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Friends and readers. As many of you will know our very own local football team Spartans qualified for the 4th round of the Scottish Cup by defeating Elgin City 2-1 after a postponement and a replay.

This Saturday 10th January Spartans are away to Airdrie,and if victorious may well get a premier league side in the next round.

This of course bodes well for the newly created Football and community academy which is now situated at the back of the Ainslie Park leisure Centre. The revenue they could get from a cup run would be of immense benefit not only to the club but to our community as well.

We have had a look at the facilities and they are fantastic which is again good news for the Community as we understand that there is an emphasis on Community involvement,something we are told comes from a initiative lead by the Spartans board of directors which we understand has two community board members.

We wish Spartans every success on Saturday and hope they take a large support with them. One light hearted point is that with Celtic manager Gordon Strachan being Patron of Spartans,we wonder if he would have split loyalties should Spartans and Celtic be drawn in the next round. 

We can dream can’t we. 

Friends and readers. 2008 was an eventful year in the life of Pilton Sucks with a number of issues covered and a continued expansion in our readership.

Pilton Sucks has covered issues which no-body else would,and we have continued to inform the public both locally and nationally what is really going on in your name.

The recent news that a local community project who made great play about their allocation from the Fairer Scotland Fund and then offered a £60,000 pound salary provoked an angry response from many readers some who now demand that local people should know how much the poverty industry is costing in Forth in terms of salaries paid.

Many are still aware that a jobs for the boys culture still remains here and that it has to be stopped. Secrecy was part of that agenda with pals of pals getting well paid jobs at the expense of the Community at large,with little or no local people working in or managing these local projects. 2009 will see Pilton Sucks advocating local people for local jobs,something we may say that was part of the criteria for receiving funding from the Fairer Scotland Fund.

Community Councils have a large part to play in this new set up and they should be making sure that all local projects have local people employed within them properly trained and qualified to do the jobs required,not just being part of a now discredited old pals act.

Any funding must depend on local input,and after all that’s what should have happened in the first place when Urban Aid was around all those years ago,empowerment of local people,what happened to that? Urban aid did not mention anything about being a member of the Labour party or part of it’s inner circle,but that’s what happened.

Pilton Sucks exposed the private club mentality that existed here and has now become common knowledge. Local jobs for local people must be our campaign in 2009 and we will not be silenced or sit back and watch locals sidelined once again,or put on management committees as voting fodder to implement others strategies.

The other big issue of the year which provoked much interest from our readership was our ongoing campaign to highlight workplace bullying and it’s consequences for the victims.

We have raised the bar on this issue highlighting the damage this mindless violence causes to it’s victims and the need for legislation outlawing it from the workplace and making it a criminal act.

For to long these mindless jobsworths have been getting away with it at an immense cost to both employer and victim,the time now has come to launch our 2009 anti workplace bullying campaign,with two of our associates George and Helen working on it full time,reporting and exposing bullying where ever we find it.

Our constant statement has been, there is no hiding  for the workplace bullys. These jobsworths must be stopped and punished for their crimes. We have also advocated that workplace bullys names be put on a register so they are known to the authorities.

Again Pilton Sucks is not going away on this huge issue and this year we will up the bar again. The workplace must be a safe environment and your employer has a duty so far as possible to make it so. If they ignore that duty or just pay lip service to it then they must and will be held liable.

But Pilton Sucks goes one step further. Instead of just the employer being held liable,the bully must face the consequences of his actions to,and must be brought to account,instead of hiding away as the cowards they are.

As this new year begins,we are all facing difficult times due in no small way to the greedy bastards that we foolishly trusted to look after our financial interests. The banking system has all but collapsed leaving many vulnerable to economic hardship,and these despicable greedy bastards who put us in this position must never again be allowed such economic power which they have abused so badly.

The old school tie brigade that have run us into the ground should be put out to grass without their golden handshakes and super duper pension schemes,lets see how this privileged elite survive on the minimum wage.

Pilton Sucks remains the peoples website,open to all whenever you want to comment on whatever subject. We do not look for favour or rely on some old pals act,we will print it as you see it.

Our information comes from sources within and outwith the community. It’s no secret that those disillusioned with what has gone on before have been our informed sources,and we welcome that.

Pilton Sucks is self financing so does not have to print pages of homage to any person or political organisation,unlike some local news sheets.

Remember if you are up to no good watch out Pilton Sucks is about. 

Friends and readers. We at Pilton Sucks hope you all had a peaceful and happy Time over this festive period.

Reality starts again Monday when we will all be at the mercy of speculators and vagabonds who prey on the weakest in society with a design to line their own pockets.

