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Friends and readers. We received a post on Wedensday from someone who had intimate details on the bullying scandal which has engulfed Muirhouse Social Work Centre.

Our friend who told us that she was employed at the former office at Shrubhill recieved information from a colleague that three different complaints of bullying and harassment had been made to a senior manager within Criminal Justice.

She went on to tell us that none were taken seriously yet there had been rumours of bullying behaviour for some time. One of these complaints alledged physical threats alongside abusive language which forced this employee to leave after only a short time employed.

Also a complaint was made verbally from another part of the City which lends weight to our own information of interference in other Districts in what is now seen as bullying by proxy.

This new information confirms what we had suspected for some time that a conspiracy at senior level to rubbish the victims was put in place at an early stage of this scandal.

Once again we contacted Waverley Court for information regarding this latest development but were given the usual brush off.

The plot thickens.   

Friends and readers. We are still waiting for a public appology from PEP after one of their organisation made threats to a member of the Fairer Scotland Funding Panal.

There is a strong argument that this organisation should have it’s funding withdrawn if no appology is forth coming and even if one does eventually come questions have to be asked about this kind of intimidating behaviour.

This dreadful incident cannot be ignored and must be dealt with as a matter of urgency,so a message can be sent out to others who think it’s okay to have a go when they think they are being hard done to. Is it any wonder people  not want to get invoved in their Community if this is the sort of behaviour that goes on unchecked.

Pilton Sucks may not like everything that is put in front of us but resorting to intimidation instead of debate is not on the agenda.

Projects must be accountable for what is after all public money,and for many years this Community had generously funded local projects,which we might add employed as few local people as they could get away with.

Pilton Sucks has long argued that local people should be employed in local projects at all levels,and if training is required then so be it.

For to long local projects have been the domain of everybody but local people,who have never had the opportunity to gain employment,and kept to one side.

Who is to blame for this? We can look back many years to the PCA or Pilton Central Association where a few insiders had money chucked at them and they decided how to divi it up. That then was the opportunity to empower local people and make sure they had the training or opportunity for local employment. That didn’t happen and the net result is what we now have.

Pilton Sucks was one of the voices many moons ago that called for a local labour agreement for the waterfront development,that didn’t happen and we were told there already was one. Not true neither was the promise of a potential 9,000 jobs,yes we were at that public meeting when that claim was made. It was nonsense then and as we can all see it proved to be just that.

Self interest put paid to Community interest and we all ended up in the same position we are now. The secretive Waterfront Edinburgh Limited board took decisions which this Community knew nothing about and when we asked that the minutes of the meeting be on public view that request to fell on deaf ears.

Only when the new administration came in did we realise just what had been going on in our name and how much we had been kept in the dark.

Local projects are accountable to the taxpayer and their representatives for the monies they get and what they spend it on. Add on they are accountable for the actions of their staff. So if members/employees of a local project take it upon themselves to threaten others then it effects us all and send out a very bad message. Nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands,and threaten others just because they disagree with something or other.          

Friends and readers. When we started out on our anti workplace bullying campaign, we had no real idea how large this problem was,we do now.

Readers from home and abroad have written to us with their own stories of torment which they suffered at the hands of these workplace thugs.

One reader commented that there must be a handbook which is available to these thugs as the pattern is always the same. Select a target keep at them until they are worn down. It is costing millions of pounds in lost time and yet we still have no legislation outlawing this workplace disease. Workplace bullys are allowed to roam the workplace selecting their targets knowing there is no law to deter them.

Sometimes the bullys are brought to justice but more often than not they escape the net,lying low for a while then striking again when any heat dies down.

What becomes of the victims. One or two cases manage to make the public eye and force some organisations to take action,but the majority of victims are left to pick up the pieces of their lives and try to start over. For them the damage is done and the memory of what happened to them will live in their mind for a long time with many requiring medical help to get them through.

This hidden evil of workplace bullying is a Nations disgrace and demands to be addressed.

Pilton Sucks is amongst a number of groups calling for meaningful legislation outlawing workplace bullying and making it a criminal offence with those found guility liable for a custodial sentence.

It’s ironic that the cases we uncovered in The Muirhouse Social Work Centre involves the Criminal Justice section where serial bullying was allowed to go unchecked. Our demand for an independent outside investigation into these incidents has received nation wide support but not from the Department concerned who continue to deny and cover up any wrong doing.

