How Much Profit Can Be Made From Your Child's Illnes?

         Our political ballerinas who all worship at the alter of the God "The Market" are hell bent on taking every fibre of our society into the magic world of "The Market". That land of deregulated greed where profit is the only acceptable criteria. We are already well down the road to total immersion in the mysterious and whimsical world of "The Market", our health service is quivering on the brink of conversion to the faith of "The Market".

 Peter Radford explains it thus:

       “Markets, you see, are wonderlands that always and inevitably lead to efficient outcomes. And it is no good any starry eyed liberal tinkering with those outcomes. They are magically correct. By correct we mean that they cannot be improved upon. Economists have this vice like attachment to certain core beliefs. One of those is that, if left unfettered, markets will zero in on an allocation of stuff that can never be improved, especially by meddlesome governments.
       The way you get to this particular promised land is by letting the great forces of supply and demand batter away at individual preferences and budgets until all the trading and so on ends with no one able to make another trade without such a trade making someone else worse off. It sounds wonderful. Now to make this all work we have to believe in magic. We have to suspend our intelligence and imagine a world where everyone knows exactly what everyone else is doing, where no one cheats, where everyone is marvelously rational, where they don’t suddenly change their minds, where they can calculate at the speed of light, absorb vast amounts of data, and always — yes always — arrive at precisely that combination of stuff they wanted. Within the constraints of their budget of course.”

         This magical system is how the American health care works, and it is the desired aim of of our political ballerinas, to make our health service a replica of the American market controlled health care system. Only idiots who are blind to everything in the world except profit, would contemplate such a disaster being foisted on the people of any country.

 From Pete Dolack:

       You could not devise a worse health care system than that of the United States if you tried. By far the most expensive, with among the worst results.
       Perhaps saying “among” the worst results is being too kind. That is an accurate statement if we are simply measuring metrics such as mortality rates and other medical outcomes. But if we consider that tens of millions of United Statesians go without health insurance while none do in any advanced capitalist country (or most any other) — and that tens of thousands annually die because of that lack — then we must reasonably assess the U.S. health care system as the worst.
       This is the high cost of private profit in health care. How much? The United States spends more than $1.4 trillion per year than it would otherwise if it had a single-payer system. Such is what happens when a service is left in the hands of the private sector, and allowed to be bent toward profit rather than human need.
       To calculate that figure, I took the average per capita health care spending of the three largest EU countries — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — and the neighbor of the U.S., Canada, and compared that average to U.S. per capita spending. The composite average for Britain, Canada, France and Germany for the years 2011 to 2016 is $4,392 per capita per year, converted to U.S. dollars adjusted to create purchasing power parity as reported by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Per capital health care spending in the U.S. for 2011 to 2016 averaged $8,924 — more than twice as much! Taking that difference and multiplying by 317 million, the average U.S. population for the five-year period, and the total annual excess comes to $1.44 trillion.
      That excess has been steadily increasing. Doing these same calculations for earlier periods found that for the period of 2001 to 2010, the annual average of excess spending was $1.15 trillion. The annual average for the period of 1990 to 2000 was $685 billion.
       For 2016, the OECD reports that only nine of the 35 countries surveyed spent more than half of what the U.S. spent on health care, and the second highest spender, Switzerland, spent $2,000 less per capita than did the United States.
        Can this astounding amount of spending be accounted for by more health care? Nope. The average length of a hospital stay in U.S. in 2014 was 5.5 days, seventh shortest of 35 countries surveyed by the OECD. The average hospital stay in each of the four core comparison countries (Britain, Canada, France and Germany) was longer — a composite average of 7.6 days.
      Paying more for less
      So it really comes down to inferior results. The U.S. does well in combating cancer, but poorly in almost every other category of health care measurement. And people in the U.S. pay dearly for the privilege of health care, if they are lucky enough to have access to it. The cost of health insurance continues to rise, and the amount a patient must pay out of pocket before insurance kicks in (the “deductible” in U.S. lingo) is also steadily rising as employers push more of the cost of health insurance on to their employees.

From Pillip Longman, another comment on "The Martket" controlled American health care system.

       “Indeed, the inflating cost of health care is the overwhelming reason why most Americans haven’t received a raise in years, and why employers increasingly make use of contract workers rather than taking on new employees that would receive benefits. This year, the total annual cost of health care for a typical family of four covered by a typical employer-sponsored plan surpassed $25,000, according to the actuarial research firm Milliman. Such a family will typically pay more than $11,000 of this cost directly out of its own pockets, through payroll deductions, copayments, and deductibles. They will also pay much more indirectly in foregone wages and other forms of compensation, and quite possibly more yet in the form of unemployment, as employers seek to escape their share of the mounting cost of providing health care for their employees.”

