If Labour leaks, so can we all

Dirty tricks at their Ali Campbell best. The upcoming elections are looking more and more interesting all the time. The Sunday Times is reporting that Labour supposedly has a dirty tricks effort called "Operation Blackwatch" that is infiltrating Tory meetings and taping various Tory speakers' comments for later public leaking.

It is kind of like me leaking that in a meeting with Maureen Child (the Labour councillor for the Milton ward) last year when asked about putting speed bumps outside Brunstane school because of the speed that cars go round that corner, Maureen Child agreed that "a child would have to be killed first". It is interesting that of the two people who attended the meeting with Maureen "Three Houses" Child one was a globally known entrepreneur and his American assistant. The assistant was almost in tears after hearing the Councillor's news.

In the Times article, linked below the following appeared:

A Labour spokesman last night repeatedly refused to deny that the Labour party taped meetings, simply saying: "This is getting away from the substance of what was said, which is the real story."

So that's alright then.

The Times article is here: Labour 'infiltrating meetings'

Why council defence of reserves falls flat

COSLA and it's member councils are today facing the fact that they have yet again been found lying to their constituents with their increases in council tax (constitutents call it poll tax) twice the level of inflation.

"After the Accounts Commission revealed they were sitting on £1bn of reserves while jacking up council tax at more than twice the rate of inflation last year, any future claims of poverty and quiet heroism will fall flat.

Squirreling away that kind of money while roads are potholed and old people wait for care home beds will go down as badly with voters as it will with ministers. Cosla's acidic response yesterday – blaming the commission for issuing the £1bn figure instead of trying to defend it – will only damage the case further. "

More information in this article by by Tom Gordon in The Herald

£1 billion in the bank but council tax will soar

The Scotsman picked up on this story, as did The Herald. The cheeky councils have been rumbled and the body which represents all councils the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), accused Audit Scotland of looking for "cheap headlines" - nothing cheap about £1 billion in my book.

"The figure - enough to pay for 34,482 teachers at £29,000 a year or to give £437.81 back to each household that pays council tax - was identified by the Accounts Commission, the council spending watchdog."

But the annual overview of local authority audits reveals the [audit]commission’s "growing concerns" in a wide range of areas.

These include: weakness in financial planning; limited use of risk management to drive performance; insufficient evidence of control and accountability in some councils’ funding of external organisations; failure to address previous concern over setting up audit committees to scrutinise spending and monitor reserves; and insufficient development of management practices.

If this were private companies we were speaking about here, all of the Coonsillars would be up in arms - of course when it's them, not a peep.

The Scotsman covers it here:
£1 billion in the bank but council tax will soar
The Herald covers it here:
Councils stockpile record £1bn as taxes rise

Former Lord Provost & Current Leader

Former Lord Provost "Teeth" Milligan and "The Leader" Anderson discussing what really matters to them - click on cartoon to see full size:



Cartoon by Frank Boyle who does daily cartoons for the Evening News and other newspapers.

Decay nothing to be proud of

Another citizen of Edinburgh catches "The Leader" out in his lies:

"What a shock - numerous boarded-up shops and third-world pavements and roads. I remember this as always being a tidy bustling area.

This is what Mr Anderson and his cronies are so proud of achieving in this once beautiful city - businesses and people taxed into oblivion by never-ending inflation-busting council tax increases? "

Read this letter and weep: Decay nothing to be proud of

Community 'being kept in dark'

Pennywell community leaders are up in arms about being kept in the dark about a new school being built and which could loose yet even more playing fields in Edinburgh. The local Tennants Association secretary is absolutely furious.

'This is the worst place they could have put it,' Ms Marrow said. 'We are worried we will lose these playing fields, and we don't know if the new Craigroyston High will be able to access pitches."

It seems the Education chiefs have been granted outline planning permission and have lodged for full planning permission without consulting the community. The community will do well to look into this deeply. Recently, when the education department tried to close down schools in Edinburgh East they used dodgy population figures which have now been proved wrong by everyone from the Executive to Westminster to the United Nations. I hope the community remember to use the Freedom of Information act to get all the background information.

