Child Poverty.

       All my adult life, come an election, or as I prefer to call them, the crooks and liars competition, I have heard our political ballerinas sing the usual chorus, "We will end homelessness and we will end child poverty". They don't all sing in tune, they all have their own variation. Here I am 87 years old and the latest figures show that in every Scottish local authority, child poverty has increased over the last 6 years.
        Recent figures compiled by Loughborough University create a shocking picture, a scandal of a failed system. The report shows that before we were hit with the pandemic in Scotland, 2019-20, 26% of children were living in poverty, an increase from 23% 2018-19, and up from 24% 2017-18. Glasgow saw the largest increase, up 5.i%. Glasgow child poverty was approximately one in three children struggled under the yoke of child poverty, while in our so called better areas, East Renfrewshire, almost one in six children saw their lives blunted by poverty.
       These are damning figures for a so called advanced developed country, by any standard. However I don't think those party political animals should jump up and say, "Ah, a failure of the SNP", England fares no better. In Middlesborough, child poverty grew by an astonishing 12.5% between 2014-15 and 2018, the largest increase in the UK. Tower Hamlets boasts the worst child poverty in the UK with 55,4%, followed by Newham with 50.3% then Barking and Dagenham with 49.9%. Outside London Birmingham takes the prize for child poverty with 41.6%. Another disgusting aspect of this child poverty epidemic is that 68% of those children bighted by poverty, are in families where at least one adult is working. Bang goes their crap phony mantra, that "the best way out of poverty is through work". 

        These figures of child poverty, should not be seen as some sort of statistics, they are young lives being blunted, potential being thwarted, young health being damaged and lives disfigured, all unnecessarily.  The UK is one of the richest countries in the world, a country that can spend an estimated £104 billion on a high speed rail from London to Birmingham and throw billions at nuclear weapons and trident submarines, but fails miserably to attend to child poverty. 

 

 

        This system of capitalism has had centuries to create a decent life for all involved and has proved to be an abysmal failure. It is a system built on exploitation, power and privileges for the wealthy few, hard work and struggle for the rest of us. The answer lies not in listening to the chorus from our political ballerinas, but in the dismantling of the insanity of capitalism and the state and replacing it with a system of community based co-operation, equality, sustainability and fairness, freed from the cancer of the profit motive and the authoritarian shackles of the state, a system that sees to the needs of all our people. Only then will we see an end to child poverty, and I can stop hearing year in year out, that pathetic chorus sung by vote beggars at each crooks and liars competition, "We will end child poverty". 

 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Fists Full Of Cash.

          HS2, a multi-billion pound prestige project that will help fill the coffers of the corporate and the pampered privileged few. A project that will shovel tax payers money into bank accounts of the greed driven parasites that  love tax payers money. It will destroy miles of natural environment, wildlife habitat, destroy thousands of trees and have people evicted from their homes by compulsory purchase orders, and the benefits will be that it will take a handful of minutes of the travel time from London to Birmingham. The usual insanity and corrupt distribution of your tax money.

HS2 costs could rise to £106bn or more, warns government review

And so it begins: HS2 Contaminating the Chiltern Aquifer

The following is from Enough Is Enough:
       UK. There are currently several courtcases going on prosecuting Stop HS2 activists, whilst HS2 Limited recently announced that their chief executive earned £659,000 last year, making him the highest paid UK government official. The board of directors got £1.6m remuneration in total … and this was all paid for by our taxes!? Instead of this greed and corruption being investigated, at the end of July young tree protector Jellytot faced charges at Birmingham High Court for allegedly breaking an injunction seventeen times. Defending ancient woodland in Warwickshire is the alleged crime!

         Originally published by Squat Net.

       HS2 Limited are pushing for a prison sentence for trespass, which HS2 Rebellion has called “draconian & totally disproportionate”. A TINAAR (This is not about a railway) blogpost stated “These injunctions are not only a violation of a lawful right to protest. They are another example of how our supposed criminal justice system and government over and over again bow to the will of corporations and business and sell out the people they are supposed to protect.” Representing Jellytot, Andrew Wagner raised concerns with the court about the injunction’s unjust nature, since it was not properly served and the area covered was altered over time. Wagner asked a high court enforcement agent “Your officers use violence don’t they?”.
       The court, presided over by Mr Justice Smith, heard Jellytot speak to deny the charge of breaching the injunction earlier this year. Referring to one alleged breach, the judge asked “This looks really quite dangerous – you really feel that strongly about preventing HS2 that you put yourself in physical danger?” and Jellytot answered “Yes, I didn’t think about the danger I just thought ‘this machine is going to cutdown trees so I will do what I can to stop it’”.

      The hearing was postponed for further submissions until September, dates to be confirmed. Report drawn from various sources including This is not about a railway, @HS2Rebellion and mainstream media.

        Thursday July 30th and Friday July 31st 2020, our friend Elliot will be on trial. He is being charged allegedly with 17 counts of breaking a high court injunction. He is facing a potential prison sentence for resisting against the HS2 land grabbing machine.
      The use of injunctions by big business and corporations is a concrete example of how our criminal “justice” system is used abused and manipulated by corporations to stamp even harder over any community resistance to their actions.
      An injunction, much like any other other part of a justice system is supposed to protect people. An injunction is similar to a restraining order, it is supposed to give legal protection to an individual who feels threatened by another. This is understandable someone on their own may be weak but with support can be strong and feel safe. At least in theory.
      However when used by corporations and business this is reversed. No one can possibly doubt the strength and endless reach of our government, big business and corporations. Their wealth, gained through our poverty, through the theft of our land and exploitation of our labour mixed with endless corruption, created through a governmental system that gives all the power to a few to do with as they please and forces us to obey whether we like it or not. Our voice is never counted.
      The brutality of our government and of corporations is shown clear and plain within HS2; compulsory purchase orders forcing people out of homes they have lived in their entire lives, out of their homes and livelihoods without even seeing a penny; refusing to allow farmers to harvest a crop before HS2 takes possession; people strong armed with threat of even less money if owners don’t comply with further orders. All of this we have heard first hand from the people who live on the proposed path of HS2.
     Considering all of this in the context of an injunction, all HS2 and other corporations are doing is demanding that the court extend their already brutally strong grip over communities. By criminalizing to the extent of locking someone in a cage, for demanding that their voice, and the voices of others which have been silenced, be heard.
      These injunctions are not only a violation of a lawful right to protest. They are another example of how our supposed criminal justice system and government over and over again bow to the will of corporations and business and sell out the people they are supposed to protect.
      We demand a society that has the needs of all it’s people at its heart. Only the people themselves know these needs and only the people can fulfill them.
     We demand an end to Hs2, a project alien and unendingly destructive to those needs.
     We demand justice for Elliot and an end to a criminal justice system that puts the desire of business over the dignity of the people.
     “The law prosecutes the man who steal the goose from the land, but protects the man who steals the land from the goose.”

Fight corporate control over our land and our lives.
We Are Jellytot
Community autonomy for all.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Lunacy And Environmental Violence Of HS2.

       What would the ordinary person consider an extra £100 billion should be spent on to improve our society? Health care, education, better environmental homes, eliminating carbon emitting fuels from our society, more youth clubs and social centres, and so the list goes on, but how about a fast train from London to Birmingham?? HS2, or the idiotic dream of our privileged parasites sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, £100 billion, to save 20 minutes travel time between London and Birmingham, it could be more, who knows for sure.  Thanks Loam for the link:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk