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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.

Friends and readers. Our mail box is full to overflowing after our posts regarding the salary on offer at a local community project.

To say the comments that we received were strong is an understatement,more anger to be precise. Since we revealed that PEP a local community project was offering a salary of £60,000 pounds a year comments have reached us not just from North Edinburgh but right across the country, all saying much the same thing,that in times of economic tightness it is absurd that a local community project can offer such an amount for what is after all a local project.

This has opened a can of worms with a number of locals now demanding to know what other staff are paid who are employed by local projects,and what they do for it.

The poverty industry in the Forth ward has been lucrative for some while locals have been ignored and treated as pawns in a game. While arguments went on over the Fairer Scotland Funding,with projects telling of armageddon if their funding was cut along comes PEP and offers a ridiculous salary on the back of moaning about their own funding.

Pilton Sucks believes that the time is right for the books to be opened up and see who is earning what,and ask the question many others have,actually how many local people work in or manage a local project?

It is long overdue for local people to be empowered not just to be head nodders on management committees,but to actually run these projects or to receive training to help them do so.

Pilton Sucks is of the opinion that no project should receive any type of funding if they do not employ some local people,and not just as some else’s shit lifters.

For far to long these local projects have got away with sitting on their hands doing nothing about local employment,and we as a community are just as guilty for allowing it.

Local people give of their time free of charge to be involved with local projects,but they have now received a real slap in the face as one local project sticks two fingers up to them and advertises a job which by any stretch of the imagination is worth less than half the £60,000 that is on offer.

In the past local projects lived off the fat of the land and political patronage,unaccountable to the community they were supposed to serve and paying themselves what appears to be over inflated salaries.

How was this allowed who was responsible. Judging from our mail box this community is angry about the PEP situation and they clearly want answers.

Maybe our City fathers should intervene and demand answers to  why this obscene amount of money on offer. It may be the Fairer Scotland Fund is not what it should be,but in one fell swoop PEP has managed to reverse that thinking.   

Friends and readers. We have had a flood of comments regarding our post on capping salary’s for staff who work in our community projects. It seems we hit a nerve with our idea with the vast majority agreeing with us.

Here are a few of the comments we received.

With all the talk of belt tightening maybe the projects in North Edinburgh should do the same. Sarah.

It’s about time those that go on about local services lead by example and took a pay cut to help their project. Derick.

After your post about the salary PEP was offering I was disgusted. How on earth can they offer these kind of wages for a local project. Donna.

Surely the council must take some action over this nonsense. I was at the meeting that was held in the West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre,and it was mostly staff of these projects that were moaning about the funding. John.

If this is true and a local organisation can pay money like this out on a salary something is indeed terribly wrong. I have lived in Pilton over 40 years and am ashamed in a poor community like ours a wee local project can afford to pay someone £60,000. It’s a disgrace. Elaine.

I bet no-one locally would even get a sniff at this post,as usual it’s jobs for the boys. I have read Pilton sucks quite a lot and found it quite good,but this is something else. Calum.

This community should know what all these so called local projects pay on on salary’s,if this is an example of what is going on,then shut the lot of them down and put the money directly into the community and have local folk directly involved instead of just being yes men for the well paid. Brian.

Well friends and readers there you have it. Just some of the comments we have received about what is clearly an emotive issue. Greed is one word for it there are a few more.

PEP is just one local project among many. So exactly how much is the poverty industry costing this community and who receives what.   

Friends and readers. Pilton Sucks has received information that leads us to believe that new information has surfaced in relation to the bullying scandal engulfing the infamous Muirhouse Social Work Centre.

It appears according to our inside source that new evidence has surfaced although our source tells us that this is unconfirmed.

Once again as this bullying scandal rumbles on,and it comes to the attention of many more people, bit by bit the story unfolds.

It is now abundantly clear that abusive behaviour to staff was allowed to go unchecked and we have it from the horses mouth that certain members of the senior staff team knew about it and did nothing.

Numerous people have told Piton Sucks that they know who the two perpetrators are and that it was well known before this story broke that workplace bullying was taking place at this centre.

We also know that staff in other districts were aware of a problem so it is also clear that it was known about city wide.

How then if so many people appeared to know what was going on, that those charged with a duty of care did nothing?

Almost impossible to believe that whispers did not reach the hallowed halls of Waverley Court,but we know now they did and a blind eye was turned to a flagrant abuse of staff and breach of working protocol.

Pilton Sucks is actively campaigning for the introduction of a law banning work place bullying and the punishing of the bully’s. 

Just think for a minute as you read this post and ask yourself this, what would do if you were subjected to torture in the workplace,the daily grinding down, the heartache caused to you by some jobsworth thug,and if by some misfortune you have suffered those very symptoms then you are one with Pilton Sucks in a determination to stamp it out and rid the workplace of these jobsworth thugs.

There can be no hiding place for bully’s nor should there be. Pilton Sucks once again demands an independent outside investigation into staff mistreatment at this Centre in Muirhouse.

We are waiting.        

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