More info: Community 'being kept in dark' over new school:

Figures tell a terrible story

An interesting letter to the Evening News from Gordon Murdie. He's actually looked at the figures:

"It's not all bad news really - one can wake up each morning comforted by being looked after by a community councillor, a district councillor, an MSP, an MP, an MEP and a 'public sector' currently growing at seven times the rate of the wealth-creating private sector."

More info (worth reading) in Gordon's Letter: Figures tell a terrible story

Smoke ban threat to Labour campaign

It looks like the first vote on the Scotland-wide smoking ban may have an effect on the general election.

"MSPs are scheduled to vote on the Bill to bring in the ban just a week before polling day, catapulting the proposal back into the headlines at a crucial point of the campaign.

One labour party source said: "A lot of local Labour campaigns will be run from miners’ welfare clubs and Labour clubs, which will by and large be against the ban."

More Info: Smoke ban threat to Labour poll campaign
Also see, Craic of Doom to find out how the same thing is affecting Ireland.

Council tax nightmare for middle class

A revealing story in Scotland On Sunday yesterday was followed up in the Scotsman this morning. Look for council tax to increase after the election if Labour win, at present it seems as though the details will not come out before any election on May because the government don't want to spoil their chances of winning.

"Scotland on Sunday can reveal that Labour wants at least one new charging band to be created at the top end of the market, a move which independent analysis suggests could leave homeowners with an annual council tax bill in the region of £3,000.

The proposals - which could add £1,000 to current bills - have been ordered to ensure that Scots who have benefited most from the house price explosion pay their fair share towards local services.

But the details will not be confirmed until after the general election, leaving Labour open to fresh claims that it is planning to fleece the middle classes."

The Scotsman this morning quotes a well-placed UK government source as saying "The timing on this is poor in terms of the election. They may have had to submit this but someone has clearly been talking too loudly." Obviously, the government had this trick up their sleeves for a while and hoped to win another election before hitting us with it.

The Scotland on Sunday story can be found here.
The Scotsman story here.

Stick your tickets... all two dozen of them

This is where it is and this is what it doesThe article linked below in the Evening News hightlights one person's fight against the Council for there being "some doubt" over whether they were justified.

And the vast majority of the fines, issued on Cumberland Street and Dundas Street, were cancelled after it was agreed by the council there was "some doubt" over whether they were justified.

There is a number of problems here. Why were these tickets issued when 'Bumbling Andy' Burns promised to send Enforcers on a customer care course. The second and more important question is what is the cost of this, not only to the poor person who get's ticketed but also on resources to appeal. There are all the mail costs, personnel costs.

Should we be asking for compensation if the ticket is unfairly posted on a vehicle?
Stick your tickets . . all two dozen of them

£2m on 'failed' sex education scheme

More money down the drain. News from the Executive that they will waste yet another £2m on a:

Controversial sex education programme which is to be expanded across the Lothians, despite a critical report which claimed it had failed to improve young people’s sexual health.

According to a report from academics at Aberdeen University, there is "little evidence indicating improved sexual health outcomes for young people in Lothian" since Healthy Respect was launched. It also found the overall teenage conception rate in Lothian was consistently higher than in Scotland as a whole.

Do you think we could spend this money on the 3rd Tram Line instead.

The Scotsman reports on it here: Executive to spend an extra £2m on 'failed' sex education scheme
Evening News coverage here: More cash for under-fire sex health scheme

Update:
Health Minister Andy Kerr gives his opinion here. As usual he gives a 'healthy' dose of spin without addressing the fact that the experts are saying that his scheme has 'failed' and why is he spending another £2m on this nightmare.

The Herald also covers the failure here.

An external evaluation of the scheme, which has been running since 2001 and has cost £3.5m, found that, in the three key areas of reducing the number of under-16s having sex, teenage pregnancies and teenage abortions, there was no change.

Screw the Public Enquiry - M74 is a Goer

Scotland's transport minister yesterday went against his own public enquiry's decision and decided that the £500 million extension to the M74 south of Glasgow.

