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Wednesday 31 August 2016

Katrina Percy takes on new role with Southern Health


"Katrina Percy said `the effect ongoing personal media attention has had on staff and patients` had made her position as boss of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust untenable."

"Ms Percy had faced calls to quit after the trust was criticised over the way it investigated patient deaths."

"An NHS England-commissioned probe found 272 of the 722 deaths over the last four years were dealt with properly." [That`s a strange way of putting it because it means most deaths were not dealt with properly.]

"Ms Percy, who was chief executive for nine years, said she "`irmly believed` it was her responsibility to stay on to `oversee improvements`."

"She said she understood why `many will say I should have stepped down sooner given the very public concerns which have been raised in the past months`."

"Ms Percy said she was taking on a new role with Southern Health providing `strategic advice to local GP leaders`."

"A spokeswoman for the trust said Ms Percy's salary - which is quoted in the trust's annual report as between £180,000 and £190,000 - would remain the same when she moved to the advisory role."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37221250

See also https://markneary1dotcom1.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/the-southern-health-sidewinder/

Tuesday 30 August 2016

GIRFEC provides population data. Is that for Big Data analytics ?

The Mental Health Indicators provide population data, according to Boyd McAdam at the launch of the GIRFEC Indicators. (Uploaded 2012)
 
 

He says: "I have to stress that in talking about this we`re looking to the future and what I`m describing is might. We are working this through just now. And part of the importance of today`s indicators is it provides a framework in which we think about the individual child`s data that we capture and then how it might inform a more population based approach..."

"And if we can establish a more consistent way of capturing concerns, recording information about the individual child across all agencies who are working with children we may then be able to aggregate the data from the individual children up into a locality, a geographical - a category of children approach."

"That would be greatly assisted if you could achieve that electronically but as I think many of us know IT is a huge challenge. The approach, and the thinking about what it is we should be capturing in each of our professions about the individual child is where I think the indicators launched today will help us take forward our development..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H6ruJBD8pk
It is setting children and families up for Big Data analytics and predictive modelling, more like. (See The race for predictive modelling) It ties in with the idea of `doing more with less` because, if you can predict future needs before they are realised, then you can jump in early to prevent the needs from arising - or so the social engineers profess to believe.

Anyway, by looking backwards and forwards with these developments it is possible to get a deeper understanding of what was intended.
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE (SCOTLAND) BILL
POLICY MEMORANDUM
76. Currently, information about a child may be shared where the child is at a significant risk of harm. However, the role of the Named Person is based on the idea that information on less critical concerns about a child`s wellbeing must be shared if a full picture of their wellbeing is to be put together and if action is to be taken to prevent these concerns developing into more serious issues. Without the necessary power to share that kind of information, the Named Person will not be able to act as effectively as is intended. This was a point raised consistently by practitioners and professionals.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_Bills/Children%20and%20Young%20People%20(Scotland)%20Bill/b27s4-introd-pm.pdf
 
It was also a point hidden from children and families by Boyd McAdam who, inconsistently, kept insisting that children should be at the heart of decision making:
"There was a suggestion that we need to do more to `take the community with us`. Families, carers and children were not, it was said, switched on to GIRFEC. Boyd McAdam pointed out that it had been a conscious decision to focus first on embedding GIRFEC in the professional practice of all stakeholder delivery bodies, before raising awareness in the general public."
(GIRFEC Programme Board minutes, November 2012)
Now why would you want to hide a BIG thing like GIRFEC from children and their families?

Perhaps it was because it was never intended that a campaign group like NO2NP would come along and spoil the action.

The changing relationship between the citizen and the state

Paul Buddery, Matthew Parsfield & Atif Shafique

The enabling state, Big Society, Every Child Matters, according to this report, are examples of the drive towards an altered relationship between the citizen and the state. Since the Named Person scheme grew out of Every Child Matters, it is also part of this same schema of altered relationships, but that is already obvious to many Scottish citizens who find it unacceptable that the state should interfere in the minutiae of everyday family life. It is also recognised that the Named Person, as a single point of contact - if you want it, was always a scurrilous attempt to deceive the public.

What might be less well understood, because it is screened behind a verbal fog in a multitude of different documents, is that the altered relationship between the citizen and the state is about fragmenting and shrinking the welfare state. As Carnegie Trust guru, Sir John Elvidge who masterminded the `enabling state,` has advised: it`s about doing more with less; it`s about building community resilience so that individuals need less.

"What place is there in this dynamic for contributors other than self-organising people on the one hand and the enabling government on the other? And at this point it might be tempting to say that it`s self evident the charitable foundations, charities and the wider voluntary sector must have a role to play."
It is self evident that contributors to an altered relationship between the citizen and the state should involve charities. So thinks Sir John Elvidge, but I don`t think so. What is self evident to many in Scotland is that the role of charities in standing by the Scottish plan and mouthing their words, in order to inflict a Named Person on every child in Scotland worked against children and family rights. The RSA`s view that charities are seen by the public as `honest brokers` is now an overly rosy view.

Returning to the RSA document: 

"It’s wrong to see social support simply as services delivered to the individual, by the state. This characterisation completely cuts out the important relationship an individual has with the community (or communities) of which he is part of. Children are not the children of the state; they are the community’s children; they are part of communities and neighbourhoods… We’ve lost that sense of community."
Guess who the community is.
"The voluntary, community and social sector incorporates the broad subset of institutional public life that is not part of the formal state apparatus. Consisting of charities, volunteers, religious and community institutions and increasingly social enterprises - businesses with a social purpose - the social sector does not encompass the whole of what is meant by `community`, but it does have a role in organising communities and occupies a potentially key position between communities and the state."
`Businesses with a social purpose` -  this is what many of the large charities have become. They speak on behalf of our children, and us - for the business, while staffing the front line with volunteers and hiving off public money into their management coffers.

