Sep 072017
 

Old Susannah returns, less feeling her age than feeling her rage. By Suzanne Kelly.

I wish we could ask the late Ian Bell, award-winning Scottish columnist who died in his late 50s, what he’d think of an award in his name that excluded anyone over 30.

Awards and prizes are a great help for upcoming journalists who need to be acknowledged and employed. The NUJ which is involved in this award with Bell’s family, have decided that young writers need encouragement. Over 30? You need not apply.

Not everyone who emerges from a degree course or NCTJ training is under 30. Many people decide to change their careers by choice or force.

Aberdeen has seen 60,000 oil industry jobs go in the latest downturn. Anyone who loves Scotland as Bell did will be concerned for the future of these people, more than a few of whom are older than 30 or, believe it or not, some are even older. 

Many people take up journalism after spending decades watching politicians and stories come and go. Older people have personally experienced more of how the political pendulum swings and have seen more scandals, triumphs and failures than their younger writing counterparts. Serious journalism students of all ages will of course read deeply into historic issues and great writers. 

Sadly, I’ve met fellow students who don’t for instance have any idea who the late great Paul Foot was.

William Faulkner said:

“A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.”

It seems the organisers of this Ian Bell award have prioritised these three traits for us.

Faulkner left out the fact writers need to earn money though, and that is a major factor as to why writers apply for awards. Any journalist going for awards who does so just for the temporary food, praise and trophies these dog and pony shows provide for the ego is not going to get far (unless they are related to someone famous in this world where nepotism extends through every sector from music and the arts through to the Oval Office).

The NUJ is part of the problem in this situation. If this were a completely private prize, then the organisers are free to stipulate that the contestants must all have blue eyes, wear Ancient Weathered MacKay and have been born in Edinburgh in 1988 if it pleases them. But when the National Union of Journalists proudly promotes a competition that excludes a sector of society over a trait they have no control over such as their age, it is discrimination.

Substitute ‘under 30’ in the competition literature for ‘black’ ‘straight’ ‘white’ ‘French’ ‘gay’ ‘over 6′ tall’ – if you need the discriminatory nature of this award spelled out to you, and you will begin to see why this is so very wrong. It’s a union and it’s saying only those under 30 need apply. Is this behaving like a responsible, equitable union?

Sectors of our culture and the media are obsessed with youth. In some sectors happily this is changing. Modelling agencies specialising in older talents realise we have a growing older population.

Everyone who participates is saying they agree with age limits on prizes to writers

If an industry based on outward appearance acknowledges that older people have a great deal to contribute and are to be hired and rewarded, why on earth is a sector based on the mind’s ability to synthesise and create excluding such a rich seam of talent?

What would Bell, who was born in 1956, say about excluding people who are younger than he was when he passed for an award in his name?

His passion for Scotland – is this something he felt only the young could share? The family and the NUJ have indicated that young people may be more likely to write in Bell’s style. They are welcome to explain if that means those under 30 are sharper, better writers, more concerned with issues, and better than their older counterparts trying to break into journalism. We should be told.

The NUJ reps replied fairly swiftly to early complaints about this ageist competition. They have been asked to supply a statement on their position on ageism but have not done so yet. When they do, it will be published here.

The deadline is 15 November. Doubtless a dinner will be held for the finalists, a happy winner will make a speech, and everyone will go home after a feeding and watering, some with new job leads. Everyone who participates is saying they agree with age limits on prizes to writers. Sadly that includes family members who should know better, and the NUJ, which has really compromised itself this time.

There seem to be many awards for writers under 25 or under 30. Many of these are for specific disciplines. This is not discriminatory; it makes sense to look for the best people in specialised fields. What does not make sense is telling people over 25 or 30 that it is acceptable to exclude them. The message is clear: you are not valued if you are not young. 

The NUJ and Bell’s family are applauded for commemorating a great writer. It is however a pity how they decided to do this while shutting the door on so many others.

On a personal note:

This week I found out I passed my NCTJ exams and am now qualified to write. I’ve been writing for many years about Scottish issues from cases of corruption, ineptitude, conflicts of interest, Trump’s involvement, environmental issues, animal welfare, people abused by ATOS and the system.

I’m 56. If continuing to fight against discrimination puts me at odds with a union I’ve just joined so be it.

The people who inspired me to get involved with Aberdeen Voice (an independent, not-for-profit apolitical online publication) were all over 40. We happily took submissions from people in their teens through to pensioners. Am I wrong to expect the same level of integrity and inclusiveness in the NUJ as I do from Aberdeen Voice? It would seem so. 

