I Luv Lilyhammer

I just watched the episode of Lilyhammer (BBC4) in which Norwegian National Day is being celebrated. It's a very funny episode that I could hardly watch for laughing, and for all the wrong reasons. Let me explain.

I used to work in a local authority in Scotland where one of my responsibilities was securing funding from various sources for education so headteachers, psychologists, teachers and others could study education in other parts of the world. These international links were said to be very important - and they often were very useful - and they extended to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, most of the EU, and the rest of the UK. 

How important these links were I didn't realise till I was told that the Director of Education and Social Work and the Chair of the Education Committee (note the capital letters - this is how important these people were) wanted to go to Norway for National Day. There was no budget for this and nowhere to apply for money, Norway being outside EU and British Council reach.

When I pointed this out, I was told it wouldn't cost that much since Ryanair flew to Norway. Trouble was, the travel agents we dealt with were rightly reluctant to deal with Ryanair for reasons to do with insurance and guarantees customers would reach their destination - well, you've heard before now what the problems can be with these tinpot airlines. (There is now new EU legislation to deal with problems raised by Ryanair and others - that takes some doing!)

But I was under pressure. In the end, the only way to send these 2 VIPs to Norway (arrange accommodation and meals and pay for the poor sod who was to hire a car and drive them to civilisation) was for me to put the costs on my own personal credit card. And that's what I did. It only took me a few months to get the money back once the Depute Director of Education found out what had gone on.

Was this a good use of council taxpayers' money? What would have happened if I'd refused? Dunno, but now that I've seen Lilyhammer's hommage to National Day, all I can say is: this is what these people wanted to see? Is there some educational value here? Any Scottish kids or teachers getting any benefit? Lines of nubile teenage lassies tossing batons in the air, some off-key singing and a few speeches - that's it?

Here's to transparency in all forms of government.