Hate Incidents

The UK Column broadcast on 17 February 2020 with Brian Gerrish, David Scott and Mike Robinson (about 21 mins into the programme)

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Mike Robinson: "Now last week we were talking about queer theory, David. You mentioned the Highland Times. Well the Highland Times has been writing a bit more on this."

David Scott: "Yes, this is another article by Bruce Scott ... looking at the nature of Queer theory. So he writes:"

"They`re coming for our kids, the Highland Times has warned, and so I thought it might be worth taking a closer look at Scotland`s Queer theory inspired LGBT inclusive education. Queer theory/gender ideology and its application in schools can be summed up in an influential book published in 2009 called `Interrogating Heteronormativity in Primary Schools: the Work of the No Outsiders Project`, edited by Renee de Palma and Elizabeth Atkinson."

"And it says that Andrew Moffat contributed to this book. Now Andrew Moffat, he was the headmaster from Birmingham who led the charge to bring this sort of education into Birmingham schools which got all the push back from  the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities in Birmingham and was headline news and we reported on it at some length. and Dr Scott continues here."

"Its stated objectives were to understand the operation of `heteronormativity (heterosexual behaviour, lifestyle), its normalisation, and to develop means to challenge its normativity, in primary schools. It wanted to develop teaching practices within the classroom so it could carry these objectives out."

"Another more sinister aim of the project was, as the authors lamented, to address the omission in primary schools of sexuality, pleasure, bodies and desire which ordinarily, within educational settings with children is omitted (quite rightly in my opinion) to protect children..."

"An even darker aspect of No Outsiders lurks hidden in their manifesto for queering the classroom."

"The overt disdain for heteronormativity is revealed in discussions of a need for the rejection of heterosexuality and reproduction. They argue that there is a need to challenge reproductive futurism (human reproduction of children and its heterosexual nature) and that queering the classroom and human reproduction are at odds with each other."

"Indeed, the rational for teaching children at all is questioned, as queer existences or lifestyles are antagonistic to a reproductive future: i.e., as in heteronormativity, where the future, child and family are valued."

"In other words the notion of the family: a biological Mum and Dad, heterosexuality, commitment to heterosexual monogamy for one`s children and the future, all need to be sacrificed on the altar of Queer theory; the present alternative sexualities (LGBT/Queer sexualities), alternative lifestyles (e.g. open relationships/polyamory) Sex as only for pleasure or immediate gratification is the ideal of a queer Utopia."

"That`s the underlying philosophy that`s driving sex education in Scottish schools and it would appear in schools in Birmingham and other places in England as well."

Mike Robinson: "OK .... which brings us on to this article in Cambridgeshire Live. This is a so-called professor from Anglia Ruskin university, Patricia MacCormack, and the headline in Cambridgeshire Live was `The Only Solution for Climate Change is letting the Human Species go Extinct` ... but at the back of it David is the same Queer theory."

"Absolutely, yes. She`s launched a book, `Ahuman Manifesto`. The book argues that due to the damage done to other living creatures on Earth, we should start gradually phasing out reproduction,  exactly the same ideology here, but rather than offering a bleak look at the future of humanity `it has generated discussion due to its joyful and optimistic tone, as it sets out a positive view for the future of Earth - without mankind`."

"So this is very very profoundly dangerous stuff."

Brian Gerrish: "We`re going to get rid of mankind, joyfully !"

David Scott: "Yes, and just a final slide here of the various organisations pushing this.  We`ve got Stonewall; we`ve got the TIE campaign, Scotland. We`ve also got Mermaids. Here they`re encouraging children to think about gender being a spectrum and they`re not a boy or a girl but something in between. And just to point out that ... currently Starbucks are running a campaign to raise money for Mermaids, so I`m afraid, personally, I won`t be drinking in Starbucks."

Brian Gerrish wonders whether reporting on this topic is going to be made more difficult in future and refers to a case in the press recently about a former policeman who was visited by the homicide police for commenting on Twitter about transgender matters.

 "Let`s have a look at the start of this BBC news - and this is from a couple of days ago - the headline is that Former [high ranking] policeman Harry Miller commented on some tweets and the next minute the police ... had visited his place of work in January last year. Somebody had made a complaint. He was never told who had actually made the complaint ... and then what [the police] said to him is that basically they wanted to check his thinking and they also said well you haven`t actually committed a crime but there has been a hate incident... They indicated that they had logged his name even though he was not guilty of committing any crime... [Mr Miller] believed that if he did not stop speaking and stop tweeting [about transgender matters] that the police were going to take action. So this became a freedom of speech issue."

"Let`s have a look at the Telegraph. `Police compared to Stasi and Gestapo by judge as he rules they interfered in freedom of speech by investigating `non crime` trans tweet.,, Former Police Officer Harry Miller said the police`s actions had a chilling effect on his right to free speech`. So we`re into very very dangerous territory here. This man did not commit any crime but nevertheless he gets the police at his door and as far as he`s concerned the police were threatening him that he needed to change and shut up or he would be in further trouble. So the reporting in the press, very interesting."

"Let`s have a look at what the judge said according to the mainstream press. The claimant`s tweets were lawful and ... there was not the slightest risk that he would commit a criminal offence by continuing to tweet. I find the combination of the police visiting the claimant`s place of work, and their subsequent statements in relation to the possibility of prosecution, were a disproportionate interference with the claimant`s right to freedom of expression because of their potential chilling effect...."

"So you`re led into a world that this is a very good judge and this man is standing up for free speech and the court case has gone quite well . Let`s follow it along because he said some more: `I conclude that the police`s actions led him reasonably to believe that he was being warned not to exercise his right to freedom of expression about transgender issues on pain of potential criminal prosecution`...."

"So we get a look into the mindset of Mr Miller. He was very worried that if he did anything more the police were going to be on his case and it appears that this judge is also very worried about his freedom of expression."

