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The Glasgow & Edinburgh Branches Blog. Towards a better understanding of the world, in order to change it.
Monday, April 16, 2012
SOCIALIST PARTY PUBLIC MEETING. FREE ENTRY
LAND OF THE FREE?
Politicians in the USA like to depict America as the epitome of freedom and democracy and sneer at the repressive measures of totalitarian states, but their boasts are ill-founded. "America which is known as the freest country in the world has incarcerated more of it's citizens than the rest of the world combined. 7.1 million Americans are either in prison, on probation or under correctional supervision. The numbers continue to climb each year as more prisons are built nationwide." (CNN News, 2 April) RD
SQUALOR AND SPLENDOUR
The awful poverty and downright squalor of the Chinese working class is amongst the worst in the world but the affluence of their owning class is equally obvious. "The Chinese economy is booming at a blistering pace. It is driven largely by the Fudai: the superrich who call the superpower home. Many are just in their forties. From building 30-storey towers in just 14 days, to amassing a luxury fleet of sports cars or a private jet - China's million millionaires and 600 billionaires are helping to change the country's landscape. And China's mad rush to urbanisation is only helping these elites get richer and richer." (Aljazeera, 10 April) That this country of billionaires and poverty can still claim to be communist is surely one of the world's greatest travesties.RD
SLAVERY AND OPULENCE
Arising out of the case of a 13 year old girl who worked as a maid (for a couple who had gone on vacation to Thailand) and who had been rescued by firemen from a locked apartment, some staggering figures on child exploitation were revealed. The girl described a life akin to slavery, child welfare officials said. Her uncle had sold her to a job placement agency, which sold her to the couple, both doctors. The girl was paid nothing. She said the couple barely fed her and beat her if her work did not meet expectations."The International Labor Organization has found that India has 12.6 million laborers between the ages of 5 and 14, with roughly 20 per cent working as domestic help. Other groups place the figure at 45 million or higher. Unicef has said India has more child laborers than any other country in the world. .... Mala Bhandari, who runs Childline, a government hot line for child workers, said India's urbanization and the rise of two-income families were driving demand for domestic help. Children are cheaper and more pliant than adults; Ms. Bhandari said a family might pay a child servant only $40 a month, less than half the wage commonly paid to an adult, if such servants are paid at all." (New YorkTimes, 4 April) In stark contrast to the the life of that hapless 13 year old girl we have the case of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire industrialist, who has several hundred domestic workers in his skyscraper residence in Mumbai, the country's financial capital. Child slavery for one luxurious opulence for the other. RD
Roman in the gloamin'
A great deal of patriotic pride has been associated with the idea that Scotland was never conquered by the Romans. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, there was a profound and fundamental shift in thinking across Europe in terms of how countries imagined their relationship with the Roman Empire. As new political ideas about authoritarianism and liberty were discussed, some writers and thinkers sought to identify their country’s national spirit with the indigenous peoples conquered by Rome. Rediscovering resistance to Rome went hand in hand with the nationalisms that swept across Europe in the 19th century. Scotland – despite its more recent incorporation into the United Kingdom – was no different, and a great deal of patriotic pride was associated with the idea that Scotland was never subdued to the might of Rome.
According to Rebecca H. Jones in "Roman Camps in Scotland", the idea of the “unconquered Scotland” is a myth. The idea of an intermittent pillage is debunked. She has shown that Scotland has more traces of camps – temporary or semi-temporary stopping places for the legions – than any other part of Europe. Rome’s presence north of Hadrian’s Wall was more persistent and more imposing than the idea of the sole hold-out in Europe might suggest. The decline of Rome’s significance in Scotland was more to do with apathy and poverty than with Braveheart-like sending them home again to think again. As the Empire fragmented and over-extended, successive Emperors thought to control the heart around the Mediterranean rather than bother with a province which gave little to the imperial coffers and cost a lot to keep going
According to Rebecca H. Jones in "Roman Camps in Scotland", the idea of the “unconquered Scotland” is a myth. The idea of an intermittent pillage is debunked. She has shown that Scotland has more traces of camps – temporary or semi-temporary stopping places for the legions – than any other part of Europe. Rome’s presence north of Hadrian’s Wall was more persistent and more imposing than the idea of the sole hold-out in Europe might suggest. The decline of Rome’s significance in Scotland was more to do with apathy and poverty than with Braveheart-like sending them home again to think again. As the Empire fragmented and over-extended, successive Emperors thought to control the heart around the Mediterranean rather than bother with a province which gave little to the imperial coffers and cost a lot to keep going
The Robber Barons
Scottish "noble" families have survived for centuries. In many cases these are people who gained control of large areas of the country by the lottery of inheritance. Often their fore bearers murdered and stole for their estates or were awarded land as payment from a monarch. In the early 1990s at the top of the aristocratic ladder were Britain's 24 Dukes and Duchesses and no fewer than eight of them (33%) were Scots. They were the Dukes of Hamilton, Argyll, Atholl, Buccleuch and Queensberry, Fife, Montrose, Roxburghe and Sutherland. Some of their titles predated the Union of 1707. Next are the Marquises, and again the proportion of Scots is high. Scotland in 1992 had only 9% of Britain's population but it had more than 25% of its Marquises, these being Aberdeen and Temair, Ailsa, Bute, Huntley, Linlithgow, Lothian, Queensberry, Tweedale and Zetland. Of the five women who are Countesses in their own right four are Scots: Dysart, Loudon, Mar and Sutherland. Of the 16 women in 1992 who were baronesses in their own right, five held Scots titles.
Their ancestors murdered and stole their way to a fortune in medieval times. The inheritors of this stolen wealth have continued to prosper under capitalism. The small landed clique has in their time held absolute power. The courts were packed with their lackeys, and their class sat in judgement over everyone else. In church, the hand-picked ministers sermoned from the pulpit, about the "rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate" and of how god "made everyone and ordered their estate".
Under their despotic rule Scotland's miners were enslaved along with their families until the end of the 18th century. Not only did they oppose trade unions, their tame Judges hanged and sentenced trade unionists to transportation for life. With their off-spring in the House of Commons and pater in the Lords they opposed every progressive measure, decade after decade. They made their peace with the aspiring Victorian capitalists and together they turned their fire on the working class. The new capitalist class soon acquired titles and land of their own. Marrying their sons and daughters into the nobility. Their descendants receiving a dash of the old blue blood.
This, landed elite, now provide a useful cover for today's robber barons that control the market system. With their romantic ancient titles, fancy robes, court ritual (most of it made up in the last century by the Victorians) and public school accents, the Monarchy and the Aristocracy are supposed to provide the glue that binds the nation together. They are the guardians of our heritage. An historical pageant of heroes, battles and daring-do. It's all a lie, a great big historical con-trick. The monarchy and their landed hangers-on are a parasitical class. Descended from murderers, thieves and rogues. For a thousand years they have used and abused the land for their own purpose, pleasure and profit. The lands that their descendants hold today are stolen property. Acquired, by theft and fraud. Their title deeds are murder, massacre and rape. The vast wealth of, Buccleuch, Cawdor, Atholl, Bute and their, ilk. was created, in the first place, by a medieval brigands.
The Atholls trace their line back to a murderous Flemish pirate called Freskin. The family, have a great fondness for plunder.
The "sly sleekit" Campbells in their various guises, are a family who have supplied some of the biggest rogues ever to disgrace Scotland. You name it they've done it. Treachery, theft and murder are just some of this mob's specialities. Nothing stopped this gang of thieves. They grabbed the lands of Cawdor through kidnap and child molesting. In the early 16th century the chief of the Argyle branch of the tribe had his son kidnap and marry the 12 year-old heiress to the land's of Cawdor.
The Scotts of Buccleuch have moved on from being cattle rustling reivers to the dukes. The original Scott was one Richard, a traitorous character who signed the infamous 'ragman's roll' and sold out to Edward the First. This family of bandits achieved their Dukedom not by so called noble deeds, but by marrying a young child off to a son of Charles the Second.
The Stuarts of Bute are descended, like the present head of the Windsor clan, from an illegitimate daughter of the first Stewart King Robert the Second. This character was a useless nonentity. The Stewart's were a dysfunctional lot. James the First was murdered by members of his own family. His grief-stricken widow had the perpetrators roasted over an open fire. James the Third was stabbed to death after a family feud, when he was defeated by his own son. The Stewart's brought ruin on Scotland time and time again. One of them betrayed William Wallace for £100 worth of land. It all came to a sticky end at Culloden, when the not-so-Bonnie Prince Charlie fled the field, and left his troops to the tender mercies of Butcher Cumberland
John the 3rd Earl of Bute had a great fondness for money, other peoples. He wangled himself the job of his dreams as First Lord of the Treasury. This 18th century upper crust wide-boy had very sticky fingers. He managed to steal a fortune before he was found out and driven from office by popular demand. The bold John had looted enough though to build himself a large mansion in London stuffed full of art treasures. The present 7th Marquis, also Earl of Dumfries (John Bute as he prefers to be called) the former racing driver, inherited a fortune of £110 million, needless to say he never offered to re-pay what his ancestor stole.
