Here's my Hoof Print!

Today, I "signed-on" for the first time since becoming unemployed. Unless you live in the UK you won't understand what this means, but basically it's going to the Job Centre at a specific fortnightly time to sign to receive benefits. My signing-on time was 9am and I turned up only to wait with a couple other guys for about 10 minutes until someone deigned to unlock the doors. During this period many people passed by looking at us like we were the scum of the Earth, including a couple people I know unfortunately. Maybe they weren't looking at us like that, however, that's the way I was feeling. It was undignified and demeaning. There is still very much a social stigma here about being unemployed. The assumption would be that you don't want to work and that you're some sort of lowlife.

I don't even know if I'm going to get any money anyway. I just want a decent job. I went back to Uni in 2003 and spent four years there. I was Student Rep every year. I had the highest marks in every exam and in coursework. I achieved a distinction despite having no tutors for the last 6 months of my final year... and I can't get a proper job. I have talents, I have ideas. Nobody seems interested. I get the distinct impression from job interviews I've attended that they would far prefer for me to bullshit. They have no interest in my experience or knowledge. I honestly sit there thinking "They want to me to make up some nonsense about my life!" You might not know what I'm talking about, but anyone involved in Scottish education might have a good idea. Your ability to teach or subject knowledge is now secondary to your other talents. I have honestly been told that I would get a job no bother if I could juggle or do Martial Arts. I know why too. They now view teachers as child-minders tasked with entertaining children rather than educating them. Purely, because they've bought into all of these talent shows on the TV. "Those are popular. Let's make education like that! The children will love it!"

I know I came into education at the wrong time, but despite the recession, goverment cuts, local authority cuts and school cuts, what I've seen is rotten to the core. The new curriculum which is "going to put Scotland at the forefront of education"... if I were a parent of the first tranche, I would be livid. I've seen the pupils who are the "first to benefit" from the new curriculum and in more than one school. What I've seen frightens me. They will be a lost generation. Their entire education will be rendered meaningless. They have and are being failed. The goverment will no doubt blame the teachers, but they chose to implement this new curriculum when teachers said they weren't ready for it, without proper finances, when job cuts were looming and with a curriculum which is nothing more than a wishy-washy set of ambiguous and utopian statements of intent. You should know that there is no curriculum really. Teachers are being asked to make it up as they go along. Every school will be teaching different things in different ways. God help any child who moves to another school. They will be completely lost in the system.

The Elgin Climate Mystery!

Snowing here again! I think it's safe to say that the climate is screwed. That's another year that we've had our Winter in March-April. Twenty years ago, it was February-March. I don't think I've seen a proper Winter, i.e. December time, since the 70's, and even then it was only around 6 inches of snow. My father tells tales of six feet of snow, back when he was a lad.

While the problem is clearly global, apparently there are some very severe contibutors here in Moray. The local newspaper had an article in it this week on the subject, which made rather odd reading. I'd like to tell you just what it was about, but to be honest it didn't make that much sense. Apparently, Moray is doing more damage to the environment than any other Scottish county, despite being sparsely populated. The article reported some scientists claims, that it wasn't Carbon Dioxide emissions causing the damage, but excess heat being produced. That was odd enough, but then it gave a specific location, the area of 99 High Street, Elgin.

I wondered what there could be in that vicinity which would produce more heat than anywhere else in Scotland! It turns out that the area is mainly occupied by an empty building. So unless, there's some major geo-thermal activity going on there, something truly bizarre is afoot, and I want to know what it is. The truth will out as they say, and when I find out what the mysterious super-heat source is, you'll be the first to know! I'd also like to know who this so called "scientist" is, how exactly he pin-pointed the source of the heat, and why the budding Sherlock Holmes having got that far, can't work out precisely what's causing it!

What's In A Name?

What's In A Name? I'm going to be referring mainly to Scottish Surnames here, but you might have one of those even though you live in a land far, far away, because what was formerly called the British Empire, was largely created by Scotsmen and Scottish colonists. And, you don't necessarily have to have a Surname beginning with Mc or Mac for it to be Scottish. If you thought that was the case then you have been misled by popular culture.

Scottish Surnames fall into several categories:

• Patronymics - Taken from the fathers forename, for instance, where the father was called Donald, the surname derived from him could be; McDonald, MacDonald, Donaldson or just Donald.
• Occupations - Examples are; Wright (Carpenter), Skinner, Baxter (Female Baker) and the most common of all, Smith (Blacksmith).
• Place Names - Scottish Surnames derived from places near where I live include; Cullen, Fordyce, Keith and Findlater.
• Physical Charcteristics - Primarily hair colours such as Reid, Brown, Gray and Black or the Gaelic: Bowie - Blond or fair-haired and Duff - Black. Names such as Campbell and Cameron are supposed to translate as Crooked Mouth and Crooked Nose.

Of course there are other Scottish Surnames which do not fall into those categories, but in general most do. Also, should you find that you do have a Scottish Surname and particularly one which is fairly common, do not assume that you are therefore related to everyone who shares that Surname, because the same name may have several origins. For instance, my own Surname, Wilson, is believed to be derived from an Earl of Innes named William way back in the 14th or 15th Century. Yet, the name also originated in Caithness with the Clan Gunn, and other instances of the name originate early on in Glasgow, Dundee and also down in England.

My wife also has the rather rare Surname, Maver, the origins and meaning of which are highly questionable, but her family has been in Scotland since at least 1440, and yet the same name is prolific in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovakia, with apparently no connection whatsoever. Very odd!

Fingers Crossed for the SNP !

OK, I've been watching the election results closely all day, and it's still too close to count, and the electoral system is clearly the shambles we expected. Take a look at the Scottish Parliament and you'll get a good idea why anything remotely concerning Scottish politics, usually ends up a disaster.

Although my political opinions might not interest anyone further afield than Elgin, this is my platform and I will express them, because that is my constitutional right.

I did vote for the SNP, not because I agree with probably half of their policies, but because I wanted Labour out, and in that respect, only the SNP have the potential to drive them out. The trouble with our electoral system is, even if the SNP gain a majority, unless they find another party willing to form a coalition, we could be looking at another Lib/Lab alliance, especially with the Lib Dem reluctance to allow the people of Scotland the chance to have a referendum on Independence. My cynical side tells me that it's an obvious ploy by them to get back into bed with Labour.

Anyway, I here you ask, why do I want Labour out so badly? Well, if you lived here in the North East of Scotland, you wouldn't need to ask. I can't think of a single positive thing Labour has done for me since devolution. There are many negatives though, too many:

• I now owe £13,000 in loans and fees for educating myself.
• I haven't had an NHS dentist for 4 years. My last dentist was a South African, who went private as soon as he was able. I can't afford private treatment, so I don't get any. Welcome to the Third World !
• The road infrastructure here is probably 30 years out-of-date and public transport is expensive, occasional and fairly inaccessble!
• My country is involved in at least 2 pointless wars, which have no support by the people and we're losing badly!
• There are no jobs here, what few jobs there were have been filled by immigrant workers, prepared to work for the minimum wage (sometimes less), and this in turn has driven wages down also!
• Bizzarely, last year, although a full-time student with a wife and 2 kids, my student loans were considered by the Council to be income, and I had to pay full rent and council-tax, wtf?

These are my grievances with Labour! I don't know what a SNP in majority will do for this country, but even if it's only enough to give Labour a fright, that will do for me!