It`s the new relationship !

  https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/changing-the-narrative-report.pdf

Monday 29 August 2016

The REGRET story



Published on 29 Jun 2016

"Nearly 400 previously healthy Irish teenage girls, have suffered severe long term side effects following the HPV vaccination in first year of seconday school. These excruciating side effects include seizures, severe headaches, paralysis, memory loss, early onset menopause, pancreatitis, joint and leg pain, muscle weakness, brain fog, memory loss, chest pain, heart palpitations, extreme tiredness as well as auto-immune conditions."

"Most of these are listed in the manufacturers Product Information Leaflet (PIL), which parents in Ireland did not receive before signing the consent form. Instead the parent’s received a glossy brochure that reassured them the side effects if any would be mild such as some redness, swelling or itchiness of the arm on the day."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzgn0z8R2zQ


Go Fund Me - https://www.gofundme.com/REGRET-ie
Website - http://www.regret.ie/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/REGRET.ie
Twitter - https://twitter.com/REGRET_ie

Cuts to public health





"Historical cuts to social care funding have now exhausted the opportunities for significant further efficiencies in this area. Increasing numbers of people with genuine social care needs are no longer receiving the care they need because of a lack of funding."

"This not only causes considerable distress to these individuals and their families but results in additional costs to the NHS. We are concerned about the effect of additional funding streams for social care not arriving until later in the Parliament..."

(Committee Chair Dr Sarah Wollaston MP)
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-committee/news-parliament-20151/spending-review-health-social-care-report-published-16-17/

Sunday 28 August 2016

More than 200 PFI schools are now partially owned by offshore investment funds


"More than 200 schools built in Scotland under private finance initiative (PFI) schemes are now at least partially owned by offshore investment funds."

"Under PFI, the private sector builds and manages school buildings in return for a fee, typically over 25-30 years."

"In one project in Edinburgh, 17 new schools were built, with the council paying £1.5m a month."

"Analysis for the BBC found there had been 13 trades involving equity in the Edinburgh schools scheme since 2001."

 "Although published data does not confirm the exact number of PFI schools owned wholly or partly offshore, it is clear they represent the vast majority."

"Stakes in PFI building projects can be sold. They can then be traded on the secondary market to become parts of larger investment funds and pensions, as the monthly fees paid by councils provide a steady income."

"Dexter Whitfield, from the European Services Strategy Unit, told a BBC Scotland investigation the Edinburgh PPP1 scheme was now owned by four different companies."

"`Those four different companies are located offshore in Guernsey and Jersey, and they are basically controlled by shareholders,` he said."

"A critic of PFI, he has described the projects as `wealth machines`, adding: `There are an awful lot of people making very substantial sums of money out of it`."

"The 17 schools built in Edinburgh under PPP1 were closed for repairs earlier this year after construction faults were found."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37135611

Glasgow announces proposals to hand over IT services to CGI

"PUBLIC services and thousands of jobs are being `hived off on the cheap`, it has been claimed, as Scotland’s largest council moves to becomes the latest authority to privatise all of its computer systems."
"Amid an unprecedented squeeze on council finances, Glasgow has joined Edinburgh and Scottish Borders in announcing proposals to hand over all its IT services to the same Canadian multi-national firm - CGI Group - with other councils expected to follow suit."
"The move has triggered claims that council IT will become the first public service in Scotland to be entirely privatised."
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14706046.Jobs_and_services__quot_hived_off_on_the_cheap_quot__as_Labour_council_signals_privatisation_move/
"The Scottish Government’s procurement frameworks provide a mechanism by which preferred partners are awarded a framework agreement for services related to voluntary organisations, charities, local authorities, universities and colleges, health services. These agreements provide the contracting authorities the possibility of making individual purchases without repeating many of the stages of a full competitive tendering processes required by Scottish Government regulations. If a framework has been set up, there is no need to formulate terms and conditions for procurement contracts because they have already been agreed upon."

"Under such a framework agreement, CGI has been selected to provide comprehensive support to Scotland’s public sector and its civil society as part of a contract entered into with the Scottish Government. The consulting firm has been awarded two procurement frameworks, which include providing IT services to voluntary organisations, charities, local authorities, universities and colleges, health services."

http://www.consultancy.uk/news/2359/scotland-selects-cgi-for-it-procurement-framework

From Weasel Zippers:
"There’s another thing about CGI."
"CGI has a subsidiary called Silver Oak Solutions (SOS) which operates the PRISM platform. If that rings a bell, it`s because the NSA uses the PRISM platform to help spy on people."
"So that means CGI, with a checkered history, which operates the PRISM data collection platform for the NSA, was also selected to work on the Obamcare website, with all kinds of private information, without having to go out to competitive bidding."
http://www.weaselzippers.us/158330-cgi-why-did-failure-plagued-company-get-the-obamacare-contract-perhaps-connection-to-the-nsa-and-prism-explains-it/

Saturday 27 August 2016

The contradictions of the Named Person scheme


"Maybe this headline says it all," says UK Column`s Brian Gerrish. "They are apparently worried that they`ve broken the law. This is Chief Constable Philip Gormley, the man at the top now. And I just found this, well laughable; but of course it`s black humour. They`re worried because they`ve been participating in the Named Person scheme, the guardian plan. They could have broken the law. So we`ve got Police Scotland in a bit of a tizz here, David."

"Asking the Scottish Government to reassure them that they are compliant with the requirements of the European Convention of Human Rights, you would hope I would have thought in my naivety that Police Scotland might have been able to form a robust and independent view on whether they`re actually breaking the law."

"Before they acted is the key thing." Gerrish adds.

"Before they acted, and the suggestion here is that something might have changed. You know that going forward: are we breaking the law, are we compliant? That`s not the question. The question is: we`ve been rolling this out for the last three, four years in huge swathes of Scotland affecting hundreds of thousands of families. If we have been breaking the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act, well, what position does that put Police Scotland in?"

