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More Good News from the Scottish Government

Up to a point, Wardog ... closer examination suggests that this is to be chaired by the ubiquitous British Council ... this is unacceptable. They are useless.

British Council are crooks - and their Education UK website uses software ripped off from a direct descendant of Douce David Dale of New Lanark ........ all patriots should boycott this organisation. It even described one of our universities as 'University of Sterling' - a Freudian slip no doubt from the moneygrubbing English charity. In Australia British Council recently teamed up with Helen Liddell our High Commissioner to award a scholarship to the daughter of John Howard's Foreign Minister - even though she got a third class degree ....... Nepotism and corruption is not the image we in Scotland should be importing by dealing with British Council. For detalis of the Ozzie scandal see the magazine called 'Crikey': http://www.sundayher ald.com/news/heraldn ews/display.var.1675 128.0.black_watch_he ads_for_us_conservat ive_heartlands.php

http://dblackie.blog s.com/the_language_b usiness/2008/01/inde x.html British Council's Education UK Scotland promotes us with Tower Bridge in London yet Scottish taxpayers are giving them more money unbelievable! it is high time this country got off its knees ..........

British Council's Education UK website is outperformed by a two person business in Norfolk with twa dugs and business ethics - yet Scottish ministers are throwing even more money at them?! http://dblackie.blog s.com/the_language_b usiness/2007/10/the- british-cou.html

Extract from Wikipedia entry for Conservative Shadow Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt MP whose Hotcourses business works intimately with The British Council and contributes to the MP's parliamentary office expenses: "On his return to Britain, Hunt joined Profile PR - a public relations agency specializing in IT co-founded by his childhood friend Mike Elms. With clients such as BT, Bull Integris, and Zetafax Profile did well during the IT boom of the mid 1990s. Hunt and Elms later sold their interest in Profile in order to concentrate on directory publishing. Together they founded a company now known as Hotcourses one of whose major clients is the British Council. Hotcourses also provides financial support to Hunt's parliamentary office (see House of Commons Directory of Member Interests and Directory of MPs' Research Assistants' Interests)."

http://dblackie.blog s.com/the_language_b usiness/2007/10/lang uage-school.html For details of the British Council/Home Office visa links!

Fay Weldon says of British Council: "Enough to put anyone off British culture" - so why is the SNP turning to them to market Scotland? Is it because advice on this is coming from the same London-appointed civil servants who presided over the Holyrood fiasco and the bogus colleges scandal in Glasgow exposed last year by The Herald???! http://dblackie.blog s.com/the_language_b usiness/2007/08/enou gh-to-put-a.html

British Council - you are the weakest link ........ goodbye. Russia kicked them out for not paying local taxes and operating illegally http://dblackie.blog s.com/the_language_b usiness/2007/06/brit ish_council_1.html

BBC London's undercover investigation of a bogus university scam begins with a prospective Indian student going to British Council to check that this institution was listed on the UK Department of education list of approved organisations (which it was). So he then hands over his money ..... not suspecting it was all a con: http://news.bbc.co.u k/player/nol/newsid_ 7170000/newsid_71761 00/7176117.stm?bw=bb &mp=wm&asb=1&news=1& bbcws=1 http://news.bbc.co.u k/1/hi/education/717 5730.stm

http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_qn 4156/is_20051030/ai_ n15818876/pg_1 Link to Paul Hutcheon's 2005 'Sunday Herald' story: "Feuds and turf wars put flagship Fresh Talent plan in jeopardy'

