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Friends and readers. What makes us tick. What is it in the human make up that keeps us from pushing the boundaries of democracy to include all that prevents us from breathing the air of contentment.

There is more to life than increasing it’s speed, while our lives are frittered away by detail, simplify simply simplify, while detail is designed to confuss and in cases boggle the minds of citizens who wish only to live in harmony and peace, await with trepidation the arrival of yet more demands on their already jam packed existances.

Machines of one sort or another have started to excert a ruling influence on our lives and we feel powerless if we don’t have the latest gizmo to contact the rest of the planet. Electronic lifestyles have become a way of life and our gadget cupboard is bare without the technalogical where with all to carry out our daily grind.

If you don’t have an e-mail address you are out in the cold, if you don’t have a mobile phone your soul is empty, if your computor crashes it’s the end of the world as we know it. The mobile phone has become the enemy of peace and quite, almost everywhere you go someones phone will ring with one of those dreadful ring tones that plague our lives. In many ways the mobile phone has become an extra limb for some people and they would not even go to the toilet without it even putting under their pillow at night just in case someone needs to talk to them at some ridiculas time.

It appears that if no-one rings you your life is empty and full of dread, and if you wish you can use the dreaded text facility which is almost akin to a dear john letter so souless is it’s meaning. but dear friends that is progress one step forward ten back, very soon we will all be drawing on cave walls again or building structures that resemble pyramids.

Wonder what it might have been like if Jesus had had a mobile phone or an ability to text his diciples, or better still an e-mail address  jc@heaven.com  wonder if biblical history would have been different. He didn’t and it wasn’t so what does it all mean for the future of mankind and our ability to disappear at a furious rate into the electronic world of anominity.

The art of converstaion is dying the human outreach work that is needed to understand each other has begun to vanish in a haze of texts and e-mails. the job of employment has decended into an electronic maze for which we cannot find or don’t want to find the exit. Can we exit stage left to a life worth more than an electronic existance and once more surface into the fresh air of humanity.  

Friends and readers. The freeze goes on and the energy companies continue to rub their hands together in glee at the thought of inflated bills poping through the letter boxes of the consumers. The horrendous cost of heating and lighting your home is frightening but the couldn’t care less attitude of Government and their pals at energy con UK continues unabated.

In truth these parasites would watch in comfort as those that struggle and there are many to pay their fuel bills, and not bat an eyelid that fuel poverty is a huge and ongoing issue in 21st century Britain. Money can be found in bucket loads to bail out the banks, so to wads of cash to pay for futile wars in far off lands, but little or nothing can be found to help those in need to ward off the real enemy, the fuel giants and their limitless greed.

Nobody it seems wants to take on the real war at home and smash the power of these all powerful energy companies. Those we elect to support and protect us are otherwise occupied and don’t appear to feel the need to end this incredible rip off and blatent robbery of the citizens of this country.

The price of fuel is the same for the rich as it is for the poor but it is to the poor and those that will struggle to pay these bills that this nation has a moral duty to protect. As with almost everything else the poor subsidise the rich so the great and the good can live in relative comfort while those that can least afford these falsely inflated fuel bills worry about wheather to heat or eat.

We will all know somebody who is having difficulty paying their fuel bills and that adds up to an awful lot of struggling people worried about the cost of staying alive during this lengthy cold spell. Our noble Government turn away from doing anything about this dreadful situation and avoid like the plague any talk of the subject.

The energy companies are free to push the cost of heating and lighting your home up as high as they like knowing Government will do nothing, and allow people to suffer without as much as word of compassion. You may remember some faceless politician when asked about fuel poverty remarked that those that struggled to pay their bills should put an extra sweater on, that dear friends is exactly the point we make they just don’t care and never have, you are on your own when it comes to fuel poverty.

Our nation lies in recession the worst in living memory but we see no help for those that have been hit the worst, these poor souls and they are a growing army will still have to pay the grossly inflated fuel bills and will be in trouble if they can’t. First and foremost their health is at stake if they go cold because of the fear of being unable to pay the bills on top of every other demand they face. Second and with out any kind of morality these blood sucking energy companies will not hesitate to cut you off if you can’t pay and then charge you a fee to re-connect if and when you can afford to do so.

