Pilton Sucks dotCom

Friends and readers. The world cup is over so is Wimbledon,In the meantime sleaze has overwhelmed the Labour Government, and allowed these horrible Torries to gloat and make hay.Their policy is clear do nothing say nothing of any relevance,and they will pick up votes on the strength of Labours impotency.

Rememder 1997 the hope after so many years of Tory rule.An end to sleaze,and help for our most disadvantaged. What has happened,time my friends and complacency. The privately educated twit Cameron offers nothing but tax cuts for the better off and a return to austerity for the rest,so nothing changes there then.

Never has the divide between the haves and have nots been so wide, and this under a Labour administration,the shame of it. Labour rules both at local and national level and this should be the best of all worlds. But no at all levels they have run out of both ideas and steam,and the masses suffer and as usual it is in the deprived communities of Edinburgh.

Our sister site has shown up the corruption in Craigmillar and still the council shows a lack of leadership on matters.  A handful of chancers have been milking the system there for to long and the Labour council has apart from make the right noise done nothing. How can the voters trust these cheap crooks,throw them out and their hangers on before they can do any more damage.

The hope that Labour offered has come and gone,and is unlikely to return. Our own Labour rulers in Greater Pilton seem only to be concerned about their own fate and ignore the plight of their punters. We reported that at least one of them if not all three new workplace bullying was going on in the Muirhouse Social Work Centre but choose to stay quite on the matter burying their head in the sand comes to mind.

What chance de we have to move on as a community if they and their sorts allow departments to do what they like and not demand accountability. It does make you think who is really running the city.

The heady days of Labour winning the city seems like a liftime ago-remember,improving services creating jobs,a lot of these so called left wing councillors have long gone to well paid jobs eleswhere. It beggers belief that we supported these careerists for so long and did not see through them,but then again the alternative was even worse,so much for choice.

We at Pilton Sucks .com have advocated community candidates come forward to challenge the established rulers,and make politics more open and accountable,for at the moment it is secretive and clandistine,open only to those and such of those.

Politics belongs to the people not any one person or party,and we must start to believe that the brick wall that is the party machine can like the walls of Jerico be brought down.

So the hopes and dreams of those that supported Labour both at local and national level have been dashed,and the nightmare of Tory rule is on the horizon once more. There is talent out there but it is held back by reverence to the party machine and the fear of taking it on.

The Party machine is weak it just has the facade af strength but it has no purpose,no where to go and is fighting to stay afloat. It has stopped new people coming through,in favour of the tried and trusted faces,those who will not rock the boat and can be bought cheap.

We live unfortunatly in a get it now society and dam the rest,Labour has pandered to this notion and the rest have been damed. Their jobs for the boys policy have given the council a sleazy feel and that is something they have brought on themselves.

If you are in a position to challenge the status quo then do so you might never have a better opportunity. we are living through political turmoil and a genuine lack of leadership,that a change of personel will not alter as the change is one establishment politician for another and more of the same.

Oh yes the positve spin has come and gone, and replaced by a could not care less attitude,and im alright jack mentality,just ask PEP manager, local councillor, waterfront chair, Pilton partnership chair, consultant, Leadership contender,community council owner,and general good egg Elizabeth time lord Mcginnis 

Friends and Readers. Pilton Sucks.com is puzzled. We are puzzled by the serious lack of information coming to us from the Waterfront development. It seems almost not to exist, deliberate do you think,well rumours abound about what has happened to this new world order. One strong rumour doing the rounds is that the chief executive Stephen Izatt has fallen out with our very own leadership contender and time lord Elizabeth Mcginnis,who as you know is the council appointed chair of this cabal.

Gone is the foresight to regenerate the existing community,if it were ever there,gone are the so called information meetings,and gone from any coverage in the North Edinburgh News,not that there was very much to start with. So fellow Piltonites what has has gone wrong.

No local jobs, no affordable housing, no consultation with the local community,and of course nothing from our local rulers,one of whom is to busy furthering her own career to be bothered with such trivia as local interests.

What a disaster what a mess,the expensive slums of the future being built by foreign labour. Both our MSP Chisholm and our MP Lazarowicz, show no interest and keep a low profile on the subject. Both have shown to be absolutely useless in showing any kind of leadership on this matter.

We at Pilton Sucks.com have looked at other waterfront developments round Europe, and they have at least one thing in common, local labour contracts/charters. This in the first instance ensures local labour is offered employment and or trained in skills required.Why did we not have one.We will hear lots of excuses why we should not have local labour agreements usually in the favour of the developers,but in an area like ours of high unemployment and low skills,this was a missed opportunity.

