The SNP manifesto launched today has made an unequivocal commitment to strengthening the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.
This is one in the eye for the protectionist Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) which was responsible for scuppering the attempt to revise the Statutory Guidance to the Act.
This was meant to be completed before the election purdah period began but it proved impossible to achieve.
For Argyll noticed that the new Guidance did not appear when it should have done and wondered aloud at that time if COSLA might just have made a stupid tactical mistake. It was clear that one option for the SNP administration, were it returned to power after 5th May 2011, would be to strengthen the Act itself.
It may well be that all that needs to be done is to publicise the nature of a little understood but major and draconian requirement of the Act (which we will be publishing on over the weekend). This particular feature is described by legal minds as ‘a bar so high it’s almost impossible to get over’.
Either way, COSLA’s attempts to obstruct the settled will of both Government and people on the presumption against closure of rural schools may prove to have been singularly ill-judged. You can make an enemy of one or the other but if you screw both you get caught in the middle. They will move together and crush you between them.
The big surprise would be the SNP not jumping on every band wagon they think will win votes and actually behaving like a mature political force.
All SNP policies based on maximizing votes which is not the same as building a strong Scotland.
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Lego
At the risk of offending two of my best friends on here I have to say I am not a SNP voter. Having said that I should say I also don’t vote for any party by default – I vote for individuals which means that theoretically, at some point, I could end up voting for someone from each of the parties at some level of another (although I have to say I will always struggle to vote for a Lib Dem – political whoring doesn’t appeal to me).
However accusing any party of making speeches and statements to appeal to the electorate is always folly – it is a standard trait of any political party that actually has a genuine chance of success. There were days when the Lib Dems were able to reject this approach to politics because they were a marginal party with as much chance of success as I have of winning ‘rear of the year’ – now that they have snuggled up to the Tories and demonstrated that everything they were always accused was entirely justified (although note I am still not overly confident that my rear will see its year) they are just guilty as everyone else.
On the issue of protecting Scotland’s rural schools I have to say that the SNP have done more than any other party ever considered doing so a manifesto pledge to further strengthen the act is not really a case of jumping on a bandwagon – surely if you load the bandwagon then you are allowed to hitch a lift on it!
Throughout this school fiasco in A&B I have personally received assistance from Labour and SNP politicians – attempts to gain the same from Tories and Lib Dems have not quite fallen on deaf ears but certainly fallen on ears that either respond with lip service or with thinly veiled attempts to obtain information which I strongly suspect would have been passed back to certain A&B Councillors to help them prepare their defence.
Saving these rural schools is fundamental to the survival of wonderful Argyll communities, to the provision of high quality education, and to the maintenance of cultures, local economies, and the diversity of rural life which has made and COULD continue to make Argyll the fabulous place it is. If the SNP and, in particular, Mike Russell is prepared to jump on the bandwagon’ to save this then I shall chip in for the horse to pull that bandwagon to every corner of A&B.
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