Dear friends what kind of society do we live in that allows this obcenity to take place. What elected Government allows their people to go without heating and lighting putting their very lives in danger. What on earth has become of a nation that is so economically divided we almost take for granted that some of our citizens might die because they cannot afford to heat their homes.

Shame on this and every other Government that sits back and does nothing to help those in fuel poverty. Shame on this Government that spends billions on bailing out failed and greedy financial institutions that spent money as if it were going out of fashion and then turned out their pockets looking for handouts because their cupboard was bare. Shame on this Government that spends billions on futile wars designed to do God knows what and then turn away from those in this country that might really suffer because they are frightened to turn on their fires and heating for fear of the repercussions of the fuel bills coming through their letter boxes like the grim reaper coming to call.

Let us relax though comfortable in the thought that those elected to serve and protect will not have the worry of how to pay their fuel bills, their only worry is how to claim it back on expences and thats for their second home, ah yes life is sweet when you can afford to live it.     

Friends and readers. The glorious eccentricity of a life less ordinary can offer all sorts of possibilities. Our rulers encourage all manner of delights to supress us and keep the plebians from making to much fuss about their lot.

We have indeed the delights of the most awful TV programme ever devised Big Brother, peep hole TV with an orwellian theme. Who in their right mind would regard this trash as remotely entertaining yet it has drawn millions of viewers over it’s life span and created z list celebrities out of nonentities.

We or a section of the population take an overly keen interest in the lifes of others so it comes as no real suprise that this rubbish was so popular. Locker room sniggering couples with mundane housemates made watching paint dry look interesting in comparison.

But let us move on dear friends and not cry into our handkerchiefs on the demise of such garbage. Let us look and smile at some more of the dross that continues to supress the plebs and take their mind off real reality in the guise of entertainment.

We at Pilton Sucks are the first to enjoy the odd giggle but realise that it is not to be taken to seriously after all it’s just make believe isn’t it? Neighbours, bought in soap opera trash at it’s very worse, although Home and Away runs it close. This tosh makes Crossroads for those that can go that far back look positively riviting, with it’s cardboard props and it’s even more cardboard like characters.

Remember the excitement over who shot JR Ewing it had the country on the edge of it’s seat even managing to get the top story on the Nine O’clock News, how moronic can you get, but it worked and took the minds of the punters to the land of fairy tales ond oil wells. It wasn’t that long ago that a Steven Byres a former Government Minister thought it was a good idea to put out bad news when there was a soap opera cliff hanger, so the voters wouldn’t notice to much, this shows exactly how our rulers use the media to manipulate events.

But that aside our media diet has gone mega with the advent of satelite telly,  cable telly,  free view telly and uncle Tom cobly and all.  What a feast for our eyes and brain melt down as more hours of complete crap is allowed on the airwaves. We have celebrity Chefs, how did that happen? if you fart on telly you become a celebrity, or maybe even a knighthood.

It’s gone mad as we worship at the alter of complete nonentities, who utter and that’s if they can string two words together total rubbish devoid of anything meaningful to say. Who can hand on heart say that Television has got better since we have had all this choice at a price of course.

Eastenders, Coronation Street, River City and all the rest of that mind numbing nonsence designed to let us poor sods see what passes for entertainment, where a good number of our fellow citizens believe that these characters are real, and the actors and we use that word loosely actually think they can act.

Now we all like to take our minds off the daily grind and toil of everyday life and a little soap might just do that, but then so could a good book. The reasoning that we need to have a little light in life is that grim reality is sometimes a bit hard to swallow, but we do and in bucket loads. So when you next switch on the gogel box try and find something that dosen’t peer into other peoples lifes. CBBC perhaps.   

Friends and readers. Irony plays it’s part in all aspects of our lives and through out history. Let us look at an irony that you may be suprised with.

