Kilmarnock College Social Sciences Social Oct. 14th 2004

Tonight I want to record a really enjoyable experience.

Just in from tonight's Kilmarnock College Social Sciences Social, held at our usual venue Townholm Bowling Club.Brilliant that so many staff and students, past and present, turned up.

Great to see the likes of Sean Flynn, Leigh Balfour, and Elaine McFedries come back to our wee community and tell us how much they are enjoying University. Kick seven shades out of your psychology and social science degrees!

Entertainment was provided by Peter Kerr, who was his usual excellent self. What a talented guy you are Peter!

I know the cover I'd love you to do for that CD of mine. Queen's 'We Will Rock You' was first class man!

I can't believe it's 30 years since I saw you perform for the first time in our much loved Students' Union. A place where we put the world to rights and back again so many many times. You gave Elvis laldy and brought 500 students who were in on the Friday lunchtime shift to their feet in awe!

You students made me and Liz realise again why we love the job so much. Mind you we are getting like many of your mum's and dad's now!

But there once was a time, wasn't their Liz! 'Way to go.'

We both got quite emotional at one point about you all, but you were all too wellied to notice.

It was a great mixture. Young and not so young. Nobody really made an a**e of themselves. Apart from........?

But Vince pal, going to stop bowing to me! 'Better to die on your feet, than live on your knees.'

There will be a few sore heads and bodies in the morning. As some of you went off clubbing to Glasgow, I guess we will need to lose the Registers tomorrow. Oops!

Special wishes to Polly.

Thanks to all that had me up to dance. I was run aff ma wee feet.

Tonight was one of the reasons why I think teaching psychology in Kilmarnock College is the best job in the world.

Jock Stein when asked why he never left Celtic to take up a more lucrative managerial job with a richer club after winning the European Cup with them in 1967 said 'I love the people.'

I know how Big Jock felt. Like me he was self-actualising.

But tha mi a' bruidhinn Beurla!

Yesterday Ministers unveiled new legislation to protect Scotland’s native tongue.

Under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill the law will give Gaelic official recognition and require all public bodies to have a language policy. Councils will have to take account of any guidance on Gaelic-medium education from a new Bòrd na Gàidhlig quango. Education Minister Peter Peacock said the bill, which was beefed up following public consultation, would make it easier for people to use Gaelic

Peacock said that he was unhappy with progress in providing Gaelic teaching since the Standards in Scottish Schools Act was introduced in 2000. Councils will be required to set minimum levels of demand to trigger an entitlement to Gaelic teaching. If they do not stick to the policy they could face court action or lose grant in aid.

I think this enforcement is absurd. In my view Peacock’s plan is cultural imperialism.

Out of a population of around 5 million only 60 000 or 0.12% Scots speak Gaelic. In schools the number of pupils receiving nursery, primary and secondary education in Gaelic was 2,661 in 2002-03 and 2,879 in 2003-04.

The Scottish Executive propose to increase spending on Gaelic from £650 000 to £3.5 million over the next 3 years. This sum is to be made available for Gaelic Medium Education and for a new Gaelic Development Agency - Bòrd Gàidhlig na h-Alba - supporting Gaelic language and culture. A QUANGO that no doubt will become a right royal pain in the arse as it pushes one of the world’s most introverted and useless languages.

In Ireland you cannot work in education and other public sector jobs unless you have a competence certificate in Irish Gaelic. I can see this coming in Scotland.

Scots Gaelic is not part of my Scottish heritage, or millions of others. It is culturally irrelevant to me.

If Gaelic is deemed important why aren’t other languages being promoted in the same way? There are tens of thousands more Urdu speakers in Scotland than Gaels. A case can also be made for Italian, Polish, Lithuanian and Irish as languages of significance to Scottish culture.

‘Tha mi a' bruidhinn Beurla’.