When A District Gets Milked.

      I was born in Garngad and move to the Springburn area, where I lived the largest slice of my life and it is still my part of the world. In my many years I have seen some very dramatic changes to our city and to my patch, Springburn.

 Springburn Road at Balgrayhil, around 1940/50s

     

       Springburn, once a busy industrial centre, known as a railway town in its own right. A mass of different industries supplying the massive steam locomotive industry in its area, the expansive St Rollox railway repair yard, Tennant’s Chemical factory on Sighthill, once the largest chemical plant in Europe, with its tall chimney belching out its noxious fumes over the area, it even had the killing hand of a Cape Asbestos factory. Its main street, Springburn Road was a busy highway of trams buses and shops. Springburn Park was a shining jewel in the dirt and grim of this densely populated industrial area, the park boasted a magnificent winter gardens, once the largest glasshouse in Scotland at 842 sq. m.
       Today Springburn is a shadow of its former self, dominated by a very busy dual carriageway that split the community asunder, that magnificent glass structure in the park now resembles the skeletal structure of some bygone dinosaur. Its industries gone, its houses demolished and most of its people dispersed to other parts. 

Springburn Park winter gardens today, photo by Stevie Douglas.

      So what now? Here are some statistics for the area. Though a few years old, I doubt if they have improved that much, if at all, due to the ensuing years of austerity, benefit cuts and social services ravished.

        Life expectancy for both males and females has risen in recent years in Springburn but has remained below the Glasgow average. In the most recent period shown (2008-12), life expectancy was notably lower than the Scottish average, particularly for men.

Adults in income deprivation,       3,610 – 29.9%   2012.
Working age in employment deprivation,    2.120 – 27.8%   2012
Children in poverty,       1,100 – 46.4%   2011

    Springburn ranks in the most financially distressed 10% of constituencies in Glasgow.  2016.

     That’s how capitalism works, it milks you for all it is worth and then when it deems fit, moves on and abandons you to poverty and deprivation. Surely we can do better than this!

Springburn Road today. 

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

The Dear Green Place, Mired In Poverty.

      I was born in the slum of Garngad in Glasow in 1934, "The dear green place" and have lived in the city for most of my life. During that quite long spell I have seen a lot of changes in this city. However, one thing that persists is Glasgow's poverty. The once "Second City of the Empire" has known poverty from its inception right up to today. For a large part of my life I lived in Springburn, once known as a railway town in its own right, and for a while it held the dubious prize of having more children living in poverty than any other ward in Scotland, 52%. It has now lost that accolade and the prize now moves to Calton. One reason why the percentage has fallen in Springburn, is probably due to the inclusion of Robroyston a developing slightly more affluent area, not that the circumstances of the poor have changed dramatically.  
       Within the city as a whole the child poverty rate is approximately a 37% of all children, this is a crime against a vast section of the population, stunting health and potential. What makes this an even more devastating crime is the fact that the number of children living in poverty, in the city, is expected to rise by roughly, 50,000 over the next two years. Saying more than a third of children in Glasgow are living in poverty does not highlight the vast differences between one district and another, some districts are above that 37% figure.

      This chart from  Evening Times shows the disparity as you move from district to district in the city:

    
       Glasgow holds lots of prizes, some we can be very proud of, some that should have its citizens rising up in anger. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, hosts the highest rates of poverty in Scotland, why?
        Chart from Understanding Glasgow:

 
    Aberdeen is the only city in Scotland that has shown a decrease in child poverty over this period. But we are told our GDP is growing, another crime against the system. Another damning statistic is that Edinburgh is the only city in Scotland where child poverty is below the national average, again Glasgow is top of the list.
      Chart from Understanding Glasgow:

     The number of millionaires in the country is growing, the number of children in poverty is growing, surely this must call into question the basic structure of our economic system. Every child in poverty is a life of stunted growth in health and a lost opportunity for a child to blossom to its full potential. These are unforgivable crimes in a very rich country where a pampered few live a life of opulence at the expense of the many. Where is your righteous anger?

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

Springburn, Left To Rot!!

 Springburn Public Halls, left to rot before being knocked down.

       Well, well, poor old Springburn and the North of Glasgow. It seems that our city fathers, at Kremlin in George Square, don't know that our fair city has a North End. In their gigantic tax funded, corporate extravaganza, The Corporatewealth Games, they stated that it was for all the city. I have just received their latest glossy Glasgow Magazine, and being a Springburn man, I had a wee look to see how it would impact on my part of the city, but it seems the city fathers don't know where Springburn is, or perhaps they think it is outside our city, hence the lack of interest.

 Springburn Park winter gardens, yep, left to rot.

      The East End has a time trial running through it to the city centre. The Southside, has a marathon running through it to the city centre. The West End has a road race running through it to the city centre. There are games venues in the East End, the Southside, and the West End, and "live zones" in the East, the city centre, the Southside and the West End. Their wee map is festoon with little symbols indicating Glasgow Landmarks, but nothing in the North side of the city. as far as this piece of corporate plunder is concerned, Springburn is a wasteland, not worth pilfering. Our call to fame in Springburn is our poverty and deprivation, we have the country's worst child poverty and the highest number of request for child care orders. Having "cleansed" the East End of peasants, perhaps they thought that the cost of doing likewise in the North was a cost too far. At least the transport should run as normal in the North of the city. You could visit Springburn every day and not even know there was such a "Greatest Show on Earth" corporate extravaganza going on in our fair soon to be bankrupted city.

