Pilton Sucks dotCom

Scotland can be proud of its history and in many cases of its pioneering history. Our industrial heritage is there for all of the world to see,and many countries have benifted from Scottish inovation. Go to most countries and you will see Scots who have left their mark. There can be no doubt that Scotland has produced some of the greatest talent in history and can continue to do so.

So why do our politicians continue to let us down by allowing a generation of young people to waste away and fill our law courts. It is now time,in fact it is long overdue to energise and skill our young people to lead us healthly in this new century. We cannot use the wasted Thatcher and Major years as an excuse to do nothing or blame the past. Our communities are full of young people who should be seen as an asset rather than a irritation,and given the support they deserve.

Drugs and now the trendily called anti-social behaviour have plagued our communities,and the poiticians have thumped their chests and churned out punishments like sweeties,instead of taking the bull by the horns and invest  time,effort and money in skilling our youngsters to take over the reins of ownership. They are the future of this country and should be treated as such instead of demonising them and making them social outcasts.

Of course society must not tolerate any type of criminal behaviour and indeed it must be punished,but within that thinking we must be able to offer something more than just a deterent,something more than just bottom line thinking which offers young people and thereby the communities they live in no hope at all. Society has the mechanisms to take a young person and train them to be a fruitful member of their community.

You may well ask do we have the proper people in political office who have the courage and the vision to undertake such a task. Have the incumbants left it to long,are they really interested,do they care or is it like most problems,quick fix it so the voters don’t notice the real underlying problems that plague our cities and communities.

It was with great hope and cheery hearts that the Tories were booted out of office and were all but obliterated in Scotland,we really don’t want them back,god help us all if they get back. So what does the present Government in both Scotland and westminster have on offer to make sure we are not left behind in this new world order.

Yes it is true some of our politicians have been around to long and have overstayed their welcome,but it is up to the voters to do something about that,but the real problem apart from stale and tired politicians at both local and national level,is the future of the coming generations,as well as protection for those who have done their bit and should have comfort in their later years.

But we are threatened with the greying clouds of a crisis in the pension system,not enough of a working tax paying population to pay for the pensions. That my friends is a direct result of among other things such as fluctuating world financial markets, a lack of vision and inaction in dealing with the next generation of workers and relying on the failed policy of market forces to determine what is needed.

 The wealth which was generated from North Sea oil was wasted when like some other European countries,created wealth should have been invested in the future,the future being the best asset a country has,its people. Our career minded politicians with their self interest at heart have let us down and let the next generation down.

In a small way we in Greater Pilton have witnessed this waste. We are a multi deprived community yet we have had the peoples party in office for many years. We still have slum housing,we still suffer from high unemployment,we have a high youth crime rate,youth who feel they have no future,so we are a barometer of political staleness nation wide.

We have had the windfall of the Waterfront development,but has the existing community in any way benifited,no they have not despite the lies you are told. We could have had local employment and taken our unemployed people off the streets and given them some self respect,but oh no, just more lies and deception. This development is a multi million pound opportunity for regeneration,regeneration not just for waste land but for people as well. Employment creates regeneration , deprevetion just costs money,but our short sighted politicians do not seem to want to grasp this simple equation.

Jobs for the boys/girls has been the message we have received where employment has been on offer but only if you are friends or hangers on of the ruling elite. So what of the up and coming work force of Greater Pilton,what does the future hold for them. Service jobs picking up someone elses crap,dead end low paid jobs. It is blood boiling and should make us all angry,and demand our rulers do something instead of talking a good fight.

As yet another election approaches and the handshaking starts and we are told more tall stories,just ask yourself this. Has your community benifitted from all  this investment which is coming in,and have those who would like to work and train been given any encouragement or opportunity? or have we been given the slight of hand once again. 

Bullying is an intentional repeated pattern of offensive,insulting,threatening behaviour. It is an abuse which makes the recipient feel upset,threatened,humiliated or vulnerable. Bullying is not an attempt to get things done by management or an occasional disagreement. If these behaviours are consistent and offend or harm you then they could be bullying.

Bully’s behaviour

1]Distorts truth and reality

2]Charming in public-two faced

3]Blames others for errors

4]A bully does not want to hear the other side of the story

5]Does not try to unferstand or get another point of view.

