POLITICS N STUFF

The Lib. Dems. have been showing their colours, two of their councillors in Burnley supported a BNP candidate for a post on a regeneration project, there's not much to add is there, the cuddly Lib. Dems. eh.

SELECTIONS - Are complete and Labour have candidates in place for the council and Holyrood elections in May, including me, we have a a lot to be proud of and a lot still to do, Ren. Council has, under Labour built new schools and social work facilities for the elderly and those with learning difficulties as well as increasing the numbers of foster carers. We have made great progress on environmental issues and crime prevention, if elected we will continue to deliver on our promises and commitments, I confidently ask for therefore for your vote.
TRIDENT - I attended a meeting in the Methodist Halls in Paisley which was addressed by Buce Kent of CND, he spoke eloquently about the future of our own and other societies around the world and our relationships with nuclear arms and those who have them.
Why are some countries allowed these weapons and others not ? some very simple questions are sometimes the hardest to answer aren't they and, this one is a cracker. The response we hear often is that some countries and some leaders are unstable and dangerous and therefore are not suitable to have such weapons, this is of course the 'western' response, let's take a step back.

Along with a great many others I do not regard President Bush as a suitable person to be anywhere near any combustible materials let alone nuclear weapons, but he is. Unstable countries ? Iran ? North Korea ? how about the most volatile, aggressive, provocative place on the planet, Israel, if there is to be a major confrontation involving huge war machines and nuclear weapons my money is on it starting with Israel, yet, they don't get treated like the others mentioned. I believe that anyone who thinks that there are more dangerous states in the world than Israel has not been paying attention.

Trident is not a defence, it's a provocation, the cost £100, BN. would more than protect jobs and last but not least, it's evil and immoral, our efforts should be concentrated on international talks through the UN to get rid of such weapons from every corner of the globe with no exceptions, none.

A FACTORY VISIT & SNP's FALSE ANGER

09.00 Monday, off to Haven Products Hillington as part of the Scrutiny Board's investigation into work for those with physical or learning disabilities. This firm, approx 120 workers has 85% with disabilities and they are supplying goods and services to their clients at a profit, some of their clients are big players in the whisky industry.

The factory hums with activity and there is a great atmosphere, there is no room for sentiment here and none is sought, while speaking to some of the workforce a small bell rang and they immediately went off for the tea break, I wasn't that important anyway.

They are paid more than the minimum wage and they co-operate with each other to get to work through lifts etc, this is the the kind of place which keeps me in politics. I'm proud to say that it was opened by Angela Eagle Labour MP and the Govt. helped to set it up. I learned two other interesting things here one is that people with these difficulties find it far easier to get into the world of work in the USA and that the absence level at 'Haven' is less than 2% while in so called normal industries it is between 5 & 6% well done to them and to the USA.

NATWATCH - Liberal Democrat 'wee Jamie Stone' usually a nonentity, just called the SNP xenophobic, this caused a huge petted lip to appear on the face of the great charlatan Salmond, he was furious, or was he ? has he never heard this before about the SNP and nationalism in general ? was his anger synthetic ? Wee Jamie would of course have been more accurate if he had said anglophobic which means a hatred of the English.

The SNP have been trying to work a flanker over recent years about this, they realised that being anti English looked every bit as bad, and stupid as being anti Asian or anti French. The words English or England were to be banned, instead of 'English rule' we get 'southern rule' clever eh ? 'orders from England' become 'orders from over the border' devious or what ? 'English laws' became ' London diktat' pathetic eh ? the truth of this matter is that they have never changed, if England didn't exist neither would the SNP.

The antipathy they have towards the English is the only glue which keeps this sack dwelling bunch of fighting ferrets together. Alex wouldn't mind a defeat, it would allow him to continue living where he is happiest, well away from the fundies and nasties in London.

WHAT'S HAPPENING ?

Well, Palestine is still occupied by Israel for a start, this conflict sees 10 Palestinians killed for every 1 Israeli - Israel continues to ignore UN resolutions - Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes it, following a visit, as worse than South Africa under Apartheid. A call has gone out supported by eminent people around the world including some brave Israelis for an apartheid style 'boycott' on Israel Myself, my family and many friends and comrades stuck loyally to the 'boycott' which helped bring down the evil South African regime. I'm doing the same again and I urge others to do the same. An organisation of British Jews has also called for this, to try to rescue the reputation of the Jewish people - read about them at www.pacbi.org
CUBA - The number of countries who now oppose the U.S. embargo on CUBA is 183 - those supporting the pathetic Bush and America are, ISRAEL ( surprise surprise ) Palau ? and the Marshall Islands. Meanwhile companies such as USA computer firms are afraid to sell goods to you if you are suspected of having anything to do with this small island which they fear so much.
KILTY KILTY CAULD BUMS - Our Scottish soldiers are in the news, they are being vilified and hung out to dry by the same papers who love to call them brave heroes and fearless Scot's warriors (it sells papers). Implying that putting on a military uniform makes you de facto brave and fearless is garbage, some will be cowards, some will be brave, some will be scared and some will be fearless, it's also dangerous propaganda. The ruling classes have been using this lie throughout history Wilfrid Owen said it better - "the old lie-Dulce et decorum est - pro patria more" (it's a sweet and honourable thing to die for the father land) these young men are using recreational drugs, big waow ! so do politicians and pop stars. Many of them are in the army because of unemployment, lack of qualifications and no prospects, if my next stop was Baghdad I would probably want to party as well, why does our society have to lie about this ? Some things never change, who said "I don't know what the enemy think of our troops but they scare the life out of me, they are the scum of the earth" that of course was the great British hero Wellington at Waterloo where all his front line troops were officially drunk on neat gin to stiffen their resolve. These squaddies and indeed 'the scum of the earth' at Waterloo would have to sink very low indeed to get to the level of the journalists who are writing this stuff. Finally, some French prisoners at Trafalgar were dressed as clowns because their fleet sailed from Cadiz where they had been 'press ganged' from a visiting circus. The British Navy was no better, there's nothing honourable about all this, it's squalid and barbarous, war zones are where young soldiers learn that adrenalin is brown.

SMOKE FILLED ROOMS & PROVOST'S AWARDS

Friday night and two events, first, candidate selection for May elections at the fantastic new St. Benedict's School, a monument to the determination of the Labour Council, despite sneers from my venerable 'china' old Bill Martin, (ex SNP now mighty leader of the Independents, two of, him, and the boay Vassie)who said we would never carry out our promises on education but we are doing it. Linwood now has two excellent council candidates in place Anne Hall & David Lavery who will, with the help of our outstanding MSP Wendy Alexander provide Linwood with honest and hard working representatives.

On to Paisley Town Hall for the Provost's awards ( Provost Burns's last time ) These awards have been a great success and they provide members of our community with recognition for their efforts in helping others. I suspect that most people are, like me, amazed at the way some of these folk manage against the odds to live their lives in such an energetic and confident way. From my own ward of Ferguslie Park we had Margaret Canning sponsored by Maggie McCulloch the chief Elf and the Christmas tree from the photo of the celebrations at the Tannahill centre, printed in a previous blog. These two have the energy of ten and the commitment to match, it was great to see Margaret Canning being awarded for her massive contribution to the people and the area of Ferguslie, I'm proud to be her councillor. The whole evening is a humbling and rewarding experience, well done to our council staff led as always by the able and diligent Drew Gibson ( a benevolent martinet on these occasions ) Previous luminaries, Provosts Nancy Allison and John McDowall were in attendance, drink was taken and a great time was had, as they say by all.

FITBA AND OTHER SPORTS

I'm taking a break here - I watched the England Spain match the other night - Spain were streets ahead, they won easily and had the added bonus of getting away without serious injuries. Chauvinism and Nationalism were there in all their ugly moods, the English lads ran about in ever decreasing circles trying to kick the Spanish players before a baying crowd, they managed to look hapless and furious by turns. I don't like international sport, it's meant to foster friendship but it now seems to stand in for war between some teams, the Spanish are no better when they are at home, their reputation for racism is dreadful. Sport should be played between opponents on a level playing field, that means I'm afraid that games between Scotland and Brazil or England etc are meaningless, same as the Olympics, they are now national competitions which means that the USA will always be first since the break up of the USSR - I do like boxing, opponents of equal weight and height etc seems much fairer. I had a go at it many years ago and I quickly found out that boxing should not be included in any argument about what is the toughest sport. I remember going in against a guy from school, we were wearing boxing gloves like pillow cases, this guy was as quite as a mouse and didn't associate with me or the rest of the football crowd, we thought we were ' the boys', anyway I managed to be still standing at the end, some achievement, believe me, he hit me so many times I thought I was surrounded, I asked my trainer to check that he wasn't hitting me with his corner stool, happy days eh ? or was it daze ? it gave me an insight though into phsycology - I bashed him and he bashed me and I thought 'what's that all about'.

BLOGGING FOR SOME STRANGE KIND OF PEOPLE - IT'S LIFE BUT NOT AS WE'VE KNOWN IT

The better I get at this computing lark the more I am able to find and read other 'blogs' this, unfortunately has a serious downside. I write a blog so I am fair game for anyone who wants to challenge my opinions and I'm no shrinking violet so why should I care? well, it's not me I'm worried about, I don't like the abuse I get but I know I have to live with it. The problem is the quality of what is written, it is depressing, most of it is reactionary stuff and very predictable but it seems to be written by inadequates who are consumed by hatred. I would compare most of them with people who, years ago before blogging, used to get their kicks by writing anonymous poison pen letters particularly to vulnerable people, ( someone is watching you type of thing ) I suppose though that blogging provides a kind of safety valve for them, who knows what some of them might get up to if they couldn't take out their frustrations in this way. I wonder if the figures for certain kinds of crime have dropped since the advent of blogging? there is the possibility of course that figures for these things might go up when some folk start blogging and get themselves into a state of, well, what kind of state ? you would need to read some of it to see what I'm getting at I can't say more in a popular family blog like this. I, and now, to a lesser extent my family, still get sent horrible stuff, mainly racist, lurid and threatening because some folk don't like my opinions and blogging has liberated them. Find out what I mean by accessing it for yourself, try googling Cllr. Terry Kelly and go into some of the blogs which are attacking me, use the links which are there on their blogs and make up your own minds, be warned though it's not for the faint hearted and could damage your opinion of your fellow human beings.

DOING TIME

The most depressing place in the world is a prison, I visit Barlinnie as part of my duties as a councillor and, every time I go there I come away depressed, I think of why some of these guys are inside and, believe me some of the reasons are pretty awful. I am then forced to look at their lives and the utter degradation and despair which surrounds them and I can't help being sympathetic, it's a wretched business for all concerned firstly the victims and their loved ones and also the prisoner and his loved ones. Our system is far too concerned with punishment and not enough with rehabilitation that's why the prison door is a revolving one for too many re-offenders, this has too change. It's too soft I hear the reactionaries yell, well, they should check the suicide and attempted suicide rates. here's a question for the hangers and floggers how much does our civilized society spend to feed a prisoner each day ? £10 - £5 - £2 ? well would you believe it's £1. 57p ( this is since 19 97 ) yes, breakfast, lunch, dinner & tea for £1. 57p, luxury eh? There is by far an even bigger scandal in our prisons, a recent Guardian Newspaper investigation revealed that 80% of prisoners in the UK have two or more mental health problems, the vast majority are not being dealt with, in Scotland that's approx. 5,600 out of 7,000 being locked up, many for 23 out of 24 hrs. how must someone who is vulnerable through mental health issues feel after 24 hrs. staring at the wall? this is cruel and indecent. This folks is your modern capitalist society, over the pond the USA is incarcerating a record 2 million plus, with 30 % of the US population black and 80% of prisoners on death row also black, yes, read it again, the figures are right, what's that song again ' home of the brave and land of the free' Who said the free market doesn't work ? you want a sound investment? buy shares in any company which is building prisons, a real growth industry. Visit the prisoner said the lord !