Four days later
Posted on
June 29, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Julie Webster of the Maryhill Food Bank, quoted in the Evening Times, 28 June 14:
The best of both worlds. As good as it gets. UK OK. Better together. No thanks.
OMG that is truly heartbreaking. Better together..I don’t bloody think so!
speechless.
NO MORE in Scotland. Not in my name. Vote YES. This really must stop for ever!
And folk are going to vote No a plague on all their houses.
I think that is the most shocking thing I have read in a very long time.
Surely a price worth paying in exchange for no border controls and a common currency?
Absolutely shocking. Also, the comments liked article need to be seen to be believed. It’s hard to get into the mindset of people who can be so bloody heartless.
link to archive.today Its tough for everyone in teamGB. Gordon Brown says its all about pooling and sharing and sharing and pooling and he’s not rolling in it either.
“As far as anyone can tell, Crash lives with his family at home in North Queensferry on his MP’s salary. By his actions, he declares himself the unBlair – a man determined not to profit from his public position.
So while Blair has the sleek glow of the expensively dressed elite, Brown pitches up in a suit whose years of heavy-duty service are visible: there’s a tiny hole in his sleeve”
We’re bettertogether and ruled by the nutters that fart out stuff like this.
*in the linked article. (Messed up my message there)
@heedtracker
You will surely have seen Order Order’s view of Mr Browns charitable status?
Don’t let anyone tell you Milliband and his band of fellow travelers can sort this mess out only indy and the powers it brings can ensure no one goes hungry due to ‘mix ups’ in benefits coinciding with bank holidays.
By god there are no words…
Sorry but this just makes me plain fucking angry, bastards, how dare they treat people like this.
Once independent we can decide how we wish to help our friends and loved ones south of the border. I suggest we replace the coddling of the ultra rich and the enabling of off shore accounts with a trust fund to help their poor and hungry. This is after all, our way.
We will never be apart. I cannot think of a lie or a deception which could drive us from loving our neighbors. Yet we need to stand a bit apart so they can see us for who we are. Then we can have some hope they will change and become a loving people, a caring people and a people who are truthful.
Only a YES vote on September will put an end to this
It really upset me reading that yesterday, its heartbreaking to see the tragic reality that is some people’s existence (i refuse to call it lives as people are not living they are just barely existing) due to westminster ideology.
It also angers me so much that even though labour and liberal types know that this is the reality for people they still say we are better together when all evidence shows we clearly are not. The only ones better together is them!
Anger! Disgraceful in a rich nation. Scotland MUST vote YES on September 18th.
I am becoming less and less patient with No voters. Don’t they see what Westmidden rule is!? Even those Britnat Tories who back the Union because they feel British, is this really the society they want to be part of!?
Let’s not mince words, anyone voting No is either stupid or selfish, or both.
We should March round to Johann Lamonts house and say I am skint I am hungry. Feed Me. or is it all pish you spout about Pooling and Sharing. Vote Yes
It’s awful Julie told me this story recently when I popped into the foodbank. Sadly situations like this will only become more commonplace in the future under the current system. Scotland has a real chance for change with #indyref lets not waste it.. #voteyes
Labour is in denial of all they have done leading up to this. They are worse than the Tories because they pretend to be for the working class. Only a fiction writer could donate millions to the party that increased the poverty gap when in power, then try and present herself as a victim.
You read the above and then you read this – link to archive.today – and you’ve got to wonder about priorities. Renders me speechless.
It is the Tory foodbank deniers in the BTL comments of the article that really make me so fucking angry! 🙁
Better Together?
gut wrenching, combined with the impassioned speech by that great food bank organiser (i forget his name or audience), that this site has linked to previously, it makes you despair.
Can’t but hope there are resolutions after the referendum
.
Or in other words we simply MUST win
@ wingman 2020, who knows what rich failures like Crash, Darling, shitty old GuardianBBC editors etc, think they ‘re doing or who they think they’re taking for mugs in Scotland.
I consider myself towards the less emotive end of the range but that comment just about floored me.
Does anyone really want to carry on this union. A union that tolerates such inequality across this island.
The whole topic is is no longer a political concept or a long term plan…we have to do something about this!
‘there are none so blind as those who will not see’
I understand people’s frustration about no voters, but it can be difficult and very painful for people to wake up and acknowledge the reality of what the UK has become
Words fail me
I’am not shocked at all, we all know what’s going on in this country, what is shocking to me, is the fact that there are still no voters?? What in the name of god is wrong with these people???? J Lamont, voting agenst free school meals for infants?? She needs to be shot with a ball of her own s**t.
[…] « Four days later […]
It’s awful Julie tool me this story recently when I popped into the foodbank to see her. Sadly situations like this one will become more commonplace in the future under the current system. Scotland has a real chance for change with #indyref lets not waste it #voteyes
I used to be at least proud of this country in that we had no beggars, Thatcher took that away, now we are trying to starve people. Enough is enough.
Pete, I heard one woman argue that though her kids had had to have free school meals she was happy to deny this to everybody even though this would remove the stigma. Labour, I hate them, liars and chancers on the whole.
