The Music Weapon.

        They say music makes the worlds go round, it certainly can be inspiring, and it certainly can bring people together, a weapon to energise a group, a community, a city or perhaps raise an idea to popular acceptance, like Love Music-Hate Racism.
          New album form Love Music-Hate Racism, worth a wee listen, It is available as digital download or LP, from £10.

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

AH, - THE ILLUSION OF DEMOCRACY!

        When a government decides policy in line with decisions made by consulting the public and in line with the opinion of that public, you could say that you have some form of democracy. However, when government policy is guided after consultations with those with vested interests in policy that is contrary to the wishes of the public, then it is safe to say that democracy is an illusion and the government and those vested interests are working in unison against the public interest. That's where we are at at the moment.

The following is an extract from SCOTTISH LEFT REVIEW:

        Another story that stuck in my mind: in 2006-07 the then Scottish Executive policy was to keep Scottish Water in public hands (with a bit of an open mind on the question of mutualisation). The Water Industry Commission for Scotland is a Non-Departmental Public Body (quango) with the role of regulating the publicly-owned Scottish Water. It’s Chief Executive then was Alan Sutherland. That year WICS privately commissioned a London-based consultancy to ‘consider different options of ownership for Scottish Water’ (against government policy). They called this ‘Project Checkers’ (perhaps because this game is about ‘capturing’ passive opponents) and kept it completely secret – it was never published. The project cost £209,000 of public money. Of this £17,606.00 went to a non-executive director of two private water companies owned by the world’s biggest transnational water corporation which would clearly benefit from privatisation. The report concluded that privatisation was the way forward.

       That story again; a senior civil servant (effectively) who is there to implement government policy decides to use public money to build a case to lobby against government policy and does so by employing (at significant public expense) someone with a very clear commercial conflict of interests, producing the only outcome that was possible given the methodology used – a plea for another giant handover of a profitable public asset to the private sector.

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

A RIGHT ROYAL SALES TEAM.

         The British Royal family is sold to the British public as some sort of benign institution with a spin off that it helps our GDP by bringing tourists to this country. A friendly, if somewhat bumbling family, that brings a bit of colour and splendour into our lives. However we all know that it is far from benign, it is the foundation of the power structure that is the establishment, the bedrock of our class system. What we should also be aware of is that it is also the arms industry's best sales team. Flying princes around the world opens doors to the heads of state for our ever hungry arms manufacturers, allowing billion pound deals to be done. This is also a sales team that is paid for by the British public and not by the arms industry.

Extract from Scottish LEFT Review:

          With a tightening of military budgets in the UK and much of the western world, the arms industry aggressively mines old and new export markets. The largest and fastest growing are in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. It is for this latter region that Prince Andrew, with his royal connections and military background, best fits the UKTI DSO agenda. His personal presence opens the doors of the kings, princes, emirs and sheikhs of the Gulf kingdoms to the arms company executives who negotiate the export deals.

       A Buckingham Palace spokesman was quoted in the Guardian (9/3/12): “Middle East potentates like meeting princes. He comes in as the son of the Queen and that opens doors that otherwise would remain closed. He can raise problems with a crown prince and four or five weeks later we discover that the difficulties have been overcome and the contract can be signed. He brings immeasurable value in smoothing the path for British companies. We don’t send him to developed countries like France and Sweden, where a member of the royal family would not make a difference, but in developing countries, or the far east, a prince can get in because of who he is.”

      But it is not just royals but quasi-royals such as dictators and their family members where Andrew’s presence works wonders. He supposedly had a close friendship with Saif Gaddafi, son of Colonial Gaddafi, and hosted a lunch at Buckingham Palace for Sakher el Materi, son-in-law of Tunisian dictator, Ben Ali, despite being warned of his corrupt activities by the British Embassy in Tunis. Both dynasties have now fallen.---

Read the full article HERE:

 ann arky's home.