"Known as "the road to nowhere", the five-mile, six-lane "missing link" motorway will be built between the Fullarton Road and Kingston junctions.

But Mr Stephen’s announcement was greeted with fury by environmentalists. Friends of the Earth Scotland described it as "the worst environmental decision ever taken by the Scottish Executive" and threatened to challenge ministers in the Court of Session.

Mr Stephen prompted the fierce reaction, including threats of direct action against the project, after ignoring the findings of Richard Hickman, the local inquiry reporter."

The Scotsman covers it here: M74 link driven past green lobby
BBC Covers it here: Legal threat after M74 decision

A lot of money for crap

Ian Swanson, the Scottish Political Editor of the Evening News sums up the BBC's much-heralded documentary on the Holyrood parliament building.

IT cost nearly £1 million of public money and promised to give the inside story of Scotland’s most controversial building project - but in the end revealed nothing.

Again, this is the taxpayer's money going to waste. I believe their should be a call to allow another independent company to be given access to all of the raw material to see if there is more information which we have not been told.

Ian Swanson's article is here: Gathering a substantial fee, but no explanations

Edinburgh's third tram line is dead

Cooncil leader, Donald Anderson says this shocking news is a "crushing blow". This is the guy who has been in charge of the city for years and he couldn't forsee this? Anderson, who signs his emails to former soldiers "The Leader", has once again, together with his cronies, screwed the people of the city royally.

His lieutenant. 'Bumbling Andy" Burns says "This is obviously a hugely disappointing decision" - kind of like the recent referendum where he had his arse well and truly slapped.

Word from the Executive is:

"We are not prepared to underwrite the costs of further work on tram line three without a viable funding strategy, and believe the council should focus on delivering the projects for which it has funding."

Which I think is Civil Service speek for "They lied to you and we're not bailing them out"

More info can be found here: Edinburgh's third tram line is dead

Update:
The Leader, Donald Anderson, is creaping out of the woodwork with publicity saying that he is to request an urgent meeting with the Scottish Executive over this balls-up. It is a pity him and his cronies didn't realise that spending £8m on a referendum which had zero chance of siding with them was a foolish thing to do.

Mr Anderson rejected criticism from the anti-congestion charging lobby that he had been unrealistic in basing a major development on the outcome of a public referendum.

"There was no other way in financing the third tram line.

This is the person that is running the council. Bloody frightening!

Miami and Porty... but which is which?

The new block at the foot of Bath Street went ahead despite numerous objections by locals. A source reported to this site that the first apartment to be sold some months ago was to former local, former Labour head of transport in Edinburgh and now New Labour Transport supremeo Prof. David Begg. Oh, that's handy he has between 180-400,000 pounds to spend on another hoose.

It is nice to know that local Labour councillor Maureen Child was on the planning committee at the time.

It seems as though the locals still think the building is anything from out of place to an eyesore.

More info on the local's current feeling can be found here: It's Miami and Porty... but which is which?

Craic Of Doom

Coming to a city near you. With the government enforced smoking ban coming up, and the Frist Ministeer touting Ireland as the way to go........

"Irish pub bosses say falling trade has put an estimated 800 of the country's 10,000 pubs out of business since smoking was banned a year ago. They claim 7500 people - 10 per cent of all bar workers - have lost their jobs.

Now they have launched a campaign for some smoking rooms to be allowed in pubs."

More info at the Daily Record here.

OAPs 'facing council tax poverty'

Again, what we all expected but now have the figures to prove it:

"Hundreds of thousands of Scottish pensioners could be living in council tax poverty, campaigners have claimed. Help the Aged said 70% of those who took part in a survey fell into that category."

More info here at the BBC: OAPs 'facing council tax poverty'
and Help the Aged's Crushed by Council Tax

Hippy Rev goes off on 1

Edinburgh's own Hippy Rev goes off on one in a letter to the Evening News. He complains about a well written and researched article in the same publication on 16th April. This article clearly shows Ewan Aitken, the former leftie, was given ample space as City education leader and education spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to put his views.

Unfortunately, the facts don't agree with the education leader who voted to make parents walk miles and miles each day to get their children to school so he goes off on one.

