I am always gemused to see that Nanny and her minions both past and present (eg a "blast from the past" Mary Whitehouse) never learn that when something is banned the banning gives that product/service or article an humongous amount of publicity, and it instantly becomes highly desirable.
Step forward Argyll and Bute council who in the space of 24 hours managed to make global knobheads of themselves and give Martha Payne's (she is only 9) website, that shows photos of her school dinners, the sort of international publicity that media companies can only dream of.
Martha's "crime" was to take photos of her school dinners, and post them together with a brief commentary on her website. The council got rather fed up with this, and on Thursday instructed Martha's head teacher to tell Martha to stop it. For absolute clarity the school was instructed by the council to ban Martha from blogging, it was not the school's decision to ban Martha.
Cue an outpouring of international furore, and an internet campaign to overturn the ban.
Can you guess what happened next children?
Yes, that's right, Argyll and Bute council backtracked and on Friday council leader Roddy McCuish told the BBC that he had instructed senior officials to lift the ban immediately.
Argyll and Bute council, well deserving knobheads of the year!
Indeed Ken, once the light of publicity exposes Nanny, she backs down.
ReplyDeleteThis case highlights that Nanny just wants to boss people about......What is wrong in a kid telling people about her school lunch? Nothing. Nanny just wants to bully people.
"For absolute clarity the school was instructed by the council to ban Martha from blogging, it was not the school's decision to ban Martha."
ReplyDeleteWhilst the council may be able to impose a ban on Martha using their computers, they have no authority whatever to prevent her from blogging when using her own computer or whatever. The fair and sensible thing to do (neither qualities I associate with local council orifices) would have been to investigate Martha's points and endeavoured to implement improvements, not act in a totalitarian manner and try to impose censorship, no doubt "in the public interest". Their change of mind came about, I have no doubt, due to the adverse publicity they attracted by their actions: "They don't like it up them, Sir!" to quote Corporal Jones of 'Dad's Army'.
I have been following this story. After it went international, she raised 45,000 pounds for charity. Very fun.
ReplyDeletehttp://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/
My favorite part of her meal reviews is where she lets us know how many pieces of hair were found in the meal!!! HA!
Debbie
The main concern seemed to be that - if people could see the meals they served up- canteen staff 'feared for their jobs.'
ReplyDeletePity the Council didn't use the trump card - "Won't anyone think of the KIDDYS" - and claim images of school meals might encourage paedos.
Followed this with interest at the Daily Telegraph who, for some reason, chose to publish several major aricles (inc vicious comments) and generally gave Argyle & Bute Council a good kicking and rightly so.
ReplyDelete