"So the judge then said... `In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society`. Well at that point we might have thought that the media in particular would have been very concerned about this case but it was fascinating to notice because of the style of reporting by Grimbsy Live here; because they more or less made this very damning comment into complete fun by putting up a main page on the internet, at least, with a big superimposed picture..."

"So that this very very serious event, impinging on freedom of speech, was made into a joke and Grimbsy Live did something else which I found very interesting because if you follow through the article it suddenly came up with this banner:"

"Now this is one of the key tweets that was involved in the case."

"Now remember that Mr Miller didn`t actually tweet this out himself: he simply commented, but Grimsby Live so paranoid that it felt it had to sort of put a firewall in front of the tweet itself."

"So this results in a court case When we follow through the court case... we start to see deeper and darker issues because the judge said `[I reject] a wider challenge to the lawfulness of the College of Police guidance [and] rule that it serves legitimate purposes and is not disproportionate`. Now what he`s talking about is the fact that the guidance defines a transgender hate incident as `any non-crime incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender`."

"The judge is saying very clearly that he completely stands up for that particular piece of guidance by the police and what`s more he said this: `The recording of non-crime hate incidents barely encroaches on freedom of expression, if it does so at all the aims of the guidance are `extremely important`."

"So having judged against the police action he reinforces the legitimacy of the College of Policing in creating `law` and recording and holding personal data for non crimes. David, it seems to me that this judge is giving a perfect example of the Orwellian future which he claims we`ve never lived in."

David Scott: "Yes. `War is peace. Freedom is slavery.` This is `Black is white`. This is exactly correct. Now we`ve seen this in Scotland... because of the same guidance being used as de facto legislation in Scotland. It`s called the Haters Campaign in Scotland. and if you say anything, tweet anything, write anything that anybody anywhere thinks might be offensive that can be a hate incident."

"This is nonsense. How can ... anybody possibly express themselves in public? It`s completely ridiculous. Now it was the Wee Flea blogger [who] made this completely ridiculous by reporting the `Police Scotland Haters Campaign` to Police Scotland as a hate incident... He was offended by it because of its negative references to Christianity; and, of course, they wouldn`t record it... because they decided that it was `all well`. But that`s not what the guidance says: It says if anybody, anywhere sees something as offensive then that becomes a hate incident. It`s about any of the protected groups. So the whole thing is insane, completely, unworkable and deeply Orwellian. Why could the judge not say that?"

Brian Gerrish: "Well I think we might ask some questions about the judge himself - we can`t do that today - but let`s come over to the College of Policing that produced the law that has now been approved by the judge. So, of course, they were crowing. So the two highlighted bits here: `The Honourable Mr Justice Julian Knowles ruled the mere recording of a non crime hate incident based on an individual`s speech is not an interference of their rights and if it was it is prescribed by law and done for two of the legitimate aims in article 10` and also because part of the challenge had been common law they crowed that that challenge at common law had been rejected. "

"So this was very, very dark once you got into the ruling by the judge. He wasn`t actually standing up for freedom of individuals and free speech; he was going somewhere down the middle and that`s a very dangerous line."

"But the Police College continued to crow. Here`s Bernie O`Reilly, Detective Chief Constable, Executive Director.  He said that he was pleased the court had recognised the guidance on recording non-crime hate incidents was `both lawful and extremely important in protecting people. Our guidance is about protecting people because of who they are and we know this is an area where people may be reluctant to report things to us`."

"And he said `The College of Policing`s position is clear - we want everyone to feel able to express opinions as passionately as they wish without breaking the law. Hate incidents can be a precursor to these types of crimes and without recording them the police will begin to lose sight of what is happening in their communities - and potentially lose their confidence."

"So, is it law? We don`t yet know.  He was also using Twitter himself to crow about the result." 

"So there was no other comment about ... Mr Miller or the wider concerns about the incident itself; it simply was crowing praise for the fact that the court had said that their policy stood but we couldn`t help note that Mr O`Reilly was also promoting LGBT and therefore presumably transgender material himself. So one says: `Is the College of Policing neutral on this particular subject?`"

"And if you want to know what that college is, well it`s not quite what you think. It was established in 2012 as a professional body for the police. It intends to be a not-for-profit membership organisation and they are looking to achieve chartered status although they haven`t achieved that: `We will have a mandate to set standards.` Now if they haven`t got a mandate to set standards at the moment, how can they set policy which has now been labelled as law? I don`t know. `We also have a remit to set standards on police service training and development and as a professional body for policing. The government`s intention is for the College of Policing to operate independently of the Home Office` ... It`s a private limited company and if you go online you can have a look at the details. `We`ve got thirty three... officers` who sit on this company and now can make, apparently, law, but they are independent of the Home Office, Mike."

"Well, until you look at the accounts where you suddenly find that they`re funded predominantly from the Home Office.,, They`re funding a private limited company making law that allows [the police] to record non-crimes..."

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

Learning Records Service breaches data protection

"A major breach of government data has reportedly allowed gambling firms to access the names, ages and addresses of 28 million children and students."

"A Sunday Times investigation has found that betting firms have used the database to verify the ages of customers who claim to be 18 or over – boosting the number of young people who gamble online in the process."

"The Department for Education has since disabled the database and referred the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office. It said the arrangement with betting firms was not approved by officials." 

"GB Group told the Sunday Times that it could check dates of birth and addresses against the Learning Records Service – but this did not involve divulging data."

"It said: `We can confirm that we use the Learning Records Service dataset via a third party. We take claims of this nature very seriously and, depending on the results of our review, we will take appropriate action.`"

"A recent survey found that an estimated 48 per cent of those aged 11-16 had spent money on gambling at some point in their lives."

"The study, carried out by the Gambling Commission, also found that 11 per cent had gambled in the past week, more than had smoked a cigarette or taken illegal drugs."

https://www.tes.com/news/gambling-companies-access-data-28-million-children

Mental health connections

[UK Column 7th June 2019 ]

"This is a website which has this amazing story:  `UK University to monitor social media accounts to identify suicidal students` and it`s by a gentleman called David McCourt."