WHILE THE CRASH ONLY TOOK PLACE SIX MONTHS AGO I AM CONVINCED WE HAVE NOW PASSED THE WORST AND WITH CONTINUED UNITY OF EFFORT WE SHALL RAPIDLY RECOVER.

Now you may think and rightly say that’s some politician spouting off some crap a cival servant wrote last year some time. Yes it may well have been but believe it or not this statement was made by President Herbert Hoover on the 1st May 1930. Incredible as it may seem this appears to be similar to statements made by some of todays elected lot.

How ironic it is then that we hear similar knee jerk out bursts declaring the worst is over and we are sailing off into the sunset once again. Clearly there is an election is coming and our great and good are making hay with statements of blue skys ahead and vote for me please.

We are very much still teetering on the brink with promises of deep cuts in public expenditure from the Torries and no mercy with our present incumbents telling us cuts are needed but nice little ones which won’t cut to deep just draw a little blood.

Who do you believe toss of a coin perhaps,  heads we lose tails we lose great choice hobsons no less. Praying seems to appeal as we listen to the same old same old as more punters get chucked on the dole queue and wages are forced down by the economic crimewave caused by the the financial guru’s that waved their magic wands and brought about an Alladins cave of  despair and hopelessness.

Yet dear friends we at Pilton Sucks do not want to appear crest fallen and the barer of bad tidings so we offer this little ray of sunshine for you to ponder on.  Imagine that,  and it takes a vivid imagination a politician vanishes every time they lie to the voters, how many do you think would be left. Probably the ones wearing the pink bowler hats and high heels, but who knows one or two might just be of that persuasion, but think on dear friends an ordinary Joe voter having the power to make a politician vanish, would make voting a thing of the past  but then again it’s just a thought, and choices we have to make. Who on earth would want to be a voter.          

Friends and readers. We come into this world with nothing and it’s almost a certainty we will leave with nothing, even Ladbrokes will not offer you odds on that one. But in between time all we can do is our best and if that’s not good enough then what else is there.

A new financial world order is evolving which we are all just bit part players in,  at the mercy of bankers and politicians that have everthing else but the interests of the people at heart. All we the people can do is watch from the sidelines spectators of the game being played out before us, the result of which is way beyond our control or even having an influence on.

Politicians come and go like the seasons of the year but the decisions they take can effect the masses for many years to come and all we have is an X in a box once every so often. The real power lies in the ability to create events and control the outcome, this has for the most been in the hands of the self interest greed of the financial world who have controled world financial events keeping poor countries poor so natural resources could be exploited with little or no resistance from their populations. Helped by corrupt Governments who lined their own pockets peoples lives have been bought and sold on the open markets slaves to the beat of the bankers drums powerless to act or take any kind of control of their lives.

Now in this harsh financial climate these poverty stricken countries are further in the mire as the loan sharks of the financial world tighten the noose round the necks of populations barely able to feed themselves.

Right here in Britain our own living standards in comparison far greater than some of these poorer nations have taken a battering with rising unemployment, home repossesions on the increase job opportunities limited and the future of our young people hanging in the balance, and nothing but meaningless words to the people  and handouts to the city from our elected politicians.

No grand plan to pull this problem round in fact no plan at all just wait and see and hope the climate picks up before the voters go to the polls in May. The alternative we face is a clone of nightmare on elm street with Cameron poised to slash the Torries pet hate the public sector, and throw thousands more onto the dole queues.

Dosen’t this clown realise that we need to invest in our infrastructure and it’s people if we are to pull this round and forget about handing out tax cuts to his wealthy backers and then tax the rest of us for the pleasure of paying for it. For those who remember the last Tory Government it’s deja vue and more of the same from this lot of blinkered fools.

Once more the people will be at the mercy of the whims and fancies of politicians only this time Cameron is telling you what his mob if elected will do cut jobs and services give tax breaks to his mates and make the rest of us poor mugs pay for it, and this lot are ahead in the opinion polls, what does that tell us, possibly the stupidity of the average voter or the total incompetence of the present lot or who knows maybe both.

