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 !

*** SNP - HAMMER GAYS - YET AGAIN ***

I've written about this before so this won't take long. To all those Gnats who have been taking me to task on my criticisms of the SNP's attitude to the gay community, what are you going to say now ? We were all against exemptions on gay adoption weren't we ? well, the Catholic Church says it will campaign against any party which does not support it's request to be allowed to carry on discriminating against gay people who want to adopt. Salmond and the SNP predictably slither on to scene with a cowardly and opportunistic quick fire policy which will allow Mother Church to continue with it's homophobic bigotry, Catholics of course make up a lot of voters ! can the charlatan Salmond and the SNP really be as low as this ? is there no depth to which they will not sink ? apparently not. MSP's Cunningham, Ewing and the BYU and now this, I can't wait for the gay SNP apologists to write to me again, come on Bravehearts where are your voices ! will you never speak out ? you cowards.

CHILD POVERTY !

I was interviewed by a newspaper today who suggested that 51 % of children in my ward of Ferguslie Park lived in poverty, I persuaded the interviewer that the figure was nonsense. Still there are children who are living below the poverty line and that's a scandal. I once used the example of scientific progress ( man on the moon etc ) to illustrate that there is no excuse for poverty, hunger and disease in today's world, we have the technology and the wealth to fix it. That 'clairwil blog' chose to disingenuously accuse me of attacking science for that, ( read it for yourself ) Anyway I ( personally ) would agree with the 'save the children' report which advocates giving these families more help, £100 in summer and &100 in winter as well as £100 extra in winter for fuel etc. using their figures this comes to approx £1 Billion so, how do we fund it ? well I would tax the wealthy far more, simple eh ? I know you are all shocked by that, but it's the decent thing to do and they can afford it. Winter time means extra expense for fuel, so, utility companies should be told, during the worst parts of winter you will be obliged to give concessionary rates to those in poverty. Family allowance should be raised for the duration of school hols. to compensate for loss of free school meals etc - does this make me a dangerous radical or a man of common sense ? there are other ways, we just have to win the argument.

JOURNALISTIC & POLITICAL STANDARDS

My item below on the execution of Saddam Hussien has been reported in the Paisley Daily Express as controversial ? no one said a word about it to me. The journalist ? even printed my picture next to Saddam's with the word tyrant under his picture and the word ashamed ( completely out of context ) under mine, he could go far with this kind of contempt for truth in one so young, I wonder if he tells his parents that he's a supplier of 3rd world child labour to avoid the embarrassment of admitting to being a Journalist. The truly wretched political coward Cllr. Derek Mackay seemed to be the only person he could find prepared to debase himself by attacking me, knowing as he must that his own leader Salmond and all other leaders agreed with me. When you see a politician behaving in this underhand way you begin to understand why his SNP group are losing members as well as by elections, they, with Derek in charge are rudderless, he has failed the decency test again.

PATRIOTS & SCOUNDRELS

I have never hid the fact that there are some Scots that I can't stand, other countries have these people too, mainly those who choose to display a narrow, romanticised view of their country which doesn't really exist, except of course in the world of marketing where these risible images are used to rip people off. I'd rather tell the truth, warts and all, and take it from there. Tell Jock that he's from a long tradition of brave fighting soldiers and he will charge at the guns, tell Paddy he is from a tradition of the hardest workers on the planet and he'll make you plenty of profit with his hard graft. The bosses have done this throughout history and, some people fall into line with it mainly because they can't handle the truth, which is that their beloved country and it's people have far more in common with people around the world than they would care to admit, such is their desire to feel special, sad but true. Some people don't like me saying these things as well as my claim that my position is far more honest and benefits Scotland far more than theirs. I was told about a blog called 'clairwils' which is a good example of this, read it, and weep for your country, you could not make this poisonous drivel up, reactionary nationalism in it's most puerile form, written it would seem, late on in the pub after a beating by England, if I thought these people were in any way typical of Scots I really would pack it in.

MORE SHAME ON THE WEST FROM IRAQ

Here's an update from Iraq to get all you right wing hangers and floggers salivating. Two of Saddam's closest government ministers were hanged the other day and guess what ? one of them was decapitated by the rope as he dropped, unfortunately for all you reactionary morons out there, the grisly event was not captured on camera. what a shame eh! just think of all the fun you will miss by not being able to gather together for a drink, do some knitting and cheer while watching the video. Still, with two hangings and a decapitation it's been a fun time recently for all you monday morning commandos, civilization my a---

GIN DOBRE POLSKI

The above title means something close to 'good morning/day Poland' from my memory of visiting there a couple of years ago, anyway, it's near enough, and I say this and welcome to those Polish people who have come to Scotland to live and work. Those who would have us believe that workers from Poland and other countries are damaging us are wrong, some are simply mistaken and others more worryingly are malicious and racist, it gives me no pleasure to say it but we do have a problem in Scotland with racism and of course sectarianism. Some Scots, wrongly try to convince themselves and others that this is not the case, this does Scotland a disservice, they are in denial, the problem needs to be highlighted and tackled. The numbers of Poles and others coming here should be celebrated, they bring skills and enthusiasm and they are stimulating our economy and our communities just like Scots do and have done in the past when they go to live elsewhere these emigrants are a bonus and should be greeted and treated as such, I wish them well. I would urge anyone to visit Poland it's a beautiful country with ancient lovely towns and cities and an incredible history, public buildings, churches and museums are simply stunning and a joy to wander around, my favourite place is the historic city of Krakow I intend to go back some day. I have a memory which which will stay with me, in the winter olympic village of Zakopane in the heart of the Tartra Mountains ( V. I. Lenin stayed there once ) I sat at a pavement cafe while my wife went shopping and had coffee with an old, old man who could just about get by in English, it turned out that among a great many other things he had fought as a sixteen year old at the battle of Stalingrad he showed me the medals, an unforgetable encounter, real living history and very happy memories.

FREEDOM & WHISKEY ?

The fellow who writes the above blog takes some beating for pomposity - try it out if you are having trouble sleeping. He complains that I spelt his name wrongly and I also spelt the name of our national drink wrongly, ( he has decided that whiskey is our national drink) Anyway I've taken this too far as they say on Still Game, so I will now spell his name properly if he agrees to change his blog name to represent something closer to the truth. How about it Mr. Ferrar ? how about "BUCKFAST & FREEDOM"

SCOTTISH BLOGGING ROUNDUP ?

The above named site is a self appointed critic of peoples blogs, so what, well, it gives me a chance to let you know what some of these right wing/nationalists/libertarians are like and just how inane and pathetic they can be. Along with some other sites they have made a big ( bogus ) issue of me not posting comments, despite my statement that I would print anything which was not abusive, I also pointed out that I'm not aware of any way to disprove what they say, so they don't have to prove their allegations. Anyway if you read this site which is really quite hard going, you will find this accusation levelled against me, then a wee bit further down you read that they have decided that they are censuring me and I'm to be excluded. Well what are we to make of this ? the brave new world of the libertarian blog didn't take long to buckle did it ? Mr Ferrer of Whiskey & Freedom has done the same, as have others, hardly a robust reaction from these brave ground breakers is it ? give me my old muddle headed mate 'reactionary snob' anytime, he talks absolute rubbish but at least he does it while standing on his feet.

SADDAM'S TRIAL - "AN ASSAULT ON TRUTH AND JUSTICE"

So, who is being quoted above? some Sunni cleric? Mr Galloway MP? Fidel? well, no, it was actually Ramsay Clark, who he? I hear you ask. He's the ex Attorney General of the USA, the last shreds of Western decency were stripped away by this kangaroo court and the subsequent indecent spectacle of his execution. The Vietnam coward Bush described it grotesquely as a "step toward democracy" Come on now, don't be so modest George, it was your blessed saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who delivered him up for you George to smite him, amen. The anti capital punishment countries shamefully hid and did not protest, sordid behaviour or what? how long will it be before we can use 'pay to view' to watch executions? how long before we can pay to be there live? how long before we can pay to pull the lever?, there is an opportunity here for some enterprising capitalist, hell, there's a niche market here boys, what the heck are you entrepreneurs waiting for? Saddam's regime was evil but we in the West are no better after what happened over the last week or so, I feel ashamed of what went on and the blatant dishonesty surrounding the whole ghastly spectacle, I sincerely hope that the cause of abolishing the death penalty is given a boost by these squalid events. As Gandhi once said when asked what he thought about Western civilisation " I think it would be a good idea "