"`Northumbria University in the North East of England is set to take the radical step of using data collected from students` social media accounts in a bid to reduce climbing student suicide rates. The higher educational institution, located in Newcastle upon Tyne, will create an Early Alert Tool to offer aid to undergrads in crisis`."

"So this was a bit more of it. So the university is working in partnership with nine other organisations on the project and they`ve been awarded funding by the Office for Students (OfS). A total of £14.5 million has been put aside by OfS, £6 million of which will go to the social media scanning project, and another £8.5 million going to nine other collaborative projects."

"Now I find this quite extraordinary," says Brian Gerrish, "That these sums of money are being put into watching students` social media. "

"This is another paragraph: `Few details were given about what information exactly would be mined from students` social media accounts. The project will raise concerns about the invasion of privacy, but these issues could be eased somewhat by an opt-in policy that requires students to consent to being part of the program`."

"Now we spoke to the Office for Students and said: `Well, are students going to be able to opt in or opt out? And they said to us that: `Well they don`t know at the moment because the project hasn`t really been formulated`. So we`ve given money for a project which the donor of that public money doesn`t even know what these key details are about."

Mike Robinson comments: "So they`re going to hoover up all this data. Now twitter, facebook and so on, they provide apps to do that. So take part in those platforms, anybody can hoover up your data. But the question here for me is: is this going to end at identifying people that are at risk of suicide or perhaps will they be looking at other forms of thought crime?"

Brian Gerrish: "Well is this just going to be one arm of the Prevent strategy and project Channel, so that if you dare express anything the state believes is right wing extremist you`re going to be reported through to the Prevent system?"

"Let`s have a look at what the Chief Executive said. This is Nicola Dandridge and she said: `Whenever I talk to students, improving mental health support is consistently raised as a priority. Taking preventative action to promote good mental health is critical, as is taking a whole institution approach and involving students in developing solutions..."

"So apparently, we`re at the stage where students are not thinking about their education and how good that education is, they`re preoccupied with their mental health. If that`s true, we`re in a pretty serious position. I`m not sure what the truth is, but we`ll just follow this through a bit."

 

"Here`s the Office for Students. They`re independent, Mike, as always. They were appointed by central government, and they`re connected through to central government, but they are independent." 

"And we`ve got some interesting people here. Here`s Sir Michael Barber, the chair, and he started out as chief adviser to the Secretary of State for Education in 1997 and he was part of the Prime Minister`s Delivery Unit. So very much an establishment man but everything is independent of government here. And he did a little bit of work with consultancy McKinsey who, of course, has done a lot of work in most governments."

"We`ve got Gurpreet Dehal. He`s a trustee of the multi-school academy trust E-ACT. He also holds non-executive positions with the Ministry of Defence and Equity UK..."

"And we`ve got Martin Coleman, deputy chairman of the board and chairs the Provider Risk Committee. And I found this interesting... he`s a trustee of an organisation called Police Now. I had no idea what that was. So we followed through. Here it is."

"`Join us, change the story, and `Police Now is on a mission to `transform communities, reduce crime and increase the public`s confidence in policing by recruiting and developing outstanding and diverse individuals to be leaders in society and on the policing frontlines`. So you`re not a policeman any more. You`re going to be changing the whole of society."

Mike Robinson: "So this is Common Purpose for police."

"It`s Common Purpose for police; I would say so. And we`ve got some interesting people here. So we`ve got a David Spencer,  co-founder and chief executive officer. He was an officer in the Met Police. So I suppose that makes sense. But he`s done a lot of political degrees... If you have a look at the bottom."

`Dave has a Business degree from the University of Sheffield, a Masters degree in US Politics from the University of London, and is currently studying his research Masters in Politics from the University of London`. 

"We`ve got another police constable there, Tor Garnett... So Sir Ian Powell we`ve got, left Pricewaterhouse Coopers on 13th of June 2016 on completion of his second and final four year term as chairman and senior partner.  Pricewaterhouse, of course, very interesting company with lots of very big government contracts, but he then joined the board of Capita PLC on 1st September as chairman designate. So he`s chairman of Police Now and a member of the committee for the National Gallery."

"So interesting connections. And the other gentleman there, James Darley - well he`s been working in graduate recruitment and he`s got a background in credit Swiss bank. And it`s just interesting to say how does this relationship work? [It`s] where we`re really coming to. And I can`t explain it."

"No," says Mike Robinson.

"We could go on a little bit more. We`ll just do these. Director general for tax and welfare at HM Treasury, James Bowler. So he, according to this report, is the Director General for tax and welfare at HM Treasury."

Mike Robinson: "But he`s helping Police Now transform secure society."

"Yes."

"Good stuff."

"Yeah."

Mike Robinson: "I mean what can we say about this?"

"Not a lot."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6mt5H3aChk

ACE awareness

John Swinney MSP referring to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) at the ACE aware nation conference and his ambition that Scotland will be the first ACE-aware nation in the world========================
 
The Scottish Review:

"Nobody would dispute that childhood, adversity and development are important when it comes to adult 'mental health' and physical health, especially in people who present with issues in adulthood, but the evidence on ACEs does not support a 'risk preventative' psycho-social public health policy that targets everybody, especially children who are 'well'... "

"... Children as young as a five are asked to reflect upon relationships, emotions and their families. Psychological projection tools are used which encourage such reflection and yield much information (i.e., qualitative data) on children's families, lifestyles, struggles, problems and difficulties. "

"Anecdotal reports are suggesting that younger children are becoming confused and distressed with this aspect of the school curriculum (an ACE in itself?). And these 'lessons' are conducted without informed consent or consultation with parents..."

"The Scottish Government have been here before; their failed Named Person Scheme proposal was deemed by the courts to be unnecessarily intrusive, destructive of family life and highly totalitarian. With ACEs, who some critics believe is the Named Person Plan B, we are again getting into totalitarian lands."

