Snow Falling on Cedars

Just finished watching our "Snow Falling on Cedars" video at home this evening (a film based on David Guterson's book of the same name) ... I really cannot recommend the film (or the book) highly enough.

I've never understood why the film didn't attract more critical praise when it was released in 1999/2000 ...

... it is completely absorbing and I've not seen (with the possible exception of The Crucible) a better portrayal of love, hate and the fear of difference.

It is a truly haunting tale containing absolutely timeless messages.

Walk-on role for Mr. Burns :-(

Junior, and several of his friends, dragged me along to watch The Simpsons Movie earlier this afternoon ...

... as regular blog readers will know (see comments here), my 9 year-old son is a bit of a Simpsons fanatic but I don't think I've ever watched a full episode - it's on at 6pm on Channel 4 (I think?) and I'm rarely around at that time.

Anyhow, due to Frank Boyle's portrayal of me as Mr. Burns (above), I was hoping to see 'myself' having a major role in this film :-)

... well, no such luck as Mr. Burns only had a walk-on role :-(

... worse than that, he seems a really nasty bit of work - must complain to Frank next time I bump into him :-((

Mind you, the film is very, very funny ... and I now understand why junior is addicted ;-)

Fun Day and Flotterstone ...

Fun day was actually quite a lot of fun ... and the PA seemed to raise a healthy sum of money into the bargain. Congratulations due to all the organisers.

The kids seemed to absolutely love the assault course, which was set up in the playground - especially when the 'obstacle-wall' they had to jump was raised gradually to 6ft :-)

Later in the afternoon, and into the early evening, managed to fit in a short walk in the Pentlands and visit one of the family's favourite weekend haunts - Flotterstone Inn.

... and the weather was good all day :-))

Assault Course and Fun Day ??

I know this may sound like a complete contradiction - "assault course" and "fun day" - but that's exactly what the Craiglockhart Primary School PA have arranged for tomorrow morning ... and I've been roped in (sorry!) to help with some aspects of the event :-(

Joking aside, all for a good cause - the PA is raising funds (it's a sponsored event) for further playground developments at the school. Here's hoping the weather holds out for the morning/early afternoon ...

Difficult day ...

Attended the funeral of an old school-friend earlier today - only 42 - we were pretty close when growing up and, even though we'd drifted apart over the last few years, it's been the saddest day I've experienced for a very, very long time.

That said, the funeral itself was as good an event as these occasions can be. Lots of great childhood memories been flooding back and surely helping us all cope.

But for many friends and family, there's no denying it's been a very difficult day ...

Back in mobile contact ...

Tried all the numerous suggestions offered to me - many thanks - but, unfortunately the old mobile 'phone has had to be replaced :-(

... but now back in mobile contact. Thankfully, managed to find a slightly less annoying ring-tone on the new one.

... wonder if my favourite local paper will report that my 'phone is now working :-))

WHEC Visit this afternoon

Out to visit Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC) later this afternoon ... hoping morale will be somewhat better than it undoubtedly would have been back in mid-August, when WHEC was threatened with closure.

... looking forward to the visit.

Services for Children report now published

The Services for Children report is now published and can be seen, in full, here. The table at page 20 summarises the overall position ... and a similar table for other, inspected Local Authorities can be found within their reports which can all be accessed here.

No question there are serious issues flagged up for further improvement within the Edinburgh report, but there is also the clear recognition that significant progress has been made from the very, very difficult circumstances of 2003.

Our Group has put a Press Release out, given the report is no longer embargoed (is now up on the HMIE site 'just' before midnight). Text as follows:


PRESS RELEASE

EDINBURGH LABOUR SAYS GOOD PROGRESS BUT STILL MORE TO DO ON CHILD PROTECTION

The Labour Group of the City of Edinburgh Council welcomes the report of the Joint Inspection of Children’s Services published today, September 27th. Whilst there is no doubt that there is much still to do, the report indicated that the Council and its partners have travelled a long way in the right direction in improving services and protection of the most vulnerable children in Scotland"s Capital City since the O’Brien report of 2003 and then the Blackie report of 2005.

