Xmas books for kids is back - please give generously

Last year, the amazing Burd led a project which raised over £3300 to buy books for kids who otherwise wouldn't have them at Christmas.

And she's back this year.

I'm sure she won't mind me copying her words shamelessly:

Last year, together, we bought books for Christmas for 380 vulnerable children and young people in Scotland.  We did this because you helped me raise over £3,300.  All of that is worthy of a very big wow.  And a huge thank you.

So this year, I thought we’d try to do it all again.

Because sadly, there are still children growing up in Scotland without a book of their own.  For some, it’s because their parents are too poor to afford books.  For others, it’s because they leave violent or unsafe homes, often with only what they can carry, and precious things like books get left behind.  Whatever the reason, CHILDREN 1^ST – the charity I work for – supports children who have yet to discover the joy of reading – and reading well – and the difference it can make to their lives and their life chances.

This is something CHILDREN 1^ST understands well.  We work to support vulnerable families, often from a child’s earliest years, so that their children enjoy happy and healthy, safe and secure childhoods.  Encouraging parents to read with their children, nurturing strong bonds, is part of what we do.  Our counsellors also support sexually and physically abused children to recover from their trauma through play, writing, art and story telling.

And that is how powerful books are.  Helping to heal.  Opening up new worlds and possibilities.  Providing escape and adventure.  And most importantly of all, fun.

I know you know this because you love books and books have helped take you to where you are in life.  Close your eyes and imagine if you had never owned a book, what your life might be like today.  Impossible isn’t it?  Which is why I know you will help the Books for Kids for Christmas appeal again this year.

You can give – here, right now.  Donate £10, gift aid it and half of your donation plus the gift aid goes directly to buying a book for a vulnerable child, with the rest going to CHILDREN 1^ST to help towards the costs of supporting vulnerable children and families.

But you can also spread the word by telling, emailing, tweeting, sharing and blogging.  Email me at burdzeyeview@hotmail.co.ukif you’d like to discuss what and how.

The target is the same as last year - £3000 which will allow us to buy books for 300 children. 

Already, we’re nearly half way there, thanks to an amazingly generous donation from the David Cairns Foundation of £1000.  I’ve been saving my pennies too and have put £200 into the pot.  

And we’re starting earlier to give Santa plenty of time to make his deliveries and hopefully, reaching our target and finishing earlier too on 2 December – the end of Book Week Scotland which provides a fitting finale.

I know times are even tougher for folk this year, but if we all give a little, we can achieve a lot.  And by buying books for vulnerable children for Christmas, we can give them a better start in life and help them to build a brighter future for themselves.

Thanks for your support.

Kate

PS You can keep up to date with the appeal by visitingwww.booksforkidsforchristmas.tumblr.com – please do drop by! 

And if you’d rather not give online, you can send a cheque payable to CHILDREN 1^ST to Kate Higgins, CHILDREN 1^ST, 83 Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh, EH9 1AT

I'd like you to do three things, please:

1. Give whatever you can to this very worthwhile cause here. 

2. Tell everyone you know, whether in person or on the internet about it and ask them to give too.

3. Put in the comments what your favourite books were when you were a child.

Next week is National Book Week and it would be great if we could help Kate exceed the target before then. Let's get to it.

Help The Burd buy books for vulnerable kids this Christmas

The charity Children 1st  aims to improve the lives of Scotland's children by providing services to help them and speaking out for them to law and policy makers.

The Scottish blogosphere's Kate Higgins, who writes for Better Nation and her own blog A Burdz Eye View works for Children 1st. She's come up with a cracking idea for Christmas - raising money to buy books for vulnerable kids. As she says herself:

Books were a constant companion in my childhood - they still are.  They've opened up worlds, ideas, knowledge and adventures.  They've made me laugh, cry, tremble and learn - sometimes all at the same time.

But some children in Scotland aren't so lucky and miss out on this vital part of childhood.  Some families can't afford to buy books or lack the skills and confidence to share and enjoy reading with their child.  Yet, reading - and reading well - can make a real difference to vulnerable children's lives.