The comments below the Evening Times piece hardly engender respect and compassion:
“This is a complete nonsense. We have a well established social and financial network to support the needy.
The ‘food bank’ nonsense is being pushed solely for political ends.”
“What a load of codswallop, I can’t believe this story from this woman, she is describing people as living in the dark ages !! Please spare us this festival.. people in this country get very good benefits, it is up to them how they spend it and if other things other than food are more important then I don’t want to know. Get your priorities right and you won’t be hungry.”
Rightly there are other comments showing a bit more compassion towards humanity than those. However it must serve as a warning to newspapers pushing the Better Together line that they are promoting the continuance of the same system which only alienates the poor and vulnerable in our society; and provide ammunition to those ‘I’m all right, Jack’ commentators.
Those editors must ask themselves if they feel comfortable promoting austerity Britain; for they must surely know that both Labour and Conservative have committed to it’s future continuance.
Scotland has a path out of this mess – and all we need to do is vote Yes.
Isn’t it even bigger disgrace the allegations that Glasgow City Council charges full commrercial rent to charities using council premises for Foood Banks ? If a SNP Council did this the BBC and MSM would have a field day !
Ok people lets do something about it
Derek Batemen wrote an article on Glasgow charging full business rates to Food bank in Maryhill
link to derekbateman.co.uk
Someone started a petition
So go sign it and lets start using people power to stop this
link to change.org
Horrific as this story is what is far worse are some of the comments below the article in the Evening Times.
That some people actually believe the people that attend these Food Banks are scroungers living off the state and wasting the thousands of £s they allegedly get every week on benefits on alcohol,gambling Sky Tv etc then attend Maryhill is quite ,quite shocking.
What kind of mindset thinks like that?
I meet such folk most days.
I am also witness to outrages in my daughters’ daily toils as they struggle to feed their kids, and can’t afford to buy a house, yet all are bright, intelligent, hard working individuals who contribute to society. Who in their right mind would want to vote for Westminster to retain power?
A side issue:
Did anybody hear this morning the stricken Andrew Marr describe the incoming EU Commissioner as an ‘alcoholic’?
If I’m correct, it’s time the BBC retired Marr.
This is why Yes needs to win,we need to turn this Scotland in a new direction. Shocking.
All those I’m alright Jack are blind to fact they are probably one or two paypackets from this situation. What happens if they lose their job? They too could find themselves in this position. Blinkered fools.
@Kestral
Petition signed!
That is a really harrowing tale and one that speaks volumes about the “caring” society we have become under London rule.
If anyone needs to ask whether or not we would be better off on our own, read the above and ask yourselves when Food Banks proliferated in such numbers as they do now?
My stiff upper lip is quivering here. Oddly enough, I’d just written a blog about another vignette of Maryhill life under Britannia’s glorious rule. I’ve just edited it after reading this, I was damned lucky to have a Spangle to sook.
Logic’s Rock: Sooking Spangles for Scotland
logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/sooking-spangles-for-scotland.html
There is nothing, absolutely nothing you can add to that.
If there is any fucking justice on this planet IDS would end his days in destitution. The least said about the other parties in this rotten system which have brought such a culture of poverty to pass the better. They’re simply part of the problem.
We vote yes, we clean up their mess and set the rules. THIS is why we need a constitution.
I was eating two boiled eggs on toast when I read that, good God, whit kind of country are livin in! I’m in tears.
Truly shocking.
Thanks for the link Kestral, petition signed.
Life as we know it in the EU’s best educated and largest oil producing economy. We can do better than this.
I wonder if Rachel McVey-Reeves and like-minded OneNation Labour and Tory MPs resent this starving family getting “something for nothing”.
This should never happen in a country with the money and infrastructure here. Shameful. This can only happen here when our government knowingly allows it to happen. They are impovrishing and now starving the people.
The saddest thing is it is not just people on benefits starving, there are people working in low paid jobs or on zero hour contracts who are struggling to make ends meet in our wealthy country. The inequality is appalling and it is getting worse. All of the main UK government parties live in their ivory towers and they are so high they don’t hear the sobs and cries of the people. We need to break those towers down and the first step is an independent Scotland
Kestral, also signed the petition.
For a moment I wished I had stumbled into a blog about twentieth-century starvation in Ethiopia. I was utterly ashamed at the thought of all the lies people from BT are telling in the hope of prolonging this barbarism.
What really chills me to the bone is if they manage to steal a no vote that this type of thing will only get worse.
Sorry prev post, not so much they cannot hear, more like they can ignore as it becomes a muted hum. They are divorced from the reality of the suffering, it does not affect them cushioned as they are by their money
Makes me angry, makes me more determined than ever to ensure a YES vote. We simply must escape from this unsavoury pernicious union.
As regards the comments in the paper suggesting the story isn’t true, unless they are political stooges (and they are many), then those pople may simply be in denial, as in ‘oh, they would never let that happen’ – during the second world war, many refused to believe that the nazis were gassing their own citizens simply because they were gay, jewish or disabled – it was a form of denial. It isn’t really their fault, as they are bombarded day in day out with nasty pro British propaganda from ‘Scottish’ ‘journalists’, and the state funded and managed propagandist BBC.