6]A bully needs to control people

7]Makes inappropriate comments about appearance,lifestyle

7]Takes credit for others work

A workplace bully uses threats and harassment to intimidate. A workplace bully ridicules to destroy confidence and self esteem. A bully tries to make others disrespect you. Often these behaviours are done in front of others,at meetings or by stealth.

Examples of bullies who have authority[line manager]

1]Threatens to terminate your employment.

2]makes your life difficult.

3]Punishes for petty things

4]Suggests you have emotional problems

5]Demeans your role

6]Yells and screams at you.

7]Suggests you are incompetent

8]A bully will misinterpret what you say to make you look bad.

9]May exclude you from meetings

10]Overwork with unreasonable timelines.

The target of the workplace bully is most often a person that is popular and competent. This person is often seen as a threat to the bully.At first you might not recognize the behaviour as bullying. You may think the situation will pass and was nothing to worry about. Over time you might start to doubt yourself and think you did something wrong.

Signs that you might be bullied.

1]You feel strained.

2]You find yourself walking on eggshells

3]You are quiter than usual.

4]You go out of your way to avoid the bully.

5]You are afraid to open your mouth in front of this person.

6]You pretend to get along with this person.

7]You choose your words carefully when around this person.

8]You make more errors on the job.

9]The workplace bully usually picks on a person that is non-confrontational.

Each incident alone may seem unimportant but over a period of time they can build and cause stress.

Signs of stress from workplace bullying.

1]You dread going to work.

2]Worry about your future

3]You feel drained.

4]Trouble sleeping

5]Anger/irritability.

6]You engage in self destructive behaviour.

7]Headaches

8]Depression

9]Loss of confidence

10]Panic attacks

Why people put up with bullying.

1]Too emotionally stressed to deal with it.

2]Afraid of losing their job.

3]They are embarrassed or intimidated.

4]May feel nothing will change

5]Afraid of retaliation

6]Afraid the situation may get more severe.

Effects caused by the workplace bully.

1]Staff turnover.

2]Low employee morale

3]Absenteeism

4]Legal action

5]Employee compensation claim.

Workplace bullying is a crime and must be treated as such.Victims of such behaviour will/and are likely to suffer the concequences of bullying for a long time,in some cases may never fully recover. It is crucial that organisations deal firmly with workplace bullying,and punish the bully. A clear signal that, workplace bullying in any form is not acceptable and will be dealt with immediatly will give an indication that the organisation is going in the right direction. It is unimportant whether the bully has been in post for a short or long time,bullying is bullying and any kind of old pals act is unacceptable.

It is much clearer now that the law takes a very  dim view of workplace bullying, and it will just take a small step to outlaw it and make it officially a criminal offence,with a custodial sentence a real possibility,for the perpetrator,and a monatory penalty for the organisation,a penalty large enough to let others know that this criminal act will not be tolerated.

S.A.B-Pilton Sucks .com

Bill Majrowski never set out to get his name into the law books. All he wanted was recognition that he had been a victim of workplace bullying and that his employers were liable. But his case set a precedent in the court of appeal with far reaching implications for people who are intimidated or humiliated at work.

Now likely to go to Britains highest court, the House Of Lords,Majrowksi v Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust should sound a loud warning bell to employers to get their anti-bullying policies firmly in place.

She was excessively critical of and strict about his time-keeping and his work;isolated him by refusing to talk to him and treated him differently and unfavourably compared with other staff and abusive to him in front of others;and imposed unrealistic targets for his performance,threatening him with disciplinary action if he failed to achieve them. She was suspended and, after an internal investigation which found he had been subjected to harassment,she was allowed to resign.

Until now,victims of bullying,like others who suffer stress at work,have had significant hurdles to clear in bringing compensation claims against their employers. The main difficulty is proving that their employers knew or should have known that they were at risk.The other problem is that they have to show they suffered a recognised psychiatric illness.

What Majrowski’s case has done is open a whole new and easier route to compensation for WORKPLACE BULLYING. His lawayers brought the case under the PROTECTION FROM HARASSMENT ACT 1967, which was originally introduced to deter stalkers. The act does not define harassment,leaving it open to the courts to extend its ambit way beyond the stalkers it was originally designed to target. It has already been used successfully in other circumstances that parliament never contemplated:against animal rights activists and tabloid newspaper campaigns.