It's something CHILDREN 1ST - the charity I work for - understands.  We know how important reading is and work with parents to help them help their children read.  Often, it's simple pleasures like this that provide real joy.  Reading together can forge strong bonds and give vulnerable children a better start in life, and better life chances.Today (25 November) is Kilts for Kids Day, our national fundraising day where people celebrate all things Scottish and raise money for CHILDREN 1ST.  Well, I'm not much of a runner.  Even less of a baker.  And I definitely can't sing.

But I do read.  And I know you do too.  And together I reckon we can raise enough to buy vulnerable children supported by CHILDREN 1ST services a book this Christmas.  All you have to do is give £10.

Gift aid it and it becomes £12.50.  £7.50 will be used to buy a child a book and the rest will go to help CHILDREN 1ST pay for things like the cost of a support worker who will encourage a parent to read regularly with their child, or for materials that can help an abused child recover from their trauma by expressing themselves through art, writing or play.

We've got less than a month but I'm sure we'll manage it.  Because I know that you know how important books are and what a difference they can make to a child's life.  And I know you'll give, and then encourage your friends and family to do so too.

Oh, and why not share your favourite book from your childhood when you make your donation?

Thanks for your support.

Books were an essential part of my childhood. I was rarely to be found without my head in one. From the St Clare's and Mallory Towers books, to the Chalet School, to the Secret Seven, when I got a bit older Agatha Christie and Jane Austen, Little Women, The Narnia books. And when I hit my teens, it was, sadly, political biographies. Roy Jenkins certainly improved my vocabulary - you couldn't read anything of his without a dictionary by your side.

 For Anna, it's been Jez Alborough and the "Duck in the Truck" books (if you've never read Fix it Duck, you quite literally haven't lived), to the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness to the Warrior cat series via Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket.

Books have enriched my life every day - and I know how important they are which is why I'm so passionately behind Kate's efforts.

You can donate here and follow her progress on Twitter here.

Please give generously - and if you're another blogger please write about this yourself and encourage all your readers to take part in this worthwhile project.

Lallands Peat Worrier to throw off his wig.........

..... and reveal to us who he is.

Maybe all of Scotland already knows this and I'm the last to find out, but, whatever, I'm looking forward t it.

I know his first name from private e-mails, and I know he's young enough to be my son from chatting to SNP activists, but that, so far, is the extent of my knowledge.

I haven't really minded his anonymity - I don't when the standard of writing is as consistently high as he manages. He combines intellectual rigour and a generally liberal mindset with wicked satire. I only have a problem with anonymity when people use it to throw around bile and abuse online. There are occasions when people need to be anonymous for all sorts of reasons, one of them to be able to write honestly about their profession - it's informative and adds to the debate.

But anyway, in just two and a half hours, we'll see who he is in real life, on the Politics Show Scotland. I said to presenter Raymond Buchanan on Twitter that I hoped the make-up department had the right sort of powder for his wig, but he reminded me that BBC Scotland produces Garrow's Law, so of course they will.

Not only that, but The Burd is on this programme too. It's great to see two of my favourite bloggers on the telly. And Mike Moore, one of my favourite people is on too. I literally can't wait.

See you at 12:30. I'm off to the gym first, though. I hope you're impressed.

Don't boycott male only panels - complain about them

The Burd has posted about continuing, ignominious gender fail at the BBC. The culprit this time is Newsnight Scotland, affectionately tagged #newsnicht on Twitter - again. Female panellists are as rare as hens' teeth on that programme, a source of great annoyance to me, as you can imagine. To be honest, though, I hardly ever watch it - it's on way past my bedtime.

I tend to get equally irate about Question Time, which hardly ever has a balanced panel, politically or in terms of gender. Politics Scotland is also a persistent offender. I've seen shows, like yesterday's, where all the interviewees from Westminster, as well as the pundits, were male.

I was quite stupefied by one of the comments on The Burd's piece which suggested that the BBC overall made quite a lot of programmes aimed at women. So, we're supposed to watch Masterchef and EastEnders while the boys talk about the issues of the day, are we? It's the 18th century, without the corsets, thankfully, all over again.

Kate (the Burd's real name) also mentioned a letter to the Guardian by a group of eminent women announcing that they would boycott events which had all male panels. I get why but I think a retreat from the scene of the crime is in this instance counterproductive. We need to make more noise, not less. We need to encourage audience members of panel programmes like Question Time to embarrass the BBC by making reference to the stupidity of a virtually all male panel - in a calm way, I'm not talking about stage invasions or anything like that, but the point needs to be made, publicly.

