Sir Harry Burns who was the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland is in big TEDx mode but does require a screen in front of him as a prompt. Never mind, he only has a few minutes and could probably write a book about it, and will.
He pontificates about how meaning and purpose can contribute to wellbeing and how it impacts on the most disadvantaged members of our community....
His well planned final statement is:
"What we need in this world is a compassion that stands in awe of the burdens that the poor have to carry rather than stands in judgement in the way they carry them."
For which he gets the usual big TEDx applause.
COMPETITION
Listen to Sir Harry. I have picked out one flaw in his argument which I will tell you about later. How many can you find, and what are they?
Ten conspiracy points for the best answer.
Glad someone is brave enough to highlight this dangerous nonsense.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise to see that Sir harry is now a professor of global public health...
I probably won't get back to this (sorry) so I'm going to plonk down this link for our friends SOTB - "Girfec by any other name" as someone described it.It's all about the data and those "tests of change".
http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2015/12/committees-join-forces-examine-early-intervention
Yes, it`s all about the data. We`re going to be studied like lab rats.
ReplyDeleteHere`s what Sir Harry thinks:
You come from the East end of Glasgow; so you come from a chaotic background; you`ve got a damaged brain and you`re going to be passing that on to your children.
To break out of this cycle of poverty, the wellbeing guardians are going to have to rush in and do something about it.
I mean, could any idea be more damaging to the people living in the East end of Glasgow?
Just think what they`re going to do with more data.
For those who can`t easily open Sheila`s link:
ReplyDeleteCommittees join forces to examine early intervention
By: Emma Rumney
18 Dec 15
"Two parliamentary select committees have launched a rare joint-inquiry to scrutinise the government’s life chances strategy and the impact of early years intervention."
"The Commons work and pensions and education committees announced yesterday they would look into how government proposes to measure life chances early on and track child poverty by monitoring educational attainment."
"Education committee chair Neil Carmichael said that by “joining forces” the committees hope to examine more effectively the work taking place across Whitehall on early years intervention and how it interacts with the benefits system and public services."
"Life chances seem to be “largely established in the very early years from the womb onwards”, added Frank Field, chair of the work and pensions committee. A child’s future attainment and the chance of gainful employment can be predicted when they begin school."
“It is crucial that we understand how to measure and address these factors to give all children the best chances in life,” he said.
"The government has said its life chances strategy will use early indicators, such as family breakdown, debt and addiction, and track child poverty by monitoring educational attainment at 16 and the numbers of children living in workless households."
"The inquiry will examine these proposals and inform the development of the government’s strategy. The committees are inviting evidence on cross-departmental co-ordination on early years interventions and their interplay with the benefits system and public services."
they are complete arseholes
ReplyDeleteNot a lot of people will have time to understand this statement being distracted with Wars bombing and all /Very sneeky the only way to announce a WARNING is too compare it too Scotlands GIRFECT Getting it right forevery child . A charter to invasde privacy forcefully fought by many in Scotland .A blatent breach of Human Rights and to feed the Worlds DATA GATHERING MONSTER Leading to State Control of all . See NO2P LINKS .
ReplyDeleteWell, I think you win the ten points for that.
ReplyDeleteSecond place goes to Hollie Greig Justice for putting it in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteTHE DATA GATHERING MONSTER
Yes, one way or another this agenda moves forward.
Two things to say about data. (1) It`s statistical and about averages. (2) Only certain kinds of data are gathered for research - the rest of the almost infinite number of possible datasets - are ignored.
Once gathered, the data just sits there. It doesn`t speak to us.
It requires an `expert` to come along who will take the data and build a narrative round about it.
That narrative, if you look at it, begins and ends with a bias.
In the case of Sir Harry, who is putting forward a `global agenda`, that bias - despite his qualifications about it - blames the poor for their own predicament. He quickly sidesteps the economic forces that are beyond the control of the poor. It is the small details of disadvantaged lives that will be attended to by the Early Years Collaborative. It will transform the wellbeing of a nation, so he believes.
Yet the hodge podge of theories that Sir Harry draws together to put across his narrative about early intervention does not quite gel. For instance, when he glibly passes over Jimmy Reid`s account of alienation, Sir Harry is being disengenuous - because Jimmy Reid WAS talking about the economic forces that lay to waste whole communities and that alienate human beings from one another.
That`s a topic that Sir Harry Burns doesn`t really want to consider in any detail. It would spoil his story about early intervention.
See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/still-irresistible-a-working-class-heros-finest-speech-2051285.html