Rage of today Sunday 3 September 2017

I have just been down town in Stirling. I was quietly minding my own business, with the dog, waiting on Anne coming out a shop. I was approached by a male, in his late thirties perhaps. I could tell he was distressed and anxious. He walked up to me and said, 'I have no money and nothing to eat. I don't even have anything to pay for electricity, nothing. Can you help me?' I gave him everything I had in my pocket, loose change. He was upset and thanked me. I was angry and I was upset. Not at him, at a succession of governments and more. I considered for a moment and followed him down the street. He was crying. I opened my wallet and gave him all my paper money, everything I had. He did not know what to say and I left him, still in a state. I do not tell this story so you will think, oh, what a nice man or even, oh, what a fool, he will spend it on drugs. You know, I do not give a fuck what he spends it on or what anyone will think of me. I do give a fuck however about successive governments, red, blue, yellow and people in power and fucking banks and all the rest of the untouchables who have cried crocodile tears whilst picking up their next bonus or hooky expenses claim or taken a ten percent rise in their wages whilst not a cent can go to anybody else 'cause we are in a recession and we have to suffer a bit. They are not fuckin' suffering. And you know what makes me even angrier, they keep lying to you, to me and we, like sheep, keep going along and voting them in, the red, the blue and or the yellow, year after year. And falling out amongst ourselves about which is the better. Are we off or heads? No nice picture today, I have nothing appropriate.

Poppy or no Poppy

Scotland and its tartan horde will descend on Wembley next weekend. I have no doubt there will be an abundance of poppies on show, if not on the player's kit, certainly amongst the supporters of both countries.

Most, if not all of the supporters wearing poppies will no doubt bear that imitation flower on their breast every year at this time. I would also suggest that the poppy worn by them will be worn in remembrance and the wearer will have no political thoughts.

Also have no doubt however that successions of Governments have 'politicised' the poppy and somehow altered what it was all about, shame on them.

My old aunt has absolutely no political thoughts, in fact she has no time for any politician. She will wear a poppy and attend the remembrance service in her village. Her brother was seventeen years of age when he perished in 1942. She is not imbued with 'pride', no it is simply her way of remembering her brother.

The whole thing is farcical. Eufa recently fined Celtic Football Club when some of it's supporters waved Palestinian flags whilst an Israeli team played at Parkhead in a Eufa competition. Did not Eufa indulge in politics by inviting a team from a country outwith Europe to compete in a European competition? In that case it was supporters who caused the fine, however illogical and unjust.

Back to Wembley, if the Associations succumb to the Fifa ruling about the political symbolism of poppies being displayed and play innocent of said emblem.  Do they then confiscate the supporters poppies. Because, based on the Celtic Football Club experience, supporters are just as guilty of bearing political symbols and getting their club, or in this case their association fined.

Lest we forget, the poppy is not only about remembrance, it is a vital plank in fund raising for a seriously worthwhile cause.

This publicity may well result in an increase of poppy sales. Good.

Sunday Herald 6 November 2016

Don't do it America

If it was not so serious, in terms of the influence the incumbent can and will wield over a huge chunk of the world, it would be laughable, pantomime like. He's behind you, oh no she isn't. No point in rehearsing their many good points. I have failed to find any. Suffice to say, in my opinion, neither is fit for office.

However I see the Sunday Herald picks on Trump as the pantomime baddy and by default that Clinton should be elected. All pantomimes have a baddy, an evil doer of wrong. Usually a man in drag playing a woman. So is it the woman who is evil, not the man? The plot is normally based on some fairy tale or other, although I find it hard to equate this farce of a Presidential election to any fairy tale, although it certainly is grim.

The Sunday Herald pitches it's weight behind Clinton by castigating Trump mostly.

I actually think the Sunday Herald has got into a fankle and has fallen into the trap of not being honest. It takes up a populist position. “Trump is a buffoon, not a lot of our readers will disagree with that so let us hammer him.” They have followed the internal emotionalist line. What can we say that will make me feel good about myself and make others feel good about me.

They show no evidence of rational thinking or external objectivism. They do not seek to understand the problem and properly articulate it honestly, no matter how others perceive them.

I question their values. Are they asking us to agree that tax evasion, misogyny and being a sexual predator, outrageous though they are and certainly enough to have Trump debarred, are somehow worse that mass killing, overthrowing governments and killing children by the thousand and bombing people out of their countries.

In her case, lies, deception, not just in terms of electronic devices and emails. The Clinton Foundation, based in Canada to prevent USA investigation, the acquiring of many million dollars from all over the world, including a whole raft of questionable donors. What are they promised in return? The foundation headed for Haiti at the time the USA effectively invaded that poverty stricken country. The aim of the Foundation to bring aid to the population. Well, have a look at the tens of thousands still in tents, living in squaller. Where is the evidence of aid? What is clear is that many millions were collected by the Clinton Foundation and precious little made it any where near Haiti.

She is one of the elite, part of a political system that has no truck with the ordinary person. Clinton, in 2008 said she would obliterate Iran with nuclear weapons. When Secretary of State she was involved when the USA threw out the democratic Government of Honduras. Later when she was involved in the destruction of Libya, in my opinion akin to a war crime, she gloated over Gaddafi's death in the words, ' we came, we saw, he died. ' One of her closest allies Madeleine Albright once said on live television, about the the death of tens of thousands of children in Iraq, ' it was worth it.' Her, Clinton's, performance over the deaths of the US Ambassador and Embassy staff in Benghazi shown a callous incompetance. She should have been dismissed, as Senator Rand Paul clearly thinks and stated when he filleted her at the subsequent hearing.

Trump, for the faults he has and he has many, is a maverick intent on opposing the 'system'. I am no supporter of Trump either and like Clinton he should, in my opinion get nowhere near the White House. Not that I think he will.

No, the headline should have read, ' Don't do it America.' However there should have been a photograph of Clinton beside Trump.

Malcolm Allan and the MV San Delfino

Malcom Allan was born in 1925 in Glasgow. To be precise he was born and raised in an area to the east of Glasgow city centre called Calton, or to be even more precise, 'the' Calton. Historically the Calton, or as it was previously known, Caltoun, had been in the lands of the Church although it seems to have been through many 'owners'. The lands were full of clay deposits and there are records of early brick making although that changed and it became a centre of weaving.

In 1787 Calton became even more famous because of industrial strife and a conflict forever known as the Calton Weaver's massacre. It is recorded as the first industrial conflict in Scotland and it resulted in the killing of six of the striking workers. Gunned down by government forces. I am sure it was not the first incident of industrial conflict in Scotland, however history emerges from whoever takes the trouble to write it down and even if not quite accurate, once time passes, then it is gospel. Where can I draw that parallel? The incident is also commemorated in a song of the same named, Calton Weavers. While many have sung that song, I like Hamish Imlach's version.

In the days of the weaving the area was reasonably well off, principally because of the wages a weaver could demand. However that situation altered dramatically over the next one hundred years or so and in modern times the poverty in which many Calton residents live was recognised by the World Health Organisation. In 2006 for example a report suggested that a child born in the Calton area of Glasgow, that iconic Scottish city, would have a life expectancy lower than the residents of the Gaza Strip in the middle east. A strip of land where most residents forge an existence in a string of refugee camps and in the main rely on aid from the United Nations to survive. That report put the the lifespan of a Calton resident at 53.9 years.

There were other influences. The predominantly Roman Catholic Irish immigrant population and the sectarian tensions that emerged from that, as well as the more recent phenomenon, the tribal gangland culture of the city from which the Calton was not immune. A culture that gave birth to the Calton Tongs with their war cry, Tongs Ya Bass. So Caltoun became Calton and then 'The' Calton before morphing into an altogether more evocative name, Tongland.

Malcolm was six years of age when, in 1931, in a tenement in Suffolk Street, Calton, Florence Allan, was born. She was raised into that mix of influences; history, conflict, culture and poverty. She was one of a family of nine children and while not from Irish Immigrant stock, one day, in a place she would never have heard of in her Calton days and in a different life, she would marry into Irish Immigrant stock and through that marriage to my mother's brother she would become my aunt.

Florence was eight years of age when war was declared on 3 September 1939.

On the 2 September 1939, the day before war was declared, Florence, her mother Jeanie, her sisters and two of her brothers were evacuated from their home in the Calton. They were not alone. Children the length and breadth of Great Britain were being evacuated from cities identified by the Government as likely targets for enemy air attack. They were taken to 'safer' areas. Many families from Calton were loaded into coaches that day and taken out of Glasgow to a new world. In the case of the Allan family that new world was the village of Bonnybridge in Stirlingshire. It was on the Forth and Clyde canal and was the centre of many iron foundries and the Rayburn Stove. It was also on the forefront of what had been a different and markedly more ancient conflict, between the Roman Empire and the northern Britains as it lay immediately adjacent to and abridging in some spots, Antonine's wall. But that's a conflict too far.

One of her brother's who was evacuated was Malcolm, then 14 years of age.

Her father and her other two brothers stayed on in Suffolk Street.

The Allan family was housed in a barber's shop, or perhaps one should refer to it as a hairdressing salon, in a tenement in High Street, Bonnybridge. So they in fact moved from Tongland to Tongland I suppose? The barber and owner of the shop was Allan Gillespie. He was absent on war duties. The family was informed they would have to move out when the owner returned.

Their new home, according to Florence, was good in so many ways. There was plenty room for the family and it had so many sinks. In fact she had never seen a house with so many sinks. All these years later her abiding memory of the house was the abundance of sinks. It was between McGregor's shop on one side and Marcella's chip shop on the other side, a perfect location.

The Allan family settled in and life moved on.

The war raged on and in June 1940 two momentous things happened. The British Army was routed and the majority had to be evacuated from Europe at Dunkirk. That same month the 51st Highland Division, for strategic military and political purposes, was sacrificed at St Valery en Caux and most were taken prisoner. My father, a Seaforth Highlander, became a prisoner of war. I was not born at that time.

The Allan family, certainly Florence and her siblings, would be unaware of these goings on and continued to create a home in their new world with all the sinks.

In 1942 they became more aware of the war, if even in a child's way. Florence's brother Malcolm was now 17 years of age and had signed up into the merchant navy. Florence has no memory of his first ship or where it had taken him. She was aware however that on his return from that maiden voyage her big brother Malcolm was frightened. He therefore did not go back and after a few days, Florence cannot remember how long, two civilian police officers called at their house and arrested Malcolm and marched him down the hill from the house to the Toll in Bonnybridge and round the corner to the police office. While Florence has only a few snatched memories of that day, she clearly recalls her brother being taken from the house and one of the police officers who took him, Sergeant Fraser. She says she will take that memory to her grave.

That was the last time Florence or any of his family saw Malcolm.

Malcolm was mess room boy on the MV San Delfino an 8,702 ton armed British tanker, en route from Houston to Halifax with a cargo of aviation spirit when she was torpedoed and sunk by U-boat 203 on 9^th April 1942 off the coast of North Carolina, near Cape Hatteras. Out of a crew of 49, they lost 28, including Malcolm Allan the 17 year old mess room boy who was on his second voyage.

He would never return to the Calton nor the new world of Bonnybridge, nor would he see his dad Robert, his mum Jeanie or his brothers and sisters again. Ironically he died close to another new world, United States of America. After the sinking a lone, unidentified body from MV San Delfino was washed ashore at Buxton Wood, Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. That body now lies, along with a sailor from the HMT Bedfordshire, sunk some time later in the same area, in The British Cemetery, Hatteras Island. Annually there sacrifice is remembered at an annual memorial service by members of the National Park Service, who maintain the graves, the US Coast Guard and the Royal Navy.

Is the unidentified soul from MV San Delfino that of Malcolm, my aunt's brother?

Until three years ago Florence, my aunt and Malcolm's loving sister, had no idea where he perished, nor of the unidentified body from his ship buried on Hatteras Island or that there was an annual service.

Florence was heartbroken when I told her of these things. If she had only known when she was younger and in better health perhaps she could have visited and properly said, 'good bye Malcolm, I love you'.

'Such a long way from Tongland', she said.

Chilcot, Iraq, Blair and Bush

I find it hard to believe Tony Blair's statement made post Chilcot. I will cite the following to evidence my puzzlement of his position.

General Wesley Clark (now retired) was a four star General in the USA military. I have no idea the status of a four star General, however I assume it is senior. I would also add, I have never met the General and have no idea of his agenda, truthfulness, state of mind or otherwise. I am simply recounting claims he has made on You Tube;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw

and in an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, reported in 2007.

In both he claims that he was aware of plans contained in a Pentagon document within two weeks of 9/11 to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Lybia, Somalia, Sudan and finally Iran.

Amy Goodman asked; 'Did you see a reply on what happened in the lead-up to the war with Iraq – the allegations of the weapons of mass destruction, the media leaping onto the bandwagon?'

This is an extract of what General Clark replied,

“About ten days after 9/11 I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me. One of the Generals called me in. He said, 'sir you've got to come in and talk to me a second.' 'We've made the decision were going to war with Iraq.' This was on or about 20^th September. I said, ' We are going to war with Iraq. Why?' He said, ' I don't know, I guess they don't know what else to do.' I said, 'well did they find some information connecting Saddam to Al-Qaeda?' No, No, ' he said, 'there's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq. I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down Governments. If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.'

A few weeks later we were bombing in Afghanistan and I went back to see him. I asked if we were still going to war with Iraq. He said, ' it is worse than that and he picked up a memo that had just come from the Secretary of Defence's office, that day. He did not show me the document but said it described how we, USA, were going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off with Iran. I asked if the document was classified and he said it was. He did not show me it. We met up a year or so ago and he reminded me that I was not shown the document.”

The Amy Goodman interview is a lot longer and can be accessed on the internet.

US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary Wolfawitz and Vice President Dick Cheney were all close the President and if they were aware of such plans, then I suggest that the President would have been equally aware.

It was not as if all this was not public knowledge. In the Sunday Herald, 10 July 2016, Ron McKay has a seriously good article on Chilcot and Blair. In that article he refers to a Dr Malcolm McIntosh who claims to have been present at a conference in New York a few months after the Twin Towers attacks and listened to General Wesley Clark tell of plans to attack the seven countries referred to earlier.

My puzzlement begins with the mainstream media and their avoidance of making a big deal of Clark's claims. Are they operating to an establishment agenda? Not all I may add, but certainly some and would include the BBC in the latter.

In terms of Blair. If there were USA war plans in place so soon after 9/11 and President Bush knew of them and if Blair was so close to Bush and intent of being with him all the way, how the fuck did he not know of USA's intentions of waging war all over the middle east. Either he did or he did not. If he was aware, then it is my opinion he did lie to Parliament. The USA plans did not care one jot whether or not WMD's existed, they were going to war right reason or none. The lie was simply to beef up the myth to get us, British Parliament and people, off his back.

On the other hand, if he did not know of the USA's war plans and President Bush did not let him into the secret, one has to ask, what the fuck were his intelligence services doing? It seems General Wesley Clark was telling all and sundry. So was Blair just a patsy getting played along by his big friend Bush like a puppet?, A pliable British Prime Minister who would go along with anything the USA said, just to keep in with them?

I think the latter is more worrying than the former.

Clinton and Emails

The FBI announcement this week that former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will not face criminal charges related to her private email server scandal, I would opine evidenced that the rule of law in the United States of America has been perhaps mortally wounded.

The announcement of the FBI admitted what most Americans already suspected; Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct official government business endangered the lives of the American people.The FBI Director also made clear that Hillary Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling our nation’s top secrets. He also noted that “no reasonable person” would believe it to be “appropriate or acceptable” to place emails containing said secrets on a private server. The announcement made it clear that Hillary Clinton lied to the American people about the classified nature of the emails, as the FBI spokesman admitted that at least 110 emails were classified at the time they originated, not after the fact, as the Clinton camp has repeatedly claimed.

On top of that, he also revealed that Clinton had deleted work-related emails from her private server before turning it over to the FBI, again in direct contradiction of claims her campaign has made to the contrary. As if that weren’t enough, he also confirmed the likely possibility that Clinton’s private email server had been hacked by foreign government intelligence services, meaning USA's nation’s rivals were likely in possession of critical state secrets that could potentially be used against the interests of the USA.

Lastly, but certainly not least, he also admitted that anyone else caught in a similar situation and circumstances would most likely be punished to the full extent of the law.

Based on the FBI inquiry and subsequent statement it would be reasonable to conclude that the subject of the inquiry is a corrupt, incompetent and untrustworthy person.

So it seems that in the USA, although I guess not just there, laws only apply to those on the other side of the tracks and not the politically connected elite or perhaps if you can afford a lawyer.

It might be reasonable to suggest that the decision to do nothing could be seen as blow to the rule of law and provides further evidence to support those who have absolutely no faith in the system of law and order nor for that matter politics.

democracy

I note with interest the inputs of various political journalists, politicians and pundits since last Thursday’s election. Experienced political commentators like Bell, Macwhirter and Frith I found most enlightening.

It seems we made a grave mistake on that fateful day. We appear to have misunderstood democracy. We trooped out to our allotted polling station, in our hundreds of thousands and innocently put our cross in the wrong box. If we had any sense we would have learned the Egyptian lesson. You cannot simply vote for who you like. No, that is not democracy. 

So, next time we have the temerity to think we have a choice, could you help us and tell us which candidates will be acceptable. It will save us all time and anguish.

May I also suggest the remarks attributed to the actor Frances Barber, Sunday Herald 10 May ( Maxine Frith article ) could be seen as an incitement to racial hatred.  

destroy the scottish labour party - election day 7 may 2015

We are on the eve of heading to the polls and Scottish Labour still do not get it.

For a good many people in Scotland, in particular the old industrial belt across the centre, a new game has hit town. Forget your policies, it is deeper than that.

For many years the majority of the working class across the central belt

has been born into Labour families, generations of them. 

Hell would freeze over and they would still drag themselves to the polls to defeat the hated Tories. That meant, in the main, voting Labour, in their droves. Margaret Thatcher simply reinforced that whole movement and her 'influence' as the years passed only served to strengthen the hatred of Tories. Illogical or not, she was hated and still is in many quarters, as is the whole Tory movement.

So what has changed? The polls are predicting a complete Labour meltdown and they seem at a loss as to why.

I am not a pollster, but I am connected and I listen. Today I listened to five died in the wool socialist and lifelong Labour voters. Just ordinary folk, not political activists, just folk, who coincidently would never, in any circumstances, bring themselves to vote Conservative.

The first thing that struck me was that every one of them said that for the first time in their lives they were excited about voting. Yes, excited, could not wait to get to the polling stations. Why?

Everyone of them said they wanted to destroy Labour in Scotland. I have heard a lot of these same sentiments this last few months.

It is as if they have stumbled out of the unthinking darkness, blinking, but not for long.

• Years of listening to various Labour politicians berating the house of Lords, committed to destroying that unelected house of privilege. McConnell, Prescott and more. So where are they now, jings, is that them and their pals wearing ermine robes? It is you know.

• Then there was the expenses theft. “ Oops, sorry folks, just a mistake, didn't understand the system”. Will try not to let it happen again. Well, just to remind you, it was not confined to greedy Tories, a few 'confused' Labour members had their noses in the same trough. A Labour Home Secretary managing to mistakenly claim a hundred thousand, another Labour cabinet member snaffling £30,000, mind you she did apologise and eventually paid it back. Another buying a house on the grant, our money, then renting it out for a fortune and moving into an hotel to stay. Oh, forgot to say, at our expense. And on and on. Lest I forget, we are still waiting on the £100k being paid back, but don't hold your breath.

• Then Labour cheerfully supported the Tories vote through their various austerity measures. But how could they do otherwise, they were in Government when our economy went down the tubes in the first place. Not only that, but the then Chancellor screwed thousands of working people out of their pension rights. Yes, a Labour Chancellery.

• In many of Labour's west of Scotland fiefdoms the employment rate is woeful and the life expectancy is lower than many in third world countries.
  
  
  
  
• Then there is the whole issue of invading and bombing our way across the East.

• And they sold off huge tracts of our land, our family silver, to international corporations so these corporations could develop the land they had been given. What did we get in return, oh the schools and hospitals that had been their and in our ownership were demolished and rebuilt and leased back to us. And we borrowed £50 billion to pay for that and by the time we pay it back in twentyfive years it will have cost in excess of £300 billion. Oh and that is called PFI or to give it its more modern name PPP. And so we have been bought and sold for some shiny baubles. Hmmm! Is that not what we did when we invaded the Americas two or three centuries ago? By the way, we won't own any of the schools or hospitals and will have to seek new leases.

So the penny is slipping out of their hands and dropping to the ground and not before time.

But despite all that, the ordinary Labour supporting folk stuck by them because their was nothing else, because their grannies and grand dads would turn in their graves if they considered putting their hard earned cross anywhere else.

Then last September, a glimmer of light, was it hope, was cast across them. Their was an other option, another choice and they awakened from their slumbers and looked forward with anticipation of a new day. And on the eve of that new day, out from the barricades came the old guard, Brown, Darling, Blair and more and they warned them to get back and stop dreaming. Then the old guard was joined by more 'old guard', but these were Tories and they stood shoulder to shoulder with their 'old guard' and together they were warned to forget the dream, their will be no new day. Trust us, you are valued and we will look after you. And time past and their anticipated new day, their hopes and the light were quashed.

But under the ashes there was still an ember and it grew and it was ignited and the folk, yes the ordinary folk, the ones who had been weaned on Labour, gradually and with increasing confidence emerged from the ashes and a peaceful revolution was afoot. And they looked back and realised, we have been duped we have been used and we are sick of it. And there was only one cry, and Labour did not hear it, because they were not listening, because they are arrogant, they had forgotten where they came from and they preferred ermine robes and they had become unworthy, and the cry was simple and unequivocal, 'Destroy Scottish Labour'. 

And tomorrow they will.

sleepwalking into a police state

A recent correspondent to the letters page of the Glasgow Herald newspaper is correct in his understanding of when police have power to require a breath test. His concern that officers of police Scotland are acting outwith their powers is also correct. Not only in terms of use of the breathalyser should he and others be concerned. Their loose interpretation of stop and search powers require examination. Your own journalist Paul Hutcheon has done a good job in this regard, however it seems to little avail as the practice continues. In fact one supervising officer recently told me that they, police officers, are to use the term consensual search and if a person does not consent they are to be pressurised by suggesting they must have something to hide.

Centralisation of the police service has brought about the foregoing and worse to a service that, until the change to a single force, was centred in and answerable to communities. That is no longer the case and I can evidence that by reminding you of the following:

We were hardly into the new single service when the Chief Constable informed us that the days of solving the communities problems are over, the new service is about control. Is that change of direction based on listening to the communities he serves?

Officers routinely arrest and commit to custody at least one person from every domestic violence incident. Evidence is not the deciding factor, no it is a directive from the centre.

