My Life BLOGs

I continue a few pieces for my Life Blogs - Youth Violence, Kate and Morning sickness, Social Mobility, Independence, The NHS. I write when events move me - sometimes poems, sometimes blogs. And sometimes words can make a difference and that's wonderful.

Twenty years ago I wrote about the Youth cafe's I came across in Finland when I was 17 as an inviting place forteenagers to meet and hang out. It is good to see these now locally. What spurred me to write was someone writing in the local paper that there was plenty of places for both families and young people!  I thought - where!?

I wrote about youth violence in Scotland after a neighbour's son was tragically killed. He was a 22 year old rugby player and he was waiting outside a club on Sauchiehall street on the night of an Old Firm game when two youths, one carrying a baseball bat, hit him and he fell on his head. Apparently these youths were running about and had hit several people that night, according to those in A & E.  I heard much later these youths only received a few years in jail. Lesson is - don't go into town on the night of an Old Firm game!  Hooligans love an excuse to vent their angers.      

I have written about pregnancy and I have much to write on being a parent and education (more to follow!). I am a mother of three grown up children and I taught in primary schools. 

I wrote mostly in private to papers in the past but now I have a voice on my blog.

Scottish Independence: YES to the Future

Yes Scotland! It was great to see the blue and white flags at the independence rally Edinburgh.  And I am tired of the Union Jack propaganda everywhere these days….bags, bottle tops etc. And why on earth are we ‘better together’ financially, while super state London builds up its own ifrastructure1? Can anyone explain? Our independence is not about political parties, but about our freedoms, confidence and the future for our children. 

Today in 2012 I notice Union Jack bread and biscuits in the shops and it all reminds me of the Big Media campaign back in 1979 that manipulated peoples' fears of change and told us we were too small a country to be able to fend for ourselves and plotted against our hoped for self-determination. This time, while the campaign is a more subtle one, I have to wonder that it may back fire on them as I choose to purchase Scottish cheese. I have taken several months to write my thoughts on Scottish Independence and I have had several decades to think it all over!

In ‘79 we were told that not enough people had voted even though the majority voted for independence. After this, some Scots were disillusioned and left Scotland. I left Scotland myself in 1980 for America and returned here in 1989.  Turmoil can create great art though and after ’79 in the eighties there was a revival of Scottish art, music and writing. Since then there has also been a revival in Scottish pride and culture. Back in the 70s there were fewer ceilidhs and kilts were rarely seen at events or on the high streets and there was less pride in our Scottish heritage. Pride in our history, heritage and culture is the only positive way forward.

This debate is not about flag waving. The problem for those who like to wave flags, is that a prosperous country is one that is inclusive, encourages equality, is forward thinking, flexible, adaptable, responsive and well educated - and I dont' believe that the London UK government can offer Scotland the opportunities and values that could possibly deliver these important criterion for a successful future. Most Scots believe in equality, which is the best way forward for an efficient and prosperous country. 

We have to seriously ask ourselves what is wrong in Scotland when we have the eight biggest economy in the developed world and yet we have a quarter of our children living in poverty and an archaic infrastructure with old trains and impossible, dangerous roads? Aberdeen is booming and yet it is traffic clogged.  The elitist hierarchy UK model is not working for us. Equality brings prosperity for all.

Independence will mean a Scotland that is a more outward looking, confident country and hopefully one able to cheer England, our closest neighbours, at the Rugby Internationals the way a free Ireland is now able to!  It is important that we celebrate Scottish artists, writers and musicians as we don't always recognise the talent on our own doorsteps. Scottish music has gained good respect worldwide in recent years and artists are no longer required to have a deal in London and are able to access their audience directly via the networking sites online.

We should feel free to voice our differences and to be proud of them as our voices may at times feel lost in today's world of mass communications and our vast media world of globalization. Fast communication is wonderful and accelerates learning but it also can mean we loose creativity and the power to question and can lead to uniformity and playing it safe. We only move forward when we question and challenge. That’s what punk, the 60s the revolution were all about. It’s about saying ‘stuff that’ – it’s stupid nonsense. Sometimes it needs to be rough edged, off the edge, no rules. 

Debate. I attended an interesting debate entitled ‘What Does the Union Mean for Scotland?’ at the Edinburgh Book festival 2011. Leading the debate were Lib Dem Mingus Campbell, SNP Michael Russell and highly knowledgeable historian Neil Ascherson, who proved an  informed and interesting speaker. The arguments for the UK union sounded dated, old and negative while the arguments for Scottish Independence sounded forward thinking, positive and inclusive.  