The Douglas, Hamilton and Home clans have rampaged across the centuries. These three dynasties are, linked, by a thousand threads. Its hard tell were one lot ends and the other begins.
The late Duke of Hamilton is Scotland's premier Duke and has more titles than you can shake a stick at. He is also a descendent of the Douglas clan.
The Douglas's are another tribe, which has that rascal Freskin the pirate in its lineage. Their most famous historical figure was the 'Black Douglas'. Portrayed as a Scottish hero, he was nothing of the kind. In reality he was a bloodthirsty psychopath. One of his so-called heroic deeds was to massacre a group of unarmed soldiers on their way to church on a Palm Sunday. He rose to prominence under Robert the Bruce.
Bruce like the rest of his kind knew how to play both sides. This Norman whose family had long held lands in England (his father was Edward the First's governor in Carlisle) put the interests of Bruce before anything else. He even fought alongside Edward against the Scots. He grabbed the throne after murdering another claimant 'Red' John Combine in a Dumfries church. Comyn not the brightest of a very dim bunch turned up to meet the noble Robert on his own and Bruce stuck the knife in. After defeating the English based Norman's and their local Norman allies at Bannockburn, Bruce carved up the country amongst his Norman pals.
As for the poor Scottish peasants, life went on as before. It was nasty, brutal and short.
The founder of the glorious Hamilton bloodline was a Norman robber baron Walter Fitz-Gilbert. This thug bolted north after murdering a bandit with a bigger gang than him. His passport, to the big-time came, through an act of betrayal. The bold Walter had sworn allegiance to Edward the First and got fixed up with a nice little job -keeper of Bothwell castle. On hearing the result from Bannockburn, it was make your mind-up time big style. He flew the English standard and welcomed all those fleeing the battle. Quickly turning his coat, he handed the lot of them over to the Bruce. This one act of betrayal made the families fortune.
The Hamilton's piled up a fortune from mining before nationalisation. Whilst the miners of Lanarkshire sweated in the bowels of the earth the Hamilton's sat back and counted the royalties. Such was the greed of this crew that they allowed their stately home Hamilton Palace to be undermined. It had to be demolished in the twenties.
The third leg of this noble treble is provided by the Homes. They claim decent from an old Scottish King called William the Lion. This individual's nickname was a huge exaggeration. The Homes turned murder theft and treachery into a fine art. Over the years they feathered their nest well with mining royalties. Douglas-Home who was a Tory Prime Minister in the sixties was the 14th Earl of Home.
The Drummond Castle Estate lands in Perthshire has been passed down the generations to Baroness Willoughby, daughter of the last Earl of Ancaster. The Ancaster’s acquired the land by marrying into the Drummond family. The Drummonds were gifted much of these vast estates by courting the favour of Robert the Bruce and then Robert II. The first Earl of Moray was the illegitimate child of James V and given numerous titles by his father. The Moray family’s estates were stolen from the Church. Much of this land still remains under the control of the current Earl whose late wife was the elder daughter of the 7th Earl of Mansfield.
The Earl of Airlie and The Marquis of Huntly are but two minor aristocrats in terms of landownership, and yet their position as landowners in their respective localities brings with the title certain forms of symbolic and ceremonial power.
The Earl of Airlie is reputed to own 37,300 acres of land north of Kirriemuir in Angus. The Earl is in many ways the quintessential Scottish aristocrat, living in the royal county of Angus alongside the Queen and the Earls of Strathmore, Southesk, Dalhousie and Woolton. His principal residence, Cortachy Castle, is set in heavily wooded land beside the River South Esk. Educated at Eton, and having served with the Scots Guards, he remains well connected with the ceremonial establishment. Like past Earls of Airlie who owned land in Glenisla, the Earl of Airlie's patronage gave him control over the proceedings of the Gathering of the Glenisla Highland and Friendly Society, a Gathering which dates back to 1852.