Recently a pensioner was arrested and committed into custody for an offence it took the police four days to attend to. The three elements that need to be considered before deciding to bring a person before a court the next lawful day are as follows:

1. seriousness of the crime ( the fact it took the police four days to take any action suggests it was not that serious ),

2. continuing threat / danger to the public ( the four day gap before police acted with no other incident negates that 'arrest' element ),

3. finally, the likelihood of avoiding justice by absconding ( the accused was 71 years of age and had resided at his house for in excess of forty years )

It is oppressive policing, supported by political dogma and it is no consolation that many serving officers recognise it as such, however are so intimidated by the ruling regime they simply get on with it.

The strength of our police service lies in a simple triangular principle;

• the law,

• discretion,

• the power invested in each officer through their warrant card.

Each serving officer, from constable to chief constable, is invested with the same power to carry out her or his lawful duty. Rank is not invested with any more power to discharge lawful duties.

Centralisation, well certainly that being carried out by police Scotland, has and is further eroding that simple principle. Officers are not trusted to make decisions, these are made at the centre. There is no discretion and the concept of the warrant card and each officer having equal powers to discharge lawful duties is history.

Allow me to quote a more learned person on this subject:

Lord Denning, in the English Court of Appeal, while accepting that the police are answerable to the law, reiterated the cardinal principle of police independence:

'No minister of the Crown can tell ( the commissioner ) that he must, or must not, keep observation on this place or that; or that he must, or must not, prosecute this man or that one. Nor can any police authority tell him so. The responsibility for law enforcement lies on him. He is answerable to the law and to the law alone.'

In short, while referring to the Commissioner, he was talking about every police officer being individually answerable to the law for her or his actions.

We are sleep walking into a police State and whilst each step may seem benign it is not until you have travelled the path for some time that you realise you have forgotten where you started. Then you are lost.

scottish pillar box blown up

In the early 1950's just before the Queen Elizabeth's coronation, the Post Office in their haste to keep ahead of the game and following tradition, set about erecting new pillar (post) boxes throughout the United Kingdom. They decided to erect the first of these iconic bright red post boxes at a place called the Inch in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city. It bore Her Majesty’s royal cypher: E II R, standing for Elizabeth II Regina.

Red Royal Mail Pillar box complete with E11R logo

28 November 1952, a group of officials and other dignitaries unveiled the 'E ll R', post box at the Inch, Edinburgh. My goodness what a national stooshie then developed. To some it seemed reasonable that Royal Mail should recognise the new head of state in this fashion.However not everyone agreed and the situation quickly descended into national outrage with wide scale media coverage, debates in the House of Commons and intense police surveillance.

To the uninitiated, Elizabeth may well be England's second ruler bearing that name, however she was only the first to so do in Scotland and therefore any reference to Elizabeth in Scotland should reflect that fact and to do otherwise would be disrespectful to the Scottish nation by taking it for granted.

In fact, so enraged were some Scots that the Pillar box with the offending insignia was blown up and had to be replaced. The manager of the iron foundry where the post boxes were made was warned, under pain of death, that all boxes manufactured forthwith and destined for a Scottish location had to be innocent of the number ll (two). Yes, he received death threats.

So, why do I recall this piece of Scottish history so vividly? My first job after leaving school in 1961 was as on officer junior at Carron Ironworks in Falkirk, to be more precise, Mungal Foundry, which was part of the foundry complex and had once been a separate foundry. The main items manufactured in Mungal Foundry were, Telephone Kiosks, Lamp Letter Boxes and the free standing Pillar Boxes, the subject of this tail. Part of my job was arranging the shipping for said items, along with the correct keys. I was under no illusions about my responsibility to ensure ER to Scottish locations and EllR to all other parts of the UK. I was reminded on a regular basis by the, under threat, foundry manager. I did not let him down.

This whole episode saw a few ditties penned and sung in appropriate watering holes throughout Scotland; 
'Sky High Joe' by Thurso Berwick, sung to the tune, Ricky Do Dum Dey
'Billet-Doux' by Thurso Berwick, sung to the tune, Corn Rigs
'Sky High Pantomime' by Thurso Berwick, sung to the tune Harlaw

N.B. Thurso Berwick's real name was Morris Blythman, a Fifer by birth.

and finally; 'The Ballad of the Inch' (tune - castles in the air ) I do not know who penned it.

"Ah'll tell tae ye a story,
An' ah'll swear tae ye it's true,
A' aboot the Pillar Box -
The ane wi' ER ll.

Chorus:
Fa'll blaw it this time?
Fa'll blaw it noo?
The anes that blew it last time ,
Canna blaw it noo.

They took this mickle Pillar Box,
An' stuck it in the groon',
Wi Edinburgh C.I.D
An' Polis a' aroon.

