CASH TODAY, HEAVEN TOMORROW

"The love of money," the New Testament teaches in Timothy 1.6:10, "is the root of all evil." But what about some televangelists' fondness for major bling — such as multiple, multimillion dollar estates, luxury cars, vacation homes, exotic trips and private jets? Does that make them, in the words of one author, "pimps in the pulpit?" Many outside the evangelical movement are puzzled by the apparent lack of outrage following reports of high-living, tax-exempt religious broadcasters. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been looking into six mega church pastors and broadcast ministries, requesting financial records. Richard Roberts has stepped down as president of Oral Roberts University following charges that he used the school's resources for family perks, such as a trip to the Bahamas for his daughter. These charges come as no surprise to those within the evangelical world. Such tales of excess and profligacy have been an open secret for years." (Yahoo News, 7 January)
There is an old bible notion that it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. We imagine some of these holy-rollers will be kicking the camels out of the way come judgement day! RD

MAKING KIDS KILLERS

"Potential recruits to the armed forces are given a misleading picture of military life, including the physical risks and ethical dilemmas involved, according to a report published today. ... Britain is the only European country which recruits youngsters into the armed forces from the age of 16, though they cannot be deployed on operations until they are 18. The Ministry of Defence, which last night criticised the report, says this is the only way it can compete in the battle to attract school-leavers. However, today's report says the armed forces draw non-officer recruits mainly from among young people with "low educational attainment and living in poor communities". More than £2bn is invested each year in recruiting and training about 20,000 new personnel to replace those who leave, it adds. ...The report was written by David Gee, a researcher who formerly ran the Quakers' peace and disarmament programme. It was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust." (Guardian, 7 January)
The army and the report may be in disagreement, but what cannot be disputed is the statement that recruitment is aimed at those living in poor communities. Poverty was always the most efficient recruiting sergeant! RD

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

The US primary elections have featured many politicians claiming that US forces in the Middle East are now in ascendancy; alas the death statistics give the lie to that notion.
"Many Americans and Iraqis feel that 2007 was the year the war in Iraq turned around: the “surge” strategy has pacified large sections of the country; previously hostile factions like those of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr and the sheiks in Anbar Province have dropped their opposition or even sided with American and government forces; and the number of insurgent attacks has dropped steadily. Still, numbers don’t lie: for those in uniform, 2007 was the deadliest year since the invasion. The chart below — compiled from data provided by the American and Iraqi governments and news media organizations (the independent Coalition Casualty Count in particular) — gives information on the type and location of each attack responsible for the 2,592 recorded deaths among American and other coalition troops, Iraqi security forces and members of the peshmerga militias controlled by the Kurdish government. Since the data on Iraqi security forces killed are not reported systematically by the Baghdad government, these numbers have been accrued through news reports; the actual number of Iraqi deaths is likely to be much higher. And, sadly, civilian fatalities in Iraq last year were simply too numerous to represent on a single newspaper page." (New York Times, 6 January) RD

THIS IS COMMUNISM?

Socialists have always maintained that countries like Russia and China that have claimed to be establishing socialism were in fact building up state capitalism, and now a pillar of US capitalism agrees with us that China has nothing to do with socialism.
"The spending choices for China's rich are multiplying as quickly as the world's fastest-growing major economy can mint new tycoons. In the latest sign of China's rising upper crust and its growing appeal to international marketers, Robb Report, a self-declared catalogue of the best of the best for the richest of the rich, is making its pitch here with a Chinese-language edition. The 200-plus-page Chinese monthly, published under the name Robb Report Lifestyle, is packed with news, product placements and advertising that promotes elite brands such as Volkswagen AG's Bugatti sports cars and Lürssen yachts to an audience." (Wall Street Journal, 9 January) RD

THE COST OF HEALTH (2)

"Last month, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $19 million to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative to further one of its goals: finding a new drug for African sleeping sickness. Not that $19 million will come close to doing that. Even if a miracle cure is found, it will take lab work and clinical trials that could easily cost $100 million to prove it is really a miracle and not the Vioxx of the African savannah. But the gift spotlights just how tricky the search for new treatments can be when the disease is fearsome but nearly forgotten because its victims are poor and obscure. ...“Sleeping sickness” is too benign a nickname for human African trypanosomiasis, which is caused by a protozoan spread by biting tsetse flies. When the parasites enter the brain, victims hallucinate wildly. They have been known to chase neighbours with machetes, throw themselves into latrines and scream with pain at the touch of water. Only at the end do they lapse into a lassitude so great that they cannot eat, followed by coma and death. About 150,000 people contract the disease each year, but 50 million people in 36 countries live in areas where they are at risk." (New York Times, 8 January)
How typical of capitalism, we have an awful disease but it is not lucrative enough to provide a cure and anyway the victims are all poor! RD

THE COST OF HEALTH

There is an illusion abroad that the NHS is free and available to all, but in fact like everything else inside capitalism health has a price and the wealthier you are the healthier you are likely to be.
"Drug rationing is essential in the NHS, and ministers should back the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) which plays the key role in deciding which ones are worthwhile, MPs will say today in a hard-hitting report. The health select committee will call for more appraisals, not less, by Nice, which has been castigated by patient groups and drug companies whenever it has banned a new drug from the NHS. In a report following an inquiry into the workings of Nice and the fierce opposition it provokes, MPs recommend that all drugs should be given a rapid appraisal by Nice at the time of launch. Those that clearly work well enough and are cheap enough - probably no more than £20,000 a patient a year, which is lower than the current threshold - would be provided by the NHS straight away. More expensive medicines would have to go through a full appraisal which could take more than a year. Kevin Barron, the committee's chairman, said that might have the beneficial effect of encouraging some drug companies to pitch their drugs at lower prices. The drug industry was not pleased. "British patients already have worse access to new medicines than others in Europe," said Richard Barker, the director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry." (Guardian, 10 January) RD

Blair - politican for hire

Tony Blair has taken a part-time post with US investment bank JPMorgan , one of Wall Street's leading banks, part of JPMorgan Chase & Co, a global financial services firm with assets of $1.5 trillion (£760billion) and operations in more than 50 countries. Blair has been employed "in a senior advisory capacity", the bank said ,

Advising the bank on the "political and economic changes that globalisation brings" according to Blair himself .

It is not known how much JPMorgan will pay him, but some estimates say more than $1m (£500,000) a year. The bank said he had a "unique perspective".

Blair would advise the firm's chief executive and senior management team, "drawing on his immense international experience to provide the firm with strategic advice and insight on global political issues and emerging trends... Our firm will benefit greatly from his knowledge and experience," the bank said.

Blair earlier told the Financial Times he planned to take up "a small handful" of similar roles with other companies in different sectors.
"I have always been interested in commerce and the impact of globalisation. Nowadays, the intersection between politics and the economy in different parts of the world, including the emerging markets, is very strong."

As prime minister he was always a representative of the capitalist class and now , without the need to disguise the fact to the British elector , Blair can openly and shamelessly promote world capitalist interests .

Just information ?

If you or anyone you know has one of the "National Entitlement Cards" that are currently used by most people for concession travel on public transport (1/3 off fares for 16-18 year olds & free bus travel for over 60s and disabled) then it's important that you check out this website:

http://www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/snec.html

Basically, the ID database is being set up with these as the trojan horse for this scheme. Download the report and check out the links. Do a bit of research and you'll see what's going on here.

Whether you are for or against the rise of national databases / ID cards and the like,you should give some thought to this as well - the NHS national database (which may be going EU wide).

This'll enable many thousands of people in NHS and elsewhere to access all your health records - even sensitive stuff like abortions or mental health problems. Crazy stuff.

Check out the Big Opt Out.
http://www.nhsconfidentiality.org/?page_id=3


These links show how the NHS care record and Citizens Account (ID file more like) will be linked:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/nhscrgb-4.pdf

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/nhscrgb-paper7.pdf

for the paper 7, this part says it all:

4. The issuing of entitlement cards.. was in effect a pilot for the whole CA system.

Some criticism of the seemingly backdoor ID Card here by Sunday Herald reporter:

http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=18182

Good article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2216772,00.html

This is not just paranoia, don't you agree?

