Does size matter?
For pity鈥檚 sake, calm down. At Holyrood today, the wicked media (self included) have been assailed by a torrent of claim and counter-claim with regard to class sizes.
It started with an assertion from SNP Ministers that the previous lot (Lab/LibDem) weren鈥檛 much use when it came to delivering on education promises.
(Actually, it probably started when the very first political spin-doctor emerged, mewling and puking in the nurse鈥檚 arms. Not an insult, by the way, but a quote from Shakespeare. Mars Bar to the first one who can name the play.)
Anyway, back to classes. Today鈥檚 row then escalated when Labour and the LibDems hurled insults back in turn. (Real insults: not literary quotes.)
Instead of dealing with the new figures, the statements from Labour and the LibDems dealt almost exclusively with accusations (probably justified, at least in part) that SNP Ministers were seeking to divert attention from their own little local difficulties over pupil numbers.
The substance? The Lab/Lib Executive said it would cut class sizes in Maths and English in the first two years of secondary to 20 or fewer.
How have they done? Progress 鈥 but not by any means complete success. The vast bulk of secondaries have got these classes below 20 on average. But only 64 schools managed the feat entirely, for all classes.
The pledge was recalibrated (ie changed) midterm so that success on average was to be regarded as triumph.
To the SNP, one might say that this was not entirely a brilliant strategy. The previous Exec鈥檚 figures aren鈥檛 bad enough to justify restoking scrutiny of the present Government鈥檚 plans to trim class sizes in P1 and P2.
(Hint: instead of waiting for midterm, they鈥檙e announcing in advance they intend to be 鈥渇lexible.鈥 Take your cue from glasshouses and stones.)
To Labour and the LibDems, one might say: desist, cease, dilute the rhetoric. Ca鈥 canny. There isn鈥檛 a Holyrood election for four years. Doesn鈥檛 look like there will be a UK General Election for two years. Calm down.
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The Mars Bar has been claimed 鈥 and by a spin doctor! You鈥檒l recall that I deployed a quote from Shakespeare in an earlier blog - and was rash enough to offer confectionery to the individual who identified the play involved.
Tony McElroy of the Labour Party correctly identified that the phrase 鈥渕ewling and puking鈥 comes from the Seven Ages soliloquy in 鈥淎s You Like It鈥. Yes, the one that begins 鈥渁ll the world鈥檚 a stage.鈥
Nice to know that there is at least one individual in the Labour team who is accustomed to polite language.
I shall, of course, deliver said Mars Bar within the lifetime of the present Parliament, as economic circumstances permit. However, you must understand that the financial constraints placed upon this blog by the Treasury mean that tough choices must be made.
I'm 
Comments
These continued attacks on SNP manifesto pledges never fail to amaze, in fact I'm beginning to ignore them as the rhetoric of a bitter ex-coalition ... Labour have been banging on about 'Education Education Education' since 1997 and it's never really been sorted in accordance with their manifesto pledges.
They [Labour] at least should hawd their wheesht!
"Mars Bar to the first one who can name the play" - are you allowed to offer prizes? we don't want another 'blue peter' scandal now!
Brian I thought Marr's was barred!
Have you got your CV in for the 'mewling and puking job' round at Wendy's? No, knew you had far more sense.
By the way I thought that as part of the COSLA deal the councils were now responsible for smaller class sizes and free meals?
Brian,
I believe the answer is "As you Like it" and I claim that Mars Bar. I'd settle for a tannadice pie though if the chocolate is in short supply.
On the political bit you might want to start re-reading "The Merchant of Venice", with all this petty squabbling somebody is bound to start looking for a pound of flesh!
Interesting Brian ...
Every pointless Lib/Lab accusation like this gets a blog entry but when Bendy Wendy's spokesman seeks his true level (the gutter) at an important function, we hear not a word.
There are those who would consider this media bias - but then who could ever contend the 主播大秀 has a pro-London bent?
The opposition is an absolute shambles at the moment. No cohesive strategy and a mindset ready to destroy Scotland in its attempts to discredit the encumbent government. Your point on the timing for the next General/Scottish elections is particularly poignant. The Opposition should be looking to rebiuld electoral confidence and not be seen to spit vitriol at every given opportunity. "If I canny play Im going hame and taking ma baw wi me" Is the Shout of the LAB/LIBS while it has to be said the most genuine opposition party at the moment is the(Never thought Id ever say this) Scottish Tories. Not that I have or ever would support them, but at least they seem reasonable in opposition and dont want to destroy scotland so they can ultimately say
"I told you so".
Not too Impressed with the way the SNP have handled the LAB/LIB vitriol in recent days. Stick to the points, be curteous even gracious and let the Labour party sink in a mire of its own making. Dont trade negativity with them, it just doesnt work.