The Airlie family are illustrative of the fact that networks and family connections play a key role in preserving and supporting the landowning interest. Networks in conjunction with organisations such as the Scottish Landowners Federation help to sustain a core body of beliefs and attitudes with regards to preservation of sporting estates, the sanctity of private property rights, and exaggerated claims concerning the contributions which rural sports make to both the local economy and rural employment. Such connections and indeed the sporting season itself provide insights into the heart of the British and Scottish establishment. The late Queen Mother was the daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore (Glamis in Angus). The Queen (land in Angus and Aberdeenshire) herself has a cousin, the fifth Earl of Granville (North Uist Estate) whose daughter is married to Jonathan Bulmer (Amhuinnsuidhe Estate in Inverness-shire) whose brother David also owns Ledmore Estate in Sutherland. The second Earl of Granville's daughter was the mother of John Granville Morrison, Lord Margadale (Islay Estate). The Queen is also related to the Earl of Airlie (Airlie Estates) through his brother, Sir Angus Ogilvy who is married to Princess Alexandra of Kent. The Countess of Airlie is also Lady to the Bedchamber of the Queen. The Queen's aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, is the third daughter of the seventh Duke of Buccleuch whose widow was the daughter of the 13th Earl of Home. The current Duke of Buccleuch's sister is the Duchess of Northumberland (Burncastle in Berwickshire).
The Marquis of Huntly remains in charge of Aboyne Castle Estate Trustees and yet perhaps the significance of the position is more symbolically displayed at the Aboyne Highland Gathering, a Gathering at which a nominal unity sometimes conceals the fact that at the same event there co-exist different seating arrangements, different styles of dress, different social codes and prescriptions, all of which serve to unite and segregate different social groups. At Aboyne the ceremonial display of flags is but one small indicator of the social spaces which different people occupy. At the opening of the Gathering the Royal banner or flag is the first to be raised, shortly followed by the banner belonging to the Marquis of Huntly, who fulfils the dual roles of feudal superior and local patron to the Aboyne Highland Gatherings and Games. Subsequent banners, raised on either side of the two flags, tend to provide not just a galaxy of colours but also an insight into the upper circles of power and social structure within the district, the Highlands and Scotland.
Ever since 1603 when James the Sixth moved the Scottish Court down to London, the Scottish elites have taken their cue from London. The process continued all through the 18th and 19th centuries as Scotland's 'Noble' families joined the Anglican Church, sent their children to English public schools and universities, married their English counterparts, and used their Scottish estates to fund their social life in London. This has had a profound anglicising effect on the influential upper reaches of Scottish society. To some extent the Scottish upper classes have become nominal Scots, Scots in name only. They are Scots who speak with English accents - or at least that variety of English accent which has become the language of power and influence. They are educated in English public schools like Eton College, Winchester and Harrow or English-style public schools like Fettes, Glenalmond and Gordonstoun which happen to be in Scotland. They prefer the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to the universities of Scotland. They also have a distinct tendency to marry their counterparts south of the border, who, very often inherit their land and property. Which is one of the reasons so much of rural and highland Scotland is owned from addresses in the better-heeled parts of the Home Counties and the West Country.
There are nine Scottish Dukes; Abercorn, Argyll, Atholl, Buccleuch, Fife, Hamilton, Montrose, Roxburghe and Sutherland. Six of them were educated at Eton, and only two in Scotland - The Duke of Argyll at Glenalmond and the Duke of Fife at Gordonstoun. And these schools while in Scotland have nothing to do with the Scottish educational system. There are sixteen 'Knights' of the Thistle, Scotland's highest order of chivalry. Only three were educated inside the Scottish system. There are 31 Queen's Lords Lieutenant in Scotland and there are There are 32 Queen's Bodyguard in Scotland, again most came from the same anglicised, social milieu of English public schools. The Scottish upper class - the social elite - is now more or less totally anglicised.
http://www.caledonia.org.uk/land/mccrone.htm
http://www.redflag.org.uk/articles/issix/is6noble.html
http://www.caledonia.org.uk/land/tjohnsto.htm
http://www.siol-nan-gaidheal.org/englishing.htm
Their ancestors murdered and stole their way to a fortune in medieval times. The inheritors of this stolen wealth have continued to prosper under capitalism. The small landed clique has in their time held absolute power. The courts were packed with their lackeys, and their class sat in judgement over everyone else. In church, the hand-picked ministers sermoned from the pulpit, about the "rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate" and of how god "made everyone and ordered their estate".