This below is a spoof but could it be the plan, long term?

http://www.visual.basic.freeuk.com/NewProp.pdf

THE DREAMING SPIRES

Whenever we hear of intellectual disputes at Oxford we have this idyllic picture of learned debate on deep philosophic matters, but it turns out instead to be more like a bar room brawl.
"The trials and tribulations of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, have been many in recent times. The bad times, the arguments and the fire and brimstone all began when the college principal, the Rev Richard Turnbull, gave Britain a startling warning to the effect that 95 per cent of the population was bound for hell and damnation "unless the message of the Gospel is brought to them". Embarrassing newspaper headlines followed that address to religious conservatives, and soon there were blazing rows in cloisters which were more used to the tranquil silent study of theological texts. For months hard-line evangelicals, sticking to biblical chapter and verse, battled with liberals over issues such as hell and homosexuality. Then Elaine Storkey, 64, a female theologian at Wycliffe and contributor to BBC's religious slots, had an incendiary "thought for the day". Dr Storkey, who had been forced to leave the college after crossing swords in the religious wars with Mr Turnbull, decided to demand compensation and sue the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, the college president. ...And on it goes. Dr Storkey has accepted around £20,000 from the trustees of the college after it was acknowledged that she had been unfairly dismissed. But she clearly does not intend to leave it there. Instead she has accused Bishop Jones, in his formal capacity as college president, of religious discrimination. But the real target of her ire is the now notorious Mr Turnbull. (Independent, 9 January)
It speaks volumes for the intellectual capabilities of these learned scholars that in a society threatened with world hunger, threats of war and environmental disaster they should choose to debate "hell and homosexuality"! RD

NO IMMIGRATION PROBLEM

Politicians every ready to seek the votes of little-Englanders often speak about the problem of immigrants from abroad coming to this country and causing problems such as housing, medical care and education. We imagine these politicians will completely ignore this type of immigration though. "Lev Leviev, who until a week ago was classified as the richest man in Israel, has joined the growing list of Israeli billionaires who have made their homes in London, where wealthy foreigners are not asked to pay tax on income earned overseas. This month, Mr Leviev officially moved into a bullet-proof house in Hampstead, which he bought for £35m. His near neighbours include several other mega-rich Israeli tycoons who prefer UK tax rates. In Israel, they are liable for tax on all their income, no matter where it is from. ...News of his departure has shocked the Israeli business community and created a political headache for its government, because of the drain of wealth from Tel Aviv to London. Among those who have made their homes in London are Zvi Meitar, the founder of one of Israel's biggest law firms; Benny Steinmitz, a diamond dealer and property tycoon; Yigal Zilka, head of Queenco Leisure International; and the real estate developer, Sammy Shimon." (Independent, 8 January) RD

Disabled Face Poverty

Up to three million people with disabilities in the UK could be trapped in poverty, a study by campaigning group Leonard Cheshire Disability has suggested.

Disabled people are more likely to live in hardship now than a decade ago. The poverty trap is largely due to higher day-to-day living costs for basics needs such as mobility aids, care and transport for people with disabilities which can be up to 25 per cent more than for able-bodied people .

The report, 'Disability Poverty in the UK' finds that disabled people are twice as likely to live in hardship than others. The report says that more than one-third of children living in poverty in the UK live in low-income disabled households.

Mr Parckar warns that while deprivation faced by children and elderly people has received much government attention, the hardship of people with disabilities has not been recognised.

Yet another group of people who suffer poverty . But there should not be league table of "i am more poverty-stricken than thou" and for those who suffer such impoverishment and for those who campaign to eliminate it , be prepared for all those worthy practical proposals by politicians and charity professionals to fall on stoney barren ground .

Blue Monday

A special course is being run to help businesses cope with unhappy workers on the "most depressing day of the year". Experts calculate that 'Blue Monday' will fall on January 21 - the first work day in the last week of January. A team of counsellors from Kirkcaldy in Fife will advise managers of medium-sized businesses on how to spot the symptoms of depression and stress.

Triggers for Blue Monday include the weather and the arrival of the Christmas credit card bill. The formula was calculated from research carried out by Dr Cliff Arnall from the University of Cardiff.
Jeni McCabe from HR consultancy Simple Corporate Resource Solutions said : "Problems can arise with the festivities being over, 'real life' resuming, foul weather, first credit card bills of the year coming through our doors and so on. But in reality these symptoms cause year-round headaches for employers. Our event will help delegates prevent and treat these common workplace ailments. There's no doubt that a happy workforce is a productive workforce."

Every day is a Blue Monday for the world's working class and everyday the capitalist class wants us to be more productive .

Keir Hardie on Migrant Labour

Socialist Courier has previously de-bunked the Keir Hardie myth of his anti-war credentials here and now it is time to dismiss him as a supporter of the international working class and expose his Scots racism .

James Keir Hardie in 1889 said said :-

"Dr. Johnson said God made Scotland for Scotchmen, and I would keep it so" .

Speaking of the Poles at Glengarnock, he said "their habits are very filthy, six or seven males occupying a one-roomed house, and having women to cook for them"

He suggested that the employment of foreigners by British employers should be prohibited, unless they were political exiles or had fled from religious persecution or if they came from countries where the wage rates were the same as in Britain.

Instead of directing his wrath at the capitalist class which exploits and takes advantage of the lack of working class unity , Hardie simply parrots the commonly held mis-conception that it is the poor unfortunate immigrant who is responsible for wage cuts .

Members of the capitalist class don't stay put. They travel freely round the world, from London to Paris, from grouse moor to ski slope, from Caribbean island to Mediterranean cruise, from the chateau in Switzerland to the ranch in Arizona. And no-one dreams of telling them that they can't. Like many laws enacted by the ruling class, restrictions on the crossing of borders really only hit at members of the working class. The apologists for capitalism who try to foment ill-feeling towards "foreigners" landing here, whether they come to escape persecution, or to obtain slightly higher wages, never attack those many members of the upper class who swan about the world as if there were no such thing as state boundaries.

Vultures of War

Young people are being recruited into the Army with misleading marketing . The report, by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, says that recruiters are targeting children as young as seven .

The advertising campaigns used by the Ministry of Defence "glamorise warfare, omit vital information and fail to point out the risks and responsibilities associated with a forces career", says the study. The report's author, David Gee, said: "The literature available to the young glamorises the armed services but does little to show the dangers recruits may face and even less the moral dilemmas they may face..."

One particularly successful advertising programme is "Camouflage", aimed at 13 to 17-year-olds, which includes a magazine, website and interactive games. The language in the recruiting literature and promotional DVD is so sanitised, a report says, that one brochure, "Infantry Soldier", does not even mention the words “kill” or “risk”.

A common tactic, is to “emphasise the game-playing character of battle to attract children by blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality”.

The report, "Informed Choice? Armed Forces recruitment practice in the UK", says: “The literature rarely refers to the dangers of combat and never mentions the risk of being killed, seriously injured or chronically traumatised. The absence of the word ‘kill’ suggests a policy decision to avoid it.”

Potential recruits can also be confused or misled in other ways, it says: “A soldier is obliged to serve for at least four years and three months (or up to six years in the case of under18s) with no right to leave once three months have passed. [But] this is omitted from the brochure and video.” The differences between civilian and military life are not made clear, it adds. “Readers are told that there is ample free time and personal freedom.” In reality, the training programme involves “a tough regime of discipline. Trainees face relative isolation from family and friends for several months and can be posted to active service overseas immediately after training.”