There`s laughter in the UK Column studio.

"Legally, it`s not very good. In terms of claims, it might not be very good. In terms of public confidence, catastrophic, potentially."
 
Gerrish moves the argument forward: "Well if we have a look at the sort of confidence in the police, who is training them? We`ve shown this before but it was some time ago. Let`s bring her up on screen. Who do we have running police training? We`ve got Professor Shirley Pearce CBE, a clinical psychologist, a so-called independent chair of the College of Policing. Why do we need a psychologist running policing? And if we just have a look at this:"


"Achieving our ambition. To achieve our ambition we will extend our networks beyond the traditional boundaries of policing - Does that mean falsifying internal reports and misrepresenting yourself to the public? Is that leading beyond authority that she`s encouraging here? It`s quite remarkable isn`t it? And then we`ve got the same attitude coming up in the Scottish Government. Now you`ve produced these excellent articles here. We`ve got: The Named Person Provision has been suspended. That`s reported, Holyrood, and of course the man in the picture is John Swinney."

 

"But at the same time Holyrood is going to push ahead with the Named Person plan. So we don`t know whether it`s unlawful. The police don`t know whether it`s unlawful. But the government`s going to push ahead with it. So they`re above the law."

 

David Scott elaborates: "This is a plan that Aidan O'Neill QC for the No to the Named Person campaign described memorably as: `Doing my head in, like wrestling with an octopus`. Well it remains an octopus because it is suspended and pushing ahead. Simultaneously."

"It`s suspended. It`s being pushed ahead. It`s unlawful. No it`s not unlawful. But it gets better because parents have now got to co-operate. It`s those nasty parents. So this was a headline here which you brought across in the Press and Journal. Parents must co-operate for the guardian scheme to be effective. So Mr Swinney says those very nasty parents won`t co-operate. They`re horrible, despicable people; they must. But we also need the abuser. Guardian scheme won`t work if the abusers opt out. My head was in a spin at this point David."

 
More laughter from David Scott: "It`s ridiculous. It`s got to be voluntary because, you know, Nicola Sturgeon has promised this is voluntary and it requires everyone to co-operate because if the abusers don`t co-operate then the scheme doesn`t work. You`re just left monitoring closely the ninety nine percent of parents who actually do look after their kids and spending all your resources on that and not having anything left for the actual small number who are dangerous, neglectful or abusive. And this is meant to require co-operation and Mr Swinney says it was based on co-operation."

"It was based on nothing of the sort. It was based on: `It`s happening whether you want it or not. You`re a minion. Know your place,` is what it was based on. And since the Supreme Court has pointed out that that`s unlawful what are we getting now? We don`t know. All of the inconsistencies and contradictions that`s involved in this octopus-like legislation are now being shown in all of their unseemly glory to the Scottish public. And the Press and Journal had an opinion piece ... the conclusion of which was this scheme should be scrapped, and scrapped now. And that`s very much the view that most thinking people in Scotland are taking. But not Mr Swinney.... I think the phrase is: `This organisation does not tolerate failure,` Brian..."

"Well I`m going to sum it up by saying we`ve got a Scottish government that appears to have brought in legislation which is against the law. They`ve broken the law. And the same Scottish government just uses the police and social services to come along and steal four of your children. So Scottish government, this is not a government, this is a fiefdom; it`s a criminal fiefdom and it`s now clearly above the law."

http://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-26th-august-2016

Friday 26 August 2016

Identity issues

On UK Column News yesterday David Scott took the audience through some of the Police Scotland regulations 1996.

"This is the current regulations. We had an older, more traditional, common law requirement to `not commit a crime` called `breach of duty` in Scots law which is the equivalent to malfeasance in public office in England.  But it is quite an interesting list. Neglect of duty`s on that list: so it`s misconduct and neglect of duty. And `suppression of complaints` was a very interesting one.  So there are standards."

 "Now what we`re seeing is a strange split in Police Scotland. We`re seeing some officers conducting themselves extremely well and we`re seeing an element within Police Scotland working, it would appear, another agenda.  And a lot of officers seem to be very unhappy with this element within the police that seems to be working as though that list does not exist..."

Brian Gerrish adds a comment: "A lot of people have got this impression that all police officers are bad. We`ve obviously fought that for some time. It`s clearly not the case. But what has been true is that there seems to have been a reluctance of police officers to actually speak out when they know something is wrong. And it does seem around the Docherty case that something has drastically changed because people are coming forward with information. But at the same time they`re showing that they are themselves scared of other elements within the police..."

Sgt Sam Buchan, third from right on picture
 
"This is Hot Fuzz...[Police Scotland fun day] And we`re just going to bring up this gentleman. Now there`s been something funny going on around the name of this police sergeant, Sam Buchan. What can you tell us? We`ve got to be accurate here.  At the moment we`re looking at police officers, perfectly good reputations, all of them. What`s going on around the use of Buchan`s name?"

"Well, there are several identity issues that have been difficult surrounding the Docherty case and essentially as we`ve been investigating allegations made by the Dochertys everything we`ve managed to check has checked out, with one or two exceptions. In those cases the truth has proven to be stranger and more concerning than even the Dochertys knew; and they`ve been surprised at what we have, in fact, uncovered. Now one of the key players in this was understood by the Docherty family to be Sergeant Sam Buchan."

David Scott reads out an extract from Brian Docherty which appears in the transcript:

"Well, we lived between Fraserburgh and Peterhead at the time, on this Viscount’s estate. It was slightly closer, I’d say to Fraserburgh, so it was the local … I called this hotline 101 or, you know, the standard line, and they put me in touch with a local officer, called Sergeant Sam Buchan."