At non televised events, I think it's also worth asking the men on the panel if they are not embarrassed to be taking part in something where there are no women. Put them on the spot. Get people to sign letters of complaint to the organisers.

And the rest of us - every single time we see an unbalanced panel, we should complain. I usually say something on Twitter if I notice it - but we need to complain to the relevant organisations and be systematic about it. Here's the BBC complaint form - something I now have in my favourites.

Writing this has reminded me that they haven't replied to the complaint I made about the way the BBC  News Channel treated Miriam Gonzalez Durantez during the Autumn Liberal Democrat Conference, so I've sent  them a reminder this morning.

I think that all male panels are off-putting to women and often lead them to conclude that politics isn't for them because it's not about them. When political parties put up banks of men in suits at a photo opp, it makes me seethe. My lot are just as culpable as anybody else and they hear from me when they get it wrong, you can be assured on that. I remember getting annoyed last year at some footage from a bit of razz at SNP conference when there wasn't one single woman on the stage.

Women's bodies are often airbrushed in photographs, but we're also in danger of allowing ourselves to be airbrushed out of discussions on the governance of the country. We need to find some way of ridiculing those who allow that to happen, to make them feel uncomfortable about it. A boycott is way too silent for that.

Six answers for the Burd's questions to Mike Moore

The other day, The Burd posed six questions for Mike Moore in response to the Scottish Secretary's attempt to nail Salmond's independence jelly to the wall. I thought it was worth repeating the questions and the answers I left as a comment. I hope she doesn't mind. The formatting has gone a bit loopy, but I can't do anything about it as I have to run for a train. 

1.  What are you doing to regulate banks more tightly so that they cannot gamble their way to riches with our money, at our expense?  Indeed, just what jot of a difference have the Liberal Democrats in this unholy alliance with the Tories done to make another banking crash less likely?

I think the rancour towards Vince from city types tells you all you need to know on that one. And please don’t tell me that Alex Salmond would have stopped the banks’ excesses. Nobody did – and the only one who warned of the dangers from way back was Vince.

2.  What is your party/government doing to stop the diminishing value of the money we currently have in our pockets?  Inflation is at record rates and shows no sign of dropping back.  Day to day essentials – leccy, hot water, food – are soaring in cost.  And thanks to your lot, what with NI rises and tax credit cuts, and pay freezes resulting from stagnation in the economy and particularly cuts in the public services, the fact is that we are currently being expected to pay more with less.  Any chance of you focusing on the currency we have, rather than the one we might have at some point in the future?

 You have a point in that those on the lowest incomes are really struggling with rising prices. The full raising of the tax threshold to £10,000 will happen, but people actually need help now. However, I am in no doubt that the situation would be a lot worse if the Coalition hadn’t taken action to tackle the deficit. We’d be in the same situation as Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Italy and the measures, facing high interest rates and much worse cuts in services. The Coalition inherited an economy in pretty bad shape and are taking broadly the right approach. I’d have made different decisions about some items of spending, for sure. Why on earth we need to be planning to spend huge amounts on nuclear weapons is beyond me. The fact, by the way, that we’re not spending that money and making those decisions now is down to the Lib Dems in the coalition. And if the Tories were governing alone, there would be no tax cuts for the poorest, rich, dead people would be much better off and we’d get a tax break for being married. Oh and another one I've thought of since - in an independent Scotland, what would happen to energy prices? Wouldn't they be a lot higher?

3.  Never mind future membership of international organisations, what about the union we’re already in – why should we stay?  Explain to me what it is we get from staying in the United Kingdom?  Go on, try.

I agree with what Douglas said about your questions 3 and 4 – you are trying to have your cake and eat it there. You can’t say there’s no benefits to the union and then complain when UK service bases in Scotland are shut. Scotland does a lot of business with England, currently carried out with no faffing. If Scotland were independent, even though there’s a single market in Europe, there’s still customs rules and the like to deal with. Putting up barriers would be bound to cause more paperwork and form-filling and the likes. We are a relatively small group of islands. Surely it makes sense to have one set of Armed Forces to defend that island. How would an independent Scotland sustain an Army, Air Force and Navy and what would have to be cut to pay for it, or how high would our taxes have to be?

