Stigma

In a speech reported in the Scotsman on Saturday Mr Justice Coleridge warned "What is certain is that almost all of society's social ills can be traced directly to the collapse of the family life." My understanding is it is impossible to draw conclusions from reliable published data and my concern is that such views stigmatise single parent families, in particular the children. Actually in the address given at the Resolution National Conference the Judge did say "In some of the more heavily populated urban areas of the country Family life is, quite frankly, in meltdown or completely unrecognisable." which might be nearer the truth.

The media have ignored the fact that the thrust of Mr Coleridge's speech was a protest at the lack of funding for the family justice system in England & Wales and the way it is mismanaged and neglected by government.

Updated 4/9/08: The speech is available here.

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Tunes for Every Occasion

Tonight I went to a performance by the talented Julie Fowlis. Duncan Chisholm (playing fiddle in the video) came up with a pretty good reason to divorce when he translated a Gaelic tune title as "Cut Your Toe Nails Before you Make a Hole in the Blanket."

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Easter Holiday

For the last 14 years I've helped to organise this music event for 120 young people during the school Easter holidays. This is now part of Ceilidh Culture, one of Edinburgh's festivals which I also helped to get off the ground, so this week is proving difficult to post. If I manage to survive keeping pace with the under eighteens during the day and the twenty something music tutors and volunteers in the evenings I'll start blogging again soon.

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Changing Places

One piece of advice for divorcing couples seen frequently is try to see things from the perspective of the other side. An extension of that idea that worked well for me was imagining that my ex-spouse was one of our children, and treating him like I would want someone to treat them should they ever be unfortunate enough to be in the same predicament.

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Giggling Fits

Today was brightened up as I was driving from my early morning swim when Charlotte Green, BBC Radio 4 newsreader, had a fit of giggles after playing a clip of the oldest recording of the human voice. Apparently Charlotte lost control when a studio member remarked Clar de Lune sounded like a "bee buzzing in a bottle" (I thought it sounded like gargling.) Unfortunately, as I have experienced, attacks of the giggles have the tendency to happen at the most inappropriate moments and on this occasion it was during an item about the death of the Hollywood screenwriter Abby Mann. A link to the recording is in this Herald report.

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