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

Another Case For The Coming Together Of Communities.

        Sometimes you can't help but think that the Glasgow City Council is a gang from the financial Mafia, hell-bent on destroying the lives of the people of Glasgow, all in the name of big business, of course. The people of the East End of the city have been trampled over in the glorification of a spectacle that will only benefit big business, the Commonwealth Games. In the North of our city, in an area of high deprivation and low amenities, Springburn/Sighthill, they have decided to flatten one of the very few amenities in the area, namely, the Sighthill Park Standing stones. It is supposed to be in preparation for the 2018 Youth Olympics, but even if that doesn't go through, they still want to get rid of it by handing it to developers who will build more unaffordable housing. Just what an area of high unemployment, high poverty rate, low amenities is in need of, my arse. 

       The park with its standing stones is one feature in the area worth preserving, a place for kids and families to enjoy. The area has an abundance of empty brown site space crying out for some sort of development that will benefit the people of the area, why destroy the one they have?

 
Sign the petition HERE:

       The stone circle in Sighthill Park is Britain's first stone circle built according to the alignment of the stars in several thousand years. Built, in 1979, it is one of Glasgow's treasures and can teach youngsters a lot about history and astronomy. It is something unique that the people of Sighthill can call their own.

     But Glasgow City Council is currently planning to demolish the stone circle as part of the bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics - and if this falls through, they plan to destroy the circle anyway for 'redevelopment' - which the council seems to believe can only be done by flattening what is already there instead of working with it. If they simply build a path around the circle it will be preserved.

       Plans also include destroying the wildlife habitat in the vicinity. Surely enough damage is already being done to the environment, without wrecking another part of nature? It is important to preserve what we have left, not destroy more land.

         Please sign this petition to call on Glasgow City Council to preserve the stone circle and surrounding park.

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

All Of Glasgow Is Our City.

      It was great to see such a magnificent turnout at Monday night's walk through Govanhill. A community issue and a massive response from across the city. To be able to safely walk through any district in Glasgow at any time of day or night is a given, and must not be jeopardised by a handful of mental freaks. The only thought of disappointment that crosses my mind is that Glasgow has a limitless number of community issues, some jeopardise the life and safety of children, others the health and welfare of families, some the well being of the elderly and the vulnerable, but we can't get the same mass response to these issues as we got with this particular matter.

   

    I would like to ask all those who turned up at Govanhill on Monday night to come together on all those other issues that blight lives in our city. For example, in Springburn, we have 52% of children living in poverty, the highest of any district in Scotland, why? As far as I'm aware, Springburn also has the highest number of request for care orders for children. There are other districts in Glasgow not that far behind Springburn. How does this blight and destroy the lives of these children as they grow into adulthood? What kind of adults will they become?

     Like I said, wonderful to see such a mass of people take to the streets on this issue of safety on our streets, but where are they on all those other issues?

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

A POVERTY CHRISTMAS TO MANY.

    Well it's Christmas, that time of year when the retail wing of the corporate Mafia start to rub their sweaty hands in greedy anticipation. The babbling brook of bullshit, the media, has been singing songs of woe, on how the poor retail outlets have been having a hard time. This they blame on anything from the weather being too wet, too cold, or whatever, they always fail to mention that it is in fact caused by us being too poor.

       Scotland's population is approximately 5.2 million, a relatively small country and a relatively small population. It is also a very rich little country with lots of assets including, whisky exports, oil, wind/wave and hydro-power to export. It has however, one big snag, its economic system, lots of wealth but in the hands of very few. The result of this insane economic system is that we have some of the worst poverty levels in Europe. From our small population we have over 220,000 children living in poverty, that accounts for more than 1 in 4 of our kids. We have numerous districts where the level of children living in poverty is over 30%. Aberdeen, recently listed in some poll or other, as the best place to live in Scotland, has a child poverty level of 35%. This is by no means the worst, We have Scotstoun coming in at 36%, Anderson at 37%, Govan at 38%, Drumchapel at 40% and it doesn't stop there. Coming in at the top of this indictable list of greed created poverty is Springburn, with a staggering 52% of the children in that area living in poverty. Trying having a Merry Xmas with these figures.

      These are the figures behind all the shit about austerity, growth and retail problems. All the facts and figures banded about by the economic experts never manage to put the real misery lived by the people, onto their balance sheets. It's all numbers about debit and credit  disguising malnutrition, health problems from lack of heating, stunted potential, and poisoned dreams. For it to be other, we have to get rid of this insane, unjust, system of exploitation that is sanitised by balance sheets and passed of as fair and the only game in town. Capitalism is not set in tablets of stone, it is a man made system  that works for the benefit of the few. We can, if we have the real desire, create another system that is based on the needs of all our people, built on sustainability, co-operation and mutual aid. The first step has to be bring down this present system that depends on the  rape of the planet and its people.

ann arky's home.

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.

ann arky's home.