Pilton Sucks dotCom

The following comment was posted on Going Going Gone story.  We are looking for more information to find out if there is any truth in this story.

Last year, Councillor McGinnis and her Waterfront CEO Stephen Izatt hosted a very lavish and expensive St Andrews function for a few select friends. This was carried out at huge cost to the public purse. The event involved hosting a huge light show and display. However Instead of hiring the lights which were only required for the one evening, Councillor McGinnis and Waterfront CEO Stephen Izatt decided to purchase the lights brand new from a company called Black Light at huge cost. Their plan was to retain the lights and sell them privately at a later date.

However since they have come under scrutiny, Councillor McGinnis and Stephen Izatt have been unwilling to uplift the Lights which remain in storage at Black Light, incurring storage charges.

Thousands of pounds of public cash has been needlessly and wastefully and corruptly squandered.

If you have more information or any proof, please use the contact form to get in touch privately or leave a comment for open viewing.

 

Friends and readers. the votes have been cast the voters have spoken. The ruling party’s arrogance has come back to haunt them. Next year it will be your turn both national and local. We have an interesting contest in Greater Pilton. The establisment councillors will have to decide who gets what and who will be dumped.

But why should it be so. We feel as many in this community that change is overdue and they should all get the boot, and the community should stand its own candidates, with a community agenda, isn’t that a novel idea. But it is not beyond the realms of possibility, as we have spoken to two potential candidates who if decided to stand could well have an excellent chance of beating the labour party machine. One in particular gave an interesting response to us when we asked why he had not stood before. He told us nobody had asked him.

It is that simple. we understand the fear of taking on the party machine, but we also know that people are sick of what is going on and may welcome a change and might even vote for it. The Tories are just a joke and the Lib dems, well nobody really knows what they stand for except which way the wind blows. So the time could well be right for someone to come forward and have a go, what have you got to lose. 

Friends and Readers.There is a growing number of professionals  in their fields coming to the conclusion, something that we have known for a long time, that the Waterfront Project,is purely land speculation and little else. Thanks in the main to councillor Maginnis the community of Greater Pilton has been entirely excluded.

It is fair to say that if there were a straw poll in the community to ask how many residents knew what was going on, very few could answer that they did, that in itself tells a story.  Why the secrecy? What is there to hide?   Surely it is in everybody’s interest to see this community is told the truth.

The North Edinburgh News (NEN) does not seem to be willing to report on this huge project and the lack of local involvment, nor does the people’s representatives, odd dont you think?

The lack of community involvement and information rightly leads to suspicion that all is not well at the heart of the operation. There is only a handful of people that know what is really going on and they will not say, so what is the big secret that the community cannot be let in on?

PiltonSucks.com believes that it has become to much for councillor Maginnis to handle and she is way out of her depth, as skillful a politician she may be, the speculators and their friends are running rings round her and she appears to be sinking in the quicksand of manipulation and slight of hand.

This is not good news for this community and changes must be made soon if we are to have any gains for the existing community. We offer the good councillor some sound advice in an effort to support her and the community.

We sincerly believe a community waterfront committee with real teeth, that bite, should be put in place to offset the stampeding speculation that is currently the order of the day.  The only item on the agenda of the waterfront business community.

We are not against the advancement of others and believe that enrichment can benifit all. Unfortunatly in the case of the waterfront project this is not happening.

So we are aware that there are some very experienced people in this community and that experience should be put to good use. We would not for a minute suggest who should be on the waterfront committee, but a quick look at the local community councils shows us that some of these people are in place already.

We have no wish to embarrass anyone by mentioning who we think would do a good job but several candidates stand out, the only problem is would they agree to such a task.

Councillor Maginnis should show leadership and as soon as possible put this committee-with-teeth in place.  As recently as Thursday evening we spoke to a well known and experienced activist in Royston Wardieburn community centre who would not be drawn on anything personal, which we respected, but we put to him the idea of a waterfront committee, his reply was that if it brought positve gains to the community, it may well be worth looking at, as anything would if it empowered the existing community.