         Is this the health service you wish for, is this in any way acceptable to you? If you think you can preserve our National Health Service by appealing to our political ballerinas, many who have shares in health care companies, or receive payments from health care companies, you are naive in the extreme. The political machine is in the pocket of the corporate juggernaut and it is driving at breakneck speed to total conversion to the faith of "The Market". Our only hope of every having health care and social services that are desired and required, is by the total demolition of this insane system of capitalism. Not tinkering with its inners in an attempt to make it a more humane and compassionate system, it is a greed driven profit oriented ruthless system, that cannot function other than it does.

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

"That Better World".

          Within all the hearts of the ordinary people lies a blueprint of “that better world”, however, to most, the system under which we live is so entrenched, change seems impossible, and will always be met with strong repression, so the struggle for that “better world” is not for the faint-hearted. The state system has a long proven history of domination, repression, exploitation, manipulation and a ruthless ability to enforce its pattern on all aspects of our lives. Its pillars of dominance are cemented with the blood of ordinary people, its institutions are backed up by force via its militarised police, its biased judicial system and its chain of prisons. These departments of enforcement are always on hand to stifle the rise of any dissenting voices. The more successful your collective action for change, the more the institutions of state will be brought to bear on your venture. 

       Today we see the far-right movements raising their vicious heads above the parapet, emboldened by that babbling brook of bullshit, the corporate media, and nationalist, fear-mongering state propaganda. To a degree we can take some encouragement from this, as this can at times be taken as a sign that institution of the state is feeling threatened. Why should the state feel threatened? Simply because across the globe people are challenging its structures, people are organising against the continuous exploitation and endless wars, people are building solidarity across borders, developing strategies to counter the power of the state, coming together to control their own lives. However, there is a long and fierce battle ahead for that better world, there will be set-backs, there will be tears, but solidarity and perseverance will bring victory. We have to accept that the state and its master, corporate capitalism, will not “go quietly into that dark night”. History tells us, that the state will sacrifice the lives of millions to protect the privileges of the few. That is the battle we face.

 

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A Wee Bit Of Cycle Track.

 

      I have been silent for a while, some might rejoice at that and hope it continues, others may have missed my mouthing off, to them, a thank you. Circumstances have made it difficult to carry out my usual routine, but things are beginning to fall into place again. My silence is in no way an indication that the hatred and anger that I hold for this exploitative greed drive system of capitalism has diminished, on the contrary, reflection has only strengthened my desire to do what I can, in my own humble way, to help bring about the demise of the capitalist system and with it, all its injustices, inequalities, exploitation, misery, deprivation and of course its endless wars for power.

      However, I thought I would make my first few lines on another subject, that love of mine, cycling. Wednesday was probably the best day we in Scotland have had for a while, around 17 degrees, blue sky and a not too nasty a wind, about 12 mph, so it was a little circle round my usual Campsie area. One peculiar aspect of Wednesday on the outward journey, was the absence of motor vehicles, a rare occurrence on our roads nowadays, making the road a very pleasant place for cyclists. The return journey was back to the usual speeding tin boxes, screaming past in both directions. Again there were lots of cyclists out on the road, usually passing me with a friendly "Hi", I'm getting used to them passing me, and as they do, I usually murmur to myself, "ah, those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end--".   I have always been a road cyclist and have very, very rarely ventured onto cycle tracks. However I thought I would give the one that runs through the Campsie area a wee try, and joined it before it reaches Lennoxtown. I can recommend it, well the short patch that I followed. It was a pleasant ride on a smooth tarmac surface, and no worries about HGVs and speeding off-roaders.   

Cycle track just before it ends as you enter Lennoxtown.

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For Their Sakes, We Must Do Something.

Figures for 2014.

      The never ending downward spiral of poverty continues at an ever increasing rate, and still our political ballerinas spout their crap about a strong economy. Figures from the Office of National Statistics, (ONS) show the extent to which we in this country are sliding down the toilet, though I have no doubt, under the insane capitalist system, the picture is repeated in countries across the globe. According to the ONS figures, in 2015, 7.3% of the UK population, approximately 4.6 million people were living in persistent poverty, (Persistent poverty described as living in relative poverty in the current year and at least two of the three preceding years) this is an increase of 18% on the previous year 2014. In human terms, this means an extra 700,000 individuals joining the ranks of the misery and anxiety of persistent poverty, in the 6th. richest country in the world.