I don’t blame NO voters, as in most cases they have just fallen for the BBC propaganda, it is a small minority of NO voters who wilfully know they are lying and that the entire anti independence campaign is just a pack of lies.
Meanwhile, as that poor woman starves in Glasgow, we see Prince ‘ooh he’s a bit of a lad’ Harry, flying off at taxpayers expense to watch the England football team play in Brazil, with a token half hour with ‘poor people’ thrown in to lend his excesses an air of pseudo credibility. If there is one royal who should be made to get a proper job (instead of his current pretendy role in the military), it’s him. I am sick and tired of watching him partying and swanning around at taxpayers expense, all the while defended by a supine, fawning media, who laugh about it, as well, ‘he is a bit of a jack the lad, ho ho ho’.
Anyway, sorry for the royal rant, but getting back to the foodbank story, there is surely no excuse now for anybody who knows the truth, or for that matter ANY Scottish journalist backing up this decrepit, unfair, undemocratic and disgraceful ‘union.
macart763m,
Wholly agree with what you say, especially regarding IDS.
That makes me sick and to be honest very, very embarrassed and ashamed.
Those people that have rubbished the Social Workers comments, must live in an other planet or just turn their backs on reality.
Can they not see the increase in the number of people begging on the streets. I see it in Dunfermline on a daily basis.
They should also have the guts to go to the Maryhill Foodbank or others and face up to the mums, dads and their children who are struggling from day to day with no end to their struggles in sight.
Heck they can even come and ask me.
I Went through this with my brother earlier this year.
Got his benefits stopped.
No money, no food.
Luckily enough I was on hand to help. I don’t earn a big wage, but there was no way in this world that I was going to let my brother have nothing in is cupboard to eat.
Unfortunately some people don’t have family to fall back on.
It makes me wonder how the people at the DWP / Job Centres feel when they have to tell claimants their benefits have to be stopped.
They would have to be really cold hearted not to feel anything.
Everyone… go back and listen to Dennis again (3 Wings articles ago) with this at the forefront of your thoughts.
If their is a NO vote, may the lord have mercy on our souls, because there’s no chance Westminster will.
I am so utterly ashamed that this was allowed to happen in my country.
It is not Scotland who has somehow brought this on ourselves,
it is beyond doubt that being in this totally useless union
has brought these problems to our door.
The supporters of the Union who are very many of the “proud Scot and Unionist” variety simply do not care.
Do these people need anything more to wake them up than an incident such as this. Scotland should be outraged, but ALL of Scotland should be outraged, there is no excuses left not to be. To vote NO would be utterly shameful given these events.
Clootie says:
29 June, 2014 at 10:54 am
I consider myself towards the less emotive end of the range but that comment just about floored me.
Same here. Absolutely stunned!
I feel guilt too….
Today is an especially sad day for us as parents.
This, as Clootie says, has floored me.
people who work in the benefits office are just workers earning quite a low wage for doing the dirty work of any incumbent Govenment, they would be treated in exactly the same brutal fashion if unlucky enough to lose their jobs. A friend of mine works for the DWP and tells me it is shit to do this dirty work but she needs the job.
I am a Social Worker and I know there are families and individuals quite happy to waste their benefits and let their kids go without for whatever reasons. However, they ARE the minority and the majority are regular fowks who need a helping hand and not to be treated in some Dickensian manner by a Tory Government who serve themelves and their ilk so well with tax cuts.
Reading that passage this morning has left a real bad feeling in my stomach and it drives home how important it is following a YES vote that we demand ‘our’ Scottish Government enact policies that provide opportunities and treat people respectfully. Leaving people without food anywhere is just fucking wrong and in a wealthy country it is criminal. Ian Duncam Smith should be charged for crimes against humanity for the ATOS scandals and the rest of his botched attempts to reform the welfare system. He makes me puke…
Rev, my brother in law is a recovering drug abuser. He was telling me the last time I was back home about the latest scam he and other drug addicts are/were up to in his area. They would draw their benefits (or as they call it wages), and then go along to the local food bank,so they had more money for drugs and/or drink. I suggest a small part of the rise in food banks would be this very reason. However, in no way am I putting ALL the rise on it. We know the real reason of the sharp rise in their use, and it’s the political decisions by Westminster and the banks. Hats off to the people that run food banks. Oh and keep up the good work Rev.
absolutely disgusting this is a crime against humanity and in an independent Scotland this should never be allowed ,and those who have foisted this on the poor people should face the full power of the Scottish justice system if they dare to step foot in our country.
Having worked in social care for 14 years i am under no illusions that a small percentage of folk abuse the system for one reason or other. There are certainly those on benefit who could be working and contributing to society.
In saying this i am finding the draconian measures increasingly used by Westminster affecting more and more people. They seem to be using a strict sanctions regime to ‘punish’ vulnerable people. More and more of the folk i work with are having benefits stopped for very spurious reasons and to challenge this involves a ‘mandatory reconsideration’ (appeal) which also involves not receiving benefit at all until a decision is made (3-4 weeks)
Many vulnerable people being punished by a brutal regime that we really need to get away from.
