. America and Nazi Germany in the early part of the 20th century, and with one noticeable change. The eugenics idea was that you received your intelligence wholly from your parents by descent and therefore if you have a problem you have to tackle that by such means as forcible sterilisation.  And there`s a book written about that called War Against the Weak. It`s an excellent but very horrific story of how this was rolled out, principally in the United States."

"Now the change here is that it is no longer descent that is the issue; it`s early years. It`s your early experience; it`s how your brain forms when you`re very young. So if your parents are substandard then it`s not that they`re going to be sterilised; no, what they`re going to do is to remove [the child] from you and give the child to approved people.  So it`s a variation on eugenics."

"It`s a variation, but deeply sinister," say Gerrish. "We`ll continue the theme but I`ll just follow up from those statistics which was for me to go and have a little look at where there were more statistics on adoption and childcare issues."

"So this is a report from the Department of Education dated 1st October 2015 and we`ve got statistics here for children who were looked after in England. In fact, in that document there is quite a lot of information and I would encourage people to get hold of it and have a look through themselves..."

"But then I thought, let`s go looking for statistics on child abuse. And if you go on the government`s very own website; this is the Home Office; we can find stuff on childcare but we find no child abuse statistics. We`ve emailed them to say well `where are these statistics?`"

"If we have a look at this one - Home Office [Statistical series] - we`ve got crime statistics, all categorised."

"When you spoke to them they implied that the Home Office was the place to go for these statistics," Mike Robinson interjects.

"Yes, originally we spoke to the Department of Education because they produced that first statistical analysis. That`s the one we`re encouraging people to download. We called them and they said `No No we don`t have any child abuse statistics; you need to speak to the Home Office` but when you go and have a look at the Home Office`s statistical base there`s a lot of categories for crime but they don`t appear to like to talk about child abuse. So we`ve sent them an email and said `Do you hold the statistics?` But I`ve got a feeling they don`t hold ...central statistics on the number of children abused in the care system. So these are the very people who are going to run the Named Person scheme, north of the border..."

[To be continued...]

http://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-22nd-april-2016

Britain is implicated in the eugenics movement too.

 

Not for children or anybody with a `sensitive` disposition.

Ordeal for family who took child to hospital

 

"When John and Donna Wade took their six-month-old daughter to hospital it was the start of a nightmare."

"Isabella had an enlarged head after contracting bacterial meningitis as a newborn, and the couple were understandably concerned for her health."

"But their caring action resulted in their family being ripped apart by social services."

"Their two-year-old son Ollie was taken away by police and social services for two days because doctors thought his sister’s head swelling was suspicious."

"On top of that, social workers applied for a care order to remove both children from their parents."

"Later, the application was withdrawn after the hospital discovered that Isabella’s swelling was a result of a brain haemorrhage because of her medical condition."

"Ollie was finally allowed to go back home – but his parents say he is yet to recover from the trauma of being taken from his family."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3532999/Nightmare-couple-son-snatched-away-social-services-baby-daughter-suffered-meningitis-doctors-thought-head-swelling-suspicious.html

Fairbridge to become part of Prince`s Trust

by Goody

"Britain’s Child Migrants"

"..unanswered questions about the rationale for the child migration policy and who drove it forward within a context of secrecy, deception and lies. "

"…need to address the relationship between the charities, the churches and the state in the implementation of this policy."

Quoting Liz Davies

"The forced migration of children as a social policy began in the 17th Century and continued for 350 years until coming to an end in 1970."

"It is estimated that 130,000 child victims of 200,000 parents were sent to Canada, New Zealand, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and Australia. Most child migrants had no idea of their birth families or the reason why they were sent to the colonies and parents were not told what had happened to their children. They were sent to populate the Empire with ‘good, white British stock’. Many of the children lived in large institutions and were used as cheap labour suffering abuse, cruelty and neglect..."

"The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland has already heard evidence from child migrants, as has the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse."

"It is not yet known whether the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in the UK will grant child migrants core participant status and therefore enable them to be legally represented."

"It is concerning that the main IICSA public hearings are not accepting personal accounts of child abuse which are instead being presented through the Truth Project strand of the Inquiry which is not part of the legal process of prosecution and justice."

"The [Fairbridge] society was one of several child migration charities which dispatched about 100,000 impoverished British children to Australia, Canada and other far-flung parts of the Empire from the late 19th century to the 1970s."

"Unlike Barnardo’s, which has acknowledged that its child migrant scheme was `shameful` and `barbaric`, Fairbridge has refused to apologise for past injustices."

"In January 2011 it was announced that Fairbridge will become part of The Prince’s Trust."

Read more: http://loucollins.uk/2016/04/25/britains-child-migrants-the-fairbridge-societythe-independent-inquiry-into-child-sexual-abuse-iicsa/

Opting out of the Every Student Succeeds Act

Here is more about America`s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the resistance mounting against it. It is worth reading for what it tells us about what is coming our way soon and the obstacles to be surmounted.

From Peg With Pen:

"Currently it's Spring of 2016 and we are in the thick of Opt Out."

"Opt out is still surrounded by intense bullying and harassment by school district employees (I anticipate that this will grow unfortunately). But, the good news is that the Opt Out Movement continues to increase in numbers. Opt Out, the People's Movement, grows by the day - and thank god for that because the work ahead of us is daunting. "

"Here’s why. Opt out has been completely co-opted. However, also understand that co-optation is typical when people are attempting to create a revolution. The .01% will co-opt in any way they can in order to gain leverage. They will use pawns to help create co-optation and compromise. These pawns who receive corporate funding will continue to push corporate ideology - which right now means singing the praises of ESSA."

"And the passage of ESSA means that the end of year test eventually could become passé. ESSA is pushing for online, daily testing - testing that is embedded inside online curriculum. Children will now be subjected to online modules in which they must master something before moving on to the next online module. It might be called personalized learning, mastery learning, proficiency-based testing, competency-based education, innovative assessments, and more. ESSA is pushing for these online assessment systems, as is ALEC, and the many foundations and organizations that are hoping to cash in."

"As Stephen Krashen states: Competency-based education is not just a testing program. It is a radical and expensive innovation that replaces regular instruction with computer "modules" that students work through on their own. It is limited to what can be easily taught and tested by computer, and is being pushed by computer and publishing companies that will make substantial profits from it."

"Not only are they pushing for daily online testing and curriculum, they are pushing for people to DROP the end of the year test. Who knew! They support Opt Out!"

"Meanwhile..............."

"Everyone , and their mother, will quietly guide the states and districts to assist them in implementing ESSA state policies - which of course will include daily online testing - via lots of federal cash..."

"Also, be sure to read how the Rockefeller Foundation plans to solve the `youth employment crisis` via competency-based hiring. Never forget that the goal is to gather data from cradle to adulthood. As daily online testing infiltrates the schools there will be more data than ever before - the data will be used to control, manage and direct our children into employment - or prison - in order to benefit the .01%.. Competency based hiring will be made possible due to the data that will morph into micro-credentials or digital badges online. This is already happening - it was planned patiently, methodically, and over years."

Read more http://www.pegwithpen.com/search?updated-min=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2017-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=4

Chris Hedges spoke at the Opt Out conference but the quality of sound is not good.

This video is better.

　
Beginning about 39 minutes, Chris Hedges talks about the growth of the prison population after the Clinton administration.

"The prison system......a microcosm of what our corporate masters are planning for the rest of us... They have the mechanisms by which they can shut down dissent."