Under their despotic rule Scotland's miners were enslaved along with their families until the end of the 18th century. Not only did they oppose trade unions, their tame Judges hanged and sentenced trade unionists to transportation for life. With their off-spring in the House of Commons and pater in the Lords they opposed every progressive measure, decade after decade. They made their peace with the aspiring Victorian capitalists and together they turned their fire on the working class. The new capitalist class soon acquired titles and land of their own. Marrying their sons and daughters into the nobility. Their descendants receiving a dash of the old blue blood.
This, landed elite, now provide a useful cover for today's robber barons that control the market system. With their romantic ancient titles, fancy robes, court ritual (most of it made up in the last century by the Victorians) and public school accents, the Monarchy and the Aristocracy are supposed to provide the glue that binds the nation together. They are the guardians of our heritage. An historical pageant of heroes, battles and daring-do. It's all a lie, a great big historical con-trick. The monarchy and their landed hangers-on are a parasitical class. Descended from murderers, thieves and rogues. For a thousand years they have used and abused the land for their own purpose, pleasure and profit. The lands that their descendants hold today are stolen property. Acquired, by theft and fraud. Their title deeds are murder, massacre and rape. The vast wealth of, Buccleuch, Cawdor, Atholl, Bute and their, ilk. was created, in the first place, by a medieval brigands.
The Atholls trace their line back to a murderous Flemish pirate called Freskin. The family, have a great fondness for plunder.
The "sly sleekit" Campbells in their various guises, are a family who have supplied some of the biggest rogues ever to disgrace Scotland. You name it they've done it. Treachery, theft and murder are just some of this mob's specialities. Nothing stopped this gang of thieves. They grabbed the lands of Cawdor through kidnap and child molesting. In the early 16th century the chief of the Argyle branch of the tribe had his son kidnap and marry the 12 year-old heiress to the land's of Cawdor.
The Scotts of Buccleuch have moved on from being cattle rustling reivers to the dukes. The original Scott was one Richard, a traitorous character who signed the infamous 'ragman's roll' and sold out to Edward the First. This family of bandits achieved their Dukedom not by so called noble deeds, but by marrying a young child off to a son of Charles the Second.
The Stuarts of Bute are descended, like the present head of the Windsor clan, from an illegitimate daughter of the first Stewart King Robert the Second. This character was a useless nonentity. The Stewart's were a dysfunctional lot. James the First was murdered by members of his own family. His grief-stricken widow had the perpetrators roasted over an open fire. James the Third was stabbed to death after a family feud, when he was defeated by his own son. The Stewart's brought ruin on Scotland time and time again. One of them betrayed William Wallace for £100 worth of land. It all came to a sticky end at Culloden, when the not-so-Bonnie Prince Charlie fled the field, and left his troops to the tender mercies of Butcher Cumberland
John the 3rd Earl of Bute had a great fondness for money, other peoples. He wangled himself the job of his dreams as First Lord of the Treasury. This 18th century upper crust wide-boy had very sticky fingers. He managed to steal a fortune before he was found out and driven from office by popular demand. The bold John had looted enough though to build himself a large mansion in London stuffed full of art treasures. The present 7th Marquis, also Earl of Dumfries (John Bute as he prefers to be called) the former racing driver, inherited a fortune of £110 million, needless to say he never offered to re-pay what his ancestor stole.
The Douglas, Hamilton and Home clans have rampaged across the centuries. These three dynasties are, linked, by a thousand threads. Its hard tell were one lot ends and the other begins.
The late Duke of Hamilton is Scotland's premier Duke and has more titles than you can shake a stick at. He is also a descendent of the Douglas clan.
The Douglas's are another tribe, which has that rascal Freskin the pirate in its lineage. Their most famous historical figure was the 'Black Douglas'. Portrayed as a Scottish hero, he was nothing of the kind. In reality he was a bloodthirsty psychopath. One of his so-called heroic deeds was to massacre a group of unarmed soldiers on their way to church on a Palm Sunday. He rose to prominence under Robert the Bruce.
Bruce like the rest of his kind knew how to play both sides. This Norman whose family had long held lands in England (his father was Edward the First's governor in Carlisle) put the interests of Bruce before anything else. He even fought alongside Edward against the Scots. He grabbed the throne after murdering another claimant 'Red' John Combine in a Dumfries church. Comyn not the brightest of a very dim bunch turned up to meet the noble Robert on his own and Bruce stuck the knife in. After defeating the English based Norman's and their local Norman allies at Bannockburn, Bruce carved up the country amongst his Norman pals.