Where is the promised affordable housing,in some of the other waterfront developments it is as high as 23%,on our waterfronf we do not know if there will be any affordable housing at all,again an argument for having a contract that stipulates what percentage of housing will be affordable,and just as important how much will they cost to buy or rent.

We are being conned lied to and cheated,and have been right from the start. The politicians we elected to serve our interests have failed us,and turned a blind eye to questionable working practices.We should have been involved in the discussions right from the start and demanded that the existing community benifit from this new development,the biggest of its kind since the inception of the new town.

But no we had to place our trust in someone elses hands and look what has happened.Greater Pilton has lost out and no amount of excuses can escape that fact. We had the wrong people to represent us and if rumours are to be believed corruption is at hand as well.

The local elections are due in 2007 and the community must make those that are guilty of neglect pay the price. Never in the history of Greater Pilton has an opportunity like this been mishandled by so few and affected so many.

If this community were to survive another 10,000 years historians would look back to this time and shake their heads in disbelief,at how a golden opportunity for major regeneration was so badly managed and operated.Never again will a development like this come our way, never again will we have the opportunity to lift our citizens from the scourge of generational unemployment,to give hope to our young and to help restore dignity to a community stripped of it and played with by our noble rulers. They should hang their heads in shame. 

I am a teacher in the community, and have been reading your posts on workplace bullying. We to have the same problem in the Education Department. Workplace bullying is a sin and must be eliminated. The Education department is now taking a pro active approach to workplace bullying,better late than never.

Workplace bullying is not new as you have pointed out,and has been ignored for to long,as something that will go away if you ignore it long enough. It will not,bullys have to be removed from the workplace and punished or they will contine to bully,free in the knowledge they will get away with it. It is true bullys are cowards but try saying that to someone who is on the end of it.

I do not know understand the pain and torment by those suffering bullying,but i do agree that policys should be put in place to stop bullys in their tracks. If the City of Edinburgh Council does nothing and just holds its hands up and pleads ignorence, then the law has to step in. Surely in the 21st century we can stop this vile practice.

 

It seems friends and readers,if our information is correct,leadership contender Elizabeth Mcginnis opened her campaign in the very trendy and grossly overpriced and overrated restaurant the Witchery. Must have been a lot of her local punters there then.

That dear friends shows you the character of the person, desperate for the trendies to acknowledge her as one of them,not the local community centre in Royston for her then,oh no couldnt possible have that,to many neds who might spoil her hour of glee.

Nibbles with the rest of the bullshiters who want to tell us what we can and cannot have, as if is in their gift to say so.One wonders if any of the local plebs had known about this and could be bothered to go,would they have been refused entry as unclean and not worthy to be in the presence of greatness,oh how we are not worthy.

The outing in the witchery must have resembled the sermon on the mount,with wonderous utterings for the favoured few,how lucky they are.We mere mortals and mug voters stand in awe of what might be to come and how much more overbearing she will be.But we can content ourselves that if elected we can all queue up to pat her on the back. Dont all rush at once. 

As the Labour group leadership draws to its 22nd August conclusion, The punters must wonder which of the three stooges they will be landed with. You lucky people such a nail biting contest, is anyone interested,does anyone care,because it seems the officials run the city, so it does not matter to the ordinary plebs who see their council tax going through the ceiling,while the better off seem to continually do well under the Labour group.

Why is that. None of the three would be leaders have any kind of vision to offer Ms. Mcginnis only seems to like the sound of her own voice, and judging by her latest election manifesto, the North Edinburgh News she likes it more and more. Us lucky Greater Pilton Punters were treated to her words of wisdom[the whole front page and part of page three as well] in her latest attempt to grab power.In fact if you include the Pilton Eldely Project and her update section almost four pages were devoted to Ms. Mcginnis interests.

Is the North Edinburgh News aware of this or do they not care either.Pilton Sucks .com is facinated to know how will she be able to manage PEP full time and be, if elected lead the city as well.Surely there is not enough hours in the day for such an undertaking.But Elizabeth seems to be able to juggle several balls at the same time,mabey she could get herself a street act come the Edinburgh festival,as time does not seem to be a problem. Doctor Who is looking for a new assistant,possibly she could apply for that as well. after all he is a time lord and who better to manipulate time.