A noble Lady in the Sooth
Said, 'Let it weel be seen
By a' thae traitrous Scots up North
That I'm their English Queen.

'Sae watch it weel ma merry men,
An' keep it in your care,
For England's nearly bankrupt
An' we hav'nae ony mair.'

They guardit it richt faithfully,
They guardit it fell weel;
But in ahint their backs there nipped
A big black coated cheel.

Ye read it i' the papers,
Ye saw it i' the news-
How he stuck his 'Coupon' in,
Wi' a yaird-lang, fizzin fuse.

As he hirpled back across the road'
Tae the Cops he bade, 'Guid Nicht!'
Ah widnae staun sae near the box,
For yon wis gelagnite.

A minute later aff it went,
Wi' a flashin' an' a thump,
An noo they've taen awa' the bits, 
Tae the Corporation Dump.

The bottom bit they left it there,
A' ragged-edged an' shairp;
Bit the lid wis in St Peter's hands,
Be'in played on like a harp.

It's said that on the next day-
Pit there tae get their rag-
Upon the mound o' rubble
Wis a wee bit yella' flag.

So, there you have it, a wee snatch of Scottish history. 
Not told in schools I bet.

brown vow is empty promise

In a land a long time ago a husband and wife resided in an apartment in a block of similar apartments. There were many such blocks. Then one day the wife thought the family should move on, as did some of the other residents. It seems the conditions were not too their liking. The husband was not sure about what to do.

Then just before decision day the factor of the apartment appeared, along with envoys, the head gardener, the site agent and the rent collector. The owner of some other property also came along because it was not in his interest that people should be unhappy with their lot, because who knows, maybe the unhappiness would spread to his fiefdom. The residents were promised better things, they would be listened to, they would all have better heating installed, more regular servicing and decorating of their apartments and all manner of things good.

And on decision day the residents decided against moving and so did the uncertain husband, because the promises were presented as vows and so were believed.

Time passed, not a lot of time actually and lo and behold the board of directors addressed the factor and the envoys and said, you had no business promising anything to these upstarts. In fact we will now have a look at their rent because they have had it easy for too long.

And so it came to pass and the vows that had been made were seen for what some of the people had suspected all along, empty.

And the factor and the board got on with their other business and took upon themselves 15% of a rise in their yearly gold sovereign allowance and also made sure that their expenses reflected their worth.

But many people had, for the first time in their lives, looked up and they saw and they understood and avowed never to look down again.

scotland, a vote for destiny

It is the evening before our destiny is decided. For months I have listened, watched and sometimes read a tsunami of opinion, most of it bilge water, on the merits or demerits of Scotland as a nation.

I have watched an army of politicians spouting there dire warnings as they set about frightening people to leave things as they are. Trust us, we will make things better. If you leave it will be a disaster, you cannot do it. You will be poorer, you will be defenceless, the banks will move away, shopping will be more expensive, the big stores will put up their prices. Leave the National Health Service to us, it will be better that way. Trust us, trust us, trust us.

Gordon Brown has been taken out of cold storage and trotted out to warn us that we will be better together. Is that the same Gordon Brown who dismantled hard earned pension schemes and left thousands of working people in the grubber, oh, and sold off our gold reserve for two buttons and a bar of chocolate, Belgian chocolate, then introduced the PFI or PPP scheme that sold huge tracts of our land to foreign investors. Oh,was it not him that was in a government that went to war against Iraq to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction, that were not even there. So we have to listen to him? WHIT! 

We are in a democratic deficit and we need to change it.

Why are we so important, why do they even care. Is it their benign, caring nature coming to the fore? No, I do not think so. It has nothing to do with us, they could not care less about us. Do not be fooled.

Old Obama will have been on the blower to young David to spell it out. 

“ Gee Dave, how are you doing over there. I thought you told me all was under control. Give them a vote you said, it won't matter they will never go for it. Dave my boy, get this sorted. If I had claim to a Scottish connection, you know, like a few of my predecessors with their roots going back to the old land, places like Kirkcaldy and Limerick, I would be right over. I will have to have another look at my birth certificate, maybe not. Listen and listen good, we want their oil, we want their water and we want their Health Service sold off to our guys and the Trident thing Dave, c'mon Dave get with the programme. And another thing, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, we are putting a lot of work into that baby. Last warning, get it. Have a nice day."

It is really quite simple;

If you in your heart of hearts believe you are a Briton first and foremost, vote NO.

If on the other hand, in your heart of hearts you feel Scottish, above all else, vote YES.

This is not about being better or worse off. If however that is how you will decide, you have my sympathy, you are a person without principle and you will sell yourself to the highest bidder, whether NO or YES. You will forever be enslaved. Remember the 'Bought and Sold' bit.

A country whose people have dignity, self respect and belief in themselves will be a better country and a better neighbour.

