Taking Out The Trash

Abuse of language

One could say that if you dish out you should be able to take it.
But Newcastle boss Joe Kinnear's torrent of abuse to journalists is really a sign of someone losing their grip and not holding the media to account.
As a journalist I think the reporters' responses are laudable in their restraint.
As a football fan I feel sorry for Newcastle.
And it makes Giles Coren's recent and more famous abuse memo to Times subs seem all the more pathetic. He threw his toys out because of one word, Kinnear thinks his whole career is being trashed.

Grand Challenge ad nauseum

Just filed 2,000 words for Flipside on the MoD's Grand Challenge and about to start on 800 words covering a different angle on the same story for the newsletter of the group Scientists for Global Responsibility.
Which makes it four different outlets on this issue and I think I've would then have had enough of robot urban warfare systems.
Just posted up some images from the event which you can see here.
My SGR piece will consider the implications of involving school in these defence projects. One teacher I spoke to at the event said it did make him think twice about taking part.
His daughter wants to be a forensic scientist because of the CSI crime series - if we could see some programmes featuring engineers (like Robot Wars) then maybe more young people will want to take it up as a career.
Instead defence companies are filling the gap that exists in promoting engineering and technology in schools. As this press release from Thales shows.

Light touch in the public sector

I've posted previously on how a couple of councils have failed to follow the adjudication of the local government ombudsmen when they have been found guilty of maladministration causing injustice.

Perhaps the most egregious example was Trafford whose treatment of a young woman with disabilities and her family has been callous.

Some people have been trying to find how many other councils have ignored the findings of ombudsmen.

Documents posted here from a freedom of information request show that 143 and one school have ignored findings.

Now these date from 1974 to the present period and they also only cover the one rejected entirely. As the discussion on this board shows, the numbers not accepting these independent findings is likely to be higher.

You can read the rest of my latest post on the Total Politics Local Government blog.