"These curricular developments are wholly inappropriate; the school is not a place where you meddle with the 'mental health' of a child, or extract information from them on issues pertaining to 'mental health' and well-being."

http://www.scottishreview.net/BruceScott475a.html

Poor science

"Disruptive behaviors in childhood are among the most prevalent and costly mental health problems in industrialized countries and are associated with significant negative long-term outcomes for individuals and society. Recent evidence suggests that disruptive behavioral problems in the first years of life are an important early predictor of lower employment earnings in adulthood. A new longitudinal study examined boys from low-income backgrounds to determine which behaviors in kindergarten are associated with earnings in adulthood. The study concluded that inattention was associated with lower earnings and prosocial behavior with higher earnings..."

"Identifying early childhood behavioral problems associated with economic success or failure is essential for developing targeted interventions that enhance economic prosperity through improved educational attainment and social integration," explains Daniel Nagin, professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, who coauthored the study..."

"Findings revealed that the teachers' ratings of boys' inattention -- characterized as poor concentration, distractibility, having one's head in the clouds, and lacking persistence -- were associated with lower earnings when the students were 35 to 36 years old."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190211164015.htm

However, in this study there were no controls for conditions like autism spectrum disorder which are known to affect concentration, attention and persistence and also to seriously affect job opportunities in later life.

This study is useless.

But it does help to target poor kids.

Connections between Named Persons, GIRFEC and ACEs

. WALES

 
SCOTLAND

Sir Harry Burns, Professor of Global Public Health, University of Strathclyde, speaking at a conference: 

"I`m just thinking that there`s a lot of good practice in terms of `Getting it Right for Every Child`and you know working together in Scotland - definitely not starting from nothing in this - those are things happening. But I think that what sometimes happens is all these different agencies are working in silos and we`re doing things, and we`re duplicating what we`re doing, and we had a really interesting meeting with some mental health services and early intervention last week. And they were looking at our training and education and showing us what they were doing in early intervention and they were going into schools and doing some stuff about trauma informed work and we were going into schools and doing stuff about nurturing approaches and we were really having a conversation about the duplication of some of the work that`s going on and I think that in this time of challenging ...resources and how we work together you need to talk to each other more about what we`re doing and I think what`s exciting about ACEs is it`s allowing us that opportunity."

[that is, an opportunity to network and pool resources with a Common Purpose.]

"Because we`re calling it something in education; and social work are calling it something; and health are calling it something else. We need to come together and have a shared language and I`m really excited that this day has been planned alongside Education and Health to develop that shared language so we`re not all going around doing the same thing and duplicating our efforts. And I really hope that is something we can become better at through these conversations."

[i.e. joined up working, joined up data, the total view of the citizen]

A question from the audience: "I`m just wondering what the panel think about taking our youth and engaging them in this whole process. I recently staged a Resilience screening where some young people came and they were really excited afterwards about wanting to take this to young people and to have a screening for young people and their ideas were things like, this could really stop bullying and I was really sort of taken by it and thought, how can we engage our youth? I think of a Ted Talk by someone called George who was a NASA scientist who speaks about how our creativity decreases as we get older. So can we engage the most creative in our communities and get this message out to them? And I wonder what the panel thinks about how we can do that safely without possibly retraumatising. Thank you." 

Harry Burns: "I think that`s absolutely right. Again to come back to the point Alison made. This is not another thing. You know, we`ve had things, you know GIRFEC is a thing and people have responsibilities for delivering that."

[There is no indication from Professor Harry Burns how that may be delivered without also delivering the data gathering `named person`, the person with responsibility, an essential component of GIRFEC which was rejected by the Supreme Court]

"This is about culture. This is about context in our society and it`s a place based thing as much as anything else. So it`s not about a particular department or a particular person that has responsibility for this; this is something that should be second nature to us all, to support people who can`t look after themselves."

[i.e. Essentially he is arguing that all departments should work together, GIRFEC-style, to support people with or without their consent]

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

The UNITED STATES points to the underlying thinking behind ACEs which has to do with public/private partnerships and investment opportunities. 

"The evolving realization that investment in prevention results in savings to government has introduced novel private financing strategies for established interventions with predictable outcomes..."

"These emerging financing strategies move human service systems upstream to reduce disease burden and enhance well-being and productivity. By understanding the relationship between interventions, ACEs, and changes in behavioral and general health outcomes as well as overall measures of productivity, a coherent strategy can be developed to coordinate financing, maximize return on investment, and ultimately reduce ACEs and promote health." 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876285917301493
Not without the data, of course.

Mental health assessments

The government has announced "one of the largest mental health trials in schools, which will see 370 schools contributing evidence about the best mental health support and wellbeing practices for chidren and young people..."

"New mental health assessments for children entering the care system will be piloted in nine areas. Five approaches will be used in the trials – two focusing on increasing awareness in secondary schools through specialist instruction sessions and tools to increase understanding, meanwhile three approaches will include primary schools and take a lighter-touch approach with breathing exercises and mindfulness lessons."

https://dfemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/04/education-in-the-media-monday-4-february-2019/

Meanwhile the Mental Health Foundation in Scotland is pursuing its `Make it Count` campaign, one of the aims of which is that all pupils will take part in a `wellbeing questionnaire once a term to identify and address problems early by 2020`.

That is, mental ill health prevention in schools is useful in the sense that it may be used as a justification for collecting personal data.

But charities and governments keep forgetting that data collection without informed consent conflicts with human rights.

Data analytics threatens local democracy

Here is what Xantura has to say about its Fusion platform:

"The Fusion platform is being configured to better target early help services and reduce financial pressures in several business domains, including;

Children`s Services
Adult Social Care & Health
Housing / Homelessness
Community Safety In all these deployments, very careful consideration is given by data owners as to what data will be supplied and under what circumstances it can be shared."