In the past few years,lawyers have cottoned on to the potential of the Protection from Harassment Act in bringing bullying claims. But Majrowski’s is the first to establish in the appeal court that employers can be held liable for harassment by an employee. As well as avoiding the need to prove that the victim developed a psychiatric illness-anxiety and distress are enough,and virtually any bullying victim will suffer from those and that the employer should have foreseen what happened,the act allows a longer time for bringing claims-six years against the usual three for personal injury cases.

The effects of bullying can go way beyond distress and anxiety. Sylvia Johnstone, 54 gave up her job as anurse five years ago when she had a breakdown after two years of bullying by her line manager. The crunch came when she was reduced to tears at a two hour meeting ‘two hours of humiliation and distress’ She made an official allegation of bullying against the line manager but her employers, dismissed the complaint.

Johnstone quit her job and filed a claim of constructive dismissal at an employment tribunal. The tribunal found that she had been bullied and that the employers investigation was flawed,and awarded her £32,000. But the long term effects on her health were outside the tribunal’s remit.

Five years later,severe depression has left her unable to work.She tried working as a dinner lady but found she couldn’t cope. Now she is suing for negligence,breach of contract,breach of statutory duty-and like Majrowski,vicarious liability under the Protection From Harassment Act. Her lawyer,estimates that her claim for her lost career,including promotion prospects,is worth about £200,000, ‘I certainly would never have believed I could succumb to bullying’ she says. ‘Even five years later I’m still shocked by what happened to me. ‘I really hope my case will raise awareness of workplace bullying and how public money is used to fight cases like mine’.

SAB[Staff against bullying] Pilton sucks .com

For those who watch reality TV you will have seen brought into sharp focus bullying. The moronic Big Brother in many ways showed bullying in one of its many nasty forms. We have at PiltonSucks.com been actively campaigning against bullying,but many people will have seen it for themselves acted out live.

Many more people will now have a better understanding of what we have been talking about. The media picked up on this and ran with it for the best part of the week. Even the Prime Minister commented on it. Bullying is now firmly in the media spotlight and is unlikely to go away.

Even if it was as some commentators suggested contrived,it showed the damage a bully can inflict if it is not stopped immediately. We have consistently told our readers of the damage a bully can inflict on another person and the suffering a target  has to endure if nothing is done to stop it.

We are not proud to tell you we told you so,as this kind of behaviour should be outlawed,and if reports are to be believed the police are keen to question the TV bully.We have said that bullying is a crime and should be treated as such,and we hope the message is getting through.

We have concentrated our efforts on workplace bullying and given you figures and statistics which shows the horror of this dreadful crime. The victims who suffer the onslaught from these thugs have to be protected,and the full weight of the law brought to bear and the perpretrators punished.

Any organisation who attempts to wash over this type of behaviour is itself guilty of neglect and therefore should also be punished. Channel 4 may well suffer the conceqences of its actions by not stopping this behaviour as soon as it started,and so it should.

When something as dreadful as bullying visits you at home via your TV screen,you are dragged into a world of behaviour which has no place in society. For those who knowingly employ bullies or try and cover up their behaviour by blaming the victim,or suggest that it is a clash of personalities[the oldest trick in the book] had better sit up and take notice.

Pressure from highlighting behaviour on programmes like Big Brother brings bullying into a new medium,and millions more realise how horrific bullying really is. We at Pilton Sucks.com want to hammer home the message that bullying wherever it takes place is unacceptable,no human being should be subjected to this kind of torture, we all have a duty to see it is outlawed. 

Dashing Dave all things to all people Cameron breezed into town yesterday with his over rehearsed careing face. No sooner was he in the middle of patronising anybody who could be bothered listening,when he was caught with his trousers down when a Tory MSP candidate suggested Andy bell Goldie who does a better impression of a man than some men do should be replaced. Dashing Dave,ever the gent rushed to Andy bell’s defence telling all that she was the right person to lead the Tories. What he failed to add was the words, to oblivion.

