SolarPlexus

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Labour victorious in Glenrothes.

We should have anticipated this. Surely I wasn’t alone in thinking that Gordon Brown’s, and hence Labour’s, stock would rise against the SNP, given that no-one feels that the SNP has the experience to deal with a downturn? We also mustn’t forgot that neighbouring Kirkcaldy is Gordon’s home ground, and if any seat is going to be safe then surely it’s this one.

The Beeb’s Nick Robinson, an opinionated if not always correct man, declared that so far Glenrothes has not been bitten by the downturn - the good folk of this town are still rolling in the good times, with no hit to the property market, and good employment.

Hmmm, it does make me question why I left the place 23 years ago. Times have changed but…

I like taking photographs. Not in any kind of professional sense y’understand, but as I get older I’m finding it more important to document things as I go along and I can think of nothing more convenient than taking a few snaps.

These days a snapper has to be careful about shooting pics of people, especially of children. I never knowingly make strangers the subjects of my pics, and I am at least aware of the issues.

On holiday, whilst entertaining my three-year old son in Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy, I spied a hamburger van with a horde of teenaged schoolkids around it. Their uniforms were all black. Next to this was a flock of white seagulls teeming over a bag of chips. The juxtaposition was startling. Since all of the kids had their backs to me I thought I’d take a distance shot of the scene as it was so interesting.

Imagine my dismay when two girls on a park bench starting calling me a “paedo” and shouting at the tops of their voices, laughing at the same time. I managed not to get too ruffled and stared at them for a moment or two, and subtly moved the aim of my camera - but notably didn’t stop taking pictures.

Fortunately for me they stopped shouting. Clearly in that situation discretion was the better part of valour. However, to appear ruffled in front of those peasants would’ve been just as bad.

As a father, and somewhat overly-sensitive, I have fretted about this incident. I know I shouldn’t feel personally insulted by the incident, but it still hurts to be smeared with something as abhorrent as paedohilia, even as a puerile joke.

Anecdotally, I heard of a professional photographer in Fife being reported for taking pictures of nude children on a beach. His argument was that he’d been taking pictures of this beach for years, wasn’t intentionally including the people on it, and it was the decision of the parents to let their kids cavort naked. We may accuse him of being a bit ignorant of the social climate but that’s all.

Needless to say, I have no pictures to show you of kids and seagulls so here’s one of sleeping ducks instead…