However the reality might involve breaches in a family`s right to privacy given that consent for data sharing is not always sought. For example:

"Hackney Council is refusing to release details about a profiling system which flags at-risk families in the borough to social workers." 
"The Town Hall has also confirmed that people whose data is captured through its services are not told it is being used for this purpose."



"The council has paid a total of £361,400 to private data analytics company Xantura since 2015, and says it is trialling the firm’s Early Help Profiling System (EHPS)..."

"A spokesperson said the decision to keep secret what predictive indicators are used to profile families is at the request of Xantura, which argues the information is commercially sensitive."


But Alexandra Runswick, director of campaign group Unlock Democracy, said: `Commercial sensitivity should not override democratic accountability`. " 
"`Private companies like Xantura – that knowingly get into the business of local democracy – should expect to be open about how software is being used for targeting`." 
"`We know that human biases can be baked into profiling software design. This is a challenge that some of the largest companies in the world haven’t been able to iron out`."
 
https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2018/10/18/council-360k-xantura-software-profiles-troubled-families/

Heading for data capital of the world

"Intimate details of pupils` private lives are being shared among teachers in the latest Big Brother storm to hit Scottish schools."

"Information about children`s sexuality, personal opinions and even how wealthy their families are have been entered into a database that can be viewed by teachers on their laptops. The move has been backed by SNP ministers, who believe it will help tackle the growing problem of bullying in our classrooms."

"But Dr Stuart Waiton of Abertay University in Dundee said last night that the new database smacked of `Big Brother in the classroom`."

"The senior sociology lecturer added: `It`s a concern that teachers and education departments are becoming increasingly preoccupied with the minutiae of pupils` private lives."

"`This scheme appears to be part of the Named Person framework, which focuses on the vague idea of wellbeing and puts the state in charge of assessing and monitoring it."

"But it only encourages teachers to behave as quasi-social workers or therapists. They would be far better off focusing on the job of educating students rather than acting as Big Brother in the classroom.`"

"The `pupil-profiling` scheme is being piloted at Wallace High School in Stirling as part of the Scottish Government`s national bullying strategy. Ministers believe pupils` personal information will help teachers decide whether a child is more likely to be a bully - or a victim."

"Wallace High has set up a scheme in which pastoral notes on pupils are distilled into mini data packages that are then circulated to teachers."

"The pilot project allows staff to view updated digests of every child`s story on their laptops ahead of each lesson."

"The Government says the new approach will `identify trends` and that its success will be measured by computer analysis of the data."

"But Alison Preuss of the Scottish Home Education Forum branded the scheme `petty statism`. She said: `This will actually stand in the way of teachers developing good relationships and empathy with pupils, which is the key to beating bullying."

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20180822/281479277266340

The data capital of Europe

At the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal attended by Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon, the first speaker said: "Our ambition is to be the data capital of Europe, a place with the mix of university led innovation, brilliant graduates and an ecosystem of entrepreneurial incubation and scale up and growth nestled next to global companies which drives growth and draws in investment."

Note the words: `data capital of Europe` and `nestled next to global companies`.  Regionalisation, big data and the establishment of a network of city states are global movements being pushed by our governments to centralise power FOR the benefit of the big global companies.

The speaker goes on: "As we sign the deal today we see the benefits in major initiatives which are already taking shape, many of which will unfold in this building"....  He sees some of these initiatives in open banking, in health and social care, robotics, communications technologies and the creative industries... Other benefits of the city region deal will be to "work across sectors, in education, local authorities, business, government, for shared ends and collective benefits."

Future leaders here we go !

In other words this is `joined up working`, Common Purpose language. It really means the dismantling of local democracy and the privatisation of public services, again, for the benefit of the big global companies, all dressed up in verbiage to suggest this is something wonderful.

Privacy breaches

And SEEMiS.

The NO2NP campaigning group has learned that "the SEEMiS app, operating in Named Person pilots despite the Supreme Court judgment, tells users to `override consent` as a matter of course."

"A video tutorial for the app told practitioners"

"To extract information you will have to qualify why you’re taking it out of the system. The system asks a user to confirm whether or not consent has been given to share information. By default, most of the time, you’ll be able to tick ‘I wish to override consent’. Otherwise, you’ll have to show that you asked for parental and child consent."
"Yes, you read that right," the group continues: "`Override consent` `By default` `Avoid having to show that consent has been given`. An eagle-eyed NO2NP supporter captured a screenshot of the tick box in question...and posted it on Twitter."

"Several hours later, the video tutorial and associated guidance were deleted. This tells us that somebody, somewhere, knew the advice was in conflict with legal requirements."

"But all of this raises a much bigger question: if the SEEMiS app is still telling non-statutory named persons across the country that they can override consent, is unlawful data sharing still going on?"

"And if so, what are the Government going to do about it?"

Read more https://no2np.org/named-person-database-encouraging-users-override-consent-default/

Predicting the future ?

"London councils are using data analytics to predict which children are at risk for neglect and abuse, allowing them to act before crisis occurs and prevent more costly, extensive interventions. Developed by technology company Xantura and trialled by councils including Hackney and Thurrock, the model analyses various data sources, including school and health records, to judge families’ risk scores. Around 80% accurate, it identifies and alerts social workers to those who need extra support."

"One local authority has identified nearly 400 additional families to receive support, and more than 80% of risk alerts in Hackney have been deemed valid. Councils are expected to save over $910,000 for early targeted interventions, $160,000 by replacing human-conducted screenings with an automated system, and $193,000 for improving access to multi-agency data."

https://apolitical.co/solution_article/london-uses-data-predict-which-children-abuse/

Will they also try to predict risky local authorities and incompetent social workers ?

Or the dangers of biased algorithms ?

More time wasting for discredited Named Person scheme

[Tom Peterkin]

"The controversial scheme to give every Scottish child a named person is set for yet more delays after the academic charged with making it workable was granted more time to do his job."

"Professor Ian Welsh has been put in charge of a panel tasked with sorting out data protection issues that saw the original policy rejected by the Supreme Court."

"Welsh has written to Education Secretary John Swinney to say that his panel needs `additional time` and has asked for its September deadline for reporting back to be extended until `later in the autumn`."

"The legislation has already been subjected to major delay as a result of it being taken to court. In his letter Welsh said the impact of the summer holidays on the education sector meant more time was needed."

"A spokesman for No To Named Person campaign which took the court action said: `It`s another day, another delay and a whole lot more taxpayers` money wasted on this embarrassment of a policy. It`s no surprise that John Swinney is `happy to accept` another delay. It seems he will do whatever it takes to dodge the only decision that ought to be taken: ditching this discredited legislation`."

[Scotsman 22 July 2018]

Named Person recap

Also Seemis: Overriding consent for sharing information

Child Abuse, data and wellbeing concerns

Brian Gerrish, Mike Robinson and David Scott are in conversation on UK Column News, 29 June 2018, about the Edward Heath article on the BBC website. "Several people emailed to say: This is clearly a case of `thou doth protest too much.` So all of a sudden we`ve got the BBC and other outlets saying that Edward Health could not have been on the island - channel islands - therefore he could not have been involved in any abuse. And when you look for any substance to this story, this is simply claims from Ted Heath supporters and they say: `Never mind what the police did, we had a look at his diaries. It doesn`t show him there; he wasn`t there; so therefore he`s not guilty of any crimes`. So I`m going to label that with a question mark. BBC seems to be back on its old routine of protecting child abusers."

Normalising paedophilia 

 

"This one several people told me as well. Just incredible. Ted hosted a talk where a young lady took the stage and said, amongst other things, `Let me be clear here: Abusing children is wrong without any doubt. But a paedophile who does not abuse children has not done anything wrong.` As a result of the amount of correspondence to Ted, they`ve taken this video down. But really we`ve got a classic case here of promoting the normalisation of child abuse. Probably that gives a nice lead into David Scott."

Fresh Start Foundation

Mike Robinson: "David let`s start off with the Fresh Start Foundation because here`s Robert Green. We were talking about this [on] last Friday`s news programme here: Robert Green, outside the venue of the Fresh Start Foundation talk. That appears to have not happened."

"No, well it was cancelled at the last minute after discussions on Friday last week. We got a call that due to unexpected maintenance ... the meeting was cancelled. Initially there was a flood... So we went along to the hotel .... to try and see what state the room was in, to see if we could - because this was all very last minute - if it was possible to find a way round this.... to host the event there. They were quite hostile I would say. I`m not quite sure why. We`re customers who had payed a deposit and had been badly let down. So we weren`t treated particularly nicely ... There was no sign of a flood. There was no sign of water. There was one room which didn`t seem to have been used for a while with some plaster down the ceiling. It may have been to do with that; we don`t really know. But the line from the hotel was ... the ceiling had come down and they couldn`t let us use the room. That was unfortunate."

"We managed to book a room just across the road in another hotel... and we advertised that in an hour... You know that one was cancelled as well because they had maintenance going on... The aircom system was being worked on. So although the rooms were there and were empty and there was no sign of any workmen - there were workmen on the roof - so they were going to need access to those rooms. We couldn`t get there either. So that was jolly unfortunate. So at least there`s a lot of maintenance going on in the Aberdeen construction industry. So we`ll all be benefiting. So it`s not a zero sum game here."

"But we went off to the gazebo in Union Street and we had a meeting there and a nice meal afterwards and we had actually a very good day ... Under these sort of conditions people get to know each other that bit better. And a little bit of collective response to adversity never hurt anybody. So it was actually a very good day."

Peter Cherbi`s blog

The next topic refers to Peter Cherbi`s blog who is back on the case of Elish Angiolini, former Lord Advocate of Scotland, who was involved in Robert Green`s case. She has recently been appointed in order to investigate and report on how police complaints are dealt with in Scotland. Cherbi gives a number of reasons why her appointment is a very bad idea.

Read more HERE

Data sharing in Scotland

Mike Robinson: "The Public Commissions Committee. What`s going on here?"

"Well, Alison Preuss and Leslie Scott, my wife, representing the home educators and the Tymes Trust ME charity, have put out a petition together and have sent it yesterday to the Commissions Committee and this is to get an investigation, a public inquiry, into the human rights abuses that have happened in Scotland surrounding the GIRFEC legislation, or surrounding the GIRFEC policy; because GIRFEC, which stands for Getting it Right for Every Child, was a policy whereby information was gathered and shared by the state ... and intervention into family life by the state was generated as a result."

"Now there were certain problems with this and the whole thing was eventually ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. Problems relate to, firstly, the lowering of the threshold for interventions into family life in which welfare is now known as wellbeing, and wellbeing means anything you want it to mean. It is entirely subjective. So what it gives is the power to state officials, based on a subjective whim, there`s no more to it than that, to intervene into family life, to share information, to investigate families, to investigate children and any associated adult."

"So that`s been going on since around 2013 and there`s a lot of harm; there`s a lot of families who have suffered these investigations and they`re traumatic and there needs to be some form of recompense; there needs to be some recognition of what`s actually gone wrong. And of course the policy`s continued to this day. The current data sharing policy from my own local authority is in this flow chart here."

"And what this says is: `Are you worried or concerned about a child or young person`s wellbeing?`... And if the answer`s YES. `Do I need consent to share information?` NO. `Share information.`"

"So all you need is a worry or concern, which is an emotional reaction or a notion about wellbeing which can mean anything. That`s the current policy in my local authority. So basically there is no data protection if you`re a child or a family with a child in Scotland at the moment. And...that then generates things which can escalate into child protection issues and child protection procedures where there`s no welfare issues; there`s just this assembly of wellbeing worries."