Feuds and turf wars put Fresh Talent plan in jeopardy Flagship Sunday Herald, The, Oct 30, 2005 by Paul Hutcheon Scottish Political Editor JACK McConnell's flagship scheme to attract migrants to Scotland is being undermined by feuding agencies, poor communication and turf wars. The Sunday Herald can reveal that the Fresh Talent (FT) initiative is being poorly implemented by blundering officials, who refer to the University of "Sterling" and British "three-year degrees". The First Minister's radical policy is also being jeopardised by poor strategy, Home Office incompetence and petty rows. News of the infighting comes days after the First Minister presented Fresh Talent, which allows foreign students to stay in Scotland for two years after graduation, to audiences in North America. The rows were revealed in a dossier of files released under freedom of information legislation by the British Council (BC), a key player in the drive to attract Fresh Talent to Scotland. McConnell's policy, which he announced last year, depends on education bodies working together to lure foreign students to Scotland. But e-mail exchanges and other documents show that a number of key Foreign Office outposts had not received information on the policy. A minute of a February meeting of Education UK Scotland's China Working Group, a body set up to monitor the policy's introduction, shows one attendee saying that consular staff in Beijing "had no knowledge of Fresh Talent". In March, the senior international officer at Stirling University, Neil Christie, complained to the British Council of a "frightening lack of knowledge" in the Shanghai Consulate. The lack of awareness is a blow for the Executive because China has been identified as one of the key Fresh Talent markets, an approach bolstered by a number of ministerial visits to the Far East. But even these trips have been criticised. One Executive civil servant offered a "frank account" of these trips, claiming there had been a "mixed view on the strategy of the visit". Communications show that the Executive's focus on India has also faltered, with an official in British Council India complaining to a colleague in Scotland about rogue individuals misrepresenting Fresh Talent. A minute of an Education UK Scotland meeting in March said: "It was raised that agents seem to be giving misleading information on the FT working in Scotland scheme to students in India, implying they can receive guaranteed jobs, houses etc." The same official complained in February this year to Michael Bird, the director of British Council Scotland, that he had not received "answers to some fairly crucial questions" about Fresh Talent, noting that the British High Commission in India had been "similarly in the dark". In response, Bird appeared to blame the Executive for the lack of guidance on the policy: "I've been aware - early on of colleagues in India's misgivings about the quality and relevance of background information from the Executive." This remark seemed to back up Professor Anthony Cohen's criticisms around the same time, when he said that British Council representatives in India were getting little information on Fresh Talent, a statement described by McConnell as a "disgraceful slur". An e-mail from the British Council's office in America also revealed a dearth of knowledge about Scotland. Renne Stowell, an official based in the States, referred repeatedly to the University of "Sterling" and spoke approvingly of Charles Rennie "McIntosh". More damagingly, the documents reveal a series of rows between the bodies that are supposed to be implementing Fresh Talent. In February this year, the British Council clashed with an Executive official who did not want Fresh Talent promoted inside the UK pavilion at an education fair in China. E-mails show the mandarin saying that "we did not expect to participate in your pavilion or even know that it existed", adding that he would proceed with the "original plans" to promote Fresh Talent outside the UK tent. But a British Council official hit back by demanding that the Executive drop its plan to market its policy separately: "I still feel strongly that if SE are going to be at the event, their stand should be situated within the UK Pavilion. Scotland has to be seen as part of the UK and we need to be coordinated and think carefully about what we want to promote and how best to do it." Another row came to the surface when the British Council said to the Executive in October last year that the performance of the Home Office and one of its quangos could jeopardise Fresh Talent. "We are receiving dreadful service this year from Work Permits (UK) and the Home Office; I know they are under enormous pressure, but the service level is so poor that it should be a real cause for concern for the implementation of FT also." The rows are the latest glitches to a policy that was launched as a way of stemming Scotland's declining population. McConnell believes that the policy will encourage more students to study north of the Border. However, the Sunday Herald revealed earlier this year that the UK Government, which had to approve Fresh Talent, watered it down because it conflicted with aims of restricting immigration to the UK. A university source told the Sunday Herald that one of the key problems with Fresh Talent is that the British Council has a poor grasp of higher education in Scotland. He said this was made apparent earlier this year when a BC Kenya leaflet promoted the benefits of British "threeyear degrees", a system that does not apply in Scotland. Aspokeswoman for the British Council Scotland rejected suggestions that Fresh Talent was not being properly sold overseas. "We are confident that the Fresh Talent initiative is being promoted effectively in both India and China. FT information is made available at every education promotion event that the British Council attends overseas, " she said. SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon said she wasn't surprised that Fresh Talent was being poorly implemented. "Fresh Talent is a good idea but it does require to be sold and advertised. "If that's not happening, it begins to look like another Scottish Executive gimmick. This shows that Scotland needs its own immigration system, " she said. Copyright 2005 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.

OK, back to the story... First of all, well may we criticise the British Council but you will find that they have the links, the contacts and the respect of those who matter abroad. Until you are all prepared to pay more tax to have a separate Scottish Council (or representatives for Scotland within BC) then we have to make do, I'm afraid. This fund has previously existed but now it is being directed towards improved marketing - interesting given that recruitment is not the problem, meeting the new Home Office rules for allowing people into the country is the biggest problem now. Would much rather the £1.5M was invested to improve the ability of Scottish colleges and universities to enhance the learning experience of Scottish students by arranging for a greater number to have the opportunity to study abroad for part of their degree.