We are convinced that legislation will come and those refusing to implement it will suffer the conceqences.

A wall of silence has surrounded the Muirhouse incidents and all our contacts with this department asking for answers has been ignored,with the usual no comment rubbish.

The guilty know who they are and will continue to lie and deny any involvement in this disgraceful episode. They can run but they cannot hide as to many people are involved,either as victims or manipulators of events.

Pilton Sucks has taken it’s campaign Nation wide and into Europe in our determination to end this evil of workplace bullying.

The victims of bullying are all to real,bullied in the main by lower rank mangers usually line managers who are frustrated at their own limitations with a jekell and Hyde personality,licking senior ass when necessary and taking their  frustration out on their chosen target.

These jobsworths hold back an organisation content to talk the talk but determined their own little power base remains untouched. Ideas are stolen from others and presented as their own. You can usually spot them with their tongue up their seniors ass,thus presenting as a model manager,when in reality the opposite is true.

Those not wishing or willing to rock the boat and empty these fools are just as guilty,for they encourage a bully to continue,worse still the limited thinking of a bully will regard this green light as a signal to try and spread his destructive methods with an attempt to ensnare others in his web of evil.

One classic example is to get colleagues to spy on one another running back to the bully with tittle tattle which then allows the bully to try and cause trouble elsewhere and engratiate himself further with his superiors. Another is to try and interfere with the operations in another part of the organisation/Department,with a view to upsetting how they may work,as the bully will percieve them as not doing it his way.

Classic traits and ones to watch out for. The bully is not hard to spot,just difficult to get rid of if his seniors are impotent and sit on their hands turning their heads the other way to avoid seeing what is really going on,to busy worrying about their own position and potential promotion.

Even when facing the obvious as in the Muirhouse cases a slimey desperation to hide behind a flawed system of policies and proceedures,gives those charged with a duty of care,an opportunity to hide and do nothing for as long as possible,hoping  they can buy time and get off the hook.

From the research we have carried out the victims of bullying always face an uphill struggle battleing for what is in effect their Human Rights,enter stage left Europe.

This is the forum that will bring about any change in working practices,as most of our laws are now made in Brussels. We have been and lobbied at the European Parliament on behalf of all bullied victims. It will take time that is clear,but we hope that sense is seen and legislataion is past. It may come to late to nail the two thugs that caused so much misery for others in the Muirhouse Centre,but Pilton Sucks will put their names right at the top of the list when the time comes to call out the names on the bully register.              

Friends and readers. For those that have been victims of workplace bullying,the fallout from such deviant actions can last a long time.

Ill health,not the kind that can be seen,but an inner illness and torment,which ultimately can ruin lives.

Those organisations that have taken steps to combat bullying,can point to a workforce content in the knowledge that all forms of workplace bullying will be dealt with and the bully/s removed from the workplace.

But the opposite can happen if no action is taken. If the bully is allowed to continue unpunished for his deviant actions as in the scandal we uncovered at the Muirhouse Social Work Centre,were several members of staff suffered serial abuse from a known bully. That friends and readers makes it worse,this character was known to be a bully yet allowed to continue in the workplace.

When stories started to emerge from this centre about staff abuse in the Community Service team,it soon became apparent who was abusing staff.

From our investigation we were staggered to realise that his behaviour was common knowledge and had been known about for a long time.

Sources that contacted Pilton Sucks told us that a number of senior managers also knew what was going on but decided against any action,prefering to try and sweep it under the carpet,and worse still rubbish the victims.

We understand both these strategies failed so operation cover up went into overdrive.

Our inside source told us that several members of staff came forward with claims of bullying only to be worn down one by one by management cover up.

Our own detailed dossier reveals sustained abuse over a long period which resulted in at least one of the victims attempting sucicide. There is no question the police should have been brought in. Our source revealed to us that a further incident took place by this bully on a victim,which we are told that Chief Social Worker Michelle Miller knew about but did absolutely nothing about,we are informed this complaint was put in writing. We understand copies were made and Pilton Sucks will try to get a copy to add to our dossier.

One victim who was at this Centre for a brief period told Pilton Sucks that he was subjected to abuse after only a short time in employment and was forced to leave. Again no action taken. Another victim who now works elsewhere in the city told Pilton Sucks that life was unbearable and this clown would try a different bullying tactic on a daily basis to wear you down.