This ragged band of nobody’s actually think that the people are stupid enough to turn out and vote for them.For those who have relatively long memories,thay’s a no brainer. The Tories are all but spent as a political force in Scotland, and only a minor miracle or the stupidity of the mug punter voter will return the Tories. These bunch of uncareing vagabonds will rob the poor to give to their rich bum chums. Labour may have shot themselves in the foot on more than one occasion,and with their outright refusal to support the selection of new people as they promised when the Parliament got started,coupled with the same attitude locally where certainly in Greater Pilton we have the same old faces to put up with,it would be suicide to have the Tories returned nationally or locally.

Dashing Dave can visit Scotland all he wants,and it is clear if you look closely at his body language,that he dosent want to be here.it won’t help him one little bit,another privately school educated twit telling us how much he cares,is one privately school educated twit too far. The labour party has their fair share of these armchair intellectuals and they do nothing to enhance the party.

The Tories have shown how rotten the party system is, where the old pals brigade select each other keeping anybody who would like to stand at arms length. Instead of asking and selecting the best people for the job both major parties continually shut the door both nationally and locally to those who might have talent or ability.This narrow minded policy keeps the same old faces in office and results in Both major parties doing silent deals to keep each other in office. Pray tell how that improves the lot of the proletariate.

We suggest a far more open minded policy where people are searched out locally and nationally and offered the chance to stand and represent a broader spectrum of a communitys thinking. That is unlikely to happen since this would break up the private cartel which the parties operate. So as dashing Dave spirits his way round Scotland and then escapes as quickly as he can leaving the Scottish Tories empty of any kind of enthusiasum,and Andy Bell Goldie wondering what to do,the people are left with the terrific choice of take it or leave it. 

As the Muirhouse Bully continues to swan around apparently with no sense of guilt for the crimes against others he has committed,let us turn our attention to those who seem to be continuing to cover up for him.

This snivelling little wretch is a disgrace to the Health and Social Care Department and it seems by all accounts he is still allowed to work even after another incident involving another member of staff. What we ask is the proceedure there,is this dangerous bully still permitted to continue working,putting other members of staff at risk.

It seems so. But what of the citys own proceedures. We are told that the weight of evidence against this thug is overwhelming and going back over a long period of time. It appears obvious to all concerned,that a cover up is being put together,to protect those who should have stopped him in the first place.

That won’t wash,the press can smell blood,and are keen to have names,names we will not reveal for the moment,but we can’t hold out for ever as even we cannot prevent leaks.

So it is very simple really. The proceedures were used to as we understand to further harass and threaten the victim, so if these so called proceedures can be used to threaten victims of bullying,then these same proceedures must be used to stop the bullying  and punish the bullies.

Simple and straightforward  is it not.

Kyle Thomas-Pilton Sucks.com 

According to the lastest study from Save the Children ,the Muirhouse/Drylaw ward has 48.4% of childern living in poverty.What have the comrades who run the area got to say about that. After a generation of Labour rule nearly half the children living in that ward are in dire straits.

How will you sell that one to the mug punters at the election.Of course the Gucchi high heeled shoed one won’t be around to answer this astounding statistic. But her best friend Betty citizen of the year Stevenson will be,so perhaps with her tennants cap on she could tell us how they are going to deal with this terrible situation.

But oh no they will run for cover while protecting their own little feathered nests,and Labour will churn out the same old crap at the election telling us plebs how lucky and fortunate we are to have such a magnificent,honest and true bunch of candidates,ready and willing to work for the community 24/7. Bollocks if empress Mcginnis is anything to go by working entirely in her own interests then she sets the low standard we can expect from this bunch of chancers. 

The really sad and deeply distressing thing about all this is none of the rest are any good either. The Tories are lying cheating bastards, the SNP are living in cloud cuckoo land and the lib/dems,they float with what ever Mystic Meg says will happen when she looks in her crystal ball.

But we have the people’s party running things at the moment,so it is to these two faced creatures that we turn to to explain away the continuing poverty in Greater Pilton. Councillor colegate smile Hinds is not poor, Councillor self interest Mcginnis is certainly not poor Councillor Fitzpatrick,well its nowght to do with him. So as our comrades and protectors enrich themselves on the backs of the people they are so keen to represent.Who represents and looks after the poor and those who cannot protect themselves.