And in the words of a great sage (can’t remember his name) … better together my arse!
What always gets me is those complacent,self satisfied and comfortably well off fools who, having a life of complete good fortune, imagine their comforts are entirely due to their superior efforts and abilities and feel justified in attacking and demeaning the poor and the vulnerable.
I have known absolute paragons who have gone off the rails and fallen into hard times and reactions have been very different case by case. Some cope and some can’t. And it very rarely their fault because we are all different with different strengths and weaknesses and there is not a lot we can do about it – except put out a helping hand whenever we can.
I would take some of our smug and intolerant jury and drop them into an African township without any money and just wait to see how long it would take for them to start stealing or doing a bit of prostitution
Anne, I cannot leave someone sitting on the cold street in Dunfermline with nothing whilst I have a full cupboard at home, I had the same problem when I lived in Edinburgh, I had a hard time walking the length of Princes Street and not give something to what was in my eyes the most deserving, and in my eyes they all were, so without a lots of money I had to often avert my eyes. I hate what this country has become, that the young often get flung out because they cannot get jobs. I thought that this was something which had been left to history, my Dad was made unemployed aged fifteen in 1925, he finally got a job carrying coal to keep his Dad from doing exactly that, throwing him out the house. Now we have people on zero hours contracts, something Mr Cable thinks suits some people, news for you Cable these things suit nobody but the employer, if they were so marvellous people would have been clamouring for them. People Mr Cable used to queue outside the dock or factory gates for a days work Mr Cable, we got rid of that.
I hear the wife of flipper has taken up twitter. If this is true, folks should keep well clear.
Still,Atleast we have the nukes.Atleast we are a “world player”.
Julie, Jim and Co. are doing amazing work @MaryhillBank.
They are providing so much more than food, toiletries and clothing. They also provide friendship, support, advice, a sense of self-respect, and the idea that they are cared about, to the folk who need their help, and I take my hat off to every last one of the volunteers. They give their time, energy, compassion and love to look after people who have come into hard times, often while still at work.
As to the linked article commenters who think that our broken benefits system is fit for purpose, I heard this story at first hand, and it still brought tears to Julie’s eyes, never mind mine. I suggest you try to imagine how you would feel if you hadn’t eaten for three days, and were then faced with a humble tin of beans.
This is the first stage to a thing called “empathy”, which is a pre-requisite for understanding the concept of a sense of community. You should try it. It’s life-affirming, as is the wonderful work that Julie and her cohort are doing.
We will need many more of their ilk when we create our independent nation in September, and one of the goals of our new nation will be to put them out of a job by excising the need for food banks. This will take time, but it can only be achieved by voting Yes.
The Twitter account above will give details of what’s happening, and what is needed or in short supply. For those local to Maryhill, Chapel Street is at the back of MacDonalds, and you will be made very welcome if you want to visit.
Yesterday in London severely disabled people protesting against being sent back into institutions were kettled by about 200 police officers, according to some, outside Westminster Abbey.
DPAC who organised the protest is the sister organisation of the Edinburgh-based Black Triangle Campaign whose logo featured in the splendid infographic “Our Movement” recently published online by Bella Caledonia.
Here is grassroots journalist Kate Belgrave reporting on yesterday’s disgraceful behaviour by the police and clergy –
No god here: just heavy police at the Westminster Abbey #SaveILF protest
28 June 2014
This is just one awful story, amongst the tens of thousands that you won’t hear of.
Without the kindness of friends, I wouldn’t be eating until tuesday too. (if you read this Stu, it’s why I can’t help with the funding, i’m perma-skint)
Regularly, I spend what I have got on making sure my kids (who don’t live with me, only every other weekend) don’t go without, knowing full well that I won’t be eating for a day or two later on.
BTW, keep your sympathies for others. I take responsibility for my own predicament.
Stuart Black’s remark is worth repeating:
This is the first stage to a thing called “empathy”, which is a pre-requisite for understanding the concept of a sense of community.
I often used to wonder when Thatcher was in power how the children growing up then would turn out.Thank God most of them are fine,decent human beings.Then we have the other kind, overpriveleged and uncaring.Understanding nothing about ordinary people, and only concerned with money.
Cameron, Osborne, IDS, and the other millionaires in the Westminster cabinet can only be called evil.I never thought when I was young that this kind of thing would or could ever happen in Britain, yet here we are.
We in Scotland have one chance, and one chance only, to get out of this.If we don’t take it we will condemn ourselves and following generations to even worse.
I am beyond mere anger.
That just enrages me, why is there no system in place to deal with situations like that, it’s amazing how a drug addict in Ayr can pop up on a Saturday and someone will drive from Glasgow with a giro for them.
It’s time we got our priorities correct in this country, you shouldn’t need to be under Social Work etc to get special treatment.this.
Hopefully a YES vote will change
@Kestral
Petition signed.
I heard Edwina Currie on the radio a few weeks ago discussing food banks. She said that she had visited some food banks, and that the people collecting food were better dressed than those making donations.
In other words, she was implying that people only went to food banks to get “something for nothing”.Now where have I heard that phrase before?