It is interesting not note that although Youann is quite happy to write to the Evening News, speak on Education for the Cooncil and COSLA but he is not too good at writing to the very people who voted to give him his god-sent power. His own website (which sports advertising for online gambling) shows that the last time he graced his constituents with a newsletter was almost 5 years ago in Autumn 2000.

The Hippy Rev's ramblings can be found here: Parents' choice far from a 'snub'

Wake up Youann - do the job you were voted to do! Smell the coffee, and get back to representing the people who voted for you as a representative.

NHS complaints body axed

Lothian Health Council, which fights for patients’ rights on health issues and supports them in making complaints, will cease to exist in two weeks under sweeping reforms to the NHS in Scotland.

"We are very disappointed that the people of Lothian now face the prospect of being without professional independent support for what could be a long time."

The health council, which deals with an average of 400 complaints from patients per year, has written to all local MSPs to voice concerns about the abolition.

Of course the Executive have an answer:

An Executive spokeswoman added: "All NHS boards are committed to ensuring that advocacy services are available to all those that need them."

So that's alright then.

More Info: Patient fears as NHS complaints body axed

Five year wait for fertility treatment

It is time to donate:

The situation was now so bad that many people faced the difficult task of finding a donor from among their friends. "In a lot of areas the only hope of treatment is to bring in your own donor, but not everyone can find someone in their circle who they want and who wants to do this.

More info: It's a barren time for city's infertility unit

Investors 'grab cheap homes for big profits'

What we all know and the Council denies:

"Affordable homes in new city developments are being snapped up by property investors for huge profits, it was claimed today. Houses in Wester Hailes have reportedly been purchased at knock-down prices by first-time buyers who can then sell them on for more than double the original cost.

In Morvenside in Wester Hailes, it is understood that two-bedroom houses recently purchased for just £39,000 sold for close to £100,000 only a few months later. And one of the city’s leading property experts today said that affordable housing schemes were open to abuse if proper safeguards are not put in place.

Simon Fairclough, marketing director of the Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre, said: "The devil is in the detail of affordable housing schemes. For the idea to work properly it is essential some kind of covenant is drawn up, which safeguards the community."

Of course, the Cooncil know this is a bad story so Spokeswoman is again forced into action:

A city council spokeswoman said no profit-making schemes had been detected by the local authority, but she said councillors would be "very concerned" if it was brought to their attention.

Right, it has been brought to your attention, what the hell are you going to do about it? Don't we have an elected representative (slimeball) to comment on housing issues?

More info: Investors 'grab cheap homes for big profits'

Leithers have a different view

It started with a letter to the Evening News:

Leith needs young families living in affordable housing, not get-rich Charlies. Leith is already showing these scars by creating ghetto areas where the old Leith and the new Leith are already a million miles apart. - More Here.

Then the follow-up from Slimeball Coonsillar Gordon Munro saying:

"The Leith Ahead initiative is a network of public, private and voluntary sector agencies working together to create "a balanced, healthy and stable community able to benefit from the opportunities arising from new housing and economic developments." - Leithers have a different view

And of course Forth Ports Authority have another bumper year:

The company said pre-tax profit in the year to December 31 was up three per cent to £49.9 million on sales that were ahead by four per cent at £162.5m.

Update:

Just to confirm that the rich are getting richer, this article titled "Ocean Terminal soars in value" in the Scotsman on 22nd March proves the lying Coonsilar is speaking shyte as usual.

"Forth Ports has seen the value of its Ocean Terminal shopping centre soar by £25 million in the past year - meaning its flagship Leith site has finally begun to deliver a significant return."

So the "New labour" mantra of giving private companies money is definitely working in Leith.

Park here and you'll pay for it

Edinburgh City Council has always been ripped because of it's totally over zealous parking enforecement.

Now comes news that the 1 mile long George Street had 20,000 parking tickets in 2004 garnering £900,000.

Almost £15.8m was raked in during the 12 months to April 2003 in fines, meter charges and permits compared to the £8.24m in the year up until April 1999, the first year the "Blue Meanies" took over parking regulation from the police.