[quote][bold]OHO[/bold] wrote: OK, back to the story... First of all, well may we criticise the British Council but you will find that they have the links, the contacts and the respect of those who matter abroad. Until you are all prepared to pay more tax to have a separate Scottish Council (or representatives for Scotland within BC) then we have to make do, I'm afraid. This fund has previously existed but now it is being directed towards improved marketing - interesting given that recruitment is not the problem, meeting the new Home Office rules for allowing people into the country is the biggest problem now. Would much rather the £1.5M was invested to improve the ability of Scottish colleges and universities to enhance the learning experience of Scottish students by arranging for a greater number to have the opportunity to study abroad for part of their degree. [/quote] British Council certainly do not enjoy respect in India - one of our key markets according to this document. Their actions in closing down the British Libraries in Bhopal and Trivandrum have been a front page news story in The Hindu; prompted mass demonstrations by library users; television news coverage within India and even on CNN; and a High Court injunction. http://www.saveourbr itishlibrary.org/ Further north and east, British Council Scotland (which amounts to a short corridor of PCs and desks on one floor of a rented building in the vicinity of Holyrood where staff 'hot-desk' between there and the Manchester HQ co-ordinating their commercial activities in markets that include Afghanistan and Iraq and the Gulf States but no longer Europe, The Baltic, or Russia - from which they were kicked out by Putin for operating illegally and not paying local taxes and where their Chairman's son Stephen Kinnock declined a breathalyser) recently took a much-hyped delegation including the singer Edi Reader out to (they claimed) launch Kolkata's bid to be Unesco City of Literature along with Edinburgh. But that has, of course, nothing to do with British Council - Unesco is Unesco - and the Kolkata Book Fair was then closed down by another Indian High Court injunction ON ENVIRONMENTAL grounds. This was a bit more than a mild embarrassment for British Council Scotland as of course one of the main literary links between Kolkata and Scotland is a well-known correspondence between a Bengali Nobel Prize winner from that city - the poet Tagore - and our own Patrick Geddes who was of course an environmentalist and a town planner ........... How could British Council get this so wrong? It is because they have THE WRONG LINKS - and are opportunistic. We only have a handful of universities in Scotland - surely we can market them ourselves through Universities Scotland or a locally based organisation rather than contaminating our reputations by giving even more money to this appalling and unregulated bunch of chancers. This money going to British Council's "Education UK" vehicle pays for six-figure salaries of executives in Manchester and in London. OHO seems to be arguing that because British Council has screwed up our overseas marketing in the past they should now get more money to do it better simply because 'this fund has previously existed'. Neil Kinnock must be laughing his head off! And then too there is Libya. Is OHO really trying to tell us that The British Council has 'the contacts and the respect of those who matter' in that country? Is he aware that British taxpayer's money has been used in Libya by British Council to waive the education fees for senior figures in the regime? Is he aware that a recent BBC Radio Four documentary 'Inside British Council' was done not by the BBC but by an independent production company which is dependent for its core business on British Council contracts? He should go away and start reading 'Private Eye'! This is a huge own goal by civil servants advising Fiona Hyslop. They should be told to go away and think again. Perhaps one of the options to look at with the universities, colleges and schools is a possible revival of a much older administrative structure that was merged with British Council during an earlier restructuring. That was called the Central Bureau of Educational Exchanges - and it had a separate Scottish office during the 1970's which organised for example the exchange student placements and brought French assistantes to Scottish schools. There may be files in the archives of the old Scottish Education Department. Or someone in the Education Department of eg a university that British Council and 'Education UK' described in the US as 'The University of Sterling (sic) might be able to develop alternatives. And let Creative Scotland and Scottish Development International take care of overseas promotion of cultural exchanges from now on - perhaps using shared facilities that we taxpayers are already paying for ........ Why A High Court ruling during the Kolkata Book Festival then

As for teaming British Council up with The Home Office and giving them accreditation monopolies and responsibility for immigration (and presumably snooping on students) - both organisations are dysfunctional .............. this seems like a recipe for making money. For further detailed analysis of this visa cash nexus see: http://dblackie.blog s.com/the_language_b usiness/2007/08/accr editation-s.html

How British Council 'wins respect' - freebie trips for gullible MPs? Not to mention their recent lobbying reception - inside Holyrood! http://dblackie.blog s.com/the_language_b usiness/2008/02/brit ish-council.html

Is Jack McConnell's daughter still the parliamentary liaison person for The British Council or was she dropped after the last elections? Why too is a senior Scottish Government PR person on the British Council Scotland Advisory Board? Owen Kelly, Head, International and Communications Group in The Scottish Executive? I thought 'charities' were not supposed to take their steer from government.

Most Scottish universities and colleges have international offices of their own these days as well ....... ... the suggestion that only British Council have the 'contacts' these days insults their professionalism.

Blimey ! What did The British Council do to Neil to get him so worked up ?

[quote][bold]Ian[/bold] wrote: Blimey ! What did The British Council do to Neil to get him so worked up ?[/quote] They threatened me inside an armed compound in Gaza after they removed the rest of my public administration reform team. The FOI then confirmed that a senior British Council official was offering to bribe a senior Palestinian Minister named in PLA Audit Reports - and confirmed that the UK DfID budget they had sought was for a project described by themselves as 'non-existent'. They then lied to three Privy Counsellors who made enquiries about the scandal. No explanations have ever been given. They refuse to talk to the staff who were left to walk out of Gaza. And my mail's also been opened. Vladimir Putin was much too gentle with this nest of British spies!

One of the two officials responsible has recently been put in charge of British Council efforts at what they call 'inter-cultural dialogue' as part of the war on terror and checking up on Moslem extremists ..... Unfortunately this British Council bigwig is not to be trusted himself.

I have zero tolerance of British Council corruption ...........

.... and that £2.1 million project budget could have been better spent on diarrhoea sachets for flood victims in a contemporaneous flood disaster in the other Gaza Strip - in Mozambique; or on a scanner for a hospital in Khan Younis or indeed Scotland (price £1.9 m for the scanner and the bunker to put it in according to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary sources); or indeed for marketing Scotland's universities and colleges properly without using silly pictures of Tower Bridge!