       With this insane capitalist system, of those in poverty some groups are hit harder than others, women are showing a more rapid increase in persistent poverty than men. Women in persistent poverty, 2015, registered 8.2%, as compared to men which was 6.3%, the biggest gender gap since this data was first gather in 2008. Everywhere we look, we see inequality, and policies that divide. 

       We the ordinary people continue to generate wealth on a massive scale, keeping the UK ahead in the league of wealthy nations, but we never see any of that wealth. By sleight of hand, and a loaded system, the largest slice, by far, of that wealth ends up in the hands of a small powerful cabal of parasites. While we the real wealth creators, continue our grinding path down the dark corridors of poverty and deprivation.

         Does anybody honestly believe that this system of capitalism will ever remedy this mass poverty in the midst of opulence? History tells us, the system has failed miserably to come even close to eradicating poverty and deprivation, but has produced an over abundance of wealth for the small band of parasites who control the system. How much longer will we condemn our children and grandchildren to a life of wrestling with poverty in the midst of abundance? For their sakes and for justice and equality, we must destroy capitalism, the system that creates mass poverty, deprivation and wars. 

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

The Savageness Of Full Spectrum Dominance

       Only an idiot would believe that the brutal bloody disaster that is the Middle East is not a direct result of American lead Western foreign policy. We are asked to believe that the endless wars, the slaughter of millions of innocent people, the destruction of entire countries, is all for the benefit of the people of those countries. How much longer must we maim, traumatise and brutally kill the civilian population of that area to make their lives better? We have been in Iraq since 2003 and still the brutal slaughter goes on and on, that is almost three times longer than the second world war. It is the thought process of the insane, or devious, corrupt, ruthless power mongers, but not the actions of rational humane beings.

        The charade of the civilised West putting its self in harms way to protect the ordinary people of the Middle East, is created by the propaganda wing of the established Western power structure. With limitless finances the babbling brook of bullshit that is our mainstream media, spews out the toxic vomit of the West as the world's knight in shining armour, while in fact it rides blood stained and mercilessly tramples innocents across the globe, all for its own wealth and power.

      In a mad insane world of lies, subterfuge, double speak and spin, the truth will sound insane, but the truth is the only weapon that will bring an end to this carnage of people for the purpose of power.  

      Thanks for the link Loam.

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

There's Trouble Ahead, How Do We Solve It?

        As anybody who has had a look at how the capitalist system works, is well aware, it is a system with inherent flaws. It inevitably goes into convulsions, as those with the money look like losing lots of it. This happened in the pre thirties, giving us the hungry 30's, it happened again in 2008, giving us a decade of austerity. When these convulsions happen the way the system "corrects" itself, is by plundering the public purse, giving us bail-outs and austerity. The government hands the corporate juggernaut and the financial Mafia lots of public money in the form of "bail-outs" amassing mountains of debt, and then applying "austerity" to reduce that debt. Of course austerity only happens to the ordinary people, to those rich parasites, austerity is some kind of disease to which the ordinary people fall foul to periodically.

       Claudio Borio, the head of the BIS monetary and economic department, said a new recession could come “with a vengeance” and “the end may come to resemble more closely a financial boom gone wrong”. The BIS, which is sometimes known as the central bank for central banks and counts Bank of England Governor Mark Carney among its members, warned of trouble ahead for the world economy.

      We are not yet clear of the previous convulsion, and the gnomes of the financial Mafia are starting to shit their pants, as there appears to be warning signs that the next is about to hit them. No doubt, in their marble halls of greed and opulence, they will already be looking at how else they can plunder the public purse to retrieve their new massive gambling losses. They will be looking hard to see which part of the social fabric of the planet can they rip-off to recoup their greed gotten losses. This week Italy has been forced to bail out two of its banks to the tune of €5.2 billion, of tax payers money.

       Such luminaries as Mark Carney and other members of the BIS, (The Bank of International Settlements, sometimes referred to as the central bank of central banks. Though I like to refer to them as Bandits in Suits. ) are already ringing their alarm bells, and saying it could be worse than the last convulsion.