Get out and vote for your self respect.

children's act

The more I hear about this Act the more it concerns me. I appreciate that children have to be protected. However I am not convinced that parts of the Act will enhance their safety, in fact bits of it are likely to be counter productive. My concern is about the 'named person' element.

It is just another step on the road to State interference and control of people's lives.

Even before the Act comes into force, their are enough worrying interferences at work.

Presently the files of children, mostly on line files, kept and maintained by Children and Families Social Work Services are able to be accessed by other services, for example Education. The families have no say in this practise and in fact, neither do the Social Work professionals, who are not even consulted. Their 'confidential' files can be accessed by third part 'partners' remotely without the case worker knowing.

The files of children held by Education Services are not open to access by Social Work professionals. So it is a one way process and worrying to say the least. In fact I am not sure what the Information Commissioner would make of the practise.

Back to 'named persons' and the Children's Act.

Having worked for many years in the fields of protecting people I am only to aware of how a policy or piece of legislation, designed and penned with a clear view of what it is to achieve, can be misunderstood, manipulated or misused over time.

While the 'spirit' of the legislation will be clear to many, those operating with intuition and understanding, it will not stand the test of the grey suits, the 'jobsworths'. The late Friday afternoon brigade who have been aware of some issue for a day or two, however, lacking the courage of the normal person, they leave it to one side, then ditch it on another professional just as they are shutting up shop for the night or weekend.

Oh, the wee one did not appear for the school trip, oh the wee one has been looking a bit tired lately, oh the wee one has not been concentrating lately, oh, and I noted he was a bit smelly last week.

Get the parents in, get the Social Services involved, make them the big bad wolves, check out the parents drinking habits, check out their bank account.

You will see where this is going. Innocent families will be in distress, who cares? The most vulnerable parents, the poor and perhaps not as well educated, the ones who cannot afford a lawyer, they will fall foul of the actions of the grey suits. Remember, the law is aimed at them anyway.

Oh, I was only doing my job. You know the one's I mean, the untouchables, the ones with no intuition, no grey areas for them, their attire apart, simply black and white.

This is another step, even if the authors did not see it, on the road to more State interference in family life, a Police State.

The trouble with most Police State situations is, you did not see it coming.

labour councillors deny equal pay to low paid women

I see that South Lanarkshire Council has been instructed to pay about 3,000 or so of their lower paid staff, mostly women, £75 million in back pay. The women have been fighting for this money, equal pay actually, for near on a decade. In fact some of the claimants never lived to collect what they were entitled to.


Even today, having lost their ten year delaying action to pay the workers what they in fact were entitled to all along, South Lanarkshire Council are still in denial. The women were seeking equal pay, not a 10 % rise in their wages, not a 5% rise in their wages, no, not even a 1% rise in their wages. No, none of that. They merely were asking to be paid what they were lawfully entitled to under equal pay legislation. An Act that came alive in 1970, forty four years ago.


A senior figure said that South Lanarkshire has long been committed to equality of pay for those in comparable jobs, regardless of gender and we are glad to be in a position to continue to lead the way on this issue by settling with these claimants. Oh, is that so?!


The Chief Executive of South Lanarkshire Council goes on about people being the Council's most valuable asset and how they work in partnership with their Trade Union colleagues, so they, the Council, can continue to take a lead in delivering best practice in their people policies and procedures. We, South Lanarkshire Council, are the area’s “natural leader” and we aim to set a good example for other employers.

The Council's values include the following commitments:

The Council will be honest, open and consistent in all our dealings with people, so that we can earn and maintain their trust. We will demonstrate decisive and impartial leadership. We will promote the development of a just and equal society.

We will behave with courtesy, decency, dignity and tolerance.

We will be an excellent employer, leading the way in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. We will treat our employees fairly and we will not tolerate unfair discrimination. 

So, where is the decency, the dignity, the trust, the promotion of a justice, equality and the bit about not tolerating unfair discrimination.


Not only that, it is a labour controlled Council who have no doubt been in the vanguard of this ten year denial of workers rights. Yes, a labour Council. Overwhelmingly labour with 37 elected councillors, 11 of whom are female.

Present day Labour assails us with their commitment to fairness and equality, including equal rights and equal pay for women. They even 'fix' party lists to load up with more women.

I will remind you of some history: 'Labour stands for equality between men and women: equal political and legal rights, equal rights and privileges in parenthood, equal pay for equal work.' That is lifted directly from the Labour Party Manifesto of 1923.

It is a disgrace and it evidences the true values of a Labour Party who have consistently ridden on the backs of working people to the Party's benefit. In fact it is logical for them, the Labour Party, to keep working people down, otherwise where would they find a back to steal a lift on?