"He then goes on to outline what this officer did.  He organised an interview with two officers described as ideal who transpired to be very inexperienced. As that interview was going on, Sergeant Buchan was in another police office with Alan Low who`d approached and offered money to the Docherty family, and Viscount Petersham. That was only discovered later but that was what was going on. And then the very next day - so within twenty four hours - the sergeant was at the door saying to the Docherty family: `What can I do to persuade you that there`s nothing to see here?` And later on they found when social services descended upon them they eventually uncovered that the reason this happened was a report left in Police Scotland to social services. When the officer that authored that report was confronted, it transpired that the report that was submitted was not her report.  It was submitted when she was on vacation and was submitted by Sergeant Buchan."

"So it seems this Sergeant Sam Buchan was at the core of a great many of the problems. So we started to look into information about him and who he might be but what came out was a quite different picture. We found nothing to his discredit. We found his reputation in the local community was very high and we found him running marathons and raising money for charity and with what would appear a very happy family life and there didn`t seem to be any connection between the two pictures.  So when we took the photographic evidence that we got from mainstream media sources - Sergeant Sam Buchan has headed up several public campaigns in North East that have been run by Police Scotland to get kids off drugs and things like this - so his face is in the paper.  So we showed it to the Docherty family and they were quite clear: `No that`s not him. That`s definitely not him. Sergeant Buchan was older; he had grey hair; he had completely different features.  No that`s definitely not him`."

"So what appears to have happened is that they were thinking they were talking to Sergeant Sam Buchan; they were talking to a Police Scotland officer of sergeant rank; or wearing a sergeant`s uniform. But it wasn`t Sergeant Sam Buchan. So that strikes us as a very odd state of affairs and it raises quite a few questions. You know we have this officer who seems to be without anything to compromise his good name and yet his name was put into the frame for all of the wrongdoing that was surrounding the Docherty family. The Dochertys had no idea about this. So we wonder who has been passing himself off as Sam Buchan and why?"

"There was a police complaints procedure that the Dochertys initiated and then there were two police investigations by PIRC, the Police Investigation and Review Commissioner.  None of these internal investigations highlighted to the Dochertys that they were naming the wrong officer.  It didn`t seem to be picked up at all, which seems extremely odd if the investigations were thorough... And most of all we want to know who framed Sam Buchan?"

Brian Gerrish interjects: "You`ve mentioned two really serious things. You`ve mentioned that a report was submitted in the name of one constable when - I think it was a lady - she was on holiday. Very serious. Because that is fraud within the record system, from the police. And then we`ve got what appears to be misuse of somebody`s name whilst interacting with a member of the public. So these are very serious breaches and of course the other point that`s coming out of this is that perfectly decent police constables there north of the border are actually being brought into disrepute by the action of a few of their colleagues."

"Well, quite. And the officer PC Kathryn Lamont was the author of that report and when she was questioned about it by Brian Docherty she was initially quite hostile and then perplexed.  `I`ll phone you back`. She phoned back less than an hour later and offered to come and see Mr Docherty with her police union rep.  So clearly she was very concerned about the position she had been placed in.  And the report that had gone into social services was 180 degrees in another direction from the one she had written.  Rather than highlighting the concerns about the paedophile..."

"This is falsification of evidence, isn it?"

"Absolutely. It was telling the social services to lock on to the Docherty family and that that`s what the problem was. So it completely changed the nature of the report. It wasn`t a tweak; it wasn`t anything minor; it was night and day."

http://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-26th-august-2016 [26 August 2016]

According to the transcript, PC Kathryn Lamont accompanied Sgt Sam Buchan when he visited the Dochertys to persuade them that there was `Nothing to see here.` Did PC Lamont know that the man calling himself Sgt Sam Buchan was an imposter?

Thursday 25 August 2016

Bill could make reporting criminal behaviour a crime

"The shocking film Vaxxed  is drawing audiences all over the country. It details the confessions of a CDC researcher, William Thompson, who states that he and his colleagues buried data in a key study on the MMR vaccine."

"In the study, the vaccine was given a free pass, with assurances that it didn’t increase the risk of autism in childrenwhen, in fact, the data showed it did increase that risk."

"The key moments in Vaxxed are audio recordings of CDC researcher Thompson confessing his sins."

"But wait. Now we have a bill, AB 1671, up before the California legislature. If it passes, it could make it a crime to screen Vaxxed or even write an article about it... The bill would criminalise publishing undercover video footage of `health care providers` and subject third parties, including journalists, to penalties for reporting and distributing the illegally recorded footage..."

"Under AB 1671, a journalist receiving and posting footage from an anonymous source could be punished by the state as well as opened up to potential civil lawsuits. Whistleblowers would not be exempt from the proposal either, regardless of how they obtained the illegal footage..."

"In the case of Vaxxed, the film makers received or obtained the recordings of CDC researcher Thompson and used them to make their case: Thompson was confessing to crimes he and colleagues committed at the CDC."

"But if AB 1671 passes, releasing those recordings and commenting on them, in a film, could be considered a crime, punishable by fine, jailand the film makers could also be open to lawsuits."

"And of course, Vaxxed could be banned from all theatres in California."

"As bizarre as it seems, AB 1671 isn’t just targeting people who make the undercover recordings. Its focus is on reporters who receive those recordings and then use them, post them, and write about them."

"This lunatic attack on free speech coordinates tightly with the infamous 2015 California law, SB277, which made vaccinating California school children mandatory."

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/11/abortion-clinic-sting-videos-sprout-free-speech-battle.htm 

A letter from the Home Office

Following the interview between Brian Gerrish and the Metropolitan police whistleblower, UK Column has been attempting to get the Home Office to say what they are going to do to assist him.

