(23.00 Updated with photos) Councillor Peter Nield, the Education Convener at Angus Council which is taking the Education Secretary’s decision to reprieve Arbroath’s Muirfield School to Judicial Review at Edinburgh Court of Session – on voting day – is about to hit the national media for all the wrong reasons.
Not only the council’s Education Convener but a teacher of English, Peter Nield has now erected six foot banners at the busy Arbroath bypass – the Westway - for his campaign.
These banners mis-spell his own name – giving it as NEILD not Nield.
They initially also ‘did an Alex Mcnaughton’ – had an ‘X’ voting instruction which would disqualify votes.
Form professional photographer Paul Reid’s image above, it looks as if Peter Nield has effected a Heath Robinson correction of the voting ‘X’ but has left his name alone. Other banners in the suite have been left totally unmodified.
Perhaps what a variation of what we said about Councillor Alex McNaughton’s trialling of the voting ‘X’ in Argyll has some resonance here too. In this, ‘Be careful what you wish for’ might precede a squad of spoiled ‘X’ votes.
Standing in the same ward as Mr Nield is Ewan Smith, the doughty and successful Muirfield Action Group campaigner for the school and a journalist.
Who would vote for an Education Convener and an English teacher who cannot spell their own name – or even notice the mistake on 6ft high banners.
We are grateful to photographer Paul Reid who spotted the goof in the first place and passed on the story.
Update 2nd May
This was always going t be a national hit.
- The Sun 2 May 2012
- Scottish Daily Mail, page 12
What a GREAT story. [ yawn] [yawn ].
Just can’t wait to see the picture… [snore] [snore]
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Need to get to bed earlier, Simon.
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Neild/Nield/Nailed scores again! Another own goal that is!
Pure class btw
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Simon do you go round commenting on all the stories on the internet that don’t interest you? It must take up lots of your time.
Maybe he’s of the hope that people wont link Nield to Neild in the elections?
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As an aside it was mentioned that Ewan Smith is standing in the saame ward as P.N. in the upcomimg elections… Mr Ewan Smith has noted on his “facebook” page that he has yet to come accross a single person, in his election campaign (who he has spoken to), that supports the new Westway School.. P.N.’s assertion, in a newspaper article, that the “silent” majority were all for the new build still appear to be remaining very silent!!
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Peter Nield -hope I got that right- is listed as an Angus Council member with an Independent tag. However in the past he has contested the Angus constituency as a Liberal Democrat.
Change of name/change of party it seems that this is a fairly adaptable individual!
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