As for the poor Scottish peasants, life went on as before. It was nasty, brutal and short.
The founder of the glorious Hamilton bloodline was a Norman robber baron Walter Fitz-Gilbert. This thug bolted north after murdering a bandit with a bigger gang than him. His passport, to the big-time came, through an act of betrayal. The bold Walter had sworn allegiance to Edward the First and got fixed up with a nice little job -keeper of Bothwell castle. On hearing the result from Bannockburn, it was make your mind-up time big style. He flew the English standard and welcomed all those fleeing the battle. Quickly turning his coat, he handed the lot of them over to the Bruce. This one act of betrayal made the families fortune.
The Hamilton's piled up a fortune from mining before nationalisation. Whilst the miners of Lanarkshire sweated in the bowels of the earth the Hamilton's sat back and counted the royalties. Such was the greed of this crew that they allowed their stately home Hamilton Palace to be undermined. It had to be demolished in the twenties.
The third leg of this noble treble is provided by the Homes. They claim decent from an old Scottish King called William the Lion. This individual's nickname was a huge exaggeration. The Homes turned murder theft and treachery into a fine art. Over the years they feathered their nest well with mining royalties. Douglas-Home who was a Tory Prime Minister in the sixties was the 14th Earl of Home.
The Drummond Castle Estate lands in Perthshire has been passed down the generations to Baroness Willoughby, daughter of the last Earl of Ancaster. The Ancaster’s acquired the land by marrying into the Drummond family. The Drummonds were gifted much of these vast estates by courting the favour of Robert the Bruce and then Robert II. The first Earl of Moray was the illegitimate child of James V and given numerous titles by his father. The Moray family’s estates were stolen from the Church. Much of this land still remains under the control of the current Earl whose late wife was the elder daughter of the 7th Earl of Mansfield.
The Earl of Airlie and The Marquis of Huntly are but two minor aristocrats in terms of landownership, and yet their position as landowners in their respective localities brings with the title certain forms of symbolic and ceremonial power.
The Earl of Airlie is reputed to own 37,300 acres of land north of Kirriemuir in Angus. The Earl is in many ways the quintessential Scottish aristocrat, living in the royal county of Angus alongside the Queen and the Earls of Strathmore, Southesk, Dalhousie and Woolton. His principal residence, Cortachy Castle, is set in heavily wooded land beside the River South Esk. Educated at Eton, and having served with the Scots Guards, he remains well connected with the ceremonial establishment. Like past Earls of Airlie who owned land in Glenisla, the Earl of Airlie's patronage gave him control over the proceedings of the Gathering of the Glenisla Highland and Friendly Society, a Gathering which dates back to 1852.
The Airlie family are illustrative of the fact that networks and family connections play a key role in preserving and supporting the landowning interest. Networks in conjunction with organisations such as the Scottish Landowners Federation help to sustain a core body of beliefs and attitudes with regards to preservation of sporting estates, the sanctity of private property rights, and exaggerated claims concerning the contributions which rural sports make to both the local economy and rural employment. Such connections and indeed the sporting season itself provide insights into the heart of the British and Scottish establishment. The late Queen Mother was the daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore (Glamis in Angus). The Queen (land in Angus and Aberdeenshire) herself has a cousin, the fifth Earl of Granville (North Uist Estate) whose daughter is married to Jonathan Bulmer (Amhuinnsuidhe Estate in Inverness-shire) whose brother David also owns Ledmore Estate in Sutherland. The second Earl of Granville's daughter was the mother of John Granville Morrison, Lord Margadale (Islay Estate). The Queen is also related to the Earl of Airlie (Airlie Estates) through his brother, Sir Angus Ogilvy who is married to Princess Alexandra of Kent. The Countess of Airlie is also Lady to the Bedchamber of the Queen. The Queen's aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, is the third daughter of the seventh Duke of Buccleuch whose widow was the daughter of the 13th Earl of Home. The current Duke of Buccleuch's sister is the Duchess of Northumberland (Burncastle in Berwickshire).
The Marquis of Huntly remains in charge of Aboyne Castle Estate Trustees and yet perhaps the significance of the position is more symbolically displayed at the Aboyne Highland Gathering, a Gathering at which a nominal unity sometimes conceals the fact that at the same event there co-exist different seating arrangements, different styles of dress, different social codes and prescriptions, all of which serve to unite and segregate different social groups. At Aboