Back Door.

        Lots of large companies are rubbing their hands with glee and taking this pandemic as a wonderful milk-cow. During the pandemic, millions of pounds of tax payers money has been handed to friends and buddies of the Tory Party, in the form of contracts, without any tendering or public scrutiny, and some have made a right dogs dinner of that contract, but of course held onto the money. Of course it is not just the Bumbling Boris brigade that are guilty of this throwing tax payers money at companies without as much as tendering process or a wee squint of public scrutiny, why here in Bonnie Scotland the same rather dodgy process is alive and well. The recent contract to KMPG being one that we are are aware of, another little slice of the NHS moved into private hands, without the public getting a sniff of the process.

the following extract from Consultancy UK 

       Scotland's health service has awarded a contract worth more than £2 million to Big Four professional services firm KPMG for "management and advisory services" on the nation’s coronavirus vaccine programme.
       According to reports in the Scottish press, three months before the first vaccinations began in Scotland, a contract for "extended flu and Covid vaccination programme management and advisory services" was handed out to KPMG. The deal, worth a total of £2.32 million, was given to the advisory and accounting firm without any other competing bids in September, with the Government citing the "extreme urgency" of the vaccination programme.
       A contract award notice published at the start of 2021 added that the Government’s justification for directly awarding the contract on behalf of NHS Scotland was due to "unforeseeable" events. Statements from the Governments since defended the process, which it said are standard practice in the current pandemic.

      Slice by slice, our NHS is being handed to private companies, sooner or later they will be the ones that call the shots on what kind of care you get and what it will cost you. That is if we allow this back door entrance to big business to continue.

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This Land--.

     In England 92% of the land and 97% of rivers are owned by a small, extremely wealthy,  bunch of pampered privileged parasites, Scotland is much the same. I have always been puzzled by somebody owning a large slice of the planet. Who did they buy it from, who held the original deeds, was it God? or did a bunch of thieving scoundrels just steal it, then gave bits to their friends and buddies. I think the latter. Isn't it about time we reversed that situation and became the land grabbers and take it all back into common ownership for the benefit of all?

 

 

       In the U.K., folks can wander over private property without asking permission.
       This is called “the right to roam” and its legal legacy can be traced back to a grassroots movement started by Benny Rothman in the 1930s.
      Rothman was a member of rebellious group of Manchester factory workers who called themselves “ramblers”. The ramblers sought to get out of sooty Manchester on their time off in order to see the beautiful Peak District that surrounded them. The problem was that almost all of this land was in the hands of private landlords who hired game keepers to keep walkers (and possible poachers) at bay.
       This had not always been the case. Some 300 years earlier, most of the land in the UK has been part of the Commons where people could graze livestock and hunt as they could.
        Beginning in the mid-18th century, however, the Enclosure Movement worked to privatize most common land in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. This has been described as "a revolution of the rich against the poor," and it transformed the countryside 

 

 Thanks loam for the video link:

 

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Weekend in Wonderful, Wild Scotland.

 The cottage.

       It was Stasia's birthday on Sunday, not allowed to mention age, so we booked a wee cottage a few miles before Stronachlachar, for the weekend. I had cycled that route many years ago, but had forgotten just how rubbish the road is once you pass Kinlochard, As you head for Stronachlachar the road (a rather misinterpretation of the word) you find yourself on a winding up and down single track with potholes and passing place which are not much more that some rubble at the side of the road. We arrived at the cottage on Friday afternoon and just did some wandering around and settling in before lighting the log fire and settling done for the evening. Not much else to do in such an isolated part of the country. 

Loch Katrine at Stronachlachar.

Stasia thought this one funny because of the notice

Stronachlachar.

      Saturday morning, breakfast and then head for Stronlachachar, just about four miles or so, but what a lousy twisting hilly single track road, but the weather was lovely, lots of sun and not much in the way of wind. Stronlachachar is a pretty isolated spot at the head of Loch Katrine, Just a lodge a pier and a cafe. There are sailings from Trossachs end of Loch Katrine to Stronlachachar, great walking country, but road rather lousy for cyclists and cars. 

 Inversnaid.

Inversnaid waterfall.

Inversnaid Hotel.

Inversnaid Harbour.

 

     We then decide to carry on to Inversnaid, where you eventually run out of road. The stretch to Inversnaid is even worse than the previous stretch of road, the last bit is a sharp decline and full of turns and twists, and as far as I could see this stretch had no passing places, not for the feint of heart.

    Inversnaid is a beautiful spot at the head of Loch Lomond on the opposite side of the Loch from Duck Bay, Luss, Inverbeg and Tarbet. There are small passenger ferries connecting you to the other side of the Loch.

     It was a wonderfully relaxing break and as always the views are stunningly beautiful, a mixture of long lochs, rugged mountains and forests, though I cursed the rotten roads, long may it remain so isolated and retain that escape potential.

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

The Disappearing Common Good Fund.

       The Common Good Fund, money that could improve the quality of life of the citizens of this country, lost, disappeared, misused, mismanaged, shrouded in mystery. It is ours and those deemed to be responsible for looking after it, can't even tell us what it is worth. Pop along and ask about it, find out what you can do about it, find out exactly what it is and how it is supposed to be used.

Thursday, 24th. September, 19:00

The Fred Paton Centre

Carrington Street 

St. George's Cross 

Glasgow G4 9AJ

Five minutes walk from St. George's Cross underground.

 

The Common Good: What is it and how do we take it back?

        Scotland was formerly divided into 196 Burghs, each containing between the people of each Burgh, what is known as a Common Good Fund. The Common Good Fund of each Burgh consisted of properties, land and money which was available to the common benefit of all the people of each Burgh. Since the demarcations of localities across Scotland has changed over time, Burgh councils have been folded and all responsibility of the Common Good Fund has been transferred to each District Council in Scotland. It has become apparent, however, that the responsibilities of District Councils to keep a proper account of Common Good assets has not been properly fulfilled, even so far as property of the Common Good being illegally sold to private bodies. As a result, the public at large have been so removed from this knowledge of the Common Good that as a people we have been alienated from what is commonly belonging between us. The discussion GAC would like to invite you to is to pursue the questions as to what the Common Good is and how we go about taking back what has been purposefully allowed to fade into the past by our so-called local authorities.

The venue is the Fred Paton Centre a 5 minute walk from St George's X underground on Carrington Street.

Visit ann ark's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Escape Machine.

       I got a bit pissed off with all the double speak coming out of that cesspool, the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, and the thought of the oncoming assault on our people. So today I thought I would take a wee break and go for a spin on my carbon-fibre dream machine, see the photo below. It was wonderful, came back renewed, and ready to start my ranting once more. No prizes for guessing where the photo was taken, but I wonder when they will privatise it, there's lots of money to made there!!!.  

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Workers Know Your History, 1820 Insurrection.

      The 1820 insurrection is an event that the state would rather we forgot, or see it as a handful of protesters hell bent on trouble, that were brought to heel by the forces of law and order. During that era Britain was in turmoil, 1819 Peterloo massacre sparked riots in Paisley and Glasgow, as well as elsewhere. It took the full force and duplicity of the state to break the rebellion, some paying for their desire for freedom by being hanged and beheaded, others were transported to Austraila.

     Spirit of Revolt has just put up an interesting piece on this event, you can read it at their Read of the Month.

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VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE.

     A day late, how could we forget, one hundred years ago yesterday, Voltairine de Cleyre died on Thursday morning, June 20, 1912, just after 11 o'clock. She is buried in Waldheim Cemetery beside the Haymarket anarchists. Born in 1866 she lived a mere 46 years, but they were sincere, vibrant and productive years.

       Willie Duff, Glasgow anarchist/communist, who befriended her while she was in Scotland, commented on hearing of her death, 'Voltairine, I am pleased to have been your friend and comrade, for you were one of the bravest, truest, and sweetest women that ever lived. You need no stone nor funeral bell; you are tombed in the true hearts that loved you well.”

Tribute to Voltairine de Cleyre:

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CO-OPS, AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE.

       Another interesting article from The Commune. Though the honour of the first co-op can be disputed, as recently details were found that gave this honour to Ayrshire in Scotland. I have no doubt that other places will stake their claim to be the first Co-op, as I'm sure the idea is a natural tendency among us social creatures called humans. Whoever was first, co-ops, large and small are an important form of community organisation that can help take us away from the capitalist model. 

Extract:

          The late development of theory around worker, producer and community co-operatives could be one explanation for the widespread indifference of communists to this part of the working class movement.(1) In the UK, ignorance about its reach, nature and significance contrasts with an apparently inexhaustible, tailending-the-left fascination with party or group politics and rank-and-file trade unionism. Yet people are often ready with an ideological view of co-ops; they are self-exploitation, or bourgeois, or prefigure communism, or impossible, and so on.

        The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) defines a co-op as an “autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprises”. Co-operatives are a type of collective organisation for the satisfaction of needs unmet by private enterprise and the state – for work, shelter, access to markets, land, leisure activity, credit, clean water, food, health, education. 

Continue READING:

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THE CRIME OF CHILD POVERTY.

 

            Scotland is a relatively rich country yet one in four of Scotland’s children are officially recognised as living in poverty. In some areas over one in three children grow up in poverty, in Springburn Glasgow it is over 50%. With Scotland’s undoubted wealth this is an unacceptable crime against future generations. Our child poverty rate is considerably higher than other European countries. In Denmark and Norway approximately 10% of children live in poverty, whilst Germany the rate is 15%, even these rates are unacceptable in any modern, supposedly civilised, country. All of these countries are wealthy yet they have children living in poverty, so it isn’t the lack of resources, it is the system we live under, that breeds poverty and then traps people in that poverty. It is an indictment of that system that poverty remains one of the most serious problems facing children today. Its effects last a lifetime, negatively impacting on health, education, social and physical development and seriously harming future life chances and opportunities.

            There is a need, we have the resources, but money dictates that children live in poverty, that is not an economic system, that is a crime.

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CHILD POVERTY, IT ISN'T AN ACCIDENT.

            As the cold spell continues to bite, we have to admit that we can't do a lot about the weather. It is not the decisions of politicians or financiers that causes the cold spell. However, what we should realise is that in this very rich country there are families living in fuel poverty and children living in severe poverty. Here in Scotland the percentage of children living in severe poverty is 20% with lots of areas where the percentage is over 30%, Springburn in the north of Glasgow being the worst with a staggering 52% of children living in severe poverty. These figures are not an accident of nature, a natural phenomenon. These figures are the result of politicians choices, of politicians following the dictate of the financial Mafia. It is human beings sitting in the comfort and luxury of marble halls that are the cause of children living in severe poverty in the middle of winter in a very rich country, no accident. In a sane society where the purpose was to see to the needs of all our people, we would not have kids pulling on a scarf and hat, keeping their jackets, on while huddling over a two bar fire in an attempt to keep warm in their home. It is not an unavoidable natural event, it is an engineered situation. A situation brought about by the desire by the millionaire class to protect their ill gotten gains. While children and the elderly freeze in their homes, and in some cases die from cold related disease, we are awash with money. We have billions to spend on subsidising the corporate world, billions to spend on armaments, billions to spend on nuclear submarines and billions to spend killing the people of Libya and Afghanistan, but we can't afford to heat the homes of our elderly or our kids. If that isn't an insane, unjust, immoral corrupt system, then Lord Archer is a saint.

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30 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS PROTEST.

        You may not like camp anymore, or agree with camp but you have to respect 30 years, lets make this the biggest yet people!!

Faslane Peace Camp           30 Days of Action at Faslane Faslane Peace Camp are announcing 30 days of non-violent direct action against the Faslane Naval Base to mark the 30th birthday of the Peace Camp. Over the last year, a small group of us  have been endeavouring to make Peace Camp a healthy and happy place to facilitate direct action against Trident. We are ready for action! The birthday celebrations will commence on Saturday 9th of June 2012 and continue until the 9th of July. This week the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond announced that an independent Scotland would be a nuclear free Scotland. Whilst these are welcome words, the response is that the MOD are reportedly looking into new venues south of the border in the fear that Scotland will win independence. We need to give a clear and unmitigated message that simply moving them is not enough. We are in a unique position to make this potential removal from Scotland mean an ipso facto end to nuclear weapons in the UK but our message needs to be full volume. We are inviting local, national and international groups to  take responsibility for a day of anti-nuclear activities, this can be a  march to the base, a demo at the gates, a blockade, a mass trespass, a die-in... get creative! If you are a small group or an individual and want to team up with others, we can help choreograph partnerships. We can also facilitate workshops on peaceful direct action at Faslane so no activist experience is necessary. There will be lots to be done day to day and plenty of roles to fulfil during the 30 Days campaign and the time leading up to it so enthusiastic helpers (and donations) will be welcomed with open arms! Communal meals will be provided and there will be plenty of sleeping and camping spaces. For more information, legal stuff and for details of our safer spaces, residency and alcohol agreements please contact Faslane30@riseup.net or write to us at:
30Days, Faslane Peace Camp, Shandon, Helensburgh, G84 8NN.

CORPORATE LAND GRAB.

       Time and time again we see our legislators, who are elected to protect assets that belong to the people, take those assets and hand them to the corporate world, gift wrapped. Councils across the country will soon see masses of valuable public assets disappears into the portfolio of the rich and greedy, with the public purse receiving as little as 40p for sites worth millions. This is thanks to the Scottish government having another look at a bill that ran out of time in the last parliamentary session. The cronies of the corporate world sitting in Holyrood never give up, if they can't do the bidding of their corporate masters in one session, then will try again in the next. This plundering of public assets is all part and parcel of the privatisation of everything and anything that is of value, part of the sustained attack on the ordinary people, making them totally dependent on the corporate world for everything from their education, libraries, public parks  to health and leisure. They are your assets, were you asked if you wanted some millionaires to have them for 40p?

We are better equipped to develope these site.

The following is an extract from, an article in the Scottish paper The Herald.

       "Land expert Andy Wightman said publicly owned property let on so called ultra-long-term leases – with more than 100 years still to run – could be sold to the leaseholders for a nominal sum. This would mean assets that councils hold on behalf of citizens and protect from redevelopment could be under threat.

      Mr Wightman, the author of Who Owns Scotland, and The Poor Had No Lawyers, said it would affect assets such as Waverley Market – now known as Princess Mall – in the heart of Edinburgh. It is publicly owned and shielded from development.

       The law-change could see the 1.68 acre site sold to the current leaseholder, former Rangers owner Sir David Murray, who would assume ownership for a nominal sum. What happens to the prime site will set a precedent that could affect many civic gems as about 9000 long leases are examined in Scotland.

         Mr Murray stands to get a £50million prime city centre site for less than 40p as a direct result of the planned law change being relaunched by the Scottish Government. the ultra-long-term leaseholds – some last 999 years – were introduced at the end of the 18th century to encourage industrialisation and are being modernised as they can pose legal problems for leaseholders in developing the sites.

         It is understood Mr Murray's Premier Property Group (PPG) bought the leasehold on Waverley Market in 2004 from developers who acquired it in 1982. PPG is thought to have paid £37m for the lease alone. The site brings in about £2m a year in rent from shops. The firm pays 1p a year rent to Edinburgh City Council. The nominal sale sum for Waverley would be based on the 1p rental deal struck with the original developer in 1982 and if it went ahead early after the law was changed the cost would be expected to be under 40p.---"

Contnue reading, HERE.

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PAKISTAN AND SCOTLAND A REPUBLIC, DISCUSION.

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