Hope they display correctly but the links below show two pictures of Alex Salmond shaking hands yesterday with David Cameron at Armed Forces Day in Stirling.The first picture from The Herald shows a positive and firm handshake with due respect.
The second picture is typical of the type of propaganda used not by the Third Reich
in this instance but by the Daily Record. The same picture also appears in Scotland on Sunday page 4.
Disgraceful.
link to heraldscotland.com
link to dailyrecord.co.uk
I often used to wonder when Thatcher was in power how the children growing up then would turn out.
They turned out supporting Scottish independence consistently in majority, as polls show for the 25-44 age groups.
Signed the petition.
Defo. Fair play to you. many of the folk i see at food banks are mothers with young children. You do your best my man and i respect you for it. But it should never have got to this.You deserve a bit more.
Not the best way to see in a Sunday. Food banks where the decider for me. I am ashamed of what “Great Britain” has become.
I have brought this up to friends before and usually end up shouting at them with the parting word , “one day you’ll need help and only then will it finally sink in that Union is deid”
It is so hard NOT to get angry.
“there is surely no excuse now for anybody who knows the truth, or for that matter ANY Scottish journalist backing up this decrepit, unfair, undemocratic and disgraceful ‘union.”
THIS.
No excuse.
Well said RL.
We’ve got the wealth, the resource and the will in Scotland. On September 19th we’ll have the power to act.
Petition signed Kestral
Petition signed. I also appear to have fluffed the link to my other Maryhill vignette:
link to logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk
Saw Scotland on Sunday in a shop, with a headline about Cameron polticising the Armed Forces, and thought that Johnston Press was improving. But above the Cameron headline there was a large article about a nobody actress whose father is a Clan chief, she lives/lived in a castle and went to private schools in England, giving her absolutely crass views on AS and what Independence would mean. These people are unbelievable. Pity the interviewer didn’t ask her about foodbanks, but no doubt she’d be unaware of their existence. “Let them eat cake” eh?
I have asked the guy who started the petition to let me know how he gets on
If they don’t change their policy I am bl**dy well going to hire a billboard next to the M8 and shame the feck out of the council
Petition signed, Kestral.
I’ve just posted this over on Munguin’s and thought I’d also post it here. I’m too sickened and too angry to write anything else at the moment. ARGH!
I want to say that I really am surprised by that utterly disgusting story about that poor woman and her two kids going without food for four days Tris, however we are talking about a situation that has been allowed to develop by a Tory government ably supported by the totally incompetent and inept Lib Dems. What is really frightening about this whole situation is that the “party of the people for the people”, the Labour party, would have done no better because as we all know they would have made cuts deeper and longer than those made by Maggie, as often said by Labour M.P.’s
Surely people who read this article MUST open their eyes. There is only ONE way to vote in September. Only a YES vote can do anything to stop absolutely disgusting events like this happening. I’m sorry but anyone who reads about that poor woman and does NOT vote YES is in my view nothing short of a cold hearted killer!
When Thatcher said her ambition was to “bring back Victorian values” the general presumption was that it was simply a chunk of politician’s rhetoric. It wasn’t. She was talking about restoring the mindset which now dominates her bastard offspring in the mainstream Political Parties, the MSM, and other organs of “the Establishment”.
Fundamental to this mindset is the almost fanatical dogma that the poor are only poor because they are too lazy, too feckless, too stupid to be anything else. In other words, their mantra is that the poor are to blame for their own poverty.
This brainwashing gives an excuse to the greedy and self-serving to say, “It’s all their own fault” which, when you strip away the crap, really means, “Fuck you, you losers, I’ve got mine.”
I have real nightmares about the inevitable consequences if a No vote is returned. We can’t afford to carry on any longer as things are. We have the duty to our children and to our neighbours to do our damndest to secure a Yes vote.
Beyond disgusting.
Thanks for the link Kestral.
Petition duly signed. I also left a wee rant in the comments section for good measure, not that I’m known for having a rant you understand. 😛
Only one way to help the British people now – vote Yes.
It seems Dee White who as mental health problems, but which hasn’t stopped her being monstered and widely demonised by the mainstream news media as some kind of benefit scrounger, has been assaulted by four people whilst on a holiday paid for by her friends.
Once upon a time rest cure holidays in warmer climes were regarded as a beneficial treatment for certain categories of chronically people too.
Benefit Claimant Bashing- The New Bloodsport
blueannoyed
28 June 2014
Let’s look at the comments in the newspapers.
Yes we will have a small section who spend money on drink or drugs. However should the children suffer? Should their partner suffer? Should they suffer?
For me in every case the answer is no.
The new benefit system is going to give them their rent money – why would you set them up to fail if they have problems managing their finances?
Why does the government allow payday loan companies to profit from their misery instead of supporting low interest loans via community projects?
Why do we not have more support for those who need drink/drug abuse help?
Why do we not have a living wage that would lift many out of the need for welfare support?
It was only months ago a Labour MP proudly stated that Labour was founded to help WORKERS not the unemployed(I suppose he is also excluding the mentally and phyisically handicapped.)