       While the vultures, and parasites of the financial Mafia will be preparing to grab what public assets they can get their hands on, to regain their gambling losses, what will we be doing? Will we accept another decade, or more, of "austerity", will we see ourselves pushed as far into deprivation as the people of Greece, with no end in sight? Or will we get serious about organising to bring down this flawed system of greed and exploitation, and put an end to capitalism, that is the root cause of the poverty and deprivation of millions of people across the planet?

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

Two Punctures And A Few Showers.

 Stathis preparing to cook the gourmet meal.

        On Sunday we had arranged with my daughter's family to have a barbecue at Firkin Point, it lies on the west shore of Loch Lomond between Invebeg and Tarbet. The plan was they would make their way there by car and I would cycle up the loch to Tarbet, turn and head back to Firkin Point to join them. Their part of the arrangement went to plan, my part of the plan however, was a little different. The day proved to be one of wind and some heavy showers, not my ideal cycling weather, so my wee yellow cape was on and off a few times. A short distance from Luss I got a puncture, normally not much of a problem, as I carry two spare tubes. However with my back and hip problems, I can no longer just sit on the grass verge and sort it out. If I sit down that low I have great difficulty in getting back up unassisted. If I stand and try to do things, my back aches something awful, so I walked up a farm path and found some large rocks I could sit on and get the job done. Back on the bike and about a mile further on, I got another puncture, now faced with the same problem, I decided to walk to Luss where I found a bollard at the entrance to to the village, where I could lean my back against as I stood at the side of the road and sorted the problem. Now well behind in time, another heavy shower, the wee yellow cape back on, I decided to skip Tarbet and just head for Firkin point and food. On arriving, I also decided to put the bike in the back of my partners car and abandon the run back, that's a first for me. 

One of the sunny spells between the showers and overcast sky.

     Never the less, the barbecue was a great success, even although it was punctuated by showers. It was also a wee birthday celebration for my grand daughter's 11th birthday, though that is in July, but she will be in Greece by then, so we had it a bit early.

During one of the dark overcast moments, my partners total failure to fly the kite.

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

Protest June 29th. at The Scottish Parliament.

        Lots of groups and individuals are coming together to protest outside the Scottish parliament this coming Thursday June 29th.. This will be the culmination of a week of  lobbying and protests, June 23rd. to June 30th. regarding the introduction of PIP and its assessment system, I hope it is a massive turnout. I'm all in favour of protesting and lobbying at the seat of power, but we should never lose sight of the fact that tinkering around the edges of this corrupt and exploitative system, will not end the struggles of the ordinary people, nor stop the plundering of the public resources. We have attack the root cause of our problems, capitalism, the need is to organise to bring the system down. We need to by-pass it, circumvent it, short circuit it, strive for control of our communities and workplaces. We don't need the boss class and their politicians, but they need us. 

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

Death At The Hands Of The Police.

          I suppose there are some naive people out there who still believe that the police are there to protect us from "bad guys", to make sure you don't steal something from your neighbour, or become drunk and disorderly. This is the wonderful illusion created by the propaganda spewed out from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Make no mistake, the police are there to protect the established order of power and wealth, the main line of defence before the army takes to the streets, if need be. Yes they lock up the odd abuser, and rapist, but this is a spin-off not their main purpose. Killings by law enforcement officers in the UK from 1920 to 2000 is listed as 27, but that number rockets after the year 2000, from 2000 to March 2017 there are listed 42 such deaths. They act with impunity, and literally, "get away with murder".
       We now have another killing by those who pose as the protectors of the public, to add to those horrifying statistics, this report from Libcom, the details speak for themselves.

 

 

         Twenty five year old Edir Frederico Da Costa, known as Edson, died yesterday having sustained multiple injuries during a police stop in Beckton, East London. Update 23rd June - there will be a #JusticeForEdson demonstration this Sunday at Forest Gate station at 2pm.
       [content note: police violence, description of injuries]
        Edson was one of three people in a vehicle stopped by police in Beckton around 10pm on June 16th. Police used force to arrest him and pepper sprayed him at the scene, he had a heart attack and was pronounced dead. Edson was revived by paramedics on scene who put him into an induced coma, but he was brain dead. After being kept on life support, this was turned off Tuesday.
       The Newham Recorder reported that a post mortem has concluded there were no injuries to suggest severe force was used on Edson.
       In a statement on Facebook however, a family member wrote that his injuries included a fractured skull, fallen voice box and ruptured bladder amongst other injuries.
        A friend of the family on twitter mentioned that Edson's vertebrae had been snapped, and that while he was foaming at the mouth police had said he was 'OK'.
       Family have not been told the name of the officer involved. The case has parallels to the police killing of Freddie Gray in a police van in Baltimore in 2015, leading to mass protests over his death. Prosecutions of the officers involved in Freddie Gray's death did not result in convictions.
       Julian Cole was left in a vegetative state after being carried to a police car in Bedford in 2013. The CPS announced it would not be charging the police involved in Julian Cole's arrest earlier this year.
        Police brutality is a regular occurrence in the UK as well as in the US. The IPCC and CPS rarely prosecute police officers and there has been no conviction for a death in custody since 1969. This requires mass protests and organisation in order to gain even basic accountability of the police, but in the end the only accountable police force may be no police force. Movements towards complete police abolition are gaining pace as the limits of reform become increasingly stark.