"This was a remarkable saga," Brian Gerrish says.  "First of all the Home Office said they were unable to listen to the audio through the UK Column website. So thousands of other people could do that, but not the Home Office. - I believe they employ 15,000 professionals -  but they couldn`t seem to get that audio."

"So we then provided that audio to the Home Office separately and we were then a little bit surprised and saddened that they were unable to open a file. They couldn`t listen to that one. And then they needed a transcript. So eventually they were provided with a transcript.  Then it went very quiet, until we started putting pressure on the Home Office to ... answer the original emails which said: `What are you going to do to protect this very brave police whistleblower and what are you going to do to investigate the cover-up by the Metropolitan police, by politicians, by local authorities, charities and others, the abuse of children, including little girls found dead in the gutter?`"

"Well yesterday I got a phone call from the Media Team in the Home Office and they were very pleased with themselves because they said a letter is on its way. I opened my email account and sure enough there was a letter."

 
"Now we`re all trying to make this easily readable but the nub of it is - here is the letter addressed to me and the essence of it is: `Well don`t worry because the organisation that is protecting the whistleblower is the IPCC`.  So they`re the Independent Police Complaints Commission and they`ve got it all in hand and even though `we are the government we think it`s best to leave it to the IPCC.  And we also think that you should be reassured because we`ve got MPs like Mr Lewis who is responsible for making sure the police do their job`."

"Well, it gets more and more interesting. This is the start of the letter. It says: `I am writing in response to your letter to the Minister published on your website UKColumn.org concerning a recent interview with a Detective Constable from the Metropolitan Police force. Before I respond to the points raised in your letter, I would like to inform you that the Criminal Justice ministerial portfolio has transferred to the Ministry of Justice.  Brandon Lewis MP is the Minister for Policing and Fire Services.  Sir Oliver Heald QC MP is the Minister for Courts and Justice and Dr Philip Lee MP is the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Victims, Youth and Family Justice`."

"Now this of course was ... irrelevant because I`d already sent the correspondence to Mr Lewis and I told the Home Office that was the case.  But what we`re actually interested in is this: it says `Dear Mr Gerrish  I am,` and in the second paragraph it says: `before I respond`.  So I assumed that this letter had come from a genuine human being but at the end of the letter it actually transpired that there was no person. It was an anonymous letter. It had been written presumably by a computer in the Policing Fire Services Directorate..."

 
"But I then discovered what this was about because after I left the conversation with the Media Team, I phoned the telephone number on the top of this letter, and this is what transpired. Essentially, the Home Office has deliberately hidden the identity of the individual writing the letter to me. The Media Team state that this is normal procedure and it will not affect how I address a response. Very important this because they kept pushing it. This is perfectly normal. No signature, no name. `And it doesn`t matter Mr Gerrish because it won`t affect how you then deal with the matter`. I asked should it be Mr Anonymous or Dear Ms `X` but they were unable to advise on that. But this is what they were really doing."

"This is deceit because when you phone up the number at the top of the letter the operator, who is very helpful said: `I`m unable to put you through unless you can tell me a name and a department`.  So the fact that the name was withheld means that when I phone that number I go into no man`s land because the operator - I believe the lady was telling me the truth - she is unable to put me through."

"Deliberate, calculated deceit by the Home Office Media Team. When I asked the particular gentleman who had told him there was an email for me with the letter attached; he didn`t want to tell me that either."

"So the moment we get into child abuse, it`s cover-up and deceit by the British government."

 
"Well of course they mention the IPCC; so let`s have a look at them because the letter said that the IPCC had actually produced the policy on how they were going to deal with whistleblowers. So I went to the website.  I had a look. I couldn`t find the document the Home Office referred to, but I did note that Mr Julian Blazeby is now the Director of major investigations and if you want to have a look at him; I suggest you do; because you can see him on LinkedIn, his full profile. There`s quite a lot of information here: previously Assistant Chief Constable with Staffordshire Police and I did note down at the bottom that he`s not only Common Purpose* but he`s boasting that he`s able to operate outside authority. So I would imagine that`s pretty handy if you`ve got a little bit of trouble with child abuse."

"So we had a little look further for this gentleman and came up with the Sentinel`s report: `Staffordshire Police under investigation after social media drink-drive naming`. And what they did is they named people they had picked up for drink driving offences before it had gone to court. So this was a quote from Julian Blazeby."
"Staffordshire Police assistant chief constable Julian Blazeby added: `We can confirm we have been approached by the Information Commissioner`s Office (ICO) in relation to the recent drink driving campaign`."
"`They asked us to provide information on some elements of the campaign and we will be providing a full response to the questions they have asked in the next few days`."

"So they broke the law... They can just publish without any due process, without any conviction; they just publish people`s names..."

"Well the key point here Mike is that they`ve been through a training course where the training course boasts it`s producing people who are able to operate outside authority.  So in this police constable`s mind he`s in his proper area."

Mike Robinson points out that the CEO of Common Purpose*, Julia Middleton, used the term `beyond authority` but Blazeby says `without authority`. "That changes the context completely."

"It gives you a free rein to do what you want Mike."

"So this is the man in charge of major incidents within the Independent Police Complaints Commission; so we shouldn`t worry; this is probably the man who`s got the whistleblower`s safety at heart."
 


http://www.ukcolumn.org/  [25 August 2016]

* A secretive organisation (charity) that provides leadership training courses. 

Tuesday 23 August 2016

The pincer attack on global education


Robin Eubanks is not the easiest blogger to read but she is one amazing researcher in the field of education and if you absorb one tenth of the information she is putting out, that will be more than enough to stimulate thinking about the transformation of global education.

In this particular post she is pointing out that there is a pincer attack on education coming from both the political left and political right which is directing education along a similar global pathway.

Hard as it is to believe, anybody who knows anything about the United Nations Agenda 21 (upgraded to 2030) will recognise that left/right convergence as communitarianism. There`s no opposition.