Oil. The UK has a highly centralised government in which London has already set itself up as a superstate.  In other countries there are several major cities. London sucks in the Financial sector, the Big Banks, the army, media, civil servants and more service industries. Scottish Oil revenues were lost when the UK Government created a fictional country called ‘Dogger’ to collect North Sea Oil revenues. My husband works as a chemical engineer in the oil industry and there are still plenty of oil reserves and possibly more oil on Scotland’s western shores.  

We have to seriously ask ourselves what is wrong in Scotland when we have the eighth biggest economy in the developed world and yet we have a quarter of our children living in poverty and an archaic infrastructure with old trains and impossible, dangerous roads? Aberdeen is booming and yet it is traffic clogged. The elitist hierarchy UKmodel is not working for us. Equality brings prosperity for all.

For me independence is inevitable and it now seems that the UK model is a broken one. Quote: 'The UK is a Broken Model: We need to rethink the State, so that in 100 years we will still be able to pay pensions, have a sustainable community and eliminate the gross inequality of globalization.' Alex Bell former SNP senior advisor.   

My own story is somewhat unusual.  My family are from Union Jack waving Unionist Ulster Northern Ireland. I used to visit Ireland growing up and I was struck by the differences between the Scottish people and the Irish. The Irish appeared more confident and outgoing and sure of their future, while by contrast the Scots lacked confidence and had a chip on their shoulders. When I was able to vote, I believed that Scotland needed more say over its own affairs and not to feel second rate and beholden to the government in London - I have voted SNP ever since. I also spent ten years in the US (Cincinnati and Chicago) where my two older children were born. America has a more de-centralized government where each state runs it's own affairs. The federal government decides on roads and on defence and Americans believe strongly in people running their own local affairs.   

Perhaps as I come from the edges and can clearly see two sides, I am able to see the one picture more clearly and I am convinced that independence is the right way forward. Scotland has its own history, culture, education and law. Some claim we are Better Together in the UK. Do they mean better in a rigid elitist hierarchy that allows no social mobility?

*Today I noticed Scottish shortbread in a London red bus tin in M and S and I wondered was this "British" shortbread? Scotland badly needs its own identity and pride restored again as a positive way forward. The Scottish people once led the world in innovative thinking and we do not need to feel second class or dependant on London charity. We only have to look to countries like Norway (or Finland), also with a small population and oil reserves, to see strong independent success stories.

I am a long time SNP supporter and I voted for independence back in 1979 - it has been along road getting here, but we are here at long last and its' an opportunity we cannot let slip by again. I have no idea why some claim we are better or stronger together - this vote is not about separation or division but about a better and stronger working partnership for the UK.  Inevitably the scare tactics will start again and we have to try to keep focused on the right way forward for our country.

Back in 1979 we were told we should be afraid of Scottish self determination – why? We should be more afraid of London setting our rules. To every time there is a reason and a right way to be – the tides of time tell us the right way to be and the right way forward. All the indications point in one direction…

What does 'Independence' mean?  To me it is not about 'Borders', but about making our own decisions in Scotland over issues like taking charge of our own resources such as oil, not entering illegal wars, not having trident in the Clyde, making greener town centres, de-centralising healthcare, and about feeling our votes can make a difference.

This debate is not about political parties but what kind of country we want for our children. Let's not miss this big opportunity to have our own voice.    

People's Festival Ceilidhs    
Henderson was instrumental in bringing about the Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh in 1951, which placed traditionally performed Scottish folk music on the public stage for the first time as "A Night of Scottish Song". However, the People's Festival, of which it was part, was planned as a left-wing competitor to the Edinburgh Festival and was deeply controversial. At the event, Henderson performed a song, to the tune of Scotland the Brave, which glorified John Maclean, a communist and Scottish nationalist hero.

However, the event marked the first time that Scotland's traditional folk music was performed on a public stage. The performers included Flora MacNeil, Calum Johnston, John Burgess, Jessie Murray, John Strachan, and Jimmy MacBeath. The event was extremely popular and was regarded as the beginning of the second British folk revival. Henderson continued to host the events every year until 1954, when the Communist ties of several members of the Peoples Festival Committee led to the Labour Party declaring it a "Proscribed Organisation". Losing the financial support of the local trades unions, the Peoples Festival was permanently cancelled.

The British NHS needs De-Centralized

The British NHS is in desperate need of being De-Centralized and Reformed. It is the System itself that is failing. 

I wonder that we have forgotten what the NHS was originally set up to do - that is to provide good quality patient care. I have two children working as medical health professionals in the British NHS and I am both shocked and saddened by what they tell me. Patient notes are lost and basic care is neglected - such as patients being unable to reach their drinking water - and staff moral is very low.  

When the National health service was originally conceived I am sure it met a clear public service. Sadly today it appears to be a gigantic and badly managed business with ever increasing demands. The first step required, as I see it, is to de-centralised this over-bloated industry. Centralized control does not work with such a massive operation - and how can local requirements be met that way? 