Rising Homelessness In A Rich Civilised Society???

           There is something rotten at the heart of UK, and it is the economic system. While the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, attempts to get us all into a lather over Brexit spewing out how we must get a good deal for businesses, a smooth path for our corporate lords and masters, here in the lives of ordinary people we have seen conditions rapidly deteriorate. And that has nothing to do with Brexit, it is all down to ideological choices within the capitalist system. Apart from wages being ten years behind, social care disappearing, our health service cracking under the strain of under funding, homelessness is rocketing.
         A country that is the sixth richest on the planet and doesn't house its citizens adequately is obviously involved in a failed system, or is waging class war, or both. It is not by accident, nor is it inevitable, that thousands of people in this country are homeless, it is by economic choices. By deliberate government policy, the number of council houses in the UK has fallen by 165,000 since 2010, and while in the year 2014-15 the number of millionaires in the UK has grown by 12%, the number of homeless has grown by 34% since 2010. In capitalism, we live under a system of extreme inequality and injustice, it can't be remedy to improve the lives of all, it can't be modified to be compassionate and fair, it has to be destroyed for justice and equality to flower. 

 

 

        The number of families being declared homeless has rocketed by more a third since the Conservatives took power in 2010, analysis of new official statistics by The Independent has revealed.
      Between April 2016 and March 2017, 59,100 families were declared homeless by local authorities in England – a rise of 34 per cent on the same period in 2010-11.
        The statistics paint a bleak picture of the UK housing crisis and the impact a lack of decent, affordable homes is having on thousands of families.

        Obviously in a capitalist society, as opposed to a civilised society, a safe place to lay your head and raise a family, is not a right or even a priority. Your safety and comfort is solely dependent on the wealth you accumulate, and the system is loaded against the ordinary people. 

     Conservative housing policy since 2010 has prioritised the privatisation of social housing, both by extending the Right to Buy scheme and by forcing councils to sell off their most valuable council homes to private individuals and companies.
      At the same time, ministers have mandated that social homes available at heavily discounted rents should be replaced by a new type of affordable housing that has more expensive rents much closer to market rates.
      The newly released data shows a huge rise in the number of people being made homeless as a result of losing their social home. In the past 12 months, 4,010 families were declared homeless after losing a home rented in the social sector – a 56 per cent increase in six years.

Read the full article HERE: 

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The Mediterranean Graveyard Is Overflowing.

         We claim that we humans are "civilised" and have brought advanced civilisation to the world. Of course in the developed world it can be easier to swallow that illusion, than in vast swaths of the planets surface. However in this "civilised" world we have created more than 65 million displaced individuals, that is approximately the entire population of the UK being moved out and told to move on. Most of these displaced persons are fleeing raging wars perpetrated by those "civilised" human beings. Of that 65+ million displaced persons, approximately 12 million of them are from just five areas: Syria, Afghanistan, the Lake Chad basin, South Sudan, and Somalia. 

      Of course "displaced person" is a very sanitised way of expressing what that means, it almost sounds like somebody being moved from their home to an apartment that they don't particularly like. The true picture is very different, it is one of desperation, savagery, brutality, misery, trauma, death and destruction. In the year 2016, more than 5,000 of those "displaced persons" trying to flee the raging wars, ended their lives in the water grave that is the Mediterranean. They were fleeing lives that were so horrifying that death seemed a reasonable option. The reason for such death and destruction fades into the fog of propaganda and misinformation. Can anybody really say why we are in Syria, tearing the country apart, destroying its infrastructure, killing its people? Or how we can justify the 4.9 million "displaced persons" that have fled that country? Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will record the various battles, heroically and fairly fought by "our" boys, and other battles fought with inhuman savagery by the "bad" guys, but why we are there, not much on that subject, probably we'll get some shit about a bad guy we are trying to get rid of, to save the Syrian people from misery. It is obvious, for the Syrian people, the cure is much worse than the illness.