This is obviously a bad story because none of the slimeballs in power have come out it is down spokeswoman to say: "We try to make the regulations as easy to understand as possible and a five-minute grace period is given in most circumstances.

More:

Park here and you'll pay for it

Gordon Brown's Budget maths 'flaky'.

It looks as though Gordon Brown's budget is not quite as he says:

'It's fair to say his tax-raising measures are rather more flaky than his tax-cutting measures,' said Jonathan Loynes, chief UK economist at Capital Economics. 'His numbers may add up, other things being equal. What they don't take into account is that by closing one loophole, you may persuade people to look elsewhere.'

One of the major guys who advises on tax avoidance has his own theories:

Chris Sanger, tax partner at Ernst & Young, warned that one specific measure, which removes tax benefits for UK firms making overseas investments, would only give a 'short term gain' for the Treasury. Brown is expecting the rule change to bring in £130 million a year in 2005, and £200m for each year afterwards, but Sanger warned that firms would shift their behaviour to avoid being hit by it. 'The UK is competing in an international economy. One effect of this is to make investing in Britain less attractive,' he said.

More here:Brown's Budget maths 'flaky', claim analysts

Bonfire of red tape ends in 14 job cuts

So we want to save you money, let's have a look:

"Cutting the cost of bureaucracy has been at the top of the political agenda for the past year, since Chancellor Gordon Brown announced plans to axe up to 40,000 government posts across the UK in order to save £20bn by 2008.

Radical scottish plans to slash £1bn of waste from the public sector were last night in doubt after officials admitted that the Executive did not have a job-cutting agenda, despite a pledge to spend less on bureaucrats and more on frontline services such as hospitals and schools - and a massive purge of Scotland’s cumbersome civil service promised last year by ministers has produced only 14 job cuts in the Executive."

Oh well - I suppose they will say they tried!

More: 'Bonfire of red tape' ends in 14 job cuts

Tourists beware' when visiting Scotland

REMEMBER your passport, midge cream, electrical adapter and the number for Amnesty International.

In a hair-raising passage, the Routard guide to Scotland, published last week, claims the UK government’s anti-terror laws are a blow against freedom in Britain itself. It says: "On British territory, there have been an increasing number of assaults on human rights since the adoption of security measures following September 11.

"The security laws have been criticised by the FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) and by the United Nations committee for the elimination of race discrimination."

More: Tourists beware' when visiting Scotland

John Prescott is a.....

This is old news new but I think it deserved to be here. It is people like two-jags who are making Edinburgh what it is now.

Type go to Google.com - type in fuckwit - hit the 'I'm feeling Lucky' button

Thanks to threadwatch for this one: British MP Googlebombed - John Prescott is a.....

Time to make voting compulsory

I tend to agree with this. It works well in Holland and of course Australia. It may make the lying politicians take stock before they run for election and know that they can get voted out as quickly as they get voted in.

This letter to the Evening news prompted me: Time to make voting compulsory

"Perhaps the only way to help restore public faith in our political system, together with a real sense of duty towards the electorate by our politicians, is to introduce compulsory voting, as in Australia, where this system works successfully. "

Strike looms as bin jobs go

"The plans would also impose new conditions on workers including cuts to holiday allowances and changes to the weekly bonus system. Cutting the 50 posts would save the council an estimated GBP 700,000 a year.

But workers are furious about the cuts, and if an agreement cannot be reached between the council and the Transport and General Workers Union, strike action is likely. "

This is obviously the 'new' labour council doing something dodgy as the Council's reply comes not from the leader but from that well known Edinburgh person, who always surfaces when the Council is up to it's dirty tricks, the council spokesperson -

"Edinburgh City Council today refused to confirm or deny the job losses. A council spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment on the specifics of the deal before negotiations were completed."

More info here: Strike looms as bin jobs go

Update: Bin the waste

Why not take a small fraction of this money and invest in two employees, one truck and a bucket of tar and start getting the roads into an acceptable state, instead of the daily minefield of potholes that we have to contend with?

Just a little bit of common sense would be nice to see for a change.

And then another complaint about this here.