Her concern in this post is to alert readers to the motivation behind the global transformation in education. The child/adult is to grow up having had their perceptions of the world engineered and transformed to fit into the world being structured for them by the global elite. The student`s perceptions do not have to be based on reality; they just have to be believed. This is where social and emotional learning becomes important.

======================
"What if that goal for creating `a worthy planetary civilization` relies on governments at all levels stipulating performance and achievement ‘standards’, which regulate what anyone must know or do? What if those same levels of government describe the desired values, dispositions, ethics, and beliefs that students are to internalize? What if those stipulations get hidden as social emotional learning, character, or civics education? What if parents never grasp that both NAEP and PISA are looking to assess for whether the desired internalized, prescribed attributes have taken hold at a neurobiological level? Parents might then never know that their child was being socially re-engineered at school because they believe those measures are ‘tests.’ They would have been misled and might fail to recognize the existence of a PDMa Political Disciplinary Mechanismused to make sure that the subsidiary levels of government remain faithful to the desired national or global implementation..."
"[Let`s]l shift to what UK Sociologist Anthony Giddens wrote in his 1994 book Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics where he talked about shifting from a welfare state to Positive Welfare. As I have documented previously."
"Happiness ‘does not depend on outside events, but rather on how we interpret them’; it is ‘a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated.’ It depends less on controlling the outer world than controlling the inner one. ‘People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy...’"
"What if social emotional learning and quality learning are actually designed to change how the child perceives the world just as Giddens desired and parents are unaware because they have been trained deceitfully like Pavlov’s Dogs to simply worry about databases of Personally Identifiable Information?"
http://invisibleserfscollar.com/false-selling-of-education-terms-as-remedies-obscures-real-function-as-an-accelerant/#comments

========================

What she is saying is that there is a global agenda to re-engineer children coming from both the political left and right that lies behind the mass collection of data on children which is why `facts` are no longer important, but emotions are. These changes need to be monitored.

In other words,  there is more to worry about than the databases.

John Swinney is bluffing about Supreme Court ruling


From the Daily Mail:

"`STATE snooper` schemes already in place across Scotland are unlawful, according to legal advice obtained by campaigners."

"The revelation has prompted the Tories to accuse Education Secretary John Swinney of `bluffing`, following a Supreme Court ruling last month."

"While the brakes have been applied to the SNP`s plan for a Named Person for every child, a quarter of Scots youngsters have already had one imposed on them."

"Many of the councils trialling the scheme have allowed snoopers to share information on children - which was at the heart of the Supreme Court decision that the system breached European human rights law."

"Last night, a Scottish Government spokesman insisted the court`s judgment `does not relate to current practice`."

"But lawyers advising the No to the Named Person campaign - which was victorious in its challenge to the Government - disagree."

"A campaign spokesman said: `The legal situation is clear - any information sharing must be done in line with the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act`."

"`What the 2014 Act says about information sharing must be totally disregarded - not only have those sections never been in force, they`re now never going to be in force because the Supreme Court has ruled them unlawful`."

"`If the practice on the ground looks at all like the 2014 Act provisions - which some of the cases certainly seem to show - then it is unlawful and must be urgently reined in`."

"`We would urge anyone who is concerned about how their information has been shared to make subject access requests to find out what information is held about them, to help expose unlawful practices`...."

"`It costs as little as £10 for a subject access request to find out what data the state holds on your family`."

McDonalds launch new keep-fit toy

 
"McDonald’s, a company reviled as of late for its use of unhealthy ingredients, has decided to change course. Kind of."

"In its latest marketing ploy to prove it is more than a chemical mill masquerading as a restaurant, McDonald’s has launched a new Happy Meal toy: a pedometer."

The month-long `step-it` toy promotion is intended to encourage children to exercise. McDonald’s Canada Senior Marketing Manager, Michelle McIlmoyle, discussed the new temporary addition. `Physical activity is important to everyone of all ages. We very much support children’s well-being,` she said in a press release, as reported by Digital Trends."

"Step-it is in line with McDonald’s general philosophy for Happy Meal toys, which is to make toys that encourage either physical or imagination-based play,` she added."

"The new wristband fitness tracker is the company’s latest effort to clean up its image."

http://theantimedia.org/mcdonalds-happy-meal-joke/

Youth development across the commonwealth

 
 
"The Commonwealth Youth Development Index (YDI) measures the status of 15-29 year-olds in 170 countries according to five key domains: Education, Health and Well-being, Employment, Civic Participation and Political Participation. YDI scores range from 0-1, 0 being the lowest youth development and 1 the highest."

"The YDI is not just about presenting data, but also collecting it..."

"The Commonwealth Youth Development Index (YDI) is the first attempt to aggregate global youth-specific data...As well as establishing a monitoring framework, YDI will act as an incentive for member countries to collect youth-specific data as they see their achievements and needs ranked globally and regionally."

http://www.youthdevelopmentindex.org/cms/cms-youth/_images/197918019952385f3219c75.pdf

"To mark International Youth Day 2016, on 12 August, the first-ever Australian National Youth Development Index report has been launched with support from the Commonwealth Secretariat. The index measures the situation for 6.3 million young people aged 10 to 29 in Australia, and examines changes between 2006 and 2015 across five domains: education, health and well-being, employment, civic participation and political participation."

"According to the index, all Australian federal states and territories have seen an improvement in overall youth development since 2006, with the one exception of Tasmania. Political participation has seen the largest improvements nationwide, with increases in the numbers of young people taking part in democratic processes."

"Overall national youth health and wellbeing has however deteriorated, with illicit drug use, mental health, suicides and growing rates of sexually transmitted diseases key drivers of this decline."

- See more at: http://thecommonwealth.org/media/press-release/australia-youth-development-index-shines-spotlight-nations-young-people#sthash.YCglkHrh.dpuf

And Australia got the highest YDI score in the commonwealth !