And then there’s sport. Our athletes probably have more opportunities as part of a GB team than they would in an independent Scotland.

And there’s stuff on the environment that we need to do as a planet and co-ordinated action up and down this small island is a good thing.

Yes, we need more devolution of powers – and we need devolution from as well as to Edinburgh, but the principle of being part of “Team UK” is a good one. Everybody wins. We as Scots have increasing power over our own home affairs and have the security of being part of the UK and then Europe.

I seriously don’t get independence – to me a fair and liberal society is much more important. That’s what sets my heart racing, not the thought of setting up border posts at Gretna Green.

4.  How many soldiers, sailors, airmen, bases, budgets, big ticket defence numbers and regiments has your government cut in Scotland and indeed, across the UK since coming to power?  I see the poor Ghurkas took another dunt today.  Nice to see the UK government hitting the colonials before their ain.  How does that square with the Lib Dem commitment to equality and parity of treatment that seemed to exercise quite a few of your lot before you climbed into bed with the Tories?  Indeed, what do all the Quakers in your movement think of your obsession with all things shiny and jingoistic these days?


 Clearly in an independent Scotland there would be no British army. However, every time I see Mike Moore, I see etched on his face his concern for places like Kinloss and Fife. Of all the bourachs Labour left behind, defence was the worst. Despite all that, though, there will still be more service personnel in Scotland – 2500 of them, which will limit the damage in the affected communities. Mike Moore has spent a lot of time working with those communities, setting up a way of them to feed back concerns directly to the MOD and the Treasury. Mike also fought for the carriers, too which will secure good quality skilled jobs in Fife and on the Clyde.

5.  Will the current generation of workies actually get to retire?  You see, in the space of a few years, the retirement age has been raised, not once but twice.  Under your watch, what with the high inflation and flat interest rates and volatile investment markets, watching your pension pot is akin to being on a see-saw right now.  Oh, and public sector workers are about to see theirs diminish too.  We’re all in this together right?  Never mind the liabilities we might have under independence, what are you doing about the ruddy great big hole in everyone’s pensions under your government that’s there right now?

 Pensions – a nightmare which successive governments had failed to tackle properly. We have an aging population, and the previous generation of middle income public sector workers had it quite easy, with many being able to retire relatively comfortably at 50. Maybe we’re now paying for that excess. And if we don’t like having that legacy foisted on us, imagine how the next generation would feel if we didn’t get a grip on the public finances. But look what Steve Webb has done with his triple lock on the State Pension, making a big difference compared to Labour’s paltry 75p rises. There are no easy answers to this one. It annoys me, though, that civil servants have never had to contribute anything while council employees have – I think there needs to be some levelling out of that.

6.  How much do you and your wee outpost cost the taxpayer again?  Somewhere in the region of £10 million annually huh?  Independence would at least deliver that saving.  What could we spend our bawbees on?  Well, how about clothing grants for poor weans.  We could increase the numbers entitled to receive a grant, also provide a one-off transition grant to help with the costs of uniform and kit for going to secondary school and increase the size of the grant from £50 to £70 a year – and still have change left in the kitty.  Hmm,  an ineffectual government mouthpiece who is doing absolutely nothing to protect some of the poorest in society from the savagery of Tory cuts or weans getting a decent coat to wear in the winter.  Tough choice huh?

Well you might consider the £4 million Mike’s brought in from the Crown Estate balances out a good whack of his department’s costs. If we’re going to be part of the UK, it’s important that Scotland’s voice is heard within the UK Government. Mike is an effective and skilful advocate for us as we can see through the carriers, the service bases, the coastguard stuff – and also on welfare reform too. If we sold off Bute House, or stopped our MSPs having constituency offices, or I’m sure there’s very many things we can think of, we could make things easier for those who need it most. If we made the rich pay for their medicines, rather than get them free, we could have £40 million a year back into the budget. I think it’s an abomination that my husband now has a bus pass. He doesn’t need it. We could save a small fortune if we took that back to 65 for people who weren’t disabled or on benefits.

I reckon the Scotland Office, anachronistic though it may seem post devolution, has important functions for all of us in Scotland.