The Herald yesterday moved on quickly from the previous night’s headline story of the SNP MSP’s assistant, masturbating in the toilets, to their own masturbatory style of journalism.

Needless to say the word ‘aimless’ does not appear even once across the 46 pages of Scotland’s City Region and Growth Deals published by the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General. Indeed, there is no sentence anywhere even vaguely similar to the above uber-tabloid headline.

The word ‘aims’ appears 11 times but only once in any critical or negative way:

‘Deals could also contribute to several of the other economic indicators in the NPF, such as access to broadband and income equality, and other wider outcomes such as ‘we have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone’ and ‘we live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe’. These are not stated as aims in the deal documents and have not been agreed as output measures for any of the signed deals. Without a clear link to the NPF, there is a risk that opportunities for deals to contribute to the outcomes may have been missed. Given that deals are at an early stage, there is still scope for the Scottish Government and councils to align output and outcome measures to show how deals are contributing to national outcomes.’ (page 5)

Even here, the tone is quite constructive and does not, by any means, suggest that worthwhile outcomes did not emerge from these projects.

There are other negative comments in the report but none approaching the wording or the tone of the Herald headline. Most notably absent is the second key message:

‘Deals bring additional long-term funding for regional economic development. They have enabled economic development projects that may otherwise not have gone ahead. Deals have also been a catalyst for increased collaboration between councils and their partners.’ (page 1)

Now I’m the last one to be defending risky venture capitalism and the mis-use of taxpayers’ cash but isn’t it the case that to accumulate you have to speculate? I feel sure Jackson Carlaw said that. I don’t think in the world of trying to develop economic growth, you’re ever going to get far playing safe all the time and thinking you can know exactly what will happen in the creative chaos of the market. Again, I’m the last one to be saying this but might the bean-counters at Audit Scotland be bad for business, Jackson?

Click to access nr_200116_city_deals.pdf

I’m reminded here of my time in teacher education where students had to write lesson plans which demonstrated that they knew beforehand clearly what they were trying to achieve in terms of actual learning by pupils. Stating aims or objectives clearly, often in behavioural terms like ‘will be able to list at least two reasons for a tornado to emerge’ meant that they could then assess the learning and decide what needed to be done next. It was a kind of accountability or transparency and broadly speaking a good thing, but it could never be everything that mattered. All experienced teachers know that many other unanticipated learning outcomes emerge from the complex social interaction in the classroom.