Monday 22 August 2016

Fife social worker accused of bungling 16 children`s cases


"A SOCIAL worker involved with Liam Fee and Mikaeel Kular in the months before they died has been accused of bungling the cases of 16 children."

"Lesley Bate was part of the Fife social work team responsible for the little boys` welfare shortly before both were killed by their parents."

"Liam, two, was murdered by his mother Rachel and her sadistic civil partner Nyomi while three-year-old Mikaeel died two days after being beaten by his mother Rosdeep Adekoya."

"Bate, 60, faces 13 charges of failing to properly handle the cases of 16 children aged from one to 15."

"The charges relate to the period between December 2011 and August 2014, when she was employed by Fife Council in the child protection team in Glenrothes and the children and families team in Dunfermline as a social worker."

"One of the charges claims Bate failed to follow up concerns raised by a childminder about a one-year-old- boy, labelled FF."

"It alleges that despite the carer raising concerns on January 15, 2013, `regarding bruising to the face` of the baby - and the next month that `he had a sore neck` - Bate did not act."

"During the Liam murder trial, childminder Heather Farmer told the court she contacted the Scottish Childminding Association in January 2013 after he turned up with scratches and bruises to his face."

"In a separate incident, she raised concerns about the toddler`s neck after he was dropped off at her home on February 18, 2013."

"The charges against Bate also include failing to properly assess sex abuse claims involving a girl aged three and allegedly staying for tea at the family home of a vulnerable child."

"She is accused of not minimising the risk of harm to children, not maintaining accurate records and disobeying management instructions."

"On another occasion she allegedly left confidential paperwork in the street..."

"The news was revealed by a Fife Council whistleblower, who highlighted details of the authority`s controversial handling of Liam`s care."

"Senior social workers claimed at his trial that the tot inexplicably `fell off the radar` but insiders said Liam was still under the care of Fife Council`s Glenrothes social work team."

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/liam-fee-mikaeel-kular-social-8666589#ICID=sharebar_twitter

Child protection is supposed to be based on teamwork.  It looks like management is getting off lightly here.

Saturday 20 August 2016

Suspended sentence for ex-husband of Baby P boss


"The ex-husband of shamed Baby P boss Sharon Shoesmith was convicted after being caught with a haul of child porn."

"Geoffrey Shoesmith, 67, was given a suspended 16-month jail term after he admitted making and possessing indecent images of children."

"It comes as Ms Shoesmith plans to cash in on the scandal that got her sacked from her role with Haringey Council, launching a book called Learning From Baby P."

"Baby P, real name Peter Connelly, died in Haringey, north London, in 2007 after suffering more than 50 injuries..."

"The offences are thought to have taken place between October 2008 and August 2014, after the pair split and there is no suggestion Ms Shoesmith knew about his offending."

"Today, a relative of the child told The Sun: 'Geoffrey Shoesmith’s conviction is ironic given her role at Haringey was meant to be to protect kids."

"The family is already very angry about her book."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748098/Shamed-Baby-P-boss-Sharon-Shoesmith-s-ex-husband-caught-haul-child-porn-prepares-cash-tragic-toddler-s-death-tell-book.html

PE teacher struck off


"A FORMER Drumchapel High School teacher who forced a child with a concussion to participate in a PE class and walked out of both her class and the school without alerting anyone has been struck off."

"A number of complaints were listed against the physical education teacher, Merody Campbell, including that of a parent who reported a child being forced to take part in the class by setting up equipment despite having an exemption certificate due to a concussion in August 2012."

"On another occasion on November 21, 2012, a pupil sustained a `serious injury` while in Miss Campbell`s class, however, no effort was made to contact a senior staff member and it is unknown if she followed the official school procedure."

http://www.clydebankpost.co.uk/news/14690340.Former_Drumchapel_High_teacher_declared_a__risk_to_pupils__is_struck_off/?ref=twtrec

Friday 19 August 2016

Ten questions


Coverage of the Docherty case begins about 36.06 minutes when Alex Thomson informs viewers and listeners that the transcript of the Docherty interviews are now available on the UK Column website.

Here`s the link to the transcript: http://www.ukcolumn.org/sites/default/files/documents/Docherty.pdf


Alex Thomson  holds a print out of the pdf to show the huge document which will take the weekend to read.

"We now have a member of the Scottish parliament," he says, "who would not like publicity at this stage, looking at it seriously on behalf of the Dochertys, which is a first." He then spends a few minutes reading out the table of contents which gives a chronology of what has been done to the Dochertys.

When he gets to: "The suspected paedophile Alan Low immediately digs up the  Crimonmogate estate at night,"  he reminds viewers that they have a police source who has informed them that the bodies of children were dumped at sea after being dug up from there.

Moving on: "This is what the Dochertys are asking for help on right now. So if you`re watching in Ireland or Scotland particularly we would love to hear from you at dochertyinvestigation@ukcolumn.org."

"Here are their ten questions:"

"1. Is Jean Smyth the manager of social services in Letterkenny in Donegal in fact the wife of Regional Director John Smyth? "

"2. Who in the Irish government is trying to tell the Dochertys to place all the blame on the social worker in Mayo, Mary Malee, in order to deflect from the Dublin government?"

"3. What is the relationship between Sergeant John Forkan and Maria Houston who uses various name spellings who is the unqualified woman who the Dochertys believe has been looking after their son without qualifications and hitting him?"

"4. What is the background and motivation of the Donegal lawyer Liza Finegan ?"

"5. What is the current professional practice status and location of psychiatrist Dr Ciaran Smyth who tried to do a stitch up on the Dochertys?"

