About

About Me

I left school when I was fifteen. During the summer holidays of 1984, I was offered a job as an apprentice electrician with what was then Glasgow District Council. "Offered" isn't really the best word to use. “Given the job”, might be a more appropriate description. My father arranged the situation, and two days after my sixteenth birthday I started working for Glasgow District Council's Building & Works Department.

One afternoon, I finished work early and decided to drop by my old school; just to say goodbye. I was good at school. I got it. I had good O'Grade results, and although I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, I would happily have stayed on. My parents, however, had other plans. I did the rounds saving my Physics teacher till last (at the time, I was interested in nuclear power). I chapped his classroom door, and he came out into what was called the science corridor. I told him about my job; and he winced. He didn't say anything. He didn't advise me to reject it. Didn't put up any arguments for staying on. Didn't say that I could do better. He just winced. And I felt ashamed.

About the Blog

I started this blog after the Scottish Conservative MSP Brian Whittle described Reform's supporters as "blue-collars". My entire working life has been spent in a blue-collar. It was a "basket of deplorables" moment. I left the Scottish Conservatives promising to do everything that I could do unseat him at the next Scottish election.

I started writing after completing an online course with Daisy May Johnson at the ICE Department at the University of Cambridge. At first, I thought I would use it to write about work, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without talking about my workplace, so I ended up writing about writing; and books; and reading, and; well, everything. Everything that is except work. The whole thing became so woolly that I couldn't even think of a tagline to describe the site. I would write things and not post them. Not unsurprisingly, the whole thing fell apart. It would be an exaggeration to say it lost focus; it never really had any focus to begin with. 

Taking Aim Properly

After trial and error and error and even more errors, it's starting to take a shape that I almost like. I'm indebted to Jordan Peterson for guiding me out of my dark wood. When I started to understand how his work could be related to the electrical apprenticeship the words started to pour onto the page. But as interesting and fascinating as my work is, I also want to write about more than just my workplace identity. Hopefully, you'll find something of interest

Ethics

I am responsible for the content of this blog. Although I work as a FICA and ACA Assessor for SECTT, the organization that manages the electrical contracting Modern Apprenticeship in Scotland, this blog is entirely written in a personal capacity. I am the copyright holder of this blog. I have tried to reference all the media from which I've quoted. When I have used online material, I have provided a reference and a link to the relevant page. If there are omissions or errors, I will be all too happy to correct them as soon as possible. Unless explicitly stated, all the images are taken by me. I use both Claude and Gemini to help me craft better posts.