I will never accept a NO vote now as the settled will of the people. If we do have enough people driven by fear/self interest or stupidity to vote NO then I’ll will start to canvas for a referendum on the 19th. Not for me but for people being forced to live in the dark ages once again.
The Tories are beyond salvation. The LibDems supported this drive and please remind everyone you talk to of that. As for the Labour Party – by not working for a better society. For not being on the same side as every socialist group in Scotland – you are beneath contempt.
I’m angry!
Sorry for going O/T but we were unable to make it up to Pacific Quay so instead we are watching it live here. 😛
link to new.livestream.com
Lesley-Anne
Thanks for the link – watching from Offshore.
Lesley-Anne
Thanks for the link – watching from Offshore.
Glad to be of service Clootie, stay safe out there, we need you back safe and sound and in one piece for September. 😉
@Lesley-Anne
Couldn’t make it either but got it live streaming. Looks like a great turnout. Great enthusiasm as well 🙂
You really have to wonder what is going through the solitary brain cell currently occupying BBC inside Pacific Quay. 😉
You keep thinking you won’t be shocked by anything you read, then something like this comes along.
And when you see a resurgence in television that lionised the “good old days” like Downtown Abbey, you start to wonder if we’re being conditioned to accept such values.
I’m proud to be Scottish, that’s the mantra embedded in the Scottish DNA, when it should be I’m ashamed to be Scottish whilst a third of my fellow Scots live in degrees of poverty 14% living in relative poverty 15% in absolute poverty where innocent children are born into a life of deprivation with nothing to look forward to than a joyless life. Scotland a country where the social contract for the wellbeing has demonstrably failed, let down by successive Westminster Governments that have drained Scotland of her natural wealth to be distributed in more vested interest areas. It has always been said to provide for the future we must learn from the past , well nothing could be more obvious that the past has failed the financial requirements to support an equitable humane social society, a society where no child should suffer abuse or neglect, no child should go malnourished or ill clothed, where all children should be embraced and cared for by the whole Scottish society and feel the esteem and pride of being a part of that family and then having a real reason for saying I’m proud to be Scottish. If Scots really care about the wellbeing of their land and each other they have only one option to validate that care by committing to becoming a Sovereign Nation again and taking control of her natural wealth and assets and directing funds in a manner that delivers a secure future for all aspects of Scottish society where once again shared pride and joy of association with your fellow Scots would be the hallmark of a Scottish life.
I am a Scot living in Australia for over sixty years, hearing of that family’s plight moved me to tears along with the emotions of anger and frustration for my people and homeland. I pray my tears of sorrow could be changed to tears of joy that I would shed If I could return to walk the surface of a Sovereign Scotland, my eternal home.
@Dick Gaughan
I have real nightmares about the inevitable consequences if a No vote is returned. We can’t afford to carry on any longer as things are.
That is how I feel as well. Unfortunately there is undoubtedly people at the heart of the British establishment, such as Darling and co, who know fine well the direction we are going if we stay in the British state. They know this, and yet are still prepared to pretend that all the risk is with a Yes vote.
Thought for today!
UKIP Channel, sorry BBC, reported that there were 35,000 at yesterday’s AFD in Stirling. Meanwhile else where on this site, actually here link to wingsoverscotland.com, Stu debunks that claim and gives a more accurate figure of 3,000.
Now at Pacific Quay it was hoped to get 1,800 protesters today. Who knows maybe the BBC will report there being 35,000 attending the event today. 😛
This WOS foodbank feature got a mention on the online livestream from the protest outside BBC’s Glasgow HQ, by Mark Coburn @IndyCyclist.
Here is a thread comment –
“Mark is doing 500 miles around Scotland to raise money for events target £5250 will donate excess to Maryhill Food Bank featured in a story on wingsoverscotland this morning”
This is the most heart wrenching item, I’ve ever read.
I cried when I read this.
As Defo says at 12.22pm
If it wasn’t for the kindness and community spirit of people and friends in Kinghorn I would not be able to eat most of the time; lucky to eat daily as it is.
The generosity of some people can bring one to tears and then the attitudes of others (you’re all scroungers) can bring tears of a different kind.
Yes is the only hope.
As someone who emigrated to Canada as a small child I grew up with a romanticised view (The Scottish Chiefs)of the country that survived even tartan wallpaper and a family member so desperate to lose their Doric accent that my friends asked me if they were Russian. Then I saw “Culloden” and had my world shaken by a heavy dose of reality but then it was followed by my first visit back at 19 and I fell in love with the country and people.
I sincerely hope that Scotland will “be a nation again” but the fact that Scots have more or less supinely allowed the necessity for food banks to even exist makes me wonder if Scotland deserves this. Oh, and letting Kintyre become a nuclear dump and Faslane a nuclear accident just waiting to happen. How did the words to the song go ” arise and be a nation again.” Where has this “arising ” been for so many years?
All blessings to those who run the food banks and provide those in need with what they need. Shame on the wilted “flowers of Scotland” who have stood by and let this become necessary. It looks like a “Yes” vote is the last chance to avoid well-deserved relegation to the dustheap of history.
There is a special place in Hell reserved for those who have instigated this state of affairs.
And also for those who sit in smug, self righteous judgement of those suffering under the jackboot of the most inhumane regime this island has suffered since before living memory.