Socialist Courier has always stated the only war worth fighting is the class war

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

The rising threat of mortgage foreclosures and credit card debts has lead some commentators to forecast a gloomy economic future, but this is not a universal view as one up-market manufacturer explains.
"Any talk of a downturn in UK manufacturing seems very distant to Ian Robertson, chairman of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the upmarket UK vehicle maker owned by BMW of Germany. In 2007, Rolls-Royce’s plant in Goodwood, West Sussex, is likely to make just under 1,000 cars, a quarter up on 2006, while in 2008 Mr Robertson is pencilling in further growth of at least 10 per cent." (Financial Times, 27 December) RD

AN ILL-DIVIDED WORLD

That we live in a crazy society where millions subsist on less than a $1 a day, while millionaires spend fortunes on crazy whims is well illustrated by this news item.
"One of the most famously flawed stamps in U.S. history sold for $825,000 to a New York man who bought it slightly cheaper than the record price another "Inverted Jenny" copy fetched at auction last month. The rare 1918 24-cent stamp, depicting an upside-down Curtis JN-4 biplane known as "Jenny," was sold privately this week to a Wall Street executive who did not want to be identified. Heritage Auction Gallerie’s president Greg Rohan, who brokered the sale, said the buyer is the same collector who lost an auction last month in which another "Inverted Jenny" sold for $977,500. Rohan said his client, whom he described as not being a rare stamp collector, was glad to get another chance at the prized misprint. "I suspect he's going to enjoy owning it and showing it to a few close friends," Rohan said." (Yahoo News, 27 December) RD

TEN WASTED YEARS

Socialists have always stressed that supporting schemes of reforms will not fundamentally change the nature of capitalism and here comes an official capitalist institution whose findings back up that view.
"There are 1.4 million children living below the poverty line in Britain, even though at least one of their parents has a job. Despite the changes to taxes and benefits, and the introduction of the national minimum wage, the number of poor children in working households is no lower than in 1997, a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research says. (Times, 3 January) RD

Definitely not for the homeless

House hunting for a new home ??

10. 2 OSWALD ROAD EDINBURGH
Some buyers are looking for a house they can make their mark on, others are looking for a home that has already been renovated to the highest standard. This traditional Victorian stone villa in the perennially popular Grange area is in the latter category. From the outside, it has a traditional appearance, but the inside has been made over with a light, contemporary feel and state-of-the-art fixtures and fittings. It has a cinema room and substantial Victorian conservatory, and a guest flat was recently added above the triple garage.SOLD FOR £3,500,000 (April 07)

9. 37 DRUMSHEUGH GARDENS, EDINBURGH
A former architect's office over seven floors, this property was converted by its former owners into a family home. The house is now one of the biggest in the West End of Edinburgh and includes a fully-equipped gym with stunning panoramic views over the city. The garden looks out on to Dean Village and the Water of Leith, while the front of the house has views of the castle. Converting former offices into top end residential homes is one of the big trends at the top end of the market.Blair Stewart, who is head of residential sales for Strutt and Parker, said: "The beauty of the West End is the easy access to the financial district and to the airport."SOLD FOR £3,500,000 (Jan 07)

8. 22 HERMITAGE DRIVE, EDINBURGH
Buyers are sometimes willing to pay a premium for homes that have not been modernised and renovated to someone else's taste – which is one of the reasons this Edwardian property raised more than a million over the asking price.Properties in Hermitage Drive come on the market rarely and before it went up for sale, Allanton, built in 1904, had been in the same family for 40 years. A fine redstone property, it still retained a lot of the original features but was ripe to be renovated. It also features a ground-floor annexe.SOLD FOR £3,729,500, Oct 2007

7. GREEN GABLES, CALEDONIAN CRESCENT, GLENEAGLES
The fashion here is for huge American-style modern mansions, but there are a few older homes from the 1920s when the street was originally built.Green Gables, a large traditional family home, which dates from that period, is on one of the biggest plots on this private road, which enjoys a peaceful wooded setting.Recently sold, it is likely to be extensively remodelled or perhaps even demolished if the buyers want a home to compete with the vast marble mansions of their nearest neighbours.SOLD FOR £3,750,000 (Sept 07)

6. STRATHEARN LODGE, CALEDONIAN CRES, GLENEAGLES
Caledonian Crescent, overlooking the famous golf course, is the new must-have address for Scotland's multimillionaires.Built in 2004, Strathearn Lodge is, by our reckoning, the most expensive modern home in Scotland. With marble floors and a bright airy feel, it has everything the modern tycoon needs, with four huge bedroom suites, a games room, cinema and built-in three-car garage. Homes in this private crescent benefit from high security, with houses hidden behind huge hedges and electronic gates. SOLD FOR £3,750,000 (Dec 07)

4. WOODCROFT, BARNTON AVENUE, EDINBURGH
There were people who said David Murray had paid over the odds for Woodcroft when he bought it at the end of 2006. But he proved them wrong by selling ten months later at a big profit. The official sale of Barnton Avenue came on the same day as The Scotsman concluded its series of Scotland's most expensive homes in 2006 – so it was too late to make our list. But at the time, it broke all records as Scotland's first £4 million home.The new buyer was rumoured to be an Edinburgh businessman.SOLD FOR £4,500,000 (Oct 06)

5. FORDELL CASTLE, NEAR DUNFERMLINE, FIFE
A Fife property record was set at the end of last year with the sale of 16th- century Fordell Castle, which has been renovated to become a luxurious family home –owning it also traditionally confers the title of Baron and Baroness of Fordell. Set in 210 acres of woodland and formal gardens, it has an imposing great hall and oak-panelled bedrooms. Set in the gardens is St Theriot's private chapel, an aviary and an icehouse. Although both the castle and the chapel are A listed the building has been remodelled and modernised. SOLD FOR £3,850,000 (Nov 07)

3. 1 EASTER BELMONT ROAD, EDINBURGH
Secluded, private and with views across to the Pentland Hills, Easter Belmont Road is one of Edinburgh's most sought after addresses. In the words of Simon Rettie, of Rettie and Co: "This is the most exclusive residential street in Edinburgh."This property, which came on to the market a few months ago, is a large arts and crafts period family home, set in extensive grounds. The property needed renovation but attracted so much interest from buyers that it was able to attract a record price.SOLD FOR £4,875,000 (Sept 07)

2. WOODCROFT, 39 BARNTON AVE, EDINBURGH
The arts and crafts mansion on Edinburgh's "Millionaire's Row" was the first property in Scotland to break the £4 million barrier, when it was bought by Rangers chairman Sir David Murray at the end of 2006. But he never lived in the six-bedroom house, and it was sold ten months later for a £450,000 profit. Barnton Avenue is a secluded, tree-lined street with views over the Royal Burgess golf course. Popular with bankers and industrialists because of its proximity to the airport, it includes many huge family homes.SOLD FOR £4,950,000 (Aug 07)

1. SETON CASTLE, LONGNIDDRY
Built by classical architect Robert Adam using the stones of the ruined Seton Palace, this grand Georgian, 14-bedroom house, formerly owned by the Wemyss family, was extensively refurbished by an Edinburgh entrepreneur, who put it on the market for £15 million, hoping to attract an overseas buyer. After two years, the price was reduced to £7 million and more recently to £5 million, when it was snapped up by Stephen Leach and Heather Luscombe, founders of internet marketing company Bigmouthmedia.The four-storey house has a gallery, library, billiards room, nursery and staff quarters, which include a laundry room and butler's pantry. It is set in 13 acres of wooded parkland, overlooking the Firth of Forth and includes stabling for six horses, a coachman's cottage and the ruins of a medieval mill.SOLD FOR £5,000,000 (February 2007)

The criteria for what constitutes prime property is gradually changing, from homes above £1 million to those costing more than £2 million.

The ragged trousered philanthropists

Workers in Scotland are doing increasing amounts of unpaid overtime and would receive an extra £4517 a year if they were paid for the additional hours they are putting in, according the STUC.
The number of employees in Scotland working unpaid increased by 20,000 in 2007, bringing the total to 436,000. The average amount of unpaid overtime is six hours and 54 minutes a week.
The STUC has calculated that if everyone in the UK who works unpaid overtime did all their unpaid work at the start of the year, the first day they would get paid would be February 22.
The number of employees working unpaid overtime across the UK increased by 103,000 to nearly five million; about one in five of the working population. The average annual value of unpaid overtime in the UK is £4955 per employee.