We urgently need to take a look at health care systems worldwide that do work for patient care and work with no waiting lists.  How on earth can they achieve this?  I don't view America as having the perfect health care model though - I lived there for ten years and I had two children there and one child here in Scotland. It is vitally important we look at countries where the health systems ARE working for good quality care - such as in France, Sweden or Germany. One way to make improvements is that those who can afford to pay do pay. This happens in France where there are no waiting lists. This happens already in dentistry and dentists are not under such severe pressures.  

That's not to say that there are not pockets of top quality care in the service. I know several who have received excellent treatment for serious illness.

The reality is that if young medics are treated like robotic slaves and expected to work 12 hour shifts with no toilet breaks or food breaks - the system is in crisis. As they only have 4 monthly contracts now they are unable to rent accommodation near the hospitals and then they are expected to drive long distances home at dawn after such long shifts - what are we asking them to do? One young girl was killed recent in Ayrshire driving home after her 13 hour shift. Another young medic had to have a catheter fitted because she had been unable to take a toilet break. I ask myself what on earth is going on?    

How can well meaning medical staff provide the best care when they are treated badly by  a management that sits in its ivory towers and never comes down to see how it all works at the ground floor?  I'd like to tell Mr Cameron - medical staff are practically shedding blood to provide as decent a health service that they can while they are hampered by an  inadequate management system. 

I read that there is now an untrained army of medical assistants who are basically doing what nurses used to do, but with no skills to do it. While nursing staff is burdened with paper work. Why were the nursing bosses (the matrons) scrapped and I hear that the new ward managers are not clinically trained.    

The socialist ideology is that competition doesn't work (?) and that instead we should all be motivated by Targets. Now these targets require a huge amount of paperwork that no one ever reads (and this happens in education also). Well in the real world that I live in, what drives and motivates people to do better and achieve higher standards is 'competition' - sorry academics.     

Another issue that needs addressed – to inform patients perhaps with leaflets or posters about when they should be contacting their doctor and that if they take up the doctors time for no real reason it takes services away from those in real need.  Medical treatment is NOT limitless or free!  If we as patients waste these resources, if we waste hospitals and doctors time with unnecessary visits, it takes away from critical medical treatments.

Our out-of-date and over protected health service is desperately in need of improved management which includes better treatment of medical staff. The politicians like to blame the medical professionals...it is time to sit up and realise it's the System itself that is failing! 

The NHS is not free either, someone has to pay for all the equipment, training for staff and ever more expensive drugs!  The recent scandal of neglect for patients at Staffordshire hospital has brought all this into focus.  Who dares to speak up? 

Scottish Pride

In ‘79 we were told that not enough people had voted even though the majority voted for independence. After this, some Scots were disillusioned and left Scotland. I left Scotland myself in 1980 for America and returned here in 1989.  Turmoil can create great art though and after ’79 in the eighties there was a revival of Scottish art, music and writing. 

Since then there has also been a revival in Scottish pride and culture. Back in the 70s there were fewer ceilidhs and kilts were rarely seen at events or on the high streets and there was less pride in our Scottish heritage.

Kate Middleton and Morning Sickness

I post here mostly about music, art and words but I digress here...

Kate Middleton's Morning Sickness. I've been through it. I found it best to throw up an hour before meals! That way there was some chance of keeping the meals down, oh dear. Also have regular small protein snacks every few hours to keep blood sugar levels as normal as possible - nuts, cheese, tuna, oatcakes, whatever you feel able to eat. Drink water in small amounts regularly too. I remember even smells in the food stores made me feel sick! Especially raw meat.

Also - DON'T TAKE ANY DRUGS for morning sickness. 

Sadly I was given an anti-sickness drug with my second pregnancy and had a very scary drug reaction several days later when my jaw started to freeze up and we had to drive to the emergency at the hospital. This drug allergic reaction caused me to loose the baby at 16 weeks a few weeks later. Drug allergies can be life threatening. My very strong advice is - DON'T take any medicine when you are pregnant.  
I went on a few years later to have my beautiful daughter (not without the heartache of the loss though).  I was sick again this time and sorry to say sickness can last most of the pregnancy, while it was better the last few months - and I took no drugs this time. Who says having a baby is easy! Maybe if men had to carry babies there would be less war and bloodshed I've wondered? I couldn't watch the news when I was pregnant. 

It may well be a girl for Kate - I had two boys and a daughter and was only sick with my daughter. I wish her well. : )  
Ps Also shouldn't be called morning sickness, more like all day sickness. : ( 

Is social mobility dead

'Is social mobility dead in the UK? We are now ruled by unexceptional people with exceptional education.'  British author Tony Parsons

 

There is now no social mobility in the UK says Parsons.