It seems we cannot look to the peoples party for protection and help,for they are to busy protecting and representing themselves. We have been used as a launch pad for greed and self interest,and they are so confident of getting away with it,some like empress Mcginnis don’t even bother trying to hide it. 

Let us hope that the people have enough sense to see through this vail of greed and self interest and send them a message at the ballot box. 

It all began so promisingly. ‘My government will be whiter than white’, declared Tony Blair when New Labour was first elected back in 1997,partly on the backwash of a tide of Tory sleaze.

‘Remember,you are not here to enjoy the trappings of power but to do a job and to uphold the highest standards in public life’,he told his MPs at their first gathering in the wake of the landslide.’I think that mosr people who have dealt with me think thay i am a pretty straight sort of guy,and i am’,he said in November 1997,when the first hint of sleaze in the shape of the Bernie Ecclestone affair threatened to end his political honeymoon.

Well how hollow those proud boasts sound,as nemesis in the form of the police investigation into ‘cash for honours’makes its way inexorably to the steps of number 10 Downing Street.

Why does this crisis pose such a terminal threat to a Prime Minister who has won three general elections by wide margins and dominated the political scene since becoming Labour leader a dozen years ago.

When Blairs chief fundraiser Lord Levy was arrested it was dismissed by some as a police stunt,and it is still far from clear that the honours probe will result in actual charges.

Furthermore he has surely survived worse crisis,not least the suicide of the Ministry of Defence mole Dr David Kelly in 2003 after his exposure by the Blair government as part of its private war with the BBC.

The descent of Iraq into further chaos underlines the extent to which he misjudged the single major decision of his premiership,yet without suffering the political fate that usually follows such foreign policy disasters.

No the reason why cash for honours is such a potentiallt toxic issue for Blair is because this is one story for which the buck really will have to stop at Number 10. As friends of Lord Levy have not been slow to point out,the award of peerages is something that is in the gift of the Prime Minister alone,while the apparant linkage with his flagship city academies scheme only adds to the air of suspicion.

In 2001 Blair set about trying to find a way of getting the head of his policy unit, David slick Miliband,into the commons as a necessary precursor to bringing him into the cabinet. Eventually the former cabinet minister and North East MP Dr. David Clarke agreed to fall on his sword,being rewarded with a life peerage and the chairmanship of the Forestry Commission.

Ironically,the one occasion on which Blair tried a similar stunt in the North West persuading St Helens MP Gerry Bermingham to stand down to make way for Tory defector Shaun Woodward,it backfired. There was so much local anger over the imposition of Woodward that the Prime Minister was forced publicly to deny a peerage had been offered,and poor Bermingham remains plain Mister to this day.

We save one of the best to last.

Cash for honours is not exactly a new thing. In 2001 the entrepreneur Paul Drayson gave a £50,000 donation to the Labour Party at the very time the government was deciding whether to award his company,powderject, a £32 million pound contract.

The contract to supply vaccines in the event of a biological attack by terrorists was duly awarded and Drayson, by now rather flush with the £20 million profit from the deal gave Labour a further £50,000.

And  just to add insult to injury six weeks later he was made a life peer by Blair in what now stands as a startling illustration of the Prime Minister’s nerve on the one hand and the supine nature of much political reporting at that time on the other.

The enobled Lord Drayson completed his voyage to the centre of the British Establishment in 2005 when he was appointed Minister for Defence Procurement in Blair’s administration.

Now its funny how sleaze trickles down, with locally in Greater Pilton Where Empress Mcginnis has carved out a nice little earner for herself,where the old pals act has resulted in jobs being given to friends or more like hangers on. Where the community bar one or two brown nosers have been snubbed and fed all kinds of crap, which we are supposed to swallow if we are daft enough to do that.   

Keen to keep on top of things Councillor Ewan godly Aitken has come out strongly against the upgrade of the Trident weapons system. Ewan is deeply distressed and disappointed about the direction of the debate in the peoples party. Ewan of course is anti-Trident while the Labour Line is pro-Trident.

As you know we recently had the news that Malcolm Principles Chisholm had resigned[again] this time over the Governments line on the weapons system upgrade. This is a noble stance to take from these two comrades,as this is absolute madness to even contemplate spending Billions of pounds on a never can use first strike weapons system.