Remember the LAbour party strategy in the run up to the elections, the last thing the SNP needs is to be considered just as bad as LAbour.
#1
Totally agree with you.
It was reported in Fife recently that the last Labour led Council took 20 odd million pounds from the education budget over a five year period to spend on other things.
So much for their three E's.
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players"
Jaque's well-known soliloquy from As You Like It, detailing the seven ages of man. You have my e-mail, so I can have my Mars bar.
As You Like It, re the ages of man.
It's not just spin doctors in "As you like it". The play goes on to mention political editors, "In fair round belly with good capon lined"
Definitely "As you like it", from the speech about the 7 ages of man.
I hope it's a King Size Mars Bar. I missed lunch due to all this class sizes stuff...
Riveting in it's own way I suppose Brian, but haven't you heard about Matthew Marr? Surely the political story of the week?
Not that we'd expect you to repeat such obscenities on here even in asterisks!
I'd like to know your view on it and the possible fallout for Ms Alexander all the same.
You're forgetting Brian that the Lib Dems and the Labour Party want to entirely undermine the Government in the vain hope that they can get back in. If they manage to bring down the budget, isn't it the case that there could have to be another election?
As You Like It. Please email the Mars Bar
It is from "As You Like It". How do I get my mars bar?
As you like it.
This row is about the credibility of the SNP. If their promises to the electorate in the last Scottish Election are shown to have been based on false financial assumptions, on what basis should we trust their financial assertions about independence?
I am also concerned about what the rumpous over the 1000 police officers tell us about all the parties. If we assume that we want 24 hour cover, that there will always be two police out on a beat together, that, taking into account other duties, 5 day working weeks, illness and holidays, each officer is on the beat for just over 200 days in each year, and that the time spent by each pair out on the beat will be six hours on each day, then at any one point in time there will be an extra police presence on around 80 streets.
Even that figure were doubled, the point still remains that all the parties must view Scotland as very wee country to make such an ado about nothing. I do not doubt the value of an extra 1000 police. But I question the lack of proportion sense of all the political parties.
It appears that due to the lack of a proper opposition in the Scots Parliament that Brian Taylor has taken on the role.
Come on Brian you are much better than this.
Conway, #16, writes, "Come on Brian you are much better than this".
Do you really thinks so? I've yet to see proof that any of his profession is less dishonest and self-serving than the politicians that they write about.
Look beneath the camouflage of couthy comment and you may find cause to ponder another Shakespearian gem.
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under 't.", Macbeth (Act I, Scene V).
My school here in Australia 'suffers' the same trend. My maths extension 1 class is 'supposed' to be less than 10 and after the first few months, it has decreased from 30 to 15. It is said that size doesn't pose any problems, just the quality that shows it all. Other people who dropped Maths extension are now moved to Maths or even General Maths or even 'no maths at all'. We students donot concern much about how many classmates we have but we do care about their real passion for maths. I myself wants to have a class of maximum 5 in my extension 2 though we are having 9 at the moments. The less, the better. At least we are not too distracted by self-assuming 'genius'.
The opposition is an absolute shambles at the moment. No cohesive strategy and a mindset ready to destroy Scotland in its attempts to discredit the encumbent government. Your point on the timing for the next General/Scottish elections is particularly poignant. The Opposition should be looking to rebiuld electoral confidence and not be seen to spit vitriol at every given opportunity. "If I canny play Im going hame and taking ma baw wi me" Is the Shout of the LAB/LIBS while it has to be said the most genuine opposition party at the moment is the(Never thought Id ever say this) Scottish Tories. Not that I have or ever would support them, but at least they seem reasonable in opposition and dont want to destroy scotland so they can ultimately say
"I told you so".
Not too Impressed with the way the SNP have handled the LAB/LIB vitriol in recent days. Stick to the points, be curteous even gracious and let the Labour party sink in a mire of its own making. Dont trade negativity with them, it just doesnt work.
Remember the LAbour party strategy in the run up to the elections, the last thing the SNP needs is to be considered just as bad as LAbour.
Keep going with this style Brian. I find that every time I read your blog my support for the 主播大秀 and your licence fee goes down.
It isn't that you challenge the Scottish Government - that is right and proper; you just never seem to do anything else but support the Labour view. Sometimes I wonder if you just read the latest press release from Wendy and go with that.
I realise that the 主播大秀 in Scotland is part of Labour, but you think maybe, just maybe, you could give the Government some opportunity and then judge performance rather than Labour's view.
As you said, Ca' Canny - there are three and a half years to go. Give the Government a chance - and a break.
"there isn't a Holyrood Election for four years"
Are you sure? The increasingly hysterical rhetoric from the Lab/LD continutity Scottish Exective seems to lead in only one direction. If they *really* think the SNP has lied to parliament and betrayed the trust of the Scottish people, then what courses of action are open to them?