Meanwhile back in reality avenue the rest of us just watch events unfold around us hoping we can stave off the hooded devil of hard times and the bottomless pit of nothingness.

Oh of course we have an election to look forward to and if we are really unlucky we can add total obscurity to that nothingness.        

Friends and readers. You all will of course by now know of the devastation left by Halcrowe round and about our Community. Yes dear friends the Communities favourite landscapers or is it project managers or God knows what have left our Community crying for the hangmans  noose or a public flogging for the hooks crooks and comic singers that are Halcrowe.

But wait on dear friends there is of course a blunt edge to our favourite designers or what ever they are [cos we don’t know] Our friendly Neighbourhood Manager the walking advert for the very best in male dressing and grooming Peter Savile Row Strong who is we are reliably informed on Halcrowes Xmas card list and sits at the top table at their annual shindigs has regularly sung the praises of the dreaded Halcrowe.

We have a question for the Communities most loved official. When oh when will Halcrowe do something to a finish and do it properly, this is a teasing question with a less than forthcoming answer, so let us answer what is on the minds of the Community, never is the simple answer, or it would appear so. So let us remind everyone that people friendly Halcrowe have a 3 million pound, yes readers you read it right a 3 million pound service level agreement with the City fathers to deliver a finished product of acceptable quality and standard to the punters of Forth and beyond.

Judging by the the farce of a project if you can call it that of an all weather surface in West Pilton which  would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious we can all see that Halcrowe are taking taxpayers monies under false pretences nothing new there then.

So dear friends if you are unlucky enough to spot a Halcrowe project  on your travels take notes and hand them in to the peoples favourite official Mr. Savile Row himself the magnanimous Neighbourhood Manager the all singing and dancing Mr. Peter Strong who will only be to delighted to talk you through how the taxpayers are getting a load of bull for their cash, and he is top notch at that.

Friends and readers. A nasty vicious rumour has reached the sensitive ears of Pilton Sucks. We can hear you ask what and by whom and yes of course we will let you into the rumour.

The tired out Labour group of Edinburgh City Council have been bragging aloud to any idiot that will listen that your favourite site the peoples own Pilton Sucks was taken off the air by those fraternal comrades.

Well well well where did they get this story and as usual they get it wrong as they do just about with everything else. The City’s favourite site is always there to bring you the latest gossip and news regarding who’s doing who round and about the city and of course down here in thawing out Forth.

The latest Labour trick as seen on the news last night was Chancer Darling hob nobbing with the bankers [yes we did say bankers] who have had 45 billion of the taxpayers hard earned while unemployment creeps up and those cut throat Torries are ahead in the polls. A real mugs double. All that cash tossed at those greedy bankers and the punters who coughed up getting shafted for their troubles.

Yes dear friends Pilton Sucks trods the paths that others fear to tread. We the peoples pulsating voice throbs on regardless to bring you the very best in scandal and gossip. And while we are at it there is another little bit of titilation that might prick up your ears, our new best friend and Labour stalwart Cammy boy wonder Day has taken in a lodger, hope he has declared it to the inland revenue and he will of course pay his dues like a good little comrade. 

Friends and readers. Reality has returned and normal service is resumed, well almost as the weather stands between normal service and resumption. That aside dear friends many of us will look back over the year past year and as the memories pass through the pages of our minds quitely reflect on how and what made up your 2009.

What does this coming year hold in store for this nation and it’s people. Crystal ball predictors we are not mindful of the fact that a guessing game can end up proving the mother of all idiots. The country has financial difficulties of that we know which will continue to see peoples lives disrupted and changed forever.

Our young people going out into the world for the first time face huge problems trying to secure their first start in the world of work and these the very same people who will inherit this nation and take it to where it is going. These inheritors have to be given the best possible opportunity so they can grasp what is required of them.

Somewhere out there right now is a future leader of this nation, he or she won’t realise it as yet but what they see live and experience will mould their thoughts and actions as they grow to take the reins of power. This global turning point in our world history will galvanise and change the thoughts of our perceptions and expectations and will bring about in time to come aspirations built on something more than the limit on your credit card.

Memories of good times will remain as fond distant friends always thought of kindly and with affection tinged with a hint of reality based on experience of living through what will be come to be seen as unprecedented times. out at the other side will not be paradise and green and pleasant times but a more disciplined sturctured look at our aspirations and expectations which will come to be the norm and not the exception. This nation of ours needs time to heal it’s people needs time to heal and perhaps grieve a little for it’s downfall, but soon that healing process will end and what grieving has taken place will cease as well nd we will go on and try to find our place in world events once again.

When the young person who is destined to lead receives the key of the door his or her perceptions and expectations will have or hopefully will have been honed by events and happenings leaving them to guide this nation on structured principles lead by a belief that people require the simple things in life for fullfillment and everything else is a bonus.

The time to get back to real basics is now treat people as how you would be wished to treated yourself.

Friends and readers. Welcome to 2010 and we await with interest what this year will bring to us all. The mess created by our trusty bankers rolls with us into the new year and many will hold their breath to find out their fate.

Here in snowy Forth life is on hold during this festive period but normal play will resume on Monday and dreary reality will set in. The thaw of spring and warmth of summer seem far away as the temperature drops below freezing, and were simple pleasures are most welcome.

This year will bring a General Election and huge decisions are in front of the voters. Which way to go is the question, does Cameron and his mob have the answers to our questions or is he just another Tory with an eye for the main chance. Hammer everyone who can’t fight back and make them pay for someone elses greed and corrupt practices.

Or could it be that the Torries have swung towards a caring society, you would need to have a vivid imagination to believe that. They are asking the country to take them on trust yet the track record is one of horror stories and exclusion. On the other hand our present rulers promise any cuts they make will be kinder and made with a smile. So who do we put our faith in.

Scotland is in a curious position with a Government of our own which still has to rely on handouts of our own money from Westminster through the Barnet formula to make ends meet. Cameron who has little support in Scotland may decide if elected to dispence with this formula and force the issue of tax raising powers for the Scottish Executive.

The traditional Tory hatred of Scotland will once again rise to the surface and could well result in the Scottish people deciding that independence may not be such a bad idea after all. 

Labours decline in Scotland was put on hold with their recent by-election win in Glasgow but the underlying trend is downwards as the peoples party tries to put as much distance between themselves and the people as humanly possible.

It’s a difficult one to call and a hung parliament would appear at the moment to be the favoured option, but there is still time for that to change as we cannot forget the Lib-Dem factor or the SNP’s chances of gaining seats. Right here in snowy Edinburgh and North Leith all the intrigue will be there to see as we now inhabit a marginal seat were once Labour reigned supreme and now hang on by their fingertips. Labours biggest chance here is that the opposing candidates take votes from each other and allow Labour to hold the seat by de-fault.

But we shall see as time goes on. We live as they say in interesting times, with the possibililty of a hung Parliament and minority Tory rule with partner or partners unknown. Who will the voters support? how will Scotland Vote? and does the rest of the country care, The Shire seats in England seem more concerned about fox hunting than the interests of the nation so these seats will go Tory, as they to don’t really care what happens to the weakest as long as inheritance tax is reduced for their own buddies and hangers on.

Politics and Politicians always seem to get in the way of anything constructive happening, but such is life and this time round we will trundle to the polls, those than be bothered anyway and cast our franchise and put our lives in the hands of others, and hope against hope that it dosen’t work aginst us but for us, fat chance of that but we can live in hope.

But as we watch the snow fall and the ice form we can console ourselves in the comfort and knowledge that at least we have put the Dickensian years behind us, although dear friends be careful what and who you vote for, as you sit by the fire and wonder what to do, ponder the thought of reading a Dickens novel and realise that events depicted in some of the Dickens novels did occur in this country not so very long ago, and who was it that once said, history has a nasty habbit of repeating itself.