Would more than happy to help this woman out with some basic stuff to help her out this situation
“Supinely allowed” my eye: look at the suppression of the Labour Movement in the early part of the 20th century, the constant dismissal of the Home Rule Movement which has persisted for centuries, the fact that we still have a House of Lords in the 21st freaking century. We aren’t “allowing” this to happen – it’s been beaten out of our collective spirit. We just have to bring it back.
Absolutely disgraceful in this age!! i believe it is time for Scotland to disband the union and go it alone. Lets be honest, we have it all to go alone in the world. I’m sure our politicians are no were near as corrupt as those in Westminster…I send this plea to all Scots to take a serious look at what is happening in this UK at present and research the pros and cons regarding independence. We should, as a people, get rid of this inferiority complex/insecurity we have about going it alone. LETS HEAR THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND MAKE THE RIGHT CALL REGARDING OUR FUTURE!!
@frazer allan whyte
I have no doubts as to your complete sincerity but you obviously have no idea just how insulting that post is to the many of us who have spent our lifetimes fighting the very things you accuse us of “supinely allowing”.
Your support is greatly appreciated, but perhaps it’ll be better received if you learn something of the real history of Scottish working class struggle.
Nobody is “supinely” allowing the government in London to wage its vast campaign of human rights abuses against the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. People are resisting and fighting back. It’s not their fault if the likes of the BBC refuse to cover grassroots politics and even carry out a news-blackout of huge anti-austerity marches in London.
I have already posted further up the thread reportage by Kate Belgrave of the protest by some of the most severely disabled people in Britain yesterday at Westminster Abbey. They were surrounded by 200 police and targeted with heavy-handed police tactics, which is putting it mildly. If they aren’t being airbrushed from our news then anti-government austerity activists are being beaten off the streets by dubious policing methods. Remember Ian Tomlinson?
The Battle of Westminster Abbey protests are fully supported by the YES supporting Edinburgh-based Black Triangle Campaign whose logo is incorporated into the prominent DPAC logo on the following webpage –
A selection of tweets from the Battle of Westminster Abbey. 28th June 2014 #SaveILF
Independent Living Fightback
Note to self, 1) when making contributions to the food bank make sure cans have rings or key access.
2) work harder for Yes
@Kestral
Petition signed.
@Dick Gaughan says: 29 June, 2014 at 1:33 pm
“When Thatcher said her ambition was to “bring back Victorian values” the general presumption was that it was simply a chunk of politician’s rhetoric”.
Strange you should use that exact phrase, Dick. Way back then I wrote this wee satirical poem.
WHO CARES
Mrs.Thatcher in her wisdom , with her supercilious way
Was advocating policies, which we still have to-day.
Saying, “We should have the values of Victorianic eras”,
In doing so the lady wrote “A Comedy of Errors”.
Saying “Let the people buy their homes, the ones which are now rented”,
She started up the homelessness, which should have been prevented.
By closing down the hospitals, for handicapped and halt,
She swelled the ranks upon the streets, compounding thus her fault.
She took away the benefit from those who were not wealthy.
She stole away the welfare rights from those who were not healthy.
She gave the sick, the old, the lame, and those who were not well,
Victorianic values, —- and Victorianic hell.
When author, Charles Dickens, wrote about those far off times
His contemporary poets wrote their parodies and rhymes.
Most wrote about The Workhouse and The Poorhouse and the Jail,
But the warning that they tried to give, they wrote to no avail.
So who cares now for those poor souls they’ve put out in the cold
And who cares now for sick and lame, and for the very old ?
“Why Charity”, I hear you say, “If you might be so bold”,
But charity’s selective and very — very cold.
So who cares for the orphans, now they’ve shut the institution,
And who cares for the widows, when there is no restitution,
And who cares for the chronic sick, throughout the night and day?
“So who cares anyway” it seems I hear the heartless say.
They closed the steelworks and the Pits, the Shipyards and, alas,
They privatized the Dockyards, and the Water and the Gas.
They privatize Electric Power, they sold the T.S.B.
The Ordnance, The Telephones, now private jails we see.
A business sold would then “Trim Down” but what was meant, of course,
Was “Realizing Assets” and then “Cutting Down Workforce”
Their economic miracle could never reach it’s goal
For every little step they took threw people on the dole.
Each person on the dole would have less money then to spend,
Just one less customer on which some business could depend.
As business lost it’s customers the answer was, of course,
Another business “Trimming Down” upon it’s own workforce.
See how the spiral spreads and grows, see how it goes around
Accelerating all the time while going down and round.
I fear for Britain and her poor, I worry how she fares,
My voice cries in the wilderness, “Who Cares ? Who Cares? Who Cares?
Bi Robert, (Auld Bob), Peffers.
A mother and her two children had not eaten on Saturday, Sunday and Monday?
In Scotland in 2014?
And 50% or more are going to vote for this situation to continue or almost certainly get worse just because they only worry about themselves or don’t care?
What are we going to do if there is a No vote, or more likely a Yes vote which will be rigged to show otherwise?
@Robert Peffers,
Love your poem Bob, thanks for posting.