One interesting point he put to us which we have to be honest we did not think of, was had anyone so far carried out an impact on planning blight re-a study on the Greater Pilton area.  Dont know - does anyone?  If the good councillor is feeling the heat and she must be, get help do not try to do it all yourself, that can only lead to mistrust and suspicion, if you are at all politically astute then it makes complete sense to bring others on board to help manage the load, after all we are supposed to be a community, and what better way to involve the community and lay waste to speculation of a negative kind.  

Friends and readers. It has come to the attention of PiltonSucks.com as it probably has to many other residents about the present development in Crewe Road North. As you will know we have a large elderly population in and around the Crewes, and it has become apparent that they are having difficulty getting to the shops.

So some of our associates at PiltonSucks.com took it upon themselves, [by the way, this is something the NEN should be doing but have failed to do yet again  Also our local councillor should be involved but almost certainly is not] to ask the contracters what they were doing and how long it would take.  

I have to report to you that we got less than a satisfactory reply.  We also asked how long the post box would be out of action again nobody knew or cared. We when on to ask when the bus stop would be replaced in its original spot, we were told on this occasion to take it up with the council.

Now as one of our contributers commented recently that we were a lot of moaners, do not you think sir, that the your friends in the NEN should be reporting on these local matters or is it not important enough for them, or their buddies on the council.  We could maybe ask Dave ‘wannabee councillor’ Pickering why he has not reported on this matter as it is right outside the office door, or is it a case  of as long as it is not in my street comrade.

The residents put up with an awful lot and seem only to willing to put up with it.  Perhaps if there was a local forum where they could take there complaints to we might hear more of what was going on instead of the deafening silence we continue to get. Oh of course we have our new sanitised community council ready to take up the peoples cause as long as the ruling party says it can.

Thank goodness there are a couple of people on the Royston/Wardieburn community council that are not family or friends of Elizabeth Maginnis, we may see daylight there, or maybe not - watch this space !

Friends and Readers.We have all read in the press or seen on our televisions reports of institutionalised racism within public bodies, and the constant denials of the various spokes persons who come forward.

We now know that institutionalised bullying is alive and well and thriving in the Social Work Department.We have highlighted the case of the Muirhouse bully and the blatent cover up going on there, that stretches right up the food chain, we have also highlighted the fact that the local elected members , Fitkpatrick, Hinds, and Maginnis have at this present time said nothing on the subject, and by doing this encourage the bullying to continue.

Our source in the Muirhouse Social Work centre told us on Monday 20-3-06 in a lenghty telephone conversation that the full extent of the bullying had still to come out, and that one of the MUIRHOUSE TWO had been subjected to what she called bullying of a violent nature, we asked her tell us exactly what she meant. She went on to tell us that the bullying she had witnessed had become so bad and intense that it was violent in its delivery.

We were also told and this is new information that the Muirhouse bully was assisted by his deputy in the destruction of this individual, our source told us that on a regular basis, almost daily the Muirhouse bully and his sidekick (we have his name) would go out of their way to bully and humiliate their victim and they did not care who knew it such was their arrogance. Our source also told us that she often discussed it with her colleagues, and felt something had to be done to protect this member of staff.

She said “We all knew what was going on the two of them just constantly picked on him and it was an unhappy place to work.” She went on “I discussed it with colleagues at West Pilton Gardens Social Work Centre but some of them already knew and were aware of the growing problem.”

PiltonSucks.com are not suprised that the bullying was known about else where and are indeed not suprised that nothing was done to help this individual who was under a continual barrage of abuse from not one but two spiteful individuals. We are also not suprised to learn that the bully’s assistant has been given another post of a similar nature in Midlothian.  We hope they know what a small minded individual they are getting, and if they want to contact us we will happily furnish them with what we know and can prove.

So now we know bullying carries rewards you might even be promoted, thought more of, be popular amongst your fellow bullies,but wait on this is far from over, we at Pilton Sucks.com will contact individualy the three local councillors concerned Fitzpatrick, Hinds, and Maginnis to inform them of what we know, and will await with interest their views.

But we at PiltonSucks.com will not be bullied by small minded characters such as they have at Muirhouse Social Work Centre, we want these individuals stopped and punished for their vile actions against another human being and we do not forget there is another victim in this travesty.