From 1960 to 1975 we had five Prime Ministers who were from ordinary beginnings and who were educated at state schools - from Harold Wilson to John Major. Parson argues that there is now no way for that to happen now and the gap between the rich and the poor has got wider. 

The argument against the Grammar schools is that they only lift up 20%  - well the Comprehensives lift up zero per cent!  Some argue that Grammar school selection is unfair - well life is tough and life is unfair.That selected group at least had a chance for university education - now it is zero %.

What happens now in schools is that mediocrity is encouraged in preference to excellence.

I know because my three children went through the present day school system recently. No matter how much work for excellence my daughter put in her efforts were consistently ignored while the less able were favoured. The attitude is that the bright children will do well no matter. What message does this send out to the children when high standards are ignored. My daughter is now training as a paediatrian, thanks to her own efforts - and yes my children all went to the local state school.  

One thing that does make a big difference is offering good nursery education, and a good grounding in pre-skills BEFORE schooling even starts. We lived in America for ten years where my older son was educated until he was six and he benefited greatly there from the training given in Kindergarten school.

It is wrong to say that the Grammar school system was inflexible. There was a young boy who lived near me - he was immature at 11 and never made the Grammar school cut off, but he started to perform well at secondary school and after two years he was moved to the Grammar school and he went on to study for a science degree at university.  In Scotland the Grammar schools were known as secondary moderns.

Parson states that the major parties are against social mobility and that we need to put family back at the centre. British author Tony Parsons on This Week BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/This_Week_06_12_2012/

Tony Parsons (born 6 November 1953) is a British journalist broadcaster and author.
He began his career as a music journalist on the NME, writing about punk music. Later, he wrote for The Daily Telegraph, before going on to write his current column for the Daily Mirror. Parsons was for a time a regular guest on the BBC Two arts review programme The Late Show, and still appears infrequently on the successor Newsnight Review; he also briefly hosted a series on Channel 4 called Big Mouth.
He is the author of the multi-million selling novel, Man and Boy (1999). Parsons had written a number of novels including The Kids (1976), Platinum Logic (1981) and Limelight Blues (1983), before he found mainstream success by focussing on the tribulations of thirty-something men. Parsons has since published a series of best-selling novels – One For My Baby (2001), Man and Wife (2003), The Family Way (2004), Stories We Could Tell (2006), My Favourite Wife (2007), Starting Over (2009) and Men From the Boys (2010). His novels typically deal with relationship problems, emotional dramas and the traumas of men and women in our time. He describes his writing as 'Men Lit', as opposed to the rising popularity of 'Chick Lit'.

Our Culture of Violence

I am writing about the tragic death of a young 20yr-old boy who lived behind us here in a northern suburb of Glasgow. He was a strong young rugby playing man who was violently and indiscriminately attacked in the centre of Glasgow by two youths on the night of an old firm game. He was beaten on his head with a baseball bat. A recent studio from California cited Scotland as having the highest rates of Youth violence in the world and when it reaches so close to home, it shocks and horrifies us all.

As I pick up the Evening Times I read of further attacks. Apparently the two youths involved in this random attack, injured several others that very same night. My son works as a junior doctor in Glasgow and those on call in the Infirmary talked of the numbers brought in injured that same night. It was a Friday night after an Old Firm clash, the Rangers vs Celtic football game. 

We live in a Culture of Violence that starts in the home and spread out into the community at large. Add to this a cocktail of alcohol over-indulgence and ease of access to drugs and you have a lethal combination and a powder keg waiting to explode. 

Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting, recently suggested in the press that it was time for an Open Debate on this pressing subject. We need to look at other cosmopolitan areas such as New York which used to have a high level of violence and who adopted a ‘zero tolerance’ approach several years ago, which meant targeting young criminals and the smallest crimes before they resulted in more serious crimes. My daughter was in New York this past summer and found she found the city a safer place to walk around in than Glasgow. We also need to tackle alcohol and drug abuse problems through education and through stricter laws on selling alcohol to the very young.  

The introduction of new Laws banning physical violence in the home may help to raise awareness that violence towards others is not acceptable behaviour in our modern society. This also raises questions about our society’s attitude to violence generally, as a way of controlling others. There are other more successful ways of coping with problems and with young children. Another problem is the severe lack of male role models for many young boys growing up on the UK and the fact that Scotland has such a high rate of single parent families.

The second issue is attitudes to Binge drinking. We glorify ‘being drunk’ and ‘binge drinking’ in Scotland as if it is something to be proud of. A whole generation is being caught up in a cheap triple alcoholic haze. Do we care - well we should. We set the example by what we do and say.

My view is it is the entire Culture and attitudes here in Scotland that have to change and not about a few ‘experts’ telling the less fortunate to behave better.

It is time we looked seriously at these and other alternative ways of behaving before youth violence escalates even further on our streets.