"..today's figures suggest many people are not even being paid for putting in these extra hours.Workers in Scotland are giving away over £4500 a year in unpaid overtime. That's too much time and money that could be better spent with friends and family..." Grahame Smith, general secretary of the STUC said

The working poor

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says 1.4 million children in Britain live in poverty despite having at least one working parent.

Government efforts to tackle child poverty have "forgotten" to help poor parents who work.

Kate Stanley, head of social policy at the IPPR, said the challenge now was "to ensure that work really is a route out of poverty...Tax credits and the minimum wage have 'made work pay' relative to being on benefits, but these don't yet go far enough to ensure more children are lifted out of poverty. More action is needed to combine financial support and measures to boost parental employment with action to deliver fairness on pay and opportunities for progression at work."

Socialist Courier has news for this highly prestigious research institute - the slogan 'a fair days work for a fair days pay' is as old as the hills and for the working class it is a demand that is never fulfilled .

Poverty will end when the wages system itself ends .

A Year of Socialist Courier

Bankrupt Solutions

Scotland's poorest and most vulnerable debtors were yesterday offered their cheapest escape from creditors.
The Scottish Government said it would allow so-called "Ninas" - people with no income and no assets - to declare themselves bankrupt for a fee of just £100.
The new "cheapie" bankruptcy will be available only to people who earn less than £220 a week, the equivalent of 40 hours on the minimum wage, and have less than £1000 in assets.

A capital(ist) solution to the problem of poverty !!

Meanwhile the Independent reports the accountancy firm Grant Thornton predicts the total number of personal insolvencies nationally will jump to at least 120,000 this year, almost triple the equivalent figure in 2004. As many as one third of bankruptcies in the first three months of the year will be caused by "excessive Christmas spending".

Steady increases in the cost of living are expected to tighten the screw. In only 12 months, the cost of filling up a vehicle with unleaded petrol had increased by 16 per cent, which meant the public was having to find an extra £155 a year to fill up the car.
Mr Gerrard , head of Grant Thornton's personal insolvency practice , said: "Coupled with rapidly increasing gas and electricity prices, which are forecast to jump by more than 10 per cent early this year, it's easy to see how those already struggling to pay off credit, particularly those servicing mortgages, are caving in to the pressure." He warned: "I believe personal insolvency numbers will move forward at a much faster pace than anticipated."

Howard Archer, the chief UK economist at Global Insight, suggested that in general people would have to be more frugal this year. "Household purchasing power is likely to be dented by higher energy and food prices over the coming months, while many home owners face having to re-fix their mortgages at significantly higher rates."

But there is always a silver lining inside capitalism since also according to the Independent , the debt collection industry grew sharply last year .There are now estimated to be 5,200 enforcement agents in England and Wales, including 600 county court bailiffs and more than 1,000 unregistered debt collection companies. Since 2003 the size of the industry has almost trebled, growing from £8.6bn of debt sold on to professional collection agencies to £22.7bn by the end of last year. It is forecast to grow to £24.1bn by the end of this year.

Holy rolling,bankrolling.Big upsurge in pious patronising patter disguised as hopes over New Year in Scotland

Loan sharks condemned by cardinal The most senior Roman Catholic in Scotland will use his New Year's Day sermon to condemn loan firms charging "extortionate" interest rates. Presumably less extortionate rates are better. Speaking at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh, Cardinal Keith O'Brien urged those crippled by debt to seek help. Is he going to dig in deep and make interest free loans to help them out of the Vaticans swelling coffers,not a chance. Is the pope a Catholic? The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland spoke of her wishes for a world "transformed" by love and hope. The Right Reverend Sheilagh Kesting wants "selfish ambition" cast aside. Unselfish ambition is undefined of course. Cardinal O'Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, will say the holiday season sees many families trapped in an ever increasing spiral of debt. 'Narrow interests' He points out that many families find themselves in the grip of loan companies and loan sharks, who demand an extortionate rate of interest, ensuring they remain trapped. He will condemn such practices and applaude the work done by many in the churches and wider society to help people out of debt, through credit unions and advice clinics. But, he doesnt condemn the very system which will keep those workers trapped in poverty and wage slavery.Debt or no debt. His call comes in a sermon to mark a world day of prayer for peace, in which he also speaks out against nuclear weapons, arguing that the pressure to keep the issue in the forefront of civil and church life must remain in the coming year. Peace will not come on a wing or a prayer.Peace will only come when the cause of war, the capitalist system and its intense competition, for markets, raw goods and materials,with powerful global rivalry is ended.War is an inevitable concommitant of capitalism. In her message, Ms Kesting said: "I pray that we will look beyond selfish ambition and the scoring of points - beyond the narrow interests of ethnicity, nationality, political party, denomination or religion and instead focus our concerns on the neediest people of our world and the things that make for peace." So let's get rid of capitalism then, root, branch and all . It is capitalism which is the cause of poverty, not high or low interest rates. Capitalism depends on us selling our mental and physical energies for a wage,or salary in order that we might live. With the exception of the capitalist class or social parasites such as religious orders, the vast majority are born poor and die poor, in order for us to service the capitalist system,to the end of making profits for a minority. As verily ,verily, we say unto youse, the poor shall always be with youse, for the pious claptrappists to mouth meaningless platitudes, ad infinitum. Amen.

The wonderful world of capitalism

Sharp increase in prison suicides The number of prisoners who killed themselves in jail rose significantly in 2007, according to official figures. The Ministry of Justice has confirmed there were 92 apparent self-inflicted deaths in England and Wales in the same year as a record prison population. The deaths do not represent a record - but are almost 40% higher than 2006, reversing two years of falls. According to the Ministry of Justice figures, the number of apparent suicides in jail rose from a low of 67 in 2006 and 78 in 2005. The record number in recent years has been 95 deaths in both 2004 and 2002. The vast majority, 84, were men and 41 remand prisoners made up the single largest group. Seven under-21 young offenders took their own lives. The youngest of these is thought to be a 15-year-old found hanged in November. There was a significant rise in the number of foreign prisoners apparently taking their own lives - 23 compared with six the year before. PRISON SUICIDES 1998 - 2007 1998: 82 1999: 91 2000: 81 2001: 73 2002: 95 2003: 94 2004: 95 2005: 78 2006: 67 2007: 92 Source: Ministry of Justice/Howard League for Penal Reform Four people on indeterminate sentences for public protection and 19 on life sentence were among the deaths. The figures show that, while 92 people killed themselves, more than 100 others were resuscitated after self-harm incidents that would have led to death. Useful info on suicide Introduction Suicide prevention strategies Suicide and gender Suicide in young people Suicide in older people Suicide and race Suicide and sexuality Suicide and substance misuse Suicide and mental distress Suicide following deliberate self-harm Suicide in prisons Suicide in rural areas Suicide and the media Attitudes towards suicide Attempted suicide Prediction of suicide risk The effect of suicide on others Further reading Useful contacts References

HOMES FIT FOR HEROES?

The Christmas and New Year period saw the newspapers full of praise for British troops in Afghanistan and Iran. Politicians fell over themselves to praise the sacrifices being made by young servicemen and women. Behind all the pretended bonhomie however lurks the poisonous truth of how they will be treated by a grateful capitalist class.
"A spokeswoman for the Royal British Legion said there were around 2,500 former servicemen and women living on the streets, and that the legion had received 1,485 calls from homeless ex-service personnel in the past year." (Times, 26 December) RD

Poor health

Women from deprived backgrounds are treated differently and have a lower breast cancer survival rate than more affluent women , says a study

The charity Cancer Research UK studied nearly 13,000 patients from England's Northern and Yorkshire health regions. It found deprived women were less likely to be diagnosed in the early stages of disease, when treatment is most likely to be effective. They were also less likely to have surgery or radiotherapy.