       We can take it that practically all today's wars and the ensuing trauma, death and destruction, are about wealth, power and resources, and capitalism is the driving force, none of them are being waged for the benefit of the people. As long as we tolerate this system of capitalist greed, we will be mired in wars, death, destruction, fleeing refugees, "displaced persons" poverty and deprivation. Unity among all people's is the necessary prerequisite to ending this capitalist "civilisation", and creating a world free from borders, exploitation and wars, a world that sees to the needs of all our people, free from the profit motive.

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

"Austerity", Just One Trick In Their Box.

       An excellent video that highlights the brutal effects of "austerity" on the most vulnerable in our society. It also points out that it is a class policy, since it favours the rich at the expense of the poor, it is an ideological choice and not a necessity. However, in attacking "austerity" and calling for an end to that particular ideology, they fail to grasp that any such change will still leave the same exploitative system in place, wealth generation by the many, and wealth grabbing by the few. Yes, "austerity" is a savage brutal attack on the poor, but it is just one trick in their box, just one method of wealth plundering employed by the capitalist system. Capitalism is by it very nature, an exploitative system with little or no place for compassion if it gets in the way of profit. Tinkering with the methodology of capitalism still leaves the beast alive to savage the poor and vulnerable, it still leaves us all at the mercy of the corporate juggernaut and the financial Mafia. It is not its methodology that we have to change, it is the capitalist system itself we have to destroy.  

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

Memories.

 

        Another beautiful day, 20 degrees, practically no wind, a clear blue sky, and that wonderful short term Scottish memory, after a couple of days like this we start to think, what a fantastic climate.

     So I set off to complete what I didn't the last time out on the bike, go to Balmaha. It is a beautiful spot, if the weather is kind, it was today, very kind indeed. It is another spot I used to take the kids to, though in those days it wasn't quite so popular, just a place for some walkers, cyclists and a few cars. Today it was awash with walkers, lots of parked cars, though I seemed to be the only cyclist there today. 

      It was also the place, in my younger days, we walked through heading for Rowardennan and then up Ben Lomond. Lots of wonderful pleasant memories as I sat in the sun.

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

£125 Lunch Or A Food Bank!

       My fair city of Glasgow was once a city of skilled industrial workers, who built ships, locomotives, and other products of heavy industry, it had miners and steel workers. Now it is a city of low wage workers in the service industries, who exist on on part-time or zero hours contracts, or "self-employed" cyclist scratching out a living delivering bits and pieces. Our city has been turned into a playpen for tourist, a city of shopping malls, cafés, restaurants, hotels and expensive "events", a place for those with too much money and not enough common sense. The city's latest plaything for the rich is the idiotic eating experience of "The Event in the Sky".  George Square, which was once a green and pleasant square in the city centre with trees and grass, in good weather it would be covered by people sitting around, mums with their kids, or people having lunch on the grass, now it is a tarmac rentable space for the corporate juggernaut. The latest one of these events is the afore mentioned "Event in the Sky", they have dumped an large industrial crane on the square and attached to it is what looks like one of those large contraptions you see at some fairgrounds, where you get swung and twirled around in, for a couple of pounds. Only this one has seats around its outer edge an island in the middle where chefs will serve you food. So for £50 you can sit there and be lifted to approximately 60 feet or so and enjoy your breakfast. Lunch comes in at £125, I have no idea what the idiots pay for an al a carte dinner floating above the exhaust fumes of the city centre. This event attracted some many idiots that its stay was prolonged for a few days more than planned. 

        This is a glaring example of the inequality endemic in our city, and others across the planet. Glasgow is a city with areas of high deprivation, low life expectancy, child poverty and food banks, but we have brainless idiots happy to pay £125 for lunch swinging above the city centre, on the end of a crane. This is the shape of the world that this economic system of capitalism has built, frivolous and fancy expensive experiences on which the rich can spend their ill gotten gains, while the ordinary citizens struggle from day to day to scratch out a meagre living at best. Of course they can only live this phoney life of excess with our complicity, despite the fact that we create all that wealth, we serve the rich exploiters for a few crumbs off their table. We built that crane and that swinging basket, we grew their food and delivered it to them, and then went home to poverty and deprivation, what are we thinking of??

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