Much like Strictly Come Dancing which, while its run lasts is impossible to avoid even when you don’t watch it so determined is the BBC to ensure synergy across all its outlets, the Military Wives never seem to be off the airwaves here.

At least it means that that other pile of kack on the other side – which I also never watch – won’t be providing this year’s Christmas No. 1.

I know that the proceeds from the sale of each Military Wives CD will be donated jointly to The Royal British Legion and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen Families Association – two worthwhile causes (though it could be argued that the welfare of ex-servicemen is a direct government responsibility) – and that the formation of the choir itself will have boosted the morale of the choir’s members (and for all I know their partners in the forces) but the whole thing strikes me as being something of an exercise in manipulation.

OK, the words may not be the purest poetry, they are taken from letters from and to forces sweethearts after all, but that’s forgiveable.

But does anyone else think the tune is just awful?

I had to take out several stray commands that had crept in plus resize the pictures (again!) on my Dollar War Memorial post. The second and third pages now look okay – at least on my computer.

My blog administrator is going to try to sort something out.

In the meantime I’m a bit wary of posting anything……

Aren’t these two erstwhile members of the Bullingdon Club, whose activities consisted of exactly the sort of thing they were condemning?

Where is the difference between what they are said to have got up to in their youth and what we have seen on our TV screens?

I found it particularly ironic when David Cameron said the perpetrators would, “feel the full force of the law,” and Johnson that they would, “regret it.”

Did Mr Cameron feel the full force of the law?

Did Johnson regret his actions? (“We got drunk, trashed the Ritz & then went down Piccadilly to loot a few items from Fortnums” – Boris Johnson in his autobiography, 1986.)

Or is it just that they could get away with it because their daddies were rich?

I hope the rioters do not get away with it. Nothing excuses such wanton acts of violence and vandalism. (Whether their daddies are rich or not.)

Parliament has been recalled for Thursday. Expect a whole series of speeches ploughing the same themes – none of which will be along the lines of why people might have been motivated to act in this way. Get to the root of that and the problem – for there clearly is a problem – might be on the way to being solved.

I’m not optimistic. I feel further restrictions on civil liberties coming on.

You will be relieved to hear that this is not going to be a rant about any iniquities they are proposing – though they are many. In passing, though, I did note that a journalist on Reporting Scotland recently stated that the last big settlement in Scottish Education (the McCrone Agreement) had been a good deal for Scottish teachers. In that agreement teachers contracted hours were raised substantially but pay was not. In effect teachers got a pay cut out of that one.

However what caught my eye, and that of many others, was the CoSLA statement in their proposals that,

“The primary role for a teacher should not be to teach children but should be articulated in terms of ensuring the development, well-being and safety of children.”

Eh? Run that first bit past me again.

So, how about these leaps of logic?

The primary role for a fireman should not be to fight fires.
The primary role for a doctor should not be to treat the sick.
The primary role for a dustman should not be to empty bins.

How many of these are self evident, or indeed evident under closer inspection?

Of course the development, well-being and safety of children is an important part of the nurturing process but you can have all their development, well-being and safety that you like but unless at least some of them come out the other end of the education system having actually learned something – and that requires they be taught somwhere along the way – then the whole process will be deemed a failure. (Even when that does happen – the learning that is – some people still say it’s a failure.) Moreover, the way in which said local authorities and others judge the education system is by its results; its exam results, nothing else. Nobody in the wider world gives a stuff about the development, well-being and safety of children when they can put the boot in over easy exams and high pass rates. (As if lower pass rates would gain acclaim.) Neither does anybody in these local authorities give a stuff about child development when a school is not achieving the results they expect.

The primary role for a teacher should not be to teach children.

Discuss.

This was a clean sheet against a team from a higher league who have scored nine goals in their past two games. A fair result, then.

But that’s 180 minutes we’ve played against Morton this season and not put the ball in the back of their net.

And there’s no Sons TV because of a ludicrous SFA contract with a certain broadcasting organisation. (Who probably haven’t and won’t broadcast any footage of the game.)

Plus my trip to Stirling next Saturday has been kiboshed by the replay.*

Looks like I’ll not be seeing the Sons again till Boxing Day.

*Time was there had to be 100 or more miles between the two clubs’ grounds before a Saturday Scottish Cup replay was sanctioned.

(That’s the only bonus about the commercialisation of Halloween. It fends off Christmas for a bit. When I was a lad there wasn’t much “ghostly” tat, apart from perhaps paper masks or witches’ hats, on sale in the run up to All Hallows Eve. Certainly no pumpkins and none of the peculiar orange and black creations that seem to be the marker these days. We had our guising costumes made for us by the sweat of mother’s brow – or sewing fingers.)

In Kirkcaldy, Santa visits the Mercat and the town’s Christmas lights are switched on halfway through November but at least the latter has some point to it, as it brightens up the dark winter afternoons.

Yesterday, though, the 27^th of November, in my local corner shop I saw for sale not Christmas stuff, oh no, but creme eggs.

Creme eggs! In November. The leftovers from last Easter have barely cleared away.

It takes all the anticipation away.

Year round creme eggs. It’s just not right.

Jeff Stelling doesn’t seem right to me (but a lot better than Des O’Connor anyway.)

But the numbers game! The replacement for Carol Vorderman said “times it by.” Times it by!

She’s a grown woman, presumably with a Maths degree or something involving Maths at least.

She should know there is no such verb as “times it by.” It’s multiply.

Susie Dent in dictionary corner ought to be correcting her.

[Carol Vorderman also annoyed me with the way she set out the arithmetic as she would write things like:-
100/50 = 2 x 6 = (12 + 1) x 25 = 325. The "new" woman (I'm sorry, I don't know her name) did this sort of thing too.

Now, 100/50 = 2. It does not equal 2 x 6.
2 x 6 = 12; not (12 + 1) x 25.

It might seem like a little thing .......
but I get faced with such arithmetical rubbish on almost a daily basis in my day job.

Don't give the pupils any excuse, please.]

What they usually mean is “smaller” or “worse tasting because made with cheaper ingredients.”

Never in my experience do they actually mean the product concerned has been improved.

One about the merits of a new drink with …..

No added sugar.

Complete with a link to where to buy the stuff, of course. (A link I shall not be including here.)

So thanks but no thanks, Margaret. I’ll not be trying it.

Even if it does come in six delicious flavours.