The bigger question is still outstanding, which of our three establishment councillors will be dumped in the run up to next years local elections. Will it be Baillie Fitzpatrick, Provest Hinds or Time lord Mcginnis. Will Provest Hinds jump ship to West Edinburgh,some how the voting arithmatic does not add up,and she could end up out on her ear. Does Bill Baillie have the support,probably to close to call,but dear Elizabeth on the strength of being a woman may well head the list-talk about a cat having nine lives-.

But of course this depends on the local voters returning any of them to office,that remains in doubt given Labours dive in the polls, and of course others may choose to stand which would make life very interesting indeed.

Labours local membership could now fit into a telephone kiosk and the party has never been weaker, but still our three friends will fight it out for two places,content in their minds that the punters will vote them back in just as they have always done. But things are very different now and none of the three local councillors realise this.Local politics is exactly that it is about local people and their interests,and it would not at all be suprising if the local punters turned their backs on Labour and returned a non party local candidate or dates.

The Labour party and its private clique should waken up and understand the party is over. You have had a very good run for other peoples money, but it may well be time for others to come forward and challenge the might or lack of it,of the ruling party,it may well not be as hard as many people think.

The Labour party ignores community activists unless they need them,that is a huge mistake, the Party refuses to open its locked doors for non members to take an interest,another huge mistake, and of course they take the local punters for granted,the biggest mistake of all,and the one which could come back to haunt them. But does our North Edinburgh leadership contender take any interest in these things. No of course not,do not be so silly,to busy empire building and trampling underfoot anyone who might threaten the empire.

But time goes on and things change and funding is not infinate, and reality comes knocking at the door so what better,than to hedge your bets. The Waterfront is a disaster area and the local community has heard nothing from them in months,and it is no good asking the NEN to investigate,they are about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.So with all the problems beseting that disaster area,friend Elizabeth will want to offload that weight from her back. As she has done nothing there that has benifited the local community-remember her famous phrase 9000 jobs- she will not be missed.

So friends and readers as you burn the midnight oil wondering who will become the next leader of the ruling Labour Group, Remember while you sleep there is someone out there wheeling and dealing away as if time had stood still, never letting up always with the eye on the main chance. Guess who.    

Friends and readers.It has come to our attention,that the so called investigations into bullying at Muirhouse Social Work Centre,reveal a mischeivous twist. According to our source at Shrubhill House, the investigation being conducted by John Mules[Service Manager Residential Care] into the allegations made by one of the Muirhouse Two,should in fact be dealt with by Criminal Justice as the complain relates to his time at Muirhouse.

This is classic divide and conquer tactics,when in fact the Muirhouse Two should be having their cases running together as the complaints are similar and are both about the same people. Our source also tells us that while it will try to be explained away,there is no good reason why these cases should not be heard by the same department. On the investigation side of things, an outside team should be brought in [outside the district] to provide a proper look at the evidence and not a slant eyed view of events.

We are distured at the tactics of the powers that be and it is fair to say they are shabby at the very least.Unison have to act accordingly and make sure underhand tactics are not used.Over to you.   

friends and readers. We see from our sister site Edinburgh Sucks that the Rosendale bullying scandal continues. We have our own bullying scandal right here in Muirhouse. What a mess the council continues to allow these bullys to go unpunished,but how long can they escape justice.

Scandal in Murrayburn Gate, scandal in Muirhouse Crescent yet it goes unchecked,or does it. Our information is that wheels are in motion to weed out the bullys before it jumps up and bites the council in the bum. Certainly leadership contender Elizabeth Mcginnins cannot seriously bid for the leadership knowing that bullying is going on in North Edinburgh.

We have it on good authority she knows one of the victims and sooner or later will have to put her head above the paripit,or be accused of burying her head in the sand. Any potential leader must show true leadership qualities and not just talk a good fight. The saga of the Muirhouse Two is a blight on The Social Work Department and action at political level may be neccessary to oust the bully and cleanse the Department.

We are reliably informed that one of the Muirhouse Two is currently having his case investigated by a senior manager, who we are told is John Mules, if this is the case then the investigation must be handed over to someone else as this man is to close to the Muirhouse Bully and we as a matter of course will inform Unison of this matter.

Scandal after scandal is befalling the city and all because fear of doing anything has taken over from doing the right thing.

There is no place for bullies in the workplace wether with the city or anywhere else. The Law says bullying is a crime the council is covering up a crime and are as guilty as the bullies, real leadership is required. If Councillor Mcginnis is serious in her leadership bid we advise she pick up the batton and demand that bullies be brought to account. After all she must have experience of bullying, she was previously  chair of Education.