You’ve got a wonderful way with words.
If the post was insulting, I am sorry but the facts are the real insult. As Rock posted “In Scotland in 2014?” I’m sorry but the history of this or that class struggle are irrelevant when confronted by the reality of what that woman went through – blame the BBC (and there’s lots of blame to apportion there)or this or that politician but the simple fact is that this woman and her children were starving – In Scotland – Right now.
I’ve had close connections with both communist and capitalist versions of countries (East & West Germany before the fall of the wall)and nobody on either side actually starved. Would you like a long list of European countries where not only is there zero starvation but the very existece of such a thing in this day in age would cause people to rise up and actually do something about it? In Scotland – which I hope and believe will vote YES – at least a third of the country seems to be ready to accept this state of affairs. Where is the social consensus that such humliating poverty is intolerable? What is the nation doing about it?
Sorry about the late reply I live eastwards in a different time zone.
Hi folks,
I’m not trying to hijack this thread so apologies in advance if anyone is offended. But – any chance some of you kind people could repost this link on your Facebook or Twitter accounts to try and raise a wee bit of cash for the Yes Stirling trailer campaign?
link to igg.me
We’ve just started this campaign and are short of our target but your extraordinary generosity will make a difference as it has in the past for so many other similar worthy causes on this site.
Folks, we really need these trailers. They are vital to the success of Yes winning the Yes vote in the Stirling constituency. Please give what you can!
frazer allan whyte,
“In Scotland – which I hope and believe will vote YES – at least a third of the country seems to be ready to accept this state of affairs. Where is the social consensus that such humliating poverty is intolerable? What is the nation doing about it?”
First, I think there is a selfish minority, perhaps 20%, which is doing well and doesn’t care much about others’ problems.
Second, there is the Labour party – wolves in sheep’s clothing. It is in their interests to retain the humilating poverty and ignorance as a votebank, about 30%, for its own vested interests.
Labour in Scotland has been the root cause of Scotland’s problems for 50 years or more. They have repeatedly fooled and exploited decent people and prevented a social consensus from ever emerging.
But thanks to the internet and a massive grassroots campaign, Labour’s lies are being exposed on a daily basis.
The people of Scotland have woken up like never before. A Yes vote is very likely but the fear of many is that it will be rigged by the British Establishment.
The grassroots of the nation are doing a lot but you won’t know how utterly corrupt and undemocratic the Westminster system is. It ruthlessly puts down anyone who dares to build a social consensus for the betterment of the poor.
I mentioned this earlier on O/T so heres the link to indycyclist Mark Coburn’s latest fundraiser. He’s looking to raise £5350 to help set up Yes Campaign Bases, but, having read Stu’s article ‘4 Days Later any funds raised above that total will go to Maryhill Foodbank. Lets help to get him well over that target so that, at least for a few days, Maryhill Foodbank has some funding.
link to indiegogo.com
’49 kids in less than two hours.’
That phrase will haunt me forever.
That steels me to absolutely knock my pan in to create the social justice the people of Scotland deserve.
Was at Bannockburn and Pacific Quay this weekend and had a wonderful time at both events and actually met (and signed WofS banner) bloggers/posters from this site. I am a lurker and only tuned into this site at the beginning of this year. Have found it to be a crutch when I’m feeling down and an inspiration to help fight for our YES vote. The blog above has moved me to actually post something like all the comments I as a mother am horrified that this situation exists. Words fail me! I wish I hadn’t gone to these events and instead donated to the food banks! However we are opening up a YES hub in Helensburgh and I am going to ask for a collection point to be made for donations to the centre. The least we can do…
Hope your Yes Hub in Helingsburgh does not coincide with the Orange Walk: just wot the toon needs and Orange walk and Trident.
I have just bumped into two Daily Mail reading morons on Facebook who insist, with not a shred of evidence to back their view, that there is no such thing as poverty in Scotland by standard definitions of poverty.
I’m going to beat them up with this post.
I have heard horror stories from one of the foodbanks in rich and proseprous Aberdeen:
A woman and her children who had to walk two miles (one way) to the foodbank because she could not afford the bus fare.
A guy who has been having cold showers for three months because he cannot afford to heat the water.
This is happening in rich and prosperous Aberdeen, folks, where certain councillors are very unhappy about the foodbanks because if tarnishes the good image of the city.
Just to add on to my last post here; the necessity for food banks in this supposedly prosperous country does not make me sad.
It makes me angry. People should not have to live like this. No one, anywhere, should be so strapped for cash that they can’t afford to eat. No one. It is wrong. It is a stain on this country that these place have to exist at all, and we all need to work to make the need for them disappear.
We start with a Yes in September, because there’s a clear connection between actions by Westminster and increasing use of foodbanks, and then we make damn sure every future Scottish Government gets the idea that unless there are changes made to protect the weakest in society and improve the standard of living for everyone they can, and will, be replaced.
I don’t think the SNP need be reminded; I think they’re on course to make a big difference assuming it’s a Yes. But there’s no guarantees that the government will always be a socially aware entity, not in Scotland any more than anywhere else.
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Saturday 27th September 2014
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