But we are all victims if we sit back and do nothing, for if nothing is done then bullies will carry on backed by their spineless managers, too gutless to do anything about it.  The community of Greater Pilton were these two gutless wonders practice their trade do not want bullies in their area   We have enough social problems without two outsiders coming in to throw their weight around because they do not have the level of intelligence to know any better.

These are sad individuals who have to bully to show how much authority they have got, in reality they have none and even less respect. So as they go about their daily business just remember your colleagues know what you are, they might not say it but they know, and they know who the MUIRHOUSE TWO are, and we will continue to pursue bullies in our community

If the Social Work Department continues to be silent on this matter and have a do nothing policy, PiltonSucks.com will force the issue.  We want the Muirhouse bully and his so-called assistant punished for there sins against a fellow member of staff in fact both members of staff who they have injured - who knows there might be more-there probably is.

We will continue to hound the Muirhouse Bully- we wonder how he likes it- we have a moral duty to make public, what they would hide from you and tell you does not exist. But all who have experienced it and all who have witnessed it, know bullying is alive and kicking and built with the bricks.

Friends and readers. Come March 26th smoking in public places will be banned. We at PiltonSucks.com welcome this and would encourage all smokers to try and give up the dreaded weed.

The health of the nation is important as without your health it is very difficult to achieve anything. We realise that smoking is very addictive and is extremly hard for some people to pack it in. By banning smoking in public places this may be the incentive that you need to stop.

On the other hand we are in danger if we are not careful of being told how to live our lives and along with the fact that the government rakes in a huge amount of tax from the sale of tobbaco there is a feeling of hypocracy involved. Given that the policy has the desired effect and cuts down on smoke related illnesses where does the lost revenue come from.

Here is a thought.If smokers take the plunge and ultimatly give up and therefore possibly live longer, who pays for their pensions when they reach retirement age.  So why does the government not ban the sale of alcohol and help to put a stop to alcohol related deaths and the social problems that over indulgance brings with it. Why not ban gambling and save punters from them selves or are these social activities regarded as harmless vices.

Alcohol and gambling destroys families leaving a trail of destruction in its path but nothing is done to prevent this. Quite the opposite our noble councillor and foreign holiday queen Elizabeth Maginnis supports the idea in fact is a leading advocate of bringing a cassino down to the waterfront, strange is it not. Never mind do not worry both gambling and drinking will not be banned and nor it should be.

All we are saying is were does government control of our lives stop, George Orwell described a vision of control in his novel 1984. We are fast reaching that point were our noble rulers decided everything that is both bad and good for us. all we have the pleasure of is paying for it one way or another.

Two things in life are certain death and taxes thank god the third thing is not certain-continued mis-rule from the peoples party.

Friends and readers. We now pay 38% of our income in taxes of one form or another, this is as much as we paid in the dark days of the 70s.Of course the average working person as usual will be hardest hit, and with the pensions running into crisis may have to work on past the current retiral age to give themselves a decent pension.

Now we also see the people’s party caught up in sleaze, selling peerages for cash and denying they knew anything about it,if you believe that you will believe anything.  Patronage is nothing new but we were promised a new start under Labour, but of course that has not happened, and sleaze has returned with a vengence.  So what do the ordinary party members think or are they relevent now, as it would seem that rich unelected donars can demand a covert seat in government.

Tony Blair’s final days in power is now tainted as was John Major’s final days this lead to the tories being destroyed at the polls, will the same thing happen to labour. We do not have to look to national government to find sleaze, for instance former labour group leader Keith Geddes received a consultancy contract from his cronies worth £90,000 pounds Trevor Davies private business dealings are worth closer scrutiny, John Mulvey another former group leader was given a contract to look at poverty, Elizabeth Maginnis and her close ties with the Waterfront’s chief executive.

It seems two fingers are been shown to the voters as our rulers weave their tangled web, of course panic may well be setting in as the voting system changes for the next council elections and feathering the nest is the order of the day.  These so called councillors have been hiding under the labour flag using their positions to enhance their earnings and social standing, they are worse than the tories, because you expect it from them, but from the peoples party you expect better.

But many of them will try to cling on to power promising better days and more of them, but if the electorate has any sense, they will toss them out of office and return their own candidates so at least they will have an opportunity to get accountability and straight answers.

Greater Pilton has such an opportunity, we at PiltonSucks.com hope you take it and return your own candidates emptying the old guard who have for so long taken it for granted  that the punters will vote for them because they always have.  But times change and new people emerge. As you would expect PiltonSucks.com follows local issues closely and have in the past been to a number of public meetings and listened to the concerns on the various issues discussed.

We have spoken to local people who have become increasingly sceptical and angered about what is going on and we have heard a couple of names put forward as contenders in the coming local elections. As we travel round the area One person in particular has been mentioned freqently, we would not wish to put undue pressure on him by asking if he would be prepared to stand or even name him on this site, but he is well respected in the community and we have spoken to him over the phone, in fact as recently as Thursday 16-3-06 and asked him if he would be interested in standing if he felt the community would support him. His reply which he said we could publish was to say that at the present time he had no plans to stand and was quite happy to be a community activist,although at times he felt some issues could be dealt with a more delicatly.

He also mentioned that he has been reading our site and expressed concern about our anti bullying campaign and in particular the case of the MUIRHOUSE TWO which he felt was if our facts were correct-and they are- should be dealt with at a local level with local elected members taking a bigger interest.

So Friends and readers you can see although we are surrounded by tax and sleaze there is still a window of hope there are people prepared to come forward and be counted despite the possibilty of being excluded, communitys are not without people who do think that it may be time to change both direction and priorities. These people who ever they are should not be ridiculed and rubbished and dismissed as trouble makers, remember your history if it were not for people fighting the status quo were would we be now, still serfs tugging our fore lock to some pompus stuck up twit, come to think of it history has a habit of repeating itself if it is not nipped in the bud. 

Friends and readers. By now the lucky punters who put their names forward for the community council will know their fate. It will be breath held to see if we are to have an election in any of the Greater Pilton wards. If not then it is business as usual, with the suporters of the ruling party taking prominence.

We hope that the community councillors have minds of their own and do not end up as talking shops for an ever decreasing Labour Party.  As they try to shore up their support in the constiuency what better opportunity than to try and dominate the community councils. It would be no suprise for instance to see friends and family of our foreign hoilday queen Elizabeth Maginnnis dominate that community council, somethings just never change.

 Friends and Readers.This months NEN      is now available and upon reading it we were astonished to see two pages 6 and 7 devoted entirely to our rulers. Now as we read through their words of wisdom it would seem that this community is mistaken in thinking that we have any kind of social or economic problems.

In fact it would appear to be if you are gullible enough to believe it that all in the garden is rosey, and as long as we are fortunate enough to have the three stooges Hinds Fitzpatrick and our queen of foreign holidays Elizabeth Maginnis lording over us we can sleep soundly in our beds.

Somewhere they forget to mention about the appalling unemployment in the community the bad housing the state of the streets and pavements the poor health of some of our citizens due amongst other factors the low standard of living they have to endure. It is no use painting a pretty picture for after 20 years of local authority rule our Labour masters have let us down badly and should be honest enough to admit it and stand aside to allow others to try.

But oh no they will not give up, greed is a terrible thing and all three have been infected with it so the people will have to stand up and be counted and throw them out. Pilton Sucks. com believes with a growing number of people that a community candidate or candidates should come forward and show these lame ducks a clean pair of heels, in fact it is now clear that after 20 years of blaming somebody else they have failed to deliver the goods.

They have failed us on employment , they have failed us on housing, they have failed us on being honest, and of course they have managed to exclude the community from having any involvment in the waterfront development, the peoples party excluding the very people they pretend to represent.How much more do you think this community will suffer before they say enough is enough for gods sake go.

And of course or communitys saviour the knight in shining armour Mr. personality himself Malcolm moral coward Chisholm who would sell his soul to stay in his constituency seat, He should be ashamed of himself, instead of patronising the punters with his condisending attitude and middle class aspirations, he should get off his ass and do something to help solve this communitys problems, but no just sly underhand sniggers and boring speeches telling us what a wonderful job he is doing, so wonderful in fact that we should be jolly grateful and bow down in his over bearing presence.

What a bunch feeding off each other frightened to do anything positive just in case it does not go down well with the ever decreasing membership of the party.

Whos left, of course Mark Lazarowicz all things to all people not a person to be trusted even less so than the other four wasters. How often have the punters in Greater Pilton ever seen Lazarowicz, not many he is more interested in the guardian readers of stockbridge or the cheap wine drinkers of bellvue, sleazy character do not turn your back on him.

 Well all in all they are a sorry bunch of misfits drinking the trough dry and spiting it at the punters calling it progress, yeah right,progress you lot cannot see past the next vote and we have been mug enough to fall for your lies and deceit.

But friends and readers get sense see past these plastic people and their careerism they can only get where they want to go on your backs and by god they will jump on your back at every opportunity, so do not fall for that friendly old pat on the back or the odd invite to some cheap and nasty social do where you can be put on parade to be sneered at as second class citizens by those mindless idiots who stay in a better?neighbourhood and have to put up with these working class types for an evening, how awful for them.

But they too should notforget that these working class types pay most of the taxes under labour are subject to penal levels of local taxation under labour suffer the worst housing conditions under labour have unprecedented crime levels under labour and put up with second best on most things under the peoples party. So the next time your pretensious middle class M.Por wannabee middle class M.S.P look down their nose at you thinking you will not realise because they are smarter than you, just remind them they are employed in the main by those working class types they so detest.

Friends and Readers all is quite as we await the new communtiy charge books which should be droping on our door steps very shortly.  The glee on the faces of the Labour aristocracy, the deafening silence of delight, the massive slaps of self congratulations at their briilance at being able as they tell us to keep the increase to a minimum, we should not vote for them it only encourages them.

So as the Water of Leith slowly flows on and on and on….. so does the noble rulers of the city confident in the fact that whatever they do they can con the plebs into believing it is for their own good, but they just do not realise it.

Should not our noble rulers come out of their gilded palace come into the communities and explain to the punters exactly what it is that we do not understand.  Give us your words of wisdom dazzle us with your intellects, and give us plebs some of your very important time in an attempt to make us understand what is good for us and how we will all be better off in the long run.

We at PiltonSucks.com are convinced that the people would sit open mouthed in anticipation of what was to come. Unfortunatly we are giving our rulers a little to much credit, it is far more likely that you will be ignored and ridiculed in your efforts to get any kind of sense from that lot.

But like any bad smell they will linger on for a while, one or two might try and con the punters into voting them into the Scottish Parliment, some might take the money and run to their outside interests, and the rest, well they will just squabble over who is to be the new leader of a depleted labour group, or how they can get rid of Provost hHnds so they can put Cardownie in and asure themselves of an extra vote if neccessary.

The rest of us mere mortals, we just go on picking up the tab slowly but surely being ground down till our resistance is all but gone.

But have faith my good friends sometimes the greatest plans of mice and men can be changed, so do not let this tale make you despondent, all is not lost.  You the residents of Greater Pilton have the power in those little wooden polling booths you go into every so often. This time when you do, examine the ballot carefully and take a moment to think, how can my communty benifit who best can do the job that is required, when you have done that look down the list of names, and vote with your head not with the party propaganda they try and brainwash you with.

You might get a pleasant suprise some people might emerge who you think can do a better job than the last lot, so when the time comes please vote it really is important, but of equal importance is, make the right choice and have a long memory think back four years and remember the stories you were told and how many of them had a happy ending, not many.

And as we meander through the maze of lies, downright lies and statistics, take heart from the fact that you can change it you and only you.  Promises do not mean a dam thing if in the end all you get is shafted and then told it is good for you.  Friends and readers ask the question why and keep asking it, why have we not been included in the new Jerusalem why can we not get access to the wealth that is being created on the Waterfront why are we being excluded.  Why do we have to settle for second best why do we have services that are second rate.  We are entitled to share in the wealth that is being created not just sidelined some sort of freak show to be looked at by our new richer neighbours in their overpriced rubbish.

No my good readers you can demand more and with justification after all you have stayed loyal to the labour aristocracy, but they have sold you off and cheaply.