The British Journal of Cancer study found that among the most affluent group, 40% had lumpectomies, which allow breast conservation, rather than full mastectomies to remove the breast. However, the figure among the most deprived group was just 31%.

They said that more women from deprived areas were likely to favour a mastectomy because it is a one-off treatment, whereas lumpectomy requires a course of radiotherapy, and therefore regular trips to a clinic, which can be difficult and costly.

The study also found that more than 22% of women from deprived backgrounds did not receive surgery, compared with just over 13% of more affluent women. Part of the reason for this disparity was due to late presentation, but the researchers also found women from deprived backgrounds were also more likely to have other health problems which made them unfit for surgery, or to turn down the option.

A slightly higher proportion of affluent women were seen within 14 days of referral by their doctor than women from more deprived areas. Women in deprived areas were less likely to be given radiotherapy and, on average, had a lower rate of five-year survival.

Dr Rosemary Gillespie, of the charity Breast Cancer Care, said: "The persistence of inequalities in treatment and outcomes highlights that key messages about breast health and screening are still not reaching those in deprived communities who need them."

education , once more

Even the Tories are saying it . Children from the most deprived areas of England are falling further behind in school compared to more affluent pupils .

Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove highlighted figures showing a widening of the social gap in achievement. The figures show a 43.1% gap between the proportions of wealthy and deprived pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths in 2007. In 2006, this gap in GCSEs, in favour of the wealthiest, had been 28.4%. The figures are based on comparisons of the GCSE results of pupils from the ten percent most affluent areas and the ten percent most deprived. These figures reflect the attainment gap using another poverty indicator - free-school meals.

This social divide in exam results shows "the education system is letting down the poorest," says Mr Gove

The government figures show how the link between home background and achievement stubbornly persists throughout children's years in school. When the school population is divided into 10 bands of affluence and deprivation, the level of achievement rises in precise step with increased wealth in every subject and at every level.

No matter what the palliatives that will be promised to address the problems , the cause is capitalism and poverty and those will not be challenged in any meaningful manner and inequalities of opportunity shall continue .

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

On a Sunday morning Christian ministers and priests love to thunder out the Sermon on the Mount. Some of the sentiments seem to be laudable enough. It is difficult to disagree with "blessed are the peacemakers", but during wars such sentiments are soon forgotten by these holy men. Here is an example from Bethlehem, where some holy men seem to be unable to "turn the other cheek". "Bearded and robed Armenian and Greek Orthodox priests fought each other with fists, brushes and iron rods during cleaning of the shared Church of the Nativity. The Armenians believed that the Greeks were encroaching on their section of the church." (Times, 28 December) RD

COMIC BOOK CAPITALISM

"He has fought against foes ranging from the Green Goblin to Doctor Octopus, but Spider-Man now faces an even more formidable challenge: improving the battered image of the United Nations. In a move reminiscent of storylines developed during the Second World War, the UN is joining forces with Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, to create a comic book showing the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease. ...The latest UN initiative is not the first time US comics have been used for political purposes. During the Second World War, superheroes were shown taking on Germany’s Nazi regime. Marvel’s Captain America, together with other characters such as Superman, were shown beating up Adolph Hitler." (Financial Times, 26 December) The initial edition is to be given out free to a million school kids in the USA. Imagine the storm it would cause in the USA if China, Russia or some other rival of US capitalism was to do something similar in their country. We would certainly hear screams of "brain washing children" and juvenile propaganda. RD

BIG BROTHER IS HERE

George Orwell's 1984 has arrived in the USA and it is proving to be very expensive. "The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion project to build the world's largest computer database of biometrics to give the government more ways to identify people at home and abroad, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The FBI has already started compiling digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns in its systems, the paper said. In January, the agency—which focuses on violations of federal law, espionage by foreigners and terrorist activities—expects to award a 10-year contract to expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives, it said. At an employer's request, the FBI will also retain the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks, the paper said." (PC Magazine, 26 December) RD

WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?

On the 23rd December 07, Jenny Percival, Westminster Editor of Scotland on Sunday, reports, in an article titled, “Brown faces revolt as MPs demand £100,000 salary”
“MPs ARE preparing to rebel over Gordon Brown's plans to keep their pay rise well below inflation, with some saying they should be paid £100,000 a year.”

Will this lead to strike? In a previous report on this blog, it was pointed out that
They don’t have to, they just hold reviews and then vote themselves an increase, saves them striking and allows them to get on with running the country.
Last year they were set to award themselves £10,000-a-year “communications budget” just days after it emerges they make around £200,000 each from their generous existing pay and expenses package.

So what is it that makes the MPs discontent? “Politicians from all parties told Scotland on Sunday they expected to receive the above inflation figure of 2.5% as they have had no increases in real terms for six years. With another review not due until 2010, they plan to seize this opportunity to boost their basic salary of £ 6O, 277 a year. It was claimed last night that the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) may recommend an increase over three years of 10%, which would take their salaries to £65,500 by 2010. Many MPs are now expected to back that recommendation against Brown's advice.”

What do MPs think they are worth? “A submission to the SSRB by a cross-party advisory panel says MPs should be paid around £100, 000 a year to keep their salaries in line with comparable workers, such as chief executives of small and medium-size councils and directors of services in larger councils.”

The MPs think they are worth a 40% rise in wages and no doubt they don’t think their proposed rise will bring the country to its knees, only the every day worker, the ones who produce all the wealth, can bring the country to its knees, "that is what they would have us believe.”
Still, you have to feel for them, “When you’re looking at police and nurses’ pay awards of around 2%, it’s very difficult for us to justify a higher figure, but….we are getting paid only about half the salary of people in comparable jobs.” Sad isn’t it!

THIS IS LIBERATION?

The press and TV hailed the US invasion of Iraq as one of liberation, but according to children's fund of the UN. It has turned out to be a strange form of liberation.
"More than four years after the United States invaded Iraq , the country's children continue to face a litany of problems from disrupted educations to unsafe drinking water, detentions and violence, UNICEF reported Friday. Violence and displacement often kept Iraqi children out of school this year. The organization estimates that 2 million educations were interrupted, especially among primary-school students. .. Eighty percent of children outside Baghdad don't have working sewers in their communities, limiting access to safe water. ...An average of 25,000 children per month were displaced within Iraq by violence or intimidation. ...By the end of 2007, about 75,000 children were living in camps or temporary shelter. ...About 1,350 children were detained by military and police, "many for alleged security violations." (Yahoo News, 21 December) RD

bankers

So some of the banks took a beating with the sub-prime mortgage crisis but it didn't stop some bank executives from taking their slice of their cake .

Lynn Peacock, chief executive the Clydesdale bank pay almost doubled to £2.1m. , compared with £1.1m in the preceding year. She also became entitled to an undisclosed number of shares under an incentive scheme operated by the parent company, National Australia group .

WALL STREET CASINO

"House prices are crumbling on both sides of the Atlantic, growing numbers of homeowners face repossession, financial markets are yo-yoing and the UK saw its first run on a bank in living memory. But for three audacious New York traders it all added up to a $4bn (£2bn) profit opportunity and the biggest jackpot in the history of Wall Street. ... Dan Sparks and two underlings, Josh Birnbaum and Michael "Swenny" Swenson, placed what were in effect giant bets against the US mortgage market at the start of the year and watched their winnings tick higher and higher as the rising numbers of mortgage defaults spiralled into a worldwide financial crisis. ...The trio themselves are in line for bonuses of about $10m apiece from a record bonus pool at Goldman of about $19bn. ... Their profit eclipses the $1.1bn made by George Soros when his bets against the currency pushed sterling out of the exchange rate mechanism in 1992 and the estimated $1.5bn made by the hedge fund manager John Arnold last year from the collapse of a rival fund, Amaranth." (Independent, 15 December)
That is capitalism for you, millions face homelessness while a small group of parasites rake it in! RD

CALIFORNIAN CATASTROPHE

California is reckoned by most statisticians to be the wealthiest state in the USA, but a recent report shows that this is not the case for many of its inhabitants.
"Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits "tent city," a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city centre, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California. The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis. The unravelling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of "The Grapes of Wrath" John Steinbeck's novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression. As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease." (Yahoo News, 21 December) RD

Gilbert and riches

Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, saw the value of his overall remuneration tumble in the latest year despite bumper profits for the fund manager, but remained one of corporate Scotland's best-paid executives.The annual report of Aberdeen Asset Management, published yesterday, shows that Gilbert received total pay and benefits of £3,096,000 in the year to September, down from £3,951,000 in the preceding year . The fall in remuneration was due to the fact that Gilbert elected for employer contributions to his defined contribution pension scheme with the firm to cease. Aberdeen said following changes to UK pensions law on April 6, 2006, other employees had elected to follow suit. The A-day changes included the introduction of a £1.5m limit on individual pension funds.