"6. What is the current official location and the current actual practice location of the social worker Gabrielle McDaid? It appears she lives in Londonderry, is registered in Londonderry and works across the international border in Donegal where she became runner up for Irish Social Worker of the Year without apparently being registered with an Irish public practice address. And allied to that: was Gabrielle McDaid registered to practice social work in the Republic of Ireland before June 2016 at the time she was dealing with the Dochertys?"

"7. What is judge Paul Kelly`s background within the Roman Catholic church?"

"8. Since the court appointed guardian Patricia Molony does not drive and we think she`s actually South African by origin but she`s been in Ireland and Britain, and doesn`t drive, who was it who got the police in Northern Ireland and Scotland to give them an escort as we think they had to take the children, against their will actually, to their maternal grandmother`s funeral in January 2016 in Perthshire in Blairgowrie we believe... Who gave them police escort? Who authorised it?"

"9. Who bought Laughton House in County Offaly for James Reilly who was the previous children`s minister in Northern Ireland because he`s known to be a bad debtor for nearly two million euros? And which entities and persons previously purchased for James Reilly a care home which he then had to sell? We believe that Reilly is penniless and being manipulated by Irish, British or other interests. Who bought his houses?"

"10. This is most important. Can the public notify us of any people connected with - anyone you can read about in this transcript - who are known or reasonably suspected to be, police informants or military intelligence informants, to have an allegiance to Freemasonry, to any criminal group or political gangsters or to the Roman Catholic church, especially if that allegiance is much stronger than they publicly intimate because people have sidled up to the Dochertys and pretended to be nominal catholics or ex Freemasons and you find out that they very much aren`t catholics and current Freemasons. And finally on point 10 can the public tell us about anyone connected with any of these people who is living a lie about their denominational affiliations, their sources of wealth, the amount of their wealth, their political loyalty or their sexuality or their nationality?"

Brian Gerrish adds the following comment: "We have been getting extremely good help that includes the police, and Alex, I have to put this in because you won`t be aware of this at the moment but we`ve also been receiving very good assistance from people that we know are Freemasons. So I`m going to gently suggest here that the rule should be to judge people by their actions but I`m able to say with confidence this lunchtime that we know that there`s huge disquiet within the masonic movement as individuals start to realise how deep and how dirty this criminal activity is."

http://www.ukcolumn.org/

Wednesday 17 August 2016

Dad denied information about his ill daughter

"David Foreman was alarmed to discover his desperately ill four-month-old baby had been airlifted to hospital for life-saving treatment and the information had been deliberately kept from him."

"Mr Foreman, 53, slammed the man responsible for Nicola Sturgeon's Named Person's policy and demanded Highland Council is subject to an inquiry over its unlawful handling of his case..."

Campaigners outside Supreme Court

"Highland Council has been operating a pilot version of the controversial legislation since 2010 but the Supreme Court has blocked its national roll out."

"David Foreman from Dorset, who lives in Wick, has been pleading with Director of Health and Social Care Bill Alexander for access to information and case notes on his daughter's well being for weeks."

"He has since discovered through a subject data access request that his four-month-old daughter has been airlifted to hospital and had her name changed on case notes, which is in breach of the law..."

"The Council and NHS Highland who are supposed to be working in tandem have refused to give Mr Foreman access to vital information on his sick baby who was airlifted 250 miles to hospital without his knowledge..."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/700910/Sturgeon-s-flagship-Named-Person-scheme-savaged-by-dad-kept-from-sick-baby

Children return to school in Edinburgh


The climate change debate

Education Scotland tells us that climate change features prominently within the experiences and outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence and has already "proven to be a popular theme for study and interdisciplinary learning in many schools..."

But they do admit that climate change is a controversial and political issue. "A sizeable proportion of the UK public remain sceptical about the scientific evidence used to support it...It is vital that our young people are equipped with the skills to think critically and question how the media reports climate change."


OK. Here`s an example of a piece of media manipulation that young people should be made aware of: Invite a climate change sceptic on to a TV panel, bring in a celebrity science spokesperson like Brian Cox and fill the audience with young climate alarmists to cheer him on - and never let the sceptic finish a sentence. That is what happened down under on the TV programme `Science Weak`.

Despite all of that Malcolm Roberts, the sceptic, stood his ground and wasn`t quite annihilated.
"The key moment making headlines from the Q & A `Science Weak` episode Brian Cox shows a temperature graph.  Malcolm Roberts said the GISS temperature data has been `manipulated`. The Particle Physics Genius’ reply was argument from incredulity: gushing, gratuitous astonishment spread over six attempts to form a complete sentence:"
"By who? NASA? The people the… Hang on a minute. No, no, see this is quite serious. But can I just just one thing. NASA, NASA… The people that landed men on the moon?"
I"n a blink of reductio ad absurdum Cox sweeps aside a potentially useful discussion about thermometers near car-parks, airports, skyscrapers, and mysterious 1,200 km homogenized smoothing. In its place he gives cheap theatrical tricks."
http://joannenova.com.au/2016/08/brian-cox-thinks-17000-employees-at-nasa-always-produce-perfect-graphs-nasa-employees-disagree-who-to-believe/

Brian`s other big mistake was to talk about consensus. As one commenter on Watts Up With That has written:

"Genuine science bows to no authority, Brian, and it is not based on consensus; that’s the job of politics. Advances in science are not made by consensus: advances are made by the brave paddling upstream. If a theory does not agree with validated evidence, then the theory must [be] abandoned and reconstructed. If the predictions, projections, scenarios, or whatever you want to call them are wrong, the science is wrong. It’s scepticism that underpins science, not the cosy comfort of consensus."

"The house of climate cards will eventually collapse, but until then, the world’s poorest people the ones Cox and his ilk claim to champion will be denied life saving energy and continue to die in their millions. If Cox wasn’t a watermelon, he would be celebrating the lack of climate sensitivity*. But his is. So he won’t. "
 

 

*sensitivity to increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere