Reevesey's recommended reading

Monday 18 April 2011

Labour leader Iain Gray: "I want a zero tolerance approach on literacy"

The Scottish Labour Party have distributed their regional election addresses across many parts of Scotland and in many editions there is an interview with their leader, Iain Gray.

Iain Gray is quoted within this interview as saying;
"I want a zero tolerance approach on literacy,"

A very odd line to take.

Does he mean he will stamp out literacy in our schools?

That is certainly what he implies, did he mean to say he wanted a zero tolerance to illiteracy?

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, the definition of literacy is;
• the ability to read and write
Far more resources are needed to improve adult literacy.

• knowledge of a particular subject, or a particular type of knowledge
Computer literacy is becoming as essential as the ability to drive a car. 

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of illiteracy is;
a lack of ability to read and write.
 
• the state of being illiterate; lack of any or enough education. 

• a mistake in writing or speaking, felt to be characteristic of an illiterate or semi literate person: a letter that was full of illiteracies.

I think that Iain Gray and Scottish Labour may have made a mistake here....why would you want a zero tolerance approach to the ability to read and write?

Sunday 17 April 2011

Conservative candidate John Lamont has short term memory

I noticed in John Lamonts latest leaflet ironically titled "Common sense with John Lamont" a moment of short term memory loss.

In the leaflet, John Lamont has criticised Euan Robson, his Scottish Liberal Democrats challenger (SNP and Labour are over 4,000 votes behind Euan), for wanting to become an MP.

Is this the same Conservative John Lamont who spent tens of thousands of pounds trying to beat Michael Moore to become an MP only last year?

It certainly is.

Maybe John Lamont and the local Conservatives have got some short term memory loss?

Saturday 16 April 2011

The biggest story in Scotland today

I was invited to take part in the ‘Bloggers’ takeover‘ at Liberal Democrat Voice today by Paul Walter who is guest editor of Lib Dem Voice today.


Paul invited a selection of bloggers to write today including yours truly.

You can read my opinion piece on the biggest story in Scotland today.

A huge thanks to Paul for asking me to write for Lib Dem Voice.

Monday 11 April 2011

Supporting the NUS Scotland LGBT mental health campaign is important - DO IT!

It's funny how Twitter starts a relationship.  I sent congratulations to Nathan Sparling who announced on Twitter he had won the election to be the new NUS Scotland LGBT Officer.

Nathan soon got into his new role and then got in touch asking if Tavish Scott and the Scottish Liberal Democrats would support the new NUS Scotland campaign on mental health in the LGBT community?

Tavish Scott was very quick off the mark and more than happy to support the campaign and said;
"One in four people in Scotland will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives. Given that Stonewall has reported that approximately half a million of Scotland’s population are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, it’s clear that these are issues that affect a great many people. And with research suggesting that LGBT people may experience higher levels of mental health problems, we recognise that more should be done to improve the experiences of the LGBT community when accessing mental health services.

"We therefore warmly welcome the NUS campaign and agree that mental health services in university and college campuses, health services and communities in general should be free of discrimination and fully accessible to all."
Did you know that someone from the LGBT community is four times more likely to commit suicide then other people?
With homosexuality only being declassified as a mental illness by the World Health Organisation just 19 years ago, in 1992, it is not surprising that accessing mental health services is often daunting or simply not an option for LGBT people.
This was a fact I did not know and was I actually shocked by it.

So the Scottish Liberal Democrats today announced their full backing for NUS Scotland’s innovative new LGBT campaign ‘There’s More to My Education’, which is pushing for better representation of LGBT people in the Scottish Government’s anti-stigma and mental health campaign, and wants university, college and community mental health services to be more friendly and accessible for LGBT students.



I recall when I came out when I was 15, it was a massive issue for me, it was one of the biggest decisions of my life and yet was one of the loneliest.

The gay scene is fun when you have tons of friends around you, I worked in the Admiral Duncan pub, one of the gay nightclubs in Nottingham so I had a huge circle of friends, but strangely when you really needed friends they weren't always there for you.

I've been lucky over the years with some great friends helping me through some tough times in my life, including the period when I was 18 through to 21 when after I came out to my Mum, we never spoke once during that period.

The time my closest friend died - he had the very same heart disease I do - that was a tough time.

I'm not going to list everything but needless to say, like many others in the world, I've had tough times to get through, they are not all to do with my sexuality but trust me when I say, the gay scene is great when you are young, but it can be bloody tough too.