Even at the reduced level, Gilbert's package makes him one of Scotland Plc's biggest earners. In 2006, Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, earned a basic salary of nearly £1.2m and a performance bonus of £2.8m, boosting his total package by over £1m on 2005 to just under £4m.Sandy Crombie, chief executive of Standard Life, earned a pay, bonus and benefits package worth £1.6m in 2006.

Stewart Milne of the building company took home more than £7.5m in salary, benefits and dividends in the year to June

A Very Merry Christmas ?

Debt advisers are set to take a record number of calls as consumers are left to deal with a Christmas on credit. Leading debt charities said today that the credit crunch combined with five interest rate rises had made the problem this year even more serious. It was reported today that an estimated £34 billion has already been spent on credit cards this month – a £3 billion increase on last year.

A Consumer Credit Counselling Service spokesman said the organisation expected even more calls this year from people concerned they have over stretched financially this Christmas.He said: "We expect just under 34,000 calls to our helpline in January 2008, five per cent higher than in 2007."

And Credit Action spokesman Christ Tapp echoed the claims, saying the hangover debt from the festive reason reached way beyond the first few days of the New Year, and that homeowners may be particularly concerned. He said: "It could certainly be our busiest January and February ever. People are now more concerned about the economy than they have been for a long time.The nature of calls might be slightly different. It used to be about unsecured credit, but mortgages are becoming a much bigger problem than they were as rising living costs squeeze homeowners." (It is estimated this year that house repossessions will rise by 50 per cent to 45,000.)

Citizen's Advice added its weight to calls for belt-tightening around Christmas, pointing out that this time of year is traditionally gloomy for those with cash concerns. A spokeswoman said: "We know from experience that there is a seasonal surge of people who come to see us about their debt problems post-Christmas, and we know that the trend in debt inquiries is inexorably upwards. There is no reason to believe that there will be any let up in this trend."

Groups like the Samaritans say they also expect to be inundated with phone calls from people who feel they can't cope with their financial situation in light of lavish Christmas expenditure. A spokeswoman for the charity said: "January is a particularly bleak time with credit card bills arriving and the short, dark days."

Can we of Socialist Courier be blamed for saying " Christmas ? Bah - Humbug "

An Anti-Bolshevik Approach to Revolution

The final talk in the Socialist Thinkers series by Stephen Coleman and a belated contribution to the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution . It is a discussion of Leninism and the Julius Martov critique of the Bolsheviks .

The download can be found via the link at Darren's blog

A Vision of Socialism

Not looking forward to the Queen's Christmas message , then why not download and listen to one of the Socialist Party talks that Darren has upload.

Stephen Coleman discusses William Morris and his Vision of Socialism . Download from here .

WORLD HUNGER WORSENS

Millions of human beings starve inside a capitalist system that can produce enough for everyone. There are many well intentioned groups that believe that by a series of reforms this dreadful situation can be solved inside capitalism. Despite years of existence and hundreds of campaigns this has been proven to be futile."Record prices for major agricultural commodities and a reduction in the volume of food aid means there is a serious risk that global hunger will worsen next year, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Monday. The warning came as wheat prices on Monday jumped to an all-time high, soybean prices hit a fresh 34-year high and corn rose to an 11-year high on strong demand and tight supplies reflected in extremely low global inventories. ... Food aid has been reduced because agricultural commodities prices are going up while the big aid agencies’ budgets – including that of the UN’s World Food Programme, which feeds almost 90m of the world’s poorest people – remain stagnant." (Financial Times, 19 December) RD

THE CLASS DIVIDE

The harrowing picture of poverty in India is very familiar. Whole families are sleeping on the streets of Calcutta and in wretched, unsanitary lean-to shacks. What is not so well known is the immense wealth of a handful of Indian capitalists. "The mansion of Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India, is something more than the average dream house. When construction is completed next year, his home will top 570 feet – the equivalent of a 60-story skyscraper – and include a helipad, six floors of parking, and 600 servants for a family of six." (Yahoo News, 18 December) RD

Branson Virgin Rail - Just the ticket

While the Virgin Rail passengers face nine per cent fare increases ( an average of 4.8 per cent from Jan 6, with first class passengers facing rises of nine per cent) and some of the worst delays in the country (In its worst performing year in 2002, just 73.6 per cent of West Coast trains ,London to Glasgow, and 62.5 per cent of Cross-Country trains , Cornwall to Aberdeen, arrived within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time) , Richard Branson pocketed a £24 million dividend from Virgin Rail . The West Coast and Cross Country lines, have received more than £1 billion in subsidies from the Government since he took over the route in 1997.

Richard Murphy, the director of Tax Research, an independent consultancy firm, said: "He's stripping the company of cash while saying at the same time, 'I need more public subsidy'."

Minimum Wages - Maximum Exploitation

Thousands of workers are being short-changed by firms who refuse to pay the national minimum wage, the TUC found .

Around 150,000 staff are being denied rate of £5.52 an hour for adults and £4.60 for 18 to 21-year-olds, it says. Those in restaurants, hotels, cleaning, hairdressing and childcare were said to be the most likely to be underpaid.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "There should be no hiding place for bosses who are deliberately cheating their workers out of the minimum wage."

Socialist Courier will go further and say all wages and wage labour is theft . That it is slavery . Within capitalism , the fight to improve wages is indispensible but workers should take the next step - campaign to abolish wages .

Ernest Belfort Bax - A Socialist Thinker

Another of Darren's uploads of Stephen Coleman's talks which can be down-loaded here .

This lecture is about the 19th Century Socialist thinker Ernest Belfort Bax .

The property ladder

Research by the Bank of Scotland, found that young people faced a financial struggle to own property, with the average price paid by first-time buyers soaring 113% from £57,929 in 2002 to £123,213 this year. With the threshold set at £125,000, many first-time buyers paying more than the average price of £123,213 will have to find an extra 1% of their property price on stamp duty.
The average property is now out of reach of first-time buyers in 95% of places, according to the fifth annual First Time Buyer Review. Edinburgh and Helensburgh are the least affordable places for first-time buyers and properties there are 8.2 and 7.5 times the average income of a first-time buyer household. The deposit required by first-time buyers has soared 238% since 2002 and the average amount put down for a first property in Scotland is £25,951 - 95% of an average full-time worker's salary. Five years ago it was only 35% of an average worker's full-time earnings.

"It is beyond the reach of people who are earning between £12,000 and £16,000 a year to save up for that kind of deposit. " Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance said. "People are putting themselves in more risky positions and it will be people who are on the low end of the income scale who will pay the price for that."

Housing charity Shelter Scotland said that an additional 30,000 affordable rented homes, not including general housebuilding, were needed by 2011. It said that more than 200,000 people were on waiting lists and 9000 households were in temporary accommodation in March this year.

For a socialist take on housing read Building Profits Versus Building Houses

And for a more recent article on the house property price bubble read here

Nor should we think of the lack of shelter as just a Scottish problem , of course .