"So that`s what they want, an investigation to stop this, to allow those families who have been harmed some form of remedy; but also to actually inform the state about what is in fact lawful because there`s ongoing consideration of some further Acts to try and sort this mess out and these ongoing considerations don`t seem to be based on any understanding of what has already gone wrong."

Mike Robinson: "So this has had some mainstream coverage. I`ve got the National, as an example of this, but actually it`s had quite a bit of other mainstream coverage in Scotland, David?"

"Yes, the idea that human rights abuse has been happening is now getting through on the mainstream media quite solidly...."
 

More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILoQdRzNUjQ

Non-statutory version of Named Person being rolled out

"There is, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom declared recently, `an inextricable link between the protection of the family and the protection of fundamental freedoms in liberal democracies."

"The judges added: `Different upbringings produce different people. The first thing that a totalitarian regime tries to do is to get at the children, to distance them from the subversive, varied influences of their families and indoctrinate them in their ruler`s view of the world`."

"`Within limits, families must be left to bring up their children in their own way`..."

"How revealing then, that this quote comes direct from the Supreme Court`s ruling two summers ago, against the SNP Government`s notorious and hated Named Person law..."

"So we need to be careful. As the Scottish Mail on Sunday reports today, a non-statutory version of the Named Person scheme is being rolled out across Scotland, as we speak."

"The danger is that, even though the Supreme Court has ruled against the statutory plans, they are brought in by stealth nevertheless."

"As the No2NP campaign makes clear, parents should know their rights. If a Named Person offers advice or a service to you, you don`t have to accept it. If a Named Person tries to override your wishes, it is they - not you - who may be breaching conventions on human rights."

[Murdo Fraser, Scottish Mail on Sunday]

The tyranny of algorithms

From Cathy O’Neil, writer of ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’

"Big data essentially is a way of separating winners and losers. Big data profiles people. It has all sorts of information about them — consumer behaviour, everything available in public records, voting, demography. It profiles people and then it sorts people into winners and losers in various ways. Are you persuadable as a voter or are you not persuadable as a voter? Are you likely to be vulnerable to a payday loan advertisement or are you impervious to that payday loan advertisement?"

"So you have scores in a multitude of ways. The framing of it by the people who own these models is that it’s going to benefit the world because more information is better. When, of course, what’s really going on and what I wanted people to know about is that it’s a rigged system, a system based on surveillance and on asymmetry of information where the people who have the power have much more information about you than you have about them. They use that to score you and then to deny you or offer you opportunities."

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/10/dont-trust-that-algorithm/

Brainwashing

The Girfec Octopus

"Campaigners opposed to the Named Person initiative have hit out at the latest `bizarre` creation to explain the controversial scheme – Calamari SHANARRI, the wellbeing octopus. Children are being urged to knit the octopus and make up stories and rhymes about it as part of the Scottish Government’s Getting It Right For Each *Child (GIRFEC) scheme, which includes the Named Person initiative. Each of the octopus’s legs represents one of a child’s eight well-being indicators, which are also referred to in the Shanarri part of the name – Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible, and Included. The octopus has been developed by Crossreach, the Church of Scotland Social Care Council, for the GIRFEC scheme and to teach children to become confident, productive and responsible members of society."

"But a spokesperson for No to Named Person (NO2NP), which challenged the Named Person scheme in court, said: `Calamari SHANARRI` is the latest in a long line of bizarre resources relating to GIRFEC – the policy behind Named Persons.`It’s littered with jargon and recommends strange activities for young children which will be far beyond the understanding of most of them."During the court battle over Named Persons, Aidan O’Neill QC told Supreme Court judges that the legislation was so confusing, it was like wrestling with an octopus. It looks like whoever dreamt up this latest wheeze decided to take that literally.`A Scottish Government spokesman described the octopus as a `useful` addition to GIRFEC materials. A Church of Scotland spokesperson said the octopus was a `playful way to learn about the Scottish Government’s aspirations for children in Scotland`."

* Should be `every`

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/kirk-s-eight-armed-gimmick-comes-under-fire-1-4741968

See petition PE01692: Inquiry into the human rights impact of GIRFEC policy and data processing

Undertakers notice additional deaths

UK Column New [17 May 2018]

Mike Robinson: "Now, we were intending to show this yesterday: yesterday`s webcast that Ian Crane pushed out. He said this:"

"About six weeks ago I was visited at the Mission Springs protection camp by a Lincolnshire undertaker come to show his support for the anti-fracking community and he made the observation... `I`m not sure whether this is within your area of interest, but` he said, `the undertaker community around the UK are becoming increasingly aware of a marked increase in deaths in England and Wales`. And ... er, we had a conversation about it. He couldn`t really put a finger on why this was but unfortunately I didn`t have the time to really follow up on this. But I`m pleased to say that there are academics that have; and, it appears that a report was actually published in the British Medical Journal in March alerting the readers to the fact that there had been some 20,000 additional deaths in the UK in the first three months of this year."

Mike Robinson: "So that was from Ian`s livestream. yesterday. You can find that on his youtube channel and also on his facebook page."

"So here is the report that he was talking about: Rise in mortality in England and Wales in first seven weeks of 2018 - It`s been updated since. And this was the graph that they were showing:"

"They were comparing the average number of deaths per week between 2013 and 2017 .... comparing that to what was going on in 2018. And you can see quite clearly that there`s a marked step change in the rise in the number of deaths... These figures are from the Office of National Statistics and what the ONS say is that on week one there is an effect from Christmas. I`m not sure if they expected there would be more deaths in the first week following Christmas because undertakers aren`t working over the Christmas period. But nonetheless, the first week there was a significantly ... smaller increase in deaths than the following weeks..."

"As Ian said... that is a total of 20,486 extra deaths this year than previously and you know Ian was making a comment about an undertaker who had come to the fracking protection camp this spring to talk to Ian about [it]... We`re hearing this from other undertakers and ... so this is something that is not local to one particular area of the country... This is a representation of the collapse of the health service. "

Brian Gerrish: "Well it`s a very cynical collapse Mike if people are dying in increasing numbers which is what the statistics show. The effect around Christmas time is a known effect; it is very sad, but people who are isolated in particular find that a very bad time of year; so the deaths are known to increase. But one of the areas that Dr Mark Jones who spoke at our recent NHS conference in Nottingham highlighted was the fact that we`re mysteriously seeing an increase in deaths around the NHS [at the] end of [the] financial year. So there seems to be death tying in with the whole financial, profit making element which is now coming to the NHS as a result of privatisation."

"I`m sure Alex will want to come in but just follow through. This is `The Mechanics of Modern murder...` This is a diagram which Dr Mark Jones has put out on his twitter and he talked about it at the conference where he is identifying how money and profit has come into the NHS and the wider care system and how since the time this has been a driver we`re now seeing - sorry to be blunt - the bodies coming out of the system."

"And this was one of the other cartoons he used, a cartoon on a very serious subject, but it does help to get what is happening. We`ve got people increasingly diagnosed with dementia for which GPs are being payed ... We had David Cameron saying that there was going to be two million people diagnosed with dementia. I think it was by 2040 or 2050. How did he know that? But of course what we can see happening is dementia equals drugs, treatments and then these people are dying in very bad ways. They`re dehydrated, emaciated and Mark Jones said that he`s also had undertakers telling him about their deep concerns with the conditions of bodies."

"Now some of this has been reported, in a way. in the mainstream press."

"When the Mail first highlighted the harrowing abuses that were taking place under the Liverpool Care Pathway, we came under ferocious attack from the arrogant medical establishment, which accused us of inaccurate and counter-productive reporting." 

"Yes, as the president of the Association of Palliative Medicine conceded yesterday, in fact, we were exposing the failings of an `industrialised approach to managing dying people` that was more concerned with ticking boxes than providing a dignified, humane end." 

"We welcome this vindication of the free Press - and the new guidelines issued by NICE to ensure patients never again have water withheld against the wishes of themselves or their family, to hasten death and free up hospital beds."  

"But, that said, isn`t it still deeply depressing that doctors and nurses should need to be given written instruction on what constitutes the most basic act of human compassion?" [Daily Mail]

 "So we`ve got the Daily Mail here commenting and it`s talking about the `industrial approach to managing dying people`.Well if you play around with the words in that sentence a bit, you`re really looking at the industrialised approach to getting rid of people. This is what seems to be happening and the statistics we know are valid. We also know Sir Brian Jarman was one of the main people who started to warn the government there was something strange happening with deaths but of course he was silenced after a Common Purpose team rewrote the Staffordshire hospital investigation and that was a Common Purpose team; that`s what it was called."

"Now if you have a look at this that was kindly sent to us a couple of days ago;  it`s a court case, obviously, of the judiciary of England and Wales. So it`s PW v Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and this is about a man who is now being cared for. He can only live with medical support and feeding by gastric tube. The family wanted to take him home but that was not going to be allowed..."

"`The Court of Appeal also resolved a disagreement about whether the full names of RW and his family could be reported. The Court of Protection, which (like the Court of Appeal) sat in public, directed that the Trust and Dr Levy could be identified, but that RW and his family members, and his treating clinicians could not be identified by name. The Court of Appeal, approaching the matter afresh, reached the same conclusion. It considered arguments made by the family members that RW would have wanted to be named, so that the nature of his condition and the way in which he had been treated in hospital could attract the widest publicity. The Court of Appeal balanced these arguments and arguments relating to the freedom of speech. It concluded that RW is extremely vulnerable and requires protection in the last stages of his life. Although he has no appreciation of what is going on, he has an important interest in his privacy and dignity being maintained. The grievances expressed by the family members are their grievances, not his. The general public interest in the treatment of people with end-stage dementia can be aired without the need to name RW.`"

"So what was actually said is that the court said: No, what the family want didn`t matter, that it should be the decision of the court to decide what happens to this man. So we`re seeing this more and more. If you think you are there to look after your loved ones, the British state says: `No no no, the state is going to decide on what happens to your children, Alfie Evans. The state is going to decide when your mum and dad die.` So very serious stuff."

"And Alex this in fact will lead us on to the Hofschroer  case which I`ve got one slide for, but I don`t know whether you`d like to comment on those very worrying statistics we`ve just covered."

Alex Thomson: "I would yes. About a decade ago now Common Purpose embedded in the Register Offices of various London boroughs and they`ve since spun off into other names like Patchwork and Futuregov but Common Purpose effectively started agitating and taking over the human resources departments of the London boroughs and the rest of the country in registration and one of the things they got changed was the very unusual arrangement we have, even within common law countries, whereby  ... registrars of births and deaths and the superintendent registrars above them who also conduct the marriages and keep the registers, these people had been ...  statutory officers... That means councils only dealt with their pay; they did not have control over them and boss them about. They were actually our public employees nationally. That did change in legislation at the end of the Brown labour government or the beginning of the conservative liberal coalition government ...[He is not sure if this applies to Northern Ireland and Scotland.] But as a result of this, registrars who are of course the other people who see ... these dead people rising and they see much more than the usual new year peak which happens with old people in the cold weather and festivities and so on, these are the only other people who are in the first line, other than the undertakers of seeing what is happening."

"Undertakers are of course self employed mostly or work for private chains whereas the registrars have now had their mouths stopped. Since a few years ago under Common Purpose leadership they have become employees of tightly run tyrannical local councils. So it is really up to registrar whistleblowers or more particularly I think to undertakers to point out what`s going on. It`s almost as if people knew several years ago that this was coming down the pipeline. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8fjzi_AoG8&t=1733s

Peter Hofschroer and Barbara Hofschroer discussion begins about 28 minutes. 

See also Freedom Talk Radio below:  

http://www.freedomtalkradio.co.uk/peter-hofschroer-update-graz-austria-19th-feb-2018/