That is why this campaign by NUS Scotland is so important.

Please encourage your candidates, of whatever party to sign the petition.

Nathan, good luck in the new job!

Saturday 9 April 2011

Save our Scottish Police from the SNP, Conservatives and Labour plans

There is a massive campaign brewing here in Scotland and the political parties are lining up on one side or the other.

The SNP put forward proposals to scrap the current eight Scottish Constabularies and replace it with just one.

The cost will be at least £92million and cost between 3,000 - 4,000 frontline police officers.

Both the Labour party and Conservatives have joined the SNP and now all three also want to create just one fire service as well. Labour also want to centralise care and NHS services.

Although the Liberal Democrats are often against centralisation, the proposals by Alex Salmond, Iain Gray and Annabel Goldie just don't make sense in many areas of Scotland - especially in the rural communities and the many islands that make up this great country.

Their expensive proposals must be stopped.

You can watch Tavish Scott and Charles Kennedy explain why below.




You can sign the online petition HERE and like the facebook campaign page HERE.

Monday 4 April 2011

Police Federation go for scaremongering advert

When I got to page 15 of my Metro this morning, I was somewhat taken aback by the advert from the Police Federation.


I think it is cheap and nasty scaremongering.

Don't get me wrong, organisations have the democratic right to their views, and to voice them, but cheap scaremongering from the Police Federation is just that, cheap.

The Police Federation is an organisation I have worked with over the years, mainly when I worked for Vince Cable MP, who at the time was the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Police.

According to their website:
the Federation is reliant on negotiation alone to reach agreements on pay and conditions.

I'm not keen on their current attempt to negotiate.

Here in Scotland we have the SNP, Conservatives and Labour planning to scrap local policing putting around 3,000 frontline police jobs at risk.

Not through cuts to funding streams but through a massive and expensive centralisation programme.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are fighting this disastrous proposal from the other three parties, we want local police to be local police, not directed by bueracrats in Edinburgh.

Police should be out on the beat, not filling out paperwork in back offices and certainly not all pulled from communities around Scotland to police football matches in the big cities by the Edinburgh bueracrats.

They also want to centralise our fire service as well, what is next after the police and fire services?

Sign our petition today to add your voice to Save our Police and Fire services.

Friday 1 April 2011

The March 2011 stat porn for my little blog

Continuing my regular monthly stat porn figures for anyone who is remotely interested in who reads my little blog, what stories they read and from where they read it, the monthly summary of my visitor stats according to google analytics is as below for March 2011.

The busiest day on my blog last month was Sunday 20th March, the day I blogged about the iphone app that claims to cure you if you are gay.

Last month I had 1,543 absolute unique visitors, a decent increase on last month. They made 1,946 visits and 2,460 page views.

11.30% of the visitors were through direct traffic, 23.77% from referring sites and 64.91% via search engines.

So, my top 10 referring sites for the last month were;
1. Facebook (2)
2. Twitter (4)
3. Delicious (16)
4. Lib Dem Voice (7)
5. Google.co.uk (3)
6. Lib Dem Blogs (8)
7. Blogger (6)
8. Politicshome.com (New Entry)
9. Mungions Republic (14)
10. Lallands Peat Warrior (13)

During March I wrote just 9 blog posts, that is 3 times as many as last month but even so, it is still rubbish.

The top 10 stories by direct page views that you've read most were;

1. Glasgow Labour Councillor William O’Rourke sacked over rape remarks
2. Are you gay and need curing? There's an app for that
3. Dunfermline Labour Party in election blunder
4. Ben Bradshaw - MP or candidate?
5. Ed Miliband's insult to the voters of Scotland
6. Labour run Haringey Council - the truth about the cuts
7. Adam Levine gets naked
8. Can you afford £15 to help fund a new business?
9. Jack Frew - murdered in cold blood for being gay?
10. Angela Constance MSP is new Scottish Minister for Skills & Lifelong Learning
A genuine mixed bag this month and as I only wrote 9 blog posts, the top 10 was always going to include stuff from previous months, although it is just 3 - so this month is about naked men, curing gays via your iphone, Labour gaffe's and Jack Frew.

The visitors to my little blog came from 52 countries this month, the top ten were as follows;

1. United Kingdom (1)
2. United States (2)
3. France (4)
4. Canada (6)
5. Germany (New Entry)
6. Belgium (=7)
7. Philippines (13)
=8. Australia (=9)
=8. Spain (5)
10. Italy (19)

Enjoy the porn because, that's all folks!
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