If this essay seems like sour grapes, it is not myself I am thinking of any more than when I’ve tried to champion Menie resident, ATOS-persecuted people, pensioners and others discriminated against. I am possibly better placed than other upcoming older journalists to find that important first job than many of them are – this kind of bias makes me fear for their futures. 

This is about a union’s responsibility to all of its members, to fighting ageism and treating it as seriously as I would any other form of discrimination. This is about hundreds of older writers who should be considered for this and other prizes. There are forces that would turn journalism into a workplace for young people only – there is a national I know of that unofficially only hires those under 25.

Youth is a wonderful thing. It is also just a bit coincidental that you can pay younger people less than older people in some situations. If your news source seems to be dumbing down, you might want to look at its inclusiveness policies – if any.

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Nov 042011
 

An Editorial and suggestion for a better plan for Tullos Hill. By Suzanne Kelly.

For nearly a year many people have attempted to get Aberdeen City Council to see sense over its planned cull of the Tullos Hill roe deer.  The City insists the archaeology-rich, bio diverse meadows of Tullos must be turned into an 89,000 tree forest.  They will not budge.

It makes no difference that the area has a history of arson and that there are explosion hazard sites on the hill (there is a dangerous old waste tip and escaping gas areas, protected by warning signs and barbed wire fence).
Aileen Malone (Liberal Democrat Councillor), Valerie Watts (Chief Executive), Pete Leonard (Officer) and Ian Tallboys (ranger) have all been corresponding with me and others.  These emails often contradict other correspondence.

They also often quote an unnamed expert or two, and the writers refuse to so much as listen to any dissenting expert opinions, even if offered free of charge.  This puts to rest any feeble excuse that there is a robust scientific approach to the hill’s future.

For me, there are just too many contradictions, omissions and flawed logic for the plan and its supporters to retain any credibility on this matter.  It is time to examine some of the conflicting information these four people have been offering.  It is also time to examine whether or not everything they say is accurate, and to ask why we have spent council time, money and energy on this plan.

For what we were once told was a ‘cost-neutral.’ sound plan ready to implement turns out to be nothing more than a draft proposal to the Forestry Commission.   But more importantly it is time to secure Tullos Hill’s future and preserve what we already have:  a beautiful, changing meadowland and grassland habitat which supports animals including deer.

Who has said and done what?  To completely detail all of the misinformation and seemingly misleading statements would require a book.  Instead I prepared a chart which highlights some of the contradictions.  It can be accessed here, but is in no way exhaustive of the ever-changing information slowly leaking out concerning this scheme. Click Link

Past articles have highlighted that £43,800 was already wasted on a failed tree planting at Tullos.  Even though I formally asked the City to clarify this had happened, Valerie Watts at first effectively denied any such thing had occurred.  When presented with proof positive (in the form of a letter from the Forestry Commisison demanding the £43,800) Ms Watts said that ‘there was no relation’ between my request to clarify that money was owed – and that since I asked my question in May and the bill was paid in March, there was no need to clarify the position.  The public and I beg to differ.

New Revelations

The Evening Express (itself accused by Valerie Watts alongside the P&J of getting the story wrong over time) revealed that there is actually no budget in place.  All this time Aileen Malone and others have insisted the scheme is cost neutral and that we must shoot the deer as it would be the most cost effective way to grow trees.

Never mind that the scheme will destroy what is already on the hill or that this argument is wholly immoral – which led to the public outcry – there is no money in place.  This one revelation alone calls into question reports issued by the City which claim the scheme had funding.  It does not.

Asking the City to clarify the funding picture has so far been fruitless, but I have since learned that only a draft application for the tree scheme is in place.  All the press releases and sweeping statements about the trees are, just a little bit, premature.  Months ago I asked Ms Watts for the financials.  She eventually wrote back to ask what I meant – which in case you were wondering meant the financials for the tree plan (money in, money out, costs, expenses).

Rather than answering me, she has sent my question (months after first being asked) to her Freedom of Information department.   The Council recently complained that its FOI staff were inundated with work:  perhaps those who hold information should release it without the need to burden this department.

( Stop Press – Financial information. Click Link )

 Mystery of the Missing Postcards

With funds kindly raised largely by Lush (which had a cycle event – their team from Edinburgh gave up personal time and cycled to Aberdeen to highlight the deer’s plight), some dramatic, effective pre-printed postcards were produced.
They were so popular that a re-print was done, and 700 such postcards were made in all.

I have some photos of the backs of pre-printed postcards.  These were signed after a meeting of anti-cull people was held at the end of September.  A few nights later, I obtained more cards from other people, and handed a total of 63 cards protesting the cull to a security guard at the City’s Town House.  The guard told me:

“we got loads of these in this week, and even more came in the week before.”

In a recent letter to me, Ms Watts says that 35 postcards were received.

Ms Watts and the City somehow are not getting items sent through the regular post:  Torry Community Council’s letter protesting the cull never arrived, as Watts confirmed in the same letter which mentions the postcards.  I spoke to the Torry CC Secretary on 2 November, and she said ‘the letter was definitely sent, but the City didn’t receive it.’  This letter was the result of Torry’s CC voting unanimously to protest the cull and complain about how the whole affair was handled.

Perhaps I can understand the City not receiving post through the mail – something the City claimed to have posted to me never arrived, and an email they sent never showed up either (which conveniently for them put the cull protest off by weeks).  However, I most definitely dropped 63 signed postcards from different individuals at the Town House:  there is no logical excuse for the cards ‘disappearing’.

‘The Media is to blame’ (Really?)

The City’s position, according to its Chief Executive Ms Watts is as follows (from two different letters):-

“Aberdeen City Council has no control over how the media report Council meetings.  In this case the media did not accurately report on decisions of the Committee and have continued to publish inaccurate information about the project.  They have published their interpretation of the committee decisions.”

I do not personally believe that the reports I read in print or saw on television misconstrued the Committee’s decisions at the time it decided to press ahead with the cull, having read the committee reports and minutes.

In an even stronger attack on the media, last week Valerie Watts wrote to me the following, which I believe must have been based in part on the Evening Express front page article of 30 September by you, Mr Ewen:

“In terms of media coverage, Aberdeen City Council’s Media Team has on several occasions sought to correct the media’s assumption that our deer management programme would necessarily begin on or around the first day of the season for controlling the numbers of roe deer hinds.

“Both the Evening Express and the Press & Journal have reported that the roe hind seasons begins on 01 October – the season in fact commences on 21 October – and that deer management would begin on or near that date. Both newspapers were informed as to the correct date of the start of the season and were reminded that no date had in fact been set by the Council for the start of our management programme. 

“The newspapers were also informed that their stories had raised false expectations that the start of deer management was imminent.  They have been told that details will only be finalised once funding is in place and when the trees are about to be planted.”

I spoke to an Evening Express reporter on the 2nd of November about this issue; they replied

“I am in contact very often with the City’s media team, and it’s never come up.”

Perhaps the media is misleading me, as Ms Watts would have me believe, or perhaps the media team has not contacted reporters who write about the cull.  In fact, now that I have published a number of articles on the cull, I can confirm the city has never once been in touch to suggest I have any facts wrong.

Moving on:  to a Meadow

This week the Housing & Environment Committee met (2 November); Neil Cooney called the whole dubious scheme into question.  Not only did he bring up the absolute lack of funding, but he also mentioned the soil report.

To say that Tullos is not ideal for tree planting is accurate.  But the City never did publicise this additional fact:  they have been asked to spray weed killer on Tullos for two to three years until the trees are established.  There is no detail on the cost, damage potential for plants and animals, and even potential health risks for people.

Neil Cooney, many concerned residents and I are now working to get the hill preserved (or perhaps even enhanced) as a meadow.   If you have ever seen the Dame’s Violets in bloom you would wonder why anyone would disturb their balance.  The gorse (being unceremoniously ripped out on occasion – and burnt) is essential for many forms of wildlife year round, providing food and shelter.

It is this gorse Ian Tallboys says is of limited value and which he wants ripped out.  At present there are beautiful forms of delicate (probably rather rare) fungi growing – any change in soil PH balance could kill them, not to mention the damage planting would do to the underground network from which these mushrooms grow.

You probably know there are three Bronze Age Cairns on the hill; they are set off in a striking fashion.

A forest will forever obscure them and the amazing views of the city and sea.  You might not know that over a dozen other smaller sites, many bronze age, are in the planting area.  It is unclear whether the appropriate government agencies have been contacted about this aspect of the tree plan.

If you want more information on why a meadow is such a better idea for Tullos, then please read the article on meadows in this issue of Aberdeen Voice. ( Click link )

Also – remember that we are about to build hundreds of homes and a football stadium where we currently have meadows.  This will spell the end for the wildlife that depended on these fields – to also change Tullos is an environmental disaster as far as I am concerned.  Perhaps now that the City’s ranger service is expected to turn a profit (yes, they are told to generate income streams with the very odd finance system at work in our city), they hope to have timber income from the trees – which according to the aforementioned soil report, will never achieve maturity.

How much quicker, efficient and simpler it would be to conduct nature tours of what is an amazing hill.  Environmental tourism is a growing area, and we with our resources should be getting on it.

This article and the accompanying table contain my personal opinions as well as quotations from the City’s documents.  I invite you to draw your own conclusions, to ask the City and Aileen Malone (once so keen to be quoted in press releases) why a meadow is not the best future for this hill.

If you would like to help lobby for a meadow, please get in touch via the Aberdeen Voice for further information.  We can avert an environmental tragedy if we act now.  This plan is still in a very early stage – but we will come up with a plan that will support the existing flora, fauna – and especially the deer.

Dec 102010
 

With Thanks To Clare Rochford.

Aberdeen City Council are due to meet on 15th December to discuss ceasing or reducing the Fairer Scotland Fund. The purpose of the fund is to tackle individual poverty and multiple deprivation, and should either of these options be exercised, this will have a significant impact on minority groups and communities in the city.

‘All new functions, policies and procedures should go through the EHRIA process’ (see Appendix 1)

In advance of these scheduled discussions, ACC Equalities Team have, in accordance with their duty to ‘carry out our Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessments (EHRIAs) early on in our budget setting process so that elected members are aware of any potential negative impacts of budget decisions on the equality groups’, have prepared the necessary documents.

According to Impact Assessment in relation the cessation of the fund: (see Appendix 3)

  • ‘Support to get people into employment would cease. This would affect those furthest from the job market, including specialist support for race, disability, older, younger and gender groups.
  • ‘Financial Inclusion support, including Credit Union support, money advice and income maximisation, would cease affecting those in poverty.
  • ‘Health initiatives would cease, affecting access to mental health and wellbeing services for those in poverty.
  • ‘A range of educational and cultural activities would cease affecting older, younger, gender and associated poverty groups.
  • ‘Youth work in disadvantaged communities would cease affecting younger and youth poverty groups.
  • ‘Neighbourhood improvements and community safety initiatives aimed at improving quality of life in disadvantaged communities would cease thereby affecting people living in poverty.’

These proposals, and their potential fallout also appear to be at odds with the Council’s Single Equality Scheme 2009 – 2012.

‘This Single Equality Scheme and its accompanying action plan builds on a wide range of work carried out by Council services to promote diversity and equality. The Scheme sets out how we will fulfill our legal duties in terms of the Race, Disability and Gender Equality strands and identifies arrangements, which go beyond current challenges of legislative requirements, embracing the strands of age, faith/ religion/ belief and sexual orientation.’(see Appendix 2)

the staffing implications fall hardest on women in employment

Having observed that there appear to be only negative outcomes for groups such as older persons, younger persons, and those financially disadvantaged, there is surely a strong case for councillors to reject the proposals on 15th December.

In a separate impact assessment – this time regarding staffing implications of reducing the council’s workforce, a disproportionate negative effect on female employees is identified (see Appendix 4):

‘Due to the impact of one proposal (given the gender profile of the workforce) which proposes a 50% reduction in Pupil Support Arrangements, the staffing implications fall hardest on women in employment.’

‘The proposal to reduce the number of Pupil Support Assistant’s (PSAs) by 50% will seriously affect this one job title, which is almost exclusively undertaken by women. The option, if accepted, would result in those employed either being redeployed or made redundant.’ In the High Court in London on Monday the Fawcett Society brought a case against the Government’s Budget cuts which will hit women far harder than men, as women account for 65% of all public sector employment and were more likely to be affected by pay freezes and job losses.

Campaigners say ministers are legally obliged to carry out an equality impact assessment before taking policy decisions and, where this reveals a risk of discrimination, to take urgent action.

Taking all of this into account, it would seem that there is a strong case for councillors to take the findings of these Impact Assessments very seriously and reject the proposal to reduce the number of PSAs, as this will not only have a disproportionately negative impact on women, but also the pupils most in need of this kind of support.

We wait and wonder.

(Appendix1) http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=21290&sID=14152 (Page 5)

(Appendix2) http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/EqualityDiversity/eqd/eqd_sigle_equality_scheme.asp

(Appendix3) http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/web/files/ehrias/4d_%20Cease%20Fairer%20Scotland%20Fund_24-11-10.pdf

(Appendix4) http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/web/files/ehrias/4c_Staffing%20Implications_25-11-10.pdf