by David Bean on Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:22 pm
I just found this pile of tripe - as far as questions about who wrote it are concerned, I think the barely comprehensible English is a pretty good giveaway. Allow me to correct a couple of points of fact, however. Firstly, I don't have a 'close relationship with' the SSC: I sit on it. Second, your claim that a motion of censure is 'effectively a vote of no confidence' is utterly false, and in posting it you've proved yourself already to be either a liar or an ignoramus, or possibly both. They are two entirely different things, and have different meanings; nobody on the SSC would ever have brought a motion of no-confidence against me on the strength of the things I was accused of doing wrong, never mind voted for it, irrespective of whether the accusations were true or false.
Now, let's take a step back a minute, and talk about the 'reports' of Chris Brads. I find it slightly strange that he himself denies saying anything like what you keep claiming he said, but even if you were right, who the blazes appointed him as an arbiter - how the devil would he know what you claim he said? He wasn't 'hired to do a study' on our efficiency: he asked for a job training us, and in the course of this he followed me around for two days, in which, yes, I was ill (sue me). How those two days are supposed to be enough to base a claim as to my general behaviour, I don't know, but you haven't let common sense or logic stand in the way of anything else you've ever posted, so perhaps I shouldn't worry. And as for that bit about how it was subsequently revealed that I wasn't ill after all, I don't even know what the hell you're talking about, but it looks like rubbish to me.
Now, you say I'm often late for work. What, exactly, do you mean by that - that I don't work a 9-5 job? Well, no shit, Sherlock. Looking at my diary for next week, on three of the five days I have evening appointments that are likely to stretch beyond ten o'clock at night, and if I manage to get out for 45 minutes at about 5 or 6 for a bite to eat, I'll be doing well. So after all of that, you expect me to come in at nine in the morning - or at least if I don't, you'll accuse me of being late? A child of two could figure out that in a job like mine, the hours must be fitted around the needs of the student body I serve, whose activities are, naturally, shifted until later in the day when they don't have classes. If I decided to work a strict 9-5 job and refused to go to any of my evening appointments, you'd think I was a lunatic, and you'd be right - but if you further expect me to work 9-5 plus five hours or more on most evenings, well, I'd like to see you try that one yourself, and see how it feels. Meanwhile, if I'm not in my office some of the rest of the time, it might occur to you that I'm probably either doing something somewhere else, or in a meeting. But hey, why choose the obvious explanation when you can make up a lie?
So as working hours are obviously not a measure of performance, what is? One thing only: results. Let me tell you something, sunshine. The night after that censure vote at SSC, the St Andrews Voluntary Service appointed me an honorary life member, to thank me for the work I'd done in steering through their affiliation. She gave me a card, the convenor, and I hope she won't mind me quoting her words: "If you'd have achieved nothing else other than what you have with SVS you'd have had a momentous year - and yet I know you've done so much more." Like the fairs, training, work with the St Andrew's Festival and National Postgraduate Committee, careers events and the Laws - my AGM report is on the web site if you're interested.
And that's where the public support you admit I enjoy comes from. Yes, people like you don't like me very much, but what do I care about you, when my constituents are happy? They're the ones who got me here, they're the ones who I'm working for and they're the ones I'm accountable to. And as long as they're happy, I'm happy. And they are. And there's nothing you, the Saint or anyone else can do about it.
[hr]
Psalm 91:7
Psalm 91:7