The Labour Group is particularly pleased that recognition has been given for the creation of the Children and Families Department as a vehicle for better integration of services, the significant improvements in information sharing, the effective early intervention for unborn children and young children and the effective leadership provided by the Council staff and elected members and its partner agencies.

The Labour Group would also highlight the huge turn around achieved in social work recruitment and retention from over 30% vacancy rates to rates lower than the national average and the effective, and award winning, fostering campaigns which saw enquiries about becoming a foster carer rise from 1 to several hundred in only 12 months.

Labour Leader Ewan Aitken said. “The inspection has identified huge improvements since the O’Brien report. The significant improvements in information sharing and joint planning, 75% increase in child protection referrals and the increases in accommodated children are a sign of a greater confidence in the system and a more effective response to concerns about the safety of children.

I and my Group recognise however, that there is still a long way to go so that there is the maximum possible protection for the children of Scotland’s Capital. We increased significantly the expenditure in the areas covered by the report and we remain committed to providing all the support we can to making the very necessary improvements rightly identified by the report as still being required”.

ENDS

City Car Club

City Car Club car to the rescue this afternoon/evening, as I had to madly dash between three different meetings all across the city ...

... now, before anyone shouts I should have stayed on the bike; I did have junior in-tow for the middle-meeting having completely failed to make any other, suitable arrangements.

Poor blighter :-(

Anyhow, all reminded me just how damned easy it is to use the City Car Club at very short notice and without any hassle whatsoever :-)

Services for Children Inspection report

HMIE Services for Children Inspection report (for Edinburgh) out tomorrow - I mentioned this on several occasions in the early part of this year ... all the posts can be found here.

The 'verbal' feedback from the Inspection was received before the election in May, so I know that although significant progress will be recognised, there will also be some serious issues flagged up for further improvement.

I'm guessing the new Administration will be fairly negative about the final report ... more of the "it's all the fault of our predecessors" line ... I could be wrong, but not willing to put any money on it. Guess that's modern politics for you :-(

But, I do think there is a danger in ignoring the 'significant progress' aspects of the report (which I'm sure will be there) and inadvertently whipping up a purely negative atmosphere around the whole issue ... it won't help those who work in this service area, and worse still it won't help those who most need these services.

CCWP and Craiglockhart Community Council

Consultative Committee with Parents (CCWP) this evening, followed by a quick dash to Craiglockhart Community Council ...

Was a shame I had to leave the CCWP, the meeting had just reached the item on the agenda concerning the now-cancelled estate rationalisation programme. Seemed to be a tacit admission that 'something' would have to come back - let's hope that any such proposals are via a properly constituted Cross Party Group (with external input) and that the criteria for any rationalisation are publicly agreed FIRST ... I can but hope :-(

All that said, Craiglockhart Community Council was enjoyable - yes, I know, political life is sad - but there was good debate on several local issues causing concern and verbal reports on various positive projects being funded, or about to be (hopefully!) funded that will benefit the local area.

Thinking about it - second meeting of the evening was more inclusive than the first :-((

Should he; shouldn't he?

The amount of speculation about whether the Prime Minister should call a quick General Election appears to be reaching absolute fever-pitch ...

... admit I'm guilty of taking part :-(

That aside - I think the Boyle Cartoon yesterday hit the nail on the head (as he so often does) ...

Still waiting to hear a good argument about why it will be better next year?? and I still reckon there will be no Council Meeting on 25th October ;-)

My first-ever Transport Committee meeting?

Yes, it's true ... attended my first-ever Transport Committee meeting this morning!

... item on the agenda I wanted to speak to briefly, concerning the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) ...

I was actually never on the 'old' Transport Committee between 1999-2000, prior to the Executive/Scrutiny system being set up.

Ah well, it's back to the old ways now ... fewer meetings, less paper, quicker decisions, better scrutiny, everything 'streamlined'.

I'd laugh if it wasn't so serious :-((

Interesting omissions ...