A man, believed to be in his sixties, was found dead on a wooden pallet in the Place de la Concorde in the heart of Paris victims of homelessness and the cold . Another man, 62, was found dead in his car in Vanves, just west of the capital. The deaths have provoked new quarrels over the alleged failure of successive governments to provide lodgings for France's alleged 200,000 homeless people. One pressure group, Les Morts de la Rue (the dead on the street), claimed that at least 200 people, between 18 and 80, had died prematurely while sleeping rough in France in the past 12 months.

Jean-Paul Bolufer, the head of the private office of the Housing minister, Christine Boutin , said last month that it was "scandalous" that some relatively wealthy people lived in subsidised, publicly owned housing while others lived on the streets. a newspaper revealed that he was paying 1,200 Euros (£870) a month rent – a quarter of the market price – for a 190 square metre apartment in an upmarket area of the Left Bank. There were at "least 200,000" other well-off people living in subsidised flats in Paris, he said.

The Price of Learning

The principal of Glasgow University accepted a £23,000 pay rise in the past year - an increase of more than five times the rate of inflation. The 11% increase brings Sir Muir Russell's salary and pensions benefits to some £234,000 a year at a time when the rest of the university's staff have been given increases of just 4%. Last year's university accounts show the level of Sir Muir's remuneration package jumped from £184,000 in 2004-05 to £211,000 in the last financial year - a 15% rise. As part of his pension arrangements from his career in the civil service, Sir Muir, 59, will pocket a one-off payment of £215,000 when he turns 60.
He can also expect to have an annual pension of £65,000 waiting for him at age 65.

The latest increase is likely to make Sir Muir one of the highest-paid principals in the country, depending on the increases enjoyed by other university leaders which have not yet been revealed. Last year, the highest-paid principals in Scotland were Professor Duncan Rice from Aberdeen University (£215,000), Dr Brian Lang from St Andrews (£209,000), and Sir Alan Langlands from Dundee (£202,000).

"There is a growing feeling that universities are being turned into businesses in which the collegiality on which their past successes have depended is abandoned and senior managers are paid inflated salaries to get as much as possible out of their junior employees for as little reward as possible." - Terry Brotherstone, who is president of the lecturers' union UCU Scotland

Karl Kautsky

Once more the Inveresk Street Ingrate blogger has uploaded a Stephen Coleman talk on socialist thinkers , which can be downloaded via the link here .

The subject is Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE ...

"Major General Graham Binns, who led British troops into the city in 2003, said the province had "begun to regain its strength". He added: "I came to rid Basra of its enemies and I now formally hand Basra back to its friends." So that is a job well done.
Is it? Hardly when you look at the facts.
"The full scale of the chaos left behind by British forces in Basra was revealed yesterday as the city's police chief described a province in the grip of well-armed militias strong enough to overpower security forces and brutal enough to behead women considered not sufficiently Islamic. As British forces finally handed over security in Basra province, marking the end of 4½ years of control in southern Iraq, Major General Jalil Khalaf, the new police commander, said the occupation had left him with a situation close to mayhem. "They left me militia, they left me gangsters, and they left me all the troubles in the world," he said in an interview for Guardian Films and ITV. Khalaf painted a very different picture from that of British officials who, while acknowledging problems in southern Iraq, said yesterday's handover at Basra airbase was timely and appropriate”. (Guardian, 17 December) RD

THIS IS "COMING GOOD"?

"Is it possible that after four and six years respectively, the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are at last beginning to come good? Our reports this week from the front-lines of both wars suggest that the answer to that question should be a guarded yes. In Iraq General David Petraeus's “surge” and a Sunni backlash against al-Qaeda have sharply reduced the killing. It is true that more than 20 civilians are still killed on an average day, but it was not uncommon a year ago to find as many as 100 corpses at dawn. In Afghanistan the yes is more tentative. Violence is spreading and suicide-bombings, less frequent now in Iraq, are taking a rising toll. ... The war in Iraq has taken a much greater toll of American lives—some 4,000, compared with about 500 in Afghanistan. (Economist, 15 December)
Capitalism has a strange set of values when 20 civilian corpses a day and 4,500 US soldier dead is looked upon as "coming good". RD

HEROISM AND REALITY

"The parents of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide and members of Congress on Wednesday questioned why there's not a comprehensive tracking system of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Mike Bowman, of Forreston, Ill., said his son, Spc. Timothy Bowman, 23, is a member of the "unknown fallen" not counted in statistics. His son, a member of the Illinois National Guard, took his own life in 2005 eight months after returning from war. Bowman said he considers his son a "KBA" — killed because of action. ,, Awareness of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was heightened earlier this year when the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops — the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping. The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who commit suicide, but only if they have been discharged from the military." (Yahoo News, 13 December)
Bowman's parents may be puzzled about the lack of information of veterans' suicide, but it isn't hard to figure that such statistics would hardly help recruiting efforts. RD

AMERICAN NIGHTMARE (2)

"More people are requesting emergency food aid and more homeless families with children are seeking shelter, concludes a 23-city survey released Monday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Four of five cities say requests for food aid rose an average of 12% from the previous year, according to the survey for the period covering November 2006 through October 2007. Most cities had reported a jump in such requests the prior year as well. Ten of 14 cities with data on homeless families say more families with children sought emergency shelter and transitional housing. About half of the cities say their overall homeless problem increased. Collectively, the cities report giving shelter to 193,183 people." (USA Today, 17 December) RD

AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

The so-called American dream wherein once poor immigrants became wealthy is turning out to be a nightmare for many American workers.
"The current deflation of home prices is changing America. It's a real estate storm that made landfall like a slow-moving Gulf Coast hurricane here in south Florida and in other once-booming housing markets last year. In recent months it has gathered momentum and spread, shaping up to become perhaps the worst home-price slump since the 1920s and '30s. The bust promises to have lasting effects. Among them: It is defining the limits, for now, of what President Bush has called the "ownership society." A surging foreclosure rate means that the rate of homeownership, after a historic rise, is falling." (Yahoo News, 10 December) RD

Some Socialist Theory

Another audio file of the Socialist Thinkers series can be found at Darren's blog .

This time it is the Russian Marxist George Plekhanov and the Materialist Conception of History .

And once again the speaker is Stephen Coleman .

Capitalist Charity

Clive Cowdery, chairman of Resolution , announced yesterday that he planned to sell some or all of his holding and would transfer around £20 million to a new charity The Resolution Trust. The trust will ensure continued funding for the work of Cowdery's financial education project The Resolution Foundation .

The £5 billion sale to Pearl of the group he founded netted him a personal £150 million . Cowdery's stake grew in value by some £25 million in the few weeks between him announcing a merger with Friends Provident, with Resolution shares at 616p, and selling to rival Hugh Osmond of Pearl for 720p, thanks partly to sparking a bidding war between Pearl and Standard Life. So he can well afford to be generous with his philanthropic gestures . And what , pray we ask , is this charitable institution he is financing .

The Resolution Foundation is an independent research and policy organisation formed in September 2005 to study "how people on low to moderate incomes fair in the mixed welfare economy" with a particular interest in promoting increased social mobility. The foundation's first project was the forerunner of the government's review chaired by Aegon UK chief executive Otto Thoresen into the creation of a national advice service dispensing "generic" financial guidance. It commissioned a study from McKinsey and Deloitte, whose proposed model "led to extensive lobbying on the benefits to individuals and the nation", the foundation said. It is now embarking on a new project, "to promote a fair and efficient supply of elderly care, with a focus on people on low to moderate incomes".

Forgive my ignorance , but doesn't all that just add up to a fancy way of saying it does market research and offer financial advice for investment funds ? Tax-free , of course .

Citizens Advice - Workers being exploited

Tens of thousands of vulnerable workers are being exploited by rogue employers, Citizens Advice has warned.

Last year Citizens Advice Bureaux across the UK dealt with more than half a million employment related queries. It estimates 60% of these involved the denial of statutory workplace rights such as the minimum wage, paid holiday and sick leave and pay. Some workers were also required to work excessively long hours or were denied proper rest breaks, the report said. Others were summarily dismissed for being pregnant. Other high risk groups include migrant workers and those who because of age, disability of lack of skills, would struggle to find another job .

"There are still far too many rogues out there, flouting the law, ignoring rules without sanction and profiting from vulnerable workers " -David Harker, Citizens Advice

As always , with people acting with good intentions , this report simply puts it all down to the some "bad apple" bosses who are using unfair practices to gain an advantage over the "responsible" employer and the problem can be removed by government reform of the law and the creation of government watch-dogs . That isn't the real problem or the real solution .

First , workers , especially the disadvantaged worker , must organise industrially through trade unionism to combat the immediate effects of exploitation , the stronger defending the weaker . An injury to one , is an injury to all .

But , then , it is necessary to move beyond mere defence and to-wards a position where the root cause of exploitation is recognised - the real problem - and that would be the capitalist system . And the political solution is not going cap-in-hand to the apologist parties of capital for amelioration but to once again organise but this time to abolish for once and for all this parasitic society where a minority live off the labours of the majority .

GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL (2)

Ever helpful in assisting workers to enjoy a holiday away from the toil we thought we would pass on this piece of information we spotted on the website of Emirate Airways. It should make a nice change from your usual holiday travel.
" Emirates now offers enhanced private suites in First Class on selected aircraft. The new private suite is fully equipped with individual storage, a coat closet, vanity desk and personal mini bar. The extra-large seat reclines to become a fully flat bed, and the 23" wide-screen LCD screen features over 600 channels of nice entertainment. Our award winning, multilingual cabin crew provide an unprecedented level of personal service, including a la carte gourmet cuisine and an extensive wine list." RD

GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL

After a hard year slogging away at the workplace you might fancy an idyllic holiday but we don't think you will be booking up at Richard Branson's island. His friend billionaire Larry Page is secretly getting married there. "When a man is worth $20bn, however, certain secrets are impossible to keep. On Wednesday, the New York Post revealed the location and the expected number of guests – 600. It appears the guests will fly into St Thomas, the biggest of the Virgin Islands, and then take smaller planes and helicopters to Virgin Gorda, a 40-minute ride. Necker Island is so small and exclusive it does not – intriguingly – even appear on the Google map service. (A consequence, perhaps, of Mr Page's friendship with Branson.) The island's website, however, reveals that each of its 14 Balinese-style houses, blessed with pools, jacuzzis, private chefs and other luxuries, costs $46,000 (£23,000) a night – when available." (Independent, 8th December) RD

All very fishy

It sounds mad: shipping UK-caught langoustine thousands of miles to be processed, then back again to be turned into breaded scampi and put on sale. That's what leading seafood producer Young's started doing last year. We read :

The journey for the scampi that ends up on dinner plates and in pub baskets across the country starts in traditional style - the catch being landed by inshore fishing boats in ports like Stornoway. From there it is taken by lorry to the Scottish border town of Annan, which is where things start to change.
In the past the scampi was shelled by machine in Scotland. Now it is taken first to Grangemouth and loaded into containers, which are in effect giant freezers.
They are shipped to Rotterdam before being loaded onto a huge container ship alongside around 7,000 other containers for the long haul to Bangkok.
The key part of the process takes place in Thailand, as the langoustine are peeled by hand .
The long journey home from Bangkok takes the frozen, peeled langoustine through Rotterdam again before a short hop across the North Sea to Grimsby, where the scampi is breaded - and then delivered to our supermarkets and our plates.

The whole round-trip is about 17,000 miles (27,353km).

"They cover this up and distract it by saying it's carbon neutral, but in truth this is about minimising costs and maximising profits." says Willie Mackenzie of Greenpeace.

The motives of Youngs Seafoods is indeed exactly what Greenpeace claim , grubby lucre, and nothing at all to do with energy conservation or protecting the enviroment from CO2 emissions . The local workers cannot compete, even if, on Britain's minimum wage, with the Thai prawn-peelers who are paid 25p per hour.

The company announced 120 job cuts when it transferred scampi shelling operations to Thailand and leaves less than 50 workers at the Dumfries facility.

John Holroyd, of the T&G, said: “This is all about exploiting cheap labour abroad..."

Another company , Dawnfresh of Uddingston , in 2006 shed 70 staff to send Scottish prawns to China for shelling before being returned to the UK for sale.

Horse Sense

Millions of pounds spent each year on the sperm of race-winning horses. The owner of one superstar stud can earn £25 million a year. British breeders can typically expect to pay more than £500 a time in stud fees, with some American horses commanding fees of up to £10,000. Stallions reputed for producing good quality offspring come at a premium, and can fetch far higher fees.

Research published today will cast doubt on the rationale that bringing champion horses together will produce potentially race-winning foals. a horse's lineage is far less important than was previously thought. Genes account for only 10% of the prize money a horse wins in its lifetime

"The offspring of expensive stallions might tend to win more money, but not necessarily because they have inherited the best genes . It is likely those breeders best able to pay high stud fees are also those who are able to spend more on care of the horse, how it is trained, and who rides it - all of which will contribute more to how much it will win."

We in the socialist movement have been arguing that what genes determine in humans are the physical characteristics and the capacities of the brain, but not the actual behaviour and behaviour patterns . In other words, human nature is one thing, human behaviour another.

It makes horse sense .

Chocolate Class War

Cadbury's announced this year that it would cut 7,800 jobs world wide and is currently fighting union resistance to factory closures in the UK .

However , billionaire corporate raider Nelson Peltz, who has been building a stake in the confectionery giant has been demanding that Cadbury Schweppes should return as much as £1.7 billion to shareholders after the spin-off of its US drinks business next year or face an attempted boardroom coup . He and his confederates dmand that by adopting more aggressive trading margin targets, Cadbury could push the value of its shares up to 970p and pay a special dividend of 80p per share – handing back £1.7bn in total – when the drinks business is spun off. The stock was up 15p to 623p yesterday. Cadbury's chief executive promised this year to raise the company's trading margins from about 10 per cent currently to a mid-teens percentage by 2011. Mr Peltz says the target should be closer to 20 per cent

The veteran financier made hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from previous forays in the food and drink business, most recently buying Snapple for $300m (£149m) and selling it three years later for $1.5bn.

So there is the answer to why jobs are lost or out-sourced - to fill the pockets of investors

Xmas Presents

Ethical gifts are billed as the perfect antidote to the conspicuous consumerism of the festive season. Whether buying a goat for a family in Africa, or the materials to build a toilet, we are told that these simple items can make a big difference to people in developing countries.
Such presents have been growing in popularity and last year Oxfam sold £3.9 million worth of ethical gifts . The charity has this year launched a celebrity-led campaign to encourage more of us to send useful gifts - which may include items such as dung, condoms or even a can of worms - to help communities in the developing world.

However UK-based education charity Worldwrite says that far from being welcome, these gifts are often seen as "demeaning and patronising". Worldwrite also argues that far from encouraging development, buying someone a goat or a hoe for Christmas only conspires to keep recipients at the same subsistence levels year after year. "People in the developing world are like us - they know the sorts of things we have and they want them too " . They felt some projects epitomised "low horizons" and irritated locals who say they are offered "peanuts" with endless "accountability" and "target" forms to fill out.

Worldwrite's views are echoed by Ghanaian De Roy Kwesi Andrew, a teacher and translator, who says: "Our people and government have become merely the passive, obedient pupils to be preached to."

As a local teacher in Ghana , Godbless Ashie , puts it : "Africans have big brains, big aspirations and want to live in liberty."

We at Socialist Courier say the best Xmas present for everybody would be for all of us to put an end to capitalism and for us all to achieve socialism and put an end to exploitation and pauperism .

Coleman on Dietzgen

Once more Brooklyn Darren of Inveresk St Ingrate has uploaded another Stephen Coleman talk .

This time the subject is Joseph Dietzgen , the working class materialist philosopher .

The talk can be downloaded in two parts here