A political gamble?

TODAY could be a key date in the controversial saga which threatens classroom assistant posts in Highland schools.

A working group established by the council in February is due to make its recommendations on the shape of primary education and, in particular, the future role of 344 classroom assistants. This time last week, it looked certain to propose substantial cuts, but not any longer.

Since then it has emerged that the authority underspent last year’s budget by £6.8 million, prompting members of the Independent group, the council’s largest, to call for a rethink. Lifting the lid on the working group’s deliberations, they claim that the process so far has been driven by the need to make savings and want a pause so that the position of assistants can be examined again, this time focusing on what is best for pupils.

This suggests that until now the needs of children have been pretty low on the agenda, which is alarming and goes some way to vindicating the opposition SNP group’s decision to boycott the process. But most significant is the fact that the Independents have gone public with their call in advance of today’s meeting.

As members of the ruling coalition with the Lib-Dems and Labour, they are bound by its code of conduct yet have put their partners in a difficult position. To resist the Independents’ call for a delay will make it appear the Lib-Dems and Labour are putting financial cuts above the best interests of pupils, hardly a popular place to be on an issue which has sparked much public concern.

On the other hand, if their bluff is called and the working group decides not to re-examine the issue, the spotlight will shift back onto the Independents. Do they set aside their concerns and vote with the coalition, risking being seen to abandon the pupils they admit have taken second place in the process. Or do they join the SNP and vote against, a move which would seriously wound the coalition, perhaps fatally.

The educational and political stakes are high. Watch this space.

AS the architect of Highland Council’s necessary but painful budget cuts, Lib-Dem councillor David Alston is used to facing flak from the public. But criticism of his work as an historian is unexpected.

However, his research into the Highlands’ links to the slave trade, and the many abuses surrounding it, have led to him being heckled at meetings for daring to question the Highlander’s traditional role as victim.

His investigations have turned up many instances of people turned off their land and forced into emigration, only to switch from exploited into exploiters in their dealings with black Africans. Fortunes were made and some of the money found its way back to Inverness, with the town’s Infirmary one of the institutions funded in part by slave trade receipts.

It is an uncomfortable truth but one we ought not be surprised by. After all, individuals from the rest of Britain were exploiting slaves so did we really believe Highlanders behaved differently?

Every nation has events in its past that, with hindsight, are considered regrettable and even shameful. We must simply accept and learn from them to try ensure there is no repeat.

In a strange way it may do no harm for Highlanders to shed their perennial victims tag. Yes, we have had bad done things done to us, but we too are capable of cruelty and inhumanity in certain situations. We must accept that both have shaped us and move on.