Listened to Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour Party conference earlier this afternoon - via my computer I should add, not in Bournemouth :-(

Putting my obvious bias to one side, I was astounded to NOT hear one single mention of David Cameron, the Tories, Ming Campbell, the Lib-Dems or any other Opposition figure or political party. Interesting.

I can't think of any such major conference speech in recent British political history where that has happened ... I could be wrong - sure someone will point it out if I am - but I found it a real breath of fresh air.

Ming Campbell mentioned Brown by name 11 times in his recent Leader's Conference Speech ... will be fascinating to see how David Cameron responds in his forthcoming conference address? Could he speak for an hour (or so) without having a go at Brown by name??

... I'll take almost any odds that it won't happen ;-)

Good weekend ...

Super weekend down near Holy Island - just look at that weather :-)

... actually, that's the Saturday afternoon at Holy Island - wasn't quite as good on the Sunday, but still pretty reasonable.

Bit too much whisky consumed on the Friday night, but now suitably recovered and refreshed ;-)

... and in true 'camping weekend' fashion, a light shower just as we were packing up the tents means that the fly-sheet is now taking up the whole of the garden in an attempt to dry it :-(

Camping weekend

Regular readers of the blog will recall that, despite encroaching middle-age, we do still 'enjoy (??)' bi-annual camping weekends, were a crowd of our old friends meet up for a few days. Bit of walking, reminiscing, eating and drinking very much being the order of the day :-)

Well, this weekend we're off to a campsite in Northumberland, very close to Holy Island - so, not far for us to drive fortunately ... but a much longer trip for those coming from the South.

Certainly hoping for slightly better weather than the last gathering in May ...

So, will be a quiet weekend on the blog-front - how will you cope :-))

Service Reductions approved

Sadly, all predictions of today's Full Council meeting were fairly accurate and some very significant service reductions (cuts!) were voted through by the new Administration.

As debated extensively on this blog, the central plank of the new Administration's Education policy has recently gone belly-up ... due entirely to the way they mishandled it ... and they have now top-sliced a whole range of services to compensate for that fact.

There just isn't space to list all the service reductions here - but PLEASE do have a look at the full report (in particular, the appendices), which can be found here.

And yes, we did get the expected defense that went along the lines of: "of course, we're only having to do this because of that terrible financial hole we inherited' ... well, as I've repeated frequently now, blaming your predecessors is easy but it won't be possible for ever and sooner or later it will become apparent that this mess has been the making of THIS Administration and nobody else.

Constructive alternatives were offered and rudely rejected. Revenue options were put forward and refused. And please don't forget:

• the Children and Families Department alone has an annual revenue budget of over £300million
• the Council's overall, combined annual revenue and capital budget is over £1billion
• the Council owns over £2billion of fixed assets

As we've now illustrated on several occasions, there are ways of funding (what are admittedly expensive) services for those most in need - it just needs a bit of political will. I'm not saying that everything in the last 23-years was perfect, but there were never service reductions of this scale and of this type ... services for the vulnerable, the elderly and the young being the main victims.

But - very unfortunately from my political perspective - it has become apparent, for real from today, that the Council is indeed now being run by politicians who don't want to prioritise services for those most in need.

To be fair, it has to be said, that they did show a slight glimmer of actually taking on-board "a very few" of our earlier suggestions and have at least managed to defer some of the worst 'Health and Social Care' proposals (but not the Children and Families proposals) and have at last accepted that, in-extremis, it is entirely rational to use one-off capital receipts to provide some revenue protection.

That said, the omens for a more inclusive policy-making approach still appear pretty bleak.

Still "old politics in a new setting" I'm afraid.

Tynecastle High School open evening

Junior now in P6 at the local Primary, thus preparations for the imminent (well, fairly!) move to a High School seem to be commencing .... with Tynecastle High School (his catchment secondary) having an 'Open Evening' tonight for those moving up in the not-too-distant future.

... amazingly, the Full Council meeting finished just in time to allow family attendance - only just!