To think Argyll and Bute Council are a gang of morons

[DreamingofSummer]

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/15/girl-photos-school-meals-blog

So incompetent your couldn't make it up

[DreamingofSummer]

The winner of most defensive grumpy press statement of 2012 is

www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/news/2012/jun/statement-school-meals-argyll-and-bute-council

[niceguy2]

Ha ha, brilliant.

The council's solution to serving crap meals to our kids? Ban photographs.

Sometimes our 'elected' representatives need their heads knocking together.

[DreamingofSummer]

On the World at One on Radio 4

[ComposHat]

The council say their meals are nutritionally balanced - that is the most absurd thing I've heard.

I live in Scotland and NO-ONE eats a balanced diet.

[RainbowTurtle]

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid as Spud would say.

[NettoSuperstar]

You want to deal with their housing department!

DD eats jacket potato and tuna most days, I'm not bothered really, she likes it and I serve decent, varied meals at home.

[psammyad]

I'm sitting at work (lunch hour) refreshing her JustGiving page with a big grin on my face, £16000 and counting, going up by about £50 a second at the moment.

It's a great little blog as well, hope they make the most of it at her school.
So far there's literacy, art, nutrition, geography, maths, media manipulation (the newspaper headlines), psychology (why does giving away £10 make me happier today?)...

[habbibu]

Bloody idiots. The really daft thing is she's so complimentary about the food a lot of the time - she's clearly a positive wee soul, so it's hardly an "attack". It's such an own goal. Tempted to give dd a camera on Monday...

[habbibu]

It is a great blog, and the worldwide links and photos are fantastic.

[WorraLiberty]

I'd never heard of this blog until last night when someone posted a link to it on here and the little girl's Dad immediately popped up straight after.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I heard the council guy on Radio 5 and I thought he did fine. Quite simply he has his staff to protect who are extremely distressed by the The Daily Record this morning calling for their jobs to be axed. He has the mental health of his staff to consider too. The council have been perfectly happy for the blog to go on - it's the media who have turned it into a circus and attacked the staff.

The little girl has done nothing wrong - she has simply put pictures of the dinner she chose online - she was not obliged to photograph all choices or the fruit/veg available.

The council and the blogger have done nothing wrong - it's just once again the media distort a 'story' to suit their own ends.

It's depressing but wouldn't it be awful to be a dinner lady there and think that people actually want you to lose your job and then be afraid for it - apparently the staff were in tears yesterday.

[habbibu]

People have been reading it on here for a while, Worra.

[psammyad]

Funny thing is she didn't set out to criticise the meals, it was just a writing exercise.
And some of her meals look fine anyway - the pasta & rice ones for instance, shepherds pie, carrot & coriander soup etc. (I haven't scrolled back as far as the earliest ones, were they worse or did the papers just pick out the crap ones?)
The council is just making themselves look silly by over-reacting.

[habbibu]

The council should take it up with the Daily Record, then, not the blogger. I really don't think this will help their cause at all - most likely make it worse. It's shortsighted, and misunderstands how fast and far these stories spread. The Daily Record is a vile rag, though.

[psammyad]

Ah, cross-post with LaurieFairyCake - you're right the papers (Daily Record in particular) seem to be the real villains her.

[WorraLiberty]

I'm surprised cameras are allowed in the school.

It's part of my DS's E.Policy that no cameras are allowed in school and even the staff have to lock their mobile phones in a cupboard, due to the fact they contain cameras.

The only way photos can be taken is on the school camera and they have to sign it in and out, stating the purpose of use.

[SaraBellumHertz]

The council aren't doing themselves any favours are they?!

[DamselInDisgrace]

The council have clearly missed the point in their statement. It doesn't matter how much choice is available to the children if they don't know about it. And the blog clearly shows (not in a nasty, troublemaking way) that the kids don't really understand what's available to them for lunch. That's something they should be addressing.

For example, Martha was told she could have unlimited fruit, salad and bread but none of the other kids were. So she told them. A few posts later the school officially told everyone. But still poor Martha seemed confused about when she was allowed fruit and salad and when she wasn't. This wasn't Martha's fault; the school need to make sure the kids understand what they're allowed so they can make choices.

Argyll and Bute council has managed to make itself appear to be a shambles really. Go them! They could have responded in a sensible manner to perfectly reasonable criticism (like kids feeling hungry after a teeny tiny portion of lunch, or not getting a balanced dinner), but they chose to act like nincompoops.

[headfairy]

The Daily Record have caused all this, their headline was ridiculous and deliberately inflammatory. As they say in tabloid land, it's easier to make people feel than to make them think.

[Greenshadow]

Quite Worra, was amazed when I first came across this blog weeks ago, that junior school children are permitted to have cameras at school.

[DreamingofSummer]

The Leader of the Council has just been on the radio saying that the ban has been lifted!

[Greenshadow]

The council are on Radio 4 now and have said they have retracted the ban and the photos can continue.

[JosephineCD]

As with most councils, the staff are more concerned with saving their own skins than actually serving the public (you know, the people they work for).

[Greenshadow]

Opps, X-post

[DamselInDisgrace]

The earlier meals were generally worse. Yes.

That might have been because Martha (and her friends) didn't know they could have salad alongside their burger and potato croquette though. In which case, it's good that the blog has highlighted the need to tell them that they are.