Undoubtedly many will feel the pinch this year as our economy sinks further into the unknown,with all our futures on the line. Have we reached the end of what man can achieve in their determination to get one step further. Have we reached the end of our technological development,and must we re-group and start to re-humanise ourselves instead of allowing machines to think for us.

The information highway has been a revolutionary breakthrough but has left us isolated in our own worlds where we talk to each other through machines and lose the art of human contact.

The transfer of capital throughout the world at the touch of a button has made millions for a handful but will leave many at poverty’s doorstep. Greed throughout the banking community has had the result of global meltdown,and we the taxpayer have had to pick up the tab.

Unemployment will rise as will homelessness and many will face misery in 2009. Governments allowed banks to do what they liked turning a blind eye to what was going on in the City,and then almost instantly they ground to a halt blaming everything but their own greed and short sightedness.

People lost the ability to have a hands on feel for what was going on allowing computer programmes to run the worlds economies. The damage is done now and few have held their hands up to accept responsibility,instead running to ground to count their dosh and plead innocence.

Telling times indeed,and it shows clearly that whoever you vote for and whatever Government is elected they are at the mercy of the vultures who we bailed out.

The lesson we must learn from this is all to obvious. Greater public control of the banking system is a necessity with an end to these dreadful bonuses and golden handshakes,and public control of the boards that have run this economy to a standstill.

More public scrutiny of these greedy bastards and what they are up to and less reliance on machines to do the job for us.

We require leaders to come forward from what ever quarter they are in and put this country back on an even keel.

Let us ignore those that think they have a divine right to lead simply because they wore a certain type of school tie. Let us seek our leaders from within and let merit be their judge.

The establishment have fucked us good and proper we might as well have dropped our drawers and bent over. It is our time now to bring about the changes needed to save our people from destitution,let us see who arises from the ashes.       

Friends and readers. While we shut down over the Xmas break we kept our postbag open. When Helen one of our associates opened up this morning our post bag was full.

The majority came from readers truly scunnered at what is going on locally. As you know we broke the story of how one local Community project is prepared to pay £60,000 a year in a salary,while complaining about funding cuts.

Well it appears this has raised the hairs on the backs of peoples necks with a good number of local readers extremely angry about this situation,and demanding an explanation.

Unfortunately Pilton Sucks has not got one and we remain puzzled that all this anger about local projects funding being cut results in one project offering a kings ransom in the shape of a salary.

Many are now rightly asking exactly what is the poverty industry in this community paying out in salaries,with a growing number asking ,how many local people are actually employed in these projects.

Pilton Sucks again does not have these figures but we are sure that it is a tiny amount,and as one reader pointed out probably part of the Labour cabal that we are told does not exist.

Pilton Sucks demands that all local projects open up their books to scrutiny and let us all see exactly where the money goes and to who.

We are as many others are angry that a local project can offer such a sum as a salary and if this is an example of monies going out in salaries then we demand an enquiry into how this can be allowed in stringent times,and we also demand to know how many local people are employed in these so called local projects.

The jobs for the boys culture which existed here must be brought to a halt and local people empowered to take over the running and managing of these projects,with salaries brought into line and into the real world.

Our poverty industry has grown in the past as has the poverty within this community,so what has gone wrong and who has benefited from this growth industry. Pilton Sucks demands answers and so do a growing number in this community who have woken up to what has been going on. Lets see the books comrades.   

Friends and readers. As our economy drifts into recession,and more bloodshed breaks out in the Middle East,what do you think occupies the front pages of most of the papers this December Sunday?

One or two lottery machines did not work and some punters could not buy a ticket either at outlets or on line. Is it just us or is it just sheer madness.

Many people are in danger of losing their homes in the next twelve months,the winter heating bills will come through the letter boxes early next year with the prospect of many unable to pay these obscene amounts,unemployment will certainly rise,and a few mugs moan because they can’t buy a lottery ticket.

Gambling should be the very last thought on peoples minds as recession bites,but unfortunately it seems that many of us think we can win their out of financial problems.

What utter rot that is. Incredible as it seems the papers print this crap as if it is a life or death situation. George our associate pointed out to us that one mug interviewed could not get his £85 pounds worth of tickets,yes friends £85 pounds worth,he might as well have burnt it.

He has as much chance of winning as we have and Pilton Sucks dosen’t play the Lottery.

Friends and readers. We at Pilton Sucks hope you all had a peaceful and happy Xmas with your friends and family.

However the horror of Jackie Bird with her false smile is still to come as Hogmanay beckons. The nations least favourite news presenter will once again present the new year shindig from Edinburgh Castle,where only the great and the good and a few plebs get an invite to witness Ms. Bird laughing like a hyena pretending badly that she is having a good time.

The real laugh is the pay check she gets for doing it. She even manages to get page three of the Sunday Mail telling all how glamorous she will look on the big night. The very thought makes you want to reach for the turkey flavoured soup,and the left overs from the over priced selection boxes.

Never mind Pilton Sucks has the remedy,simple really don’t watch this dreadful drivel and the plastic forced smile of Jackie-how much am i getting paid- Bird.    

Friends and readers. Now there is a vacancy at the helm of North Edinburgh Trust,one or two of us wonder if community job applicant Dave fatboy Hewitt will apply for the vacancy.

Nothing would surprise us about our old pal and regular Sucks reader Dave who has made a career out of job jumping in the Community. As you know our mate Dave is currently head man at the Health Project in Boswall Parkway,but he may find the lure of the North Edinburgh Trust vacancy to much to bear and be tempted to shove in an application.

In these days of economic hardship and Dave jumping from job to job,it might well give the interviewing committee a good laugh if Dave was to put an application in. 

We at Pilton Sucks are sure that our old mate is on the starting blocks pen in hand ready to fill in his application. If he does he is going to need a lot of paper to show his job career to date.

We do however have a thought which occurred to us here at Pilton Sucks. We wonder if a local person will get the job or even get an interview. Pigs might fly.   

Friends and readers. Our festive postbag continues to reveal how many local people feel about the poverty industry in the Forth Ward.

A reader from Trinity told us that she was astounded and disgusted at the amount of money on offer as a salary to manage a local project,and that she would be voicing her concerns at the next meeting of her local Community Council.

Readers right across the Forth Ward and beyond have commented on the thriving of the few in the poverty industry and the suffering of the many.

One bright eyed and bushy tailed reader suggested PEP advertise on E-Bay offering the lucky winner £60,000 a year in salary. She did remark to us however that E-Bay might remove the advert as being a spoof and totally unbelievable.

A large number of readers have told us they agree with our idea that if those doing the loudest shouting about funding cuts were to take a salary cut and truly show they cared about local services,then their moans and groans would be more honest than the transparent belly aching that’s going on.

The old guard and pals act that have been running these projects for years have been caught out and their arguments about funding cuts have now been revealed to be more about their own position than the community they are supposed to serve.

So all the clandestine meetings and lengthy phone calls that have been going on and continue to do so about how backsides can be saved and wool pulled over the communities eyes could well be in vain and so they should.

£60,000 just rubbished your case.

Friends and readers. We at Pilton Sucks wish our readers and supporters and even those that don’t support us,all the best for the forthcoming festive frolics.

But before you might over indulge,stop if you can and spare a moment for those that can’t sit down with family and friends this year and enjoy themselves.

Spare a thought for those that find themselves through no fault of their own without employment and at the mercy of the chill wind of economic uncertainty.

For those people particularly the elderly and infirm who may be on their own and already struggle to make ends meet,watch out and if your neighbour or you know of anybody suffering help if you can.

And to all those greedy bastards who were pushing and shoving others at Sainsburys in Craigleith this morning spending money they should not be and generally making idiots of themselves,stop for fucks sake it’s only one day after all,and you still need to pay your fuel bill when you’ve  shoved the last of the pre frozen turkey down your throat and drunk the last of the cheap plonk,real life will still go on,and after all this false hyped up bull shit is over,and we have watched the last of Jackie Birds forced smile on the dreadful Hogmanay show,we could well be in for a real going over as the slump gets worse.

Christmas may seem like a distant memory   

Friends and readers. There was a wee shindig last night [Monday] At the West Pilton Neighbour Centre. The shindig in question was the leaving do for Ian Cooke NETrusts former manager who is moving to pastures new. We at Pilton Sucks wish him well after over twenty years service to this community.

All the great and the good were there,and one party reveler made the point that this was the best attended Labour party meeting for years with politicians past and present mixing with the rabble.

Another sharp eyed party punter noticed Councillor Hinds swooping round Malcolm Chisholm like a vulture waiting to pounce on their victim,should Chisholm be pushed before he decides to jump.

Our old mucker Lesley Prada Hinds Edinburgh’s very own catwalk queen has already tried and failed to become an MSP Candidate,and she smells blood down sunny North Edinburgh and Leith way.

It won’t be long before our Lesley starts to worm her way back into Forth ward favour in an attempt to topple Chisholm. We think good old Malcs Forth wards very own Che Guevara- without the cigar and hair-should watch his back in case our Lesley sticks one of her designer heels in it.

If ever Hollywood  decides to make Terminator 4 they could do a lot worse than cast our designer daft Lesley,striding along Ferry Road in her bright red Gucci 6 inch heeled Stilettos,screaming at the top of her voice I’LL BE BACK. Now there’s a thought to send shivers down your spine.