The two other local councillors close to this problem Provest Hinds and Baillie Fitzpatrick also are aware of the bullying situation and have as yet to speak up,and yes we believe they are also aware of who the victim is. What does it take for action on bullying in the workplace the time for buckpassing is over, stand up and be counted demand action now, or be forever known as cowards in the face of adversity. 

If Ms Mcginnis is really leadership material she will have to show it not just in prepared statements but in action and deeds. Take action now Elizabeth, or your leadership bandwagon may just be derailed.

Friends and readers. Piltonsucks.com received some information last week from our source in Shrubhill House. It would seem that panic is starting to set in surrouding not one but two investigations into the activities of the Muirhouse bully.

Our information suggests the social work department will be forced to take action or face the legal concequences.Our source tells us that there is overwhelming evidence against the bully going back some considerable time.

We are also lead to believe that Social Work Criminal Justice senior managers have known for some time that he was a problem but failed to act. As this travesty continues to unfold new evidence has come to our attention which points to systematic bullying on a scale quite breath taking in its intensity.

Piltonsucks.com have a number of well placed friends in the Greater Pilton Community and the information we have been getting from them suggests that it was common knowledge that bullying was going on but a blind eye was turned to it.

The favoured get out clause is to hide behind the proceedures dodge,set up to protect the department against allegations of mistreatment.Only this time we are told in the case of one if not both of the Muirhouse Two, there is strong medical evidence to suggest wrondoing took place in Muirhouse Social Work Centre.

Our sister site Edinburgh Sucks has uncovered wrong doing within the community education department and we watch with interest as this particular story unfolds to reveal cover up upon cover up.

Take heed that the Social Work Department does not go down this road,as the media is now watching and waiting for the next story to break. Our legal advisior tells us that there is strong evidence against the bully and anything other than an open and frank investigation will be seen as white washing this sordid affair.

What really sticks in the throat is that a department which is supposed to care shows no sign of it when it comes to its own staff. A duty of care is at the forefront of Social Work ethos, it is a great pity that does not transfer to its own people.

Friends and readers. They are at the post, our three would be leaders,Aitken,Davies and Mcginnis[were does she get the time]Oh of course the public do not get a vote just the chosen few.Greater Piltons contender the ever ambitious Elizabeth Mcginnis[were does she get the time] will no doubt fight her corner, in what is in reality a party in its death throes.

Her numerous interests still allow her to find the time to contend the labour group leadership, and she will certainly give a good account of herself.

It remains to be seen if she is re-elected in 2007 and that of course is no certainty,in fact it may well be in doubt given her wide and conflicting interests outside politics.

Of course greed knows no bounds and nothing will get in her way including her many interests[were does she get the time].

So friends and readers as the Labour group leadership is in a state of transition, we wait with baited breath on the outcome. One thing of is of course certain, who ever wins this keenly fought contest, nothing will change,and the poorest and weakest in our city will still bear the brunt of most of the local taxes.they will still receive the least of help,and will have the maximum of pain thrust upon them.

So what is the point of the Labour Party if it is only going to pander to those who can afford to live in this over priced city.The simple answer is there is no point.

So Pilton Sucks.com offers up one piece of advice,why dont our great and glorious leaders levy local taxes on an abilty to pay, rather than try to squeeze the poor all of the time. This city is a rich one so we are continualy told,so why not take some of these riches and re-direct them to the poorer parts of the city,or would that upset their friends in corporate hall.

Unless we get our own house in order and stop pandering to the well heeled, we will remain a divided city,were the poor are hidden away in council schemes, only to be forgotten about till election time. This city should not just cater for the various shindigs that befall us on a yearly basis, which potrays the city in a false light. 

There is a moral duty to help those who cannot help themselves, Councillor Mcginnis helps her self on a regular basis,but what does she put back. No she like her colleagues want more and greed has a large appetite,which needs regular feeding.

Sad indeed when those we place our trust in throw it back in our faces,and then ask us to do it again every 4 years. No it is not good enough. Pilton Sucks.com offers further advice. We think that a councillor should only be allowed to serve a maximum of two terms,and then by law have to stand down to make way for new people. The fact that in Greater Pilton we have councillors who have been in office for over a generation testifys to greed and mendacity on a grand scale.

So if they cared so much for their punters as they say they do, then stand by them and make sure they get a square deal. the first thing they could do might be to stand aside and make way for fresh thinking and ideas.