Now we have got that out of the way,could the Rev Aitken concentrate his immense intellegence on the job in hand,namely making sure this city is a fit place for all to live in,not just those who can afford if. He could start by asking some of his socialist colleagues in the Chambers to try and concentrate on running the city instead of looking after their own interests.

Some of these comrades come across as money grabbing leeches,with their second jobs and outside interests. The peoples interests come a poor second judgeing by some of the housing stock,which of course as you know they recently tried and failed to dump. We have reported about the state of some of the streets and pavements with of course the exception of the Waterfront development with its pristine walkways and pot hole free roads,in Greater Pilton,and you can multiply that by the rest of the inner city communitys who have to suffer second rate services because they cannot afford to live anywhere else.

As you walk from Lauriston Farm at the far end of Muirhouse through to Granton Road and all the streets in between, you begin to realise just how bad a state some of the pavements and streets are in.

So while issues like weapons of mass destruction are of great importance,how does that help the punter who falls on  their ass because ther are holes in the pavements,and our courageous councillors who are elected to help the punters, spend their time on world matters or self interest.

Time to get your feet on the ground and your heads out of the clouds,and quite possibly your finger out of your backsides. The day of shaking babies and kissing hands is over,the new electoral system has seen to that. So getting votes by ass licking and sucking up to various intersts groups are thankfully a thing of the past.

No this will be the time we seperate the boars from the chancers,the self interest driven greed merchants,from the patronisers. 

If anybody is left will they please take two steps forward.

A.H. Pilton Sucks.com

There had already been several schemes for the uniting of Scotland and England during the 17th century,these occured in 1606,1667,1670 and 1689 but on every occasion they failed. From the English point of view there was little to be gained in a union and the Scots did not wish to become the minor partner who would probably be swallowed up by the much larger England.

In fact it was the English who had a change of heart first. They were at war with France,yet again and Louis X1V recognised the Catholic James V111′the Young Pretender’,as the rightful heir to both the English and Scottish thrones. The English would not have this. By the Act Of Settlement it was deciced that if Queen Anne should die childless,her only son had died in 1701,then the crown would pass to Sophia of Hanover,a cousin of Charles 1st. The Scots refused to agree to this and passed a series of acts that were hostile to England.

The most important of these was the Act Of Security in which the Scottish Parliament would have the power to nominate a successor to Anne within 20 days of her death and that the successor did not necessarily have to be from the House Of Hanover. This raised the possibility of a seperate Scottish monarchy,and it also raised the spectre of the Auld Alliance again,this worried England greatly. Scottish soilders were important in the army and the English were embroiled in the war of Spanish Succession. Anne did not immediatly sign the Act of Security and the Scottish Parliament withheld the supply of Scottish soilders until she backed down.By 1704 Scotland was moving towards more independance rather than union while Anne and her English Government were trying to bring  the two countries together. The English moved first by putting pressure on Scotland with the Alien act of 1705. In this act the Scots were given until Christmas Day to accept the Hanoverian succession or they were to appoint commissioners to negotiate a union. If neither action was taken Scots would be treated as aliens in England,threatening property held by Scots there,and trade with England and her colonies would be destroyed. Money suddenly became available to Scottish MP’s to support union.

In a poorly attended Scottish Parliament it was decided to appoint the commissioners to negoiate a union. The discussions began in April 1706 and were largely completed by july. Although there were huge protests when the terms of the union were published it was passed by a large majority by the Scottish Parliament on 16th January 1707. By the terms of the Act Scotland and England were to become one country. Anne became Queen of Great Britain and the thrown passed to the House of Hanover on her death.

There was also economic union with free trade on both sides of the border.Scotland was only given 45 seats in the house of commons and 16 seats in the House of Lords. What can only be described as a bribe of £398,085and 10 shillings English pounds was paid by England as compensation for Scotland now taking on part of England’s national debt. It was also intended to repay those who had lost money investing in the Darien scheme,which failed partly due to English interference. Scotland was to keep it’s legal system and Kirk.

On 28th April 1707 the last Scottish Parliament[until 1999] was dissolved by the last Scottish monarch.