He also told us that the bullys sidekick now employed at the Dalkeith Social Work Centre was a willing participant in this abuse,something which the employee who was only there briefly confirmed.

The torment that these victims suffered was dreadful,and what makes it worse is that this deviants behaviour was known about at senior level,and nothing was done to protect these victims against an onslaught of abuse.

We have consistently demanded an outside independent investigation into the abuse that went on in the Muirhouse Centre,which to date has fallen on deaf ears,something that does not suprise us.

We read and hear more and more about workplace bullying,and the steps that some organisations are taking to combat this workplace evil.

The negligence shown by the Health and Care department of the City of Edinburgh is a disgrace and warrants a complete clearout from top to bottom, weeding out those incapable of their responsibility of duty of care. 

Friends and readers. From time to time and human nature being what it is we all make mistakes,the big question is,do we learn from Them?

De-regulation of the banking system under this Government was a big Mistake,it helped in no small way to the biggest financial crash in History.

But what happens?the people who the banks shafted are the ones who have to bail them out,on top of which they still refuse to lend despite the fact we now own most of them and they were instructed to do so.

Are we missing something here or what?The banks hoard the money that the taxpayers gave them to ward off another rainy day and to make matters worse the Royal w–k of Scotland decides to give yet another handout of taxpayers cash to their new boss who replaced that clown Goodwin.

Dosen’t make any sense and the Government do nothing that dosen’t make any sense either,but then again what does in the banking world.

Of course the age old excuse is churned out,we need to pay top dosh to get or keep the best people,what utter shit.

The Government in our name should be demanding an end to this obscene scandal and capping their abuse of our cash.

Crisis what crisis as far as the Royal bank of Scotland is concerned when it comes to helping themselves to taxpayers money, while they strangle mortgage holders and businesses alike.

If taxpayers money is to be shoveled into the banks then grass roots taxpayers should be on their boards,but of course that won’t happen couldn’t possibly have these plebs on the boards they wouldn’t know what they were doing.

Well we have news for that closeted world we couldn’t do any worse. The snooty world of banking who self governed themselves to the edge of ruin bringing the population with them have proved they cannot be trusted to look after this nations financial interests.

But the old school tie brigade will tough it out and end up in the house of Lords or retired on some grossly inflated pension lording it over the rest of us mere mortals who have to pick up the tab of their incompetence.

Time must be called on these chancers and public ownership must be exactly that and ordinary members of the public given the opportunity to sit on these secretive boards with full voting rights and minutes of the meetings made public so we the punters can see and read what is going on.

Will that or similar ever happen? No chance,more chance of Labour winning the next election.       

Friends and readers. We are a little way into a Labour free local Authority and we have not been swallowed up into a black hole.

Down here in Forth we have seen changes come about even with the hapless neighbourhood manager Peter Strong.

We have more Community involvement than ever before and more will hopefully come. We are the only neighbourhood partnership in the City that has all the 5 action groups Community lead. Royson is to get a new Community Centre on it’s existing site and new social housing is to be built in this Community. The new school at the bottom of Pennywell Road nears completion and we understand there are plans to build a new all purpose health centre in the same area. All this at a time of economic slowdown is good news.

So why do our friends who run the NEN not report on all of this,and leave it to Pilton Sucks to give out the good news.

Clearly Pilton Sucks are not card carrying members of the Labour Party or any other party for that matter,but we do want to give credit where it is due.

Not many people expected much to change when Labour lost power locally,as they had embedded themselves in the Community alongside their place people.

But suprise suprise things have changed and for the better to. There seems to be a real working partnership in Forth And both Councillors Morris and Cardownie have hit the ground running in an attempt to end the years of decay and self interest.

We are sure that both these Councillors are aware That Labour appointees will try and slow progress down giving the opposition an opportunity to say we told you so.

Mistakes will be made along the way but with the action groups Community lead they will be our own mistakes and we can rectifiy them. What Pilton Sucks warns against is that these action groups something which we fully support don’t fall into the trap of becoming official lead,that would be a disaster,and completely undermine what is being achieved. We are all to aware that officials who had a free hand under Labour hate having to work with this system,so it must be working.

Children and Families,Clean Green and Safe, Physical Regeneration, Health and lifelong learning all previously the preserve of officials who ballsed it up are now in the hands of Community chairs and rightly so.

So the report card makes good reading but we warn against complacency,as the sleepers will awake should they smell blood,and any kind of return to the past would be a disaster.    

Friends and readers. A reader has written to us about the TV mini series Crude Britania a three part documentary about North Sea Oil.

If ever there should have been a legacy to the Nation this was it. But no The Thatcher Government used it to pay for her destructive policies including over 3 million unemployed. The humanitarian disaster that was Thatcher mis-used oil revenues and allowed private companies to exploit both the North Sea and the Brittish people. What have we got to show for the rich years of North Sea Oil? Very little other than what might have been.

A quick look at what the Norwegian Government did shows us all what could have been done with the riches got from the North Sea.

The Norwegian Community Oil Fund was set up to protect and invest for the future,and by all accounts it is a success. At the last count the fund had roughly 600 billion yes you read it right 600 billion pounds to invest in the interests of the Norwegian people.

Where we ask is the Brittish Community oil fund,or anything like it. Non existant of course,so for all those day dreamers that regard the Thatcher legacy as a good one should think again,for it left us without a pot to p— in,and nothing to show for all the Oil rich years except decaying rigs and holes in the ocean floor.

This kind of Bonanza will never come again  all the good that could have come from it ended up paying for lengthening dole queues and right wing destructive policies.

Britain was once named the poor man of Europe add to that stupid and careless with the Nations legacy. The Torries single handedly robbed this nation of a promising future were oil revenue investments if used properly could have brought a return for the people of this nation and done much good in places were it was and still is desperatly needed.

We the Brittish people handed Thatcher the right to give away this Nations future,and she did it gladly. She hated Scotland and made sure that Scotland would never benefit from Oil revenue.

Tony Benn once Energy minister in a Labour Government tried to make sure that oil revenues ended up in Britain. That was put to bed by Thatcher who immediatly once in Office disbanded the mechanism by which Britain could have benefitted from Oil revenue.

So what did Crude Brittania really tell us?It told us that we had a once in a lifetime opportunity which was squandered by politicians more concerned about smashing the power of the people more than empowering the people.

Today Brittain and it’s people are suffering in the world recession again created by greed and paid for by Joe average. Might an Oil Community fund have helped us through this downturn?who knowes but it would not have done us any harm.     

Friends and readers. We are hearing that Neighbourhood manager Peter Strong is not playing ball with regards to involving the Community in What’s going on.

Our mate Peter a Labour Party appointment seems to be following the Labour agenda,of keep the punters in the dark and blame it all on everybody else.

We also hear that he was overheard making what we can only say was cutting remarks about certain members of the current administration.

He should do what he is well paid for and never mind what his bosses are doing. The breath of clean air that was brought into the Community by the new administration is being in our opinion and it would seem in several other’s opinion undermined by Mr. Strongs do nothing approach.

Mr. Strongs Previous remit was in another former Labour stronghold [no pun intended] Niddrie. Now North Edinburgh has the problem of dealing with him. What did we ever do to deserve him.

Friends and readers. Our informed source tells us that since our offer to the Director of Health and Social Care ,Peter Gabbitas,to let him have our full and frank dossier on workplace bullying,particularly in the light of the bullying scandal we uncovered at the Muirhouse Social Work Centre,it appears our offer has been under discussion.

With all the lies and cover up’s that have gone on with regard to this scandal,alongside the available evidence which clearly shows abuse of staff,confussion has set in.

Our source informs us that,the first question asked,why was this allowed to happen?

Pilton Sucks can answer that,just utter incompetence. Over the period 17 people have spoken to Pilton Sucks in one way or another all saying the same thing they witnessed or knew about bullying of staff at this infamous centre.

They surely can’t all be liars. Our own in depth research reveals systematic targetted bullying of individuals over a lengthy period of time,and according to our source known about at so called senior level.

The concequent further harassing of victims by this monolithic department and the various twists and turns to cover up what went on reveals senior people intent on doing nothing about their obligation of duty of care to their staff.

Pilton Sucks takes the view that staff who are being bullied or harassed will take no comfort from this mess and would be reluctant to come forward,and instead suffer in silence.

We instead offer this advice if you are being bullied or harassed make sure others know about it and seek legal representation immediatly,before going through the mill of policy’s and proceedures designed to cripple your dignity and protect the guilty.