Page 2 | To think Argyll and Bute Council are a gang of morons

DreamingofSummer · 2012-06-15T11:55:33+00:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/15/girl-photos-school-meals-blog So incompetent your couldn't make it up

midnightexpress · 15/06/2012 13:29

They've just announced on r4 that the ban has been lifted.

habbibu · 15/06/2012 13:32

I can't find the Daily Record article which caused the upset. Anyone?

DamselInDisgrace · 15/06/2012 13:32

They'd have been more sensible to have not imposed it in the first place. It was very obviously a Bad Idea.

HmmThinkingAboutIt · 15/06/2012 13:33

Council need a good lesson in PR. All they have achieved is giving more publicity to the blog (which is the opposite to what they set out to achieve) and make themselves look like miserable bastards with something to hide.

If you read the girls blog she isn't very negative about the food, and more often than not gave it 9 or 10 / 10 even if it didn't score highly on the presentation.

I can see no reason whatsoever why she should have been banned. I actually think its a good reflection on her school dinners rather than bad. She wanted to talk about it and she was enthusiastic about it.

Its a barking mad decision.

habbibu · 15/06/2012 13:33

Oh, hurray! Good for them. It's not always easy to retract something like that.

WorraLiberty · 15/06/2012 13:35

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

Yes, the LA's around here came down like a ton of bricks on that sort of thing after the sexual abuse photos were taken by that Nursery Nurse....can't remember when or where that was now.

But I thought most LA's followed suit.

psammyad · 15/06/2012 13:36

Her JustGiving page is up to £18,500 now it was only £9000-ish when I went to lunch .

I read about her blog a few weeks ago, didn't check it out till today though.
I'm loving seeing the meals from other countries.

psammyad · 15/06/2012 13:39

£19,000...

edam · 15/06/2012 13:47

Fantastic that she's raised so much money for a really important cause and that the council have had to back down. if the dinner ladies are upset, the council needs to talk to the local paper about its headline, not censor a pupil's blog - and perhaps think about providing enough food for growing children at lunchtime.

We know when schools and councils avoid scrutiny they have a habit of feeding children slops - just look at the situation Prue Leith and Jamie Oliver exposed. Transparency and accountablity are important and this little girl has just proved it. Well done to her!

redlac · 15/06/2012 13:47

traffic to her site must be HUGE at the moment!

HipHopOpotomus · 15/06/2012 13:48

I just checked out the blog - she is often very complimentary about the food so I really don't know what their problem is.

best bit is watching the visitor counter at the bottom of the page - it's speeding along.

BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte · 15/06/2012 13:49

What a very most mind-bogglingly badly-written press release...

habbibu · 15/06/2012 13:50

Not the local paper, I think, edam - though as I said I can't find the Daily Record piece that supposedly caused the trouble.

Backinthebox · 15/06/2012 13:50

Ah, I see. People were saying the camera was banned because her photos and blog were distressing the dinner ladies, who were worried for their jobs. Now, though, the head council honchos are worried for their own jobs after a spectacular bit of idiocy in banning her camera, and suddenly it's OK for the photos and blog to carry on.

Stupid, hypocritical, and out-smarted by a 9 year old. How do these people get a job to start with?

The only good thing about the whole shambles is the amount of money being raised for charity.

ClaireDeTamble · 15/06/2012 13:50

I think she requested special permission from the school to take the photographs when she and her father came up with the idea as a writing project.

My DD's school doesn't ban pictures. I'm not sure on the rules for kids having camera's but parents are asked to sign a release form at the beginning of the year to allow pictures to be taken on school premesis - by teachers for class projects and by parents at school events.

tefek · 15/06/2012 13:51

Typical Government incompetence and bungling, instead of looking at ways to improve the meals they try and shoot the messenger.

habbibu · 15/06/2012 13:51

Backinthebox, I don't think the dinner staff were upset by the blog, but by press coverage. the school supported the blog, didn't it?

WorraLiberty · 15/06/2012 13:54

My DD's school doesn't ban pictures. I'm not sure on the rules for kids having camera's but parents are asked to sign a release form at the beginning of the year to allow pictures to be taken on school premesis - by teachers for class projects and by parents at school events.

Yes but you'll normally find the teachers have to use the school camera and upload any photos using the school computer...that way it leaves a 'footprint' and the school can see exactly where on the internet the photos are being placed.

pixiestix · 15/06/2012 13:55

What a smashing little girl. Her parents must be proud as hell

TiaMariaandDietCoke · 15/06/2012 13:55

Her Justgivig is now close to £21k - every cloud has a silver lining and all that - glad her ban has now been lifted, she seems like a great kid :)

habbibu · 15/06/2012 13:57

The Daily Record article doesn't appear to be on their site. Why do you suppose that is?

bonnymiffy · 15/06/2012 13:59

The council have scored an own goal there, in trying to keep her quiet they have given her blog alot more coverage than it might have received otherwise. She is clear in her posts about other other choices available, and her dinners certainly look alot more appetising than what I remember being served when I ate school dinners (a number of years ago. ahem) Not to mention she clearly likes them and eats all of what is served most days! and over £20,000 raised so far to feed children who would otherwise go hungry.. good for her.

midnightexpress · 15/06/2012 13:59

I think she was given permission to bring in the camera on the understanding that it would only be used to take pics of the food.

SuchProspects · 15/06/2012 14:01

Glad the council lifted the ban, this has ended up being quite a boon to the girl's blog!

It's a shame the council are so amateurish about public relations and unconcerned about user experience. But in their defense the BBC article had the leader talking about a meeting with school lunch staff where the staff were in tears about the press coverage of their work - which they (and even the blog) indicated was not representative - and feared for their jobs. I don't think banning fair comment by a service user is a good way to respond to that, and I think particularly for a government institution it is a very poor and anti-democratic way to respond. But I do think it is good that the leader was concerned about the pressure on staff. I can't imagine it's the most comfortable of jobs and I know when I was in school the staff put up with a lot of surly and ungrateful school children who were not aware of any of the pressures and constraints they had to deal with to get what they did on the table.

So yeah for front line staff being considered important. Boo for free speech being discounted as an unimportant principle. I hope the council find a better way to reassure staff that poor press is not a risk to their jobs, only poor performance.

hzgreen · 15/06/2012 14:02

i can't find anything on the council site to say they have lifted the ban, maybe they just haven't got around to putting something up there yet. i hope they do lift it though, the blog was really funny and sweet, generally positive and innocent. how many young people have the motivation to take on a project like that AND raise money for charity? that sort of ingenuity should be encouraged not punished :/