OFFICIALS considered asking JK Rowling to promote controversial plans to appoint a state guardian for every child in Scotland.
Minutes from a meeting between the Scottish Government and outside stakeholders suggest getting the Harry Potter author “on board” to publicise the scheme.
It came after best-selling writer Alexander McCall Smith included negative references to the policy in his serialised novel series 44 Scotland Street.
He featured one character saying: "Can you conceive of a better way of insulting parents?"
An extract of an official meeting obtained under Freedom of Information suggests recruiting a “high profile person/celebrity – as that is the world we live in – to publicise Getting It Right For Every Child”.
It added: "Get JK Rowling on board, countermine [sic] the likes of Alexander McCall Smith – Z listers."
A spokesman for the No To Named Persons (NO2NP) campaign group, which obtained the extract, said: “This reveals what they're saying in private but won’t concede in public: they’ve lost the battle for hearts and minds and realise the court of public opinion is as much against the Named Person scheme.
"I’m afraid it’s going to take more than a trip to Hogwarts to rescue Named Persons – they need to dump this fatally flawed policy once and for all."
A Scottish Government spokesman said it didn’t make the comment and "nor does it in any way reflect our views”.
He added: "It was minuted within a summary of ideas put forward by external stakeholders.
"We recognise the important literacy contribution made by Alexander McCall Smith – as illustrated by the reception in his honour hosted by the First Minister at Bute House on 17 August."
A spokesman for Ms Rowling said: "As far as we are aware, J.K. Rowling has not been approached to support the Scottish Government’s Named Person scheme and there is no further comment."
The so-called Named Person policy has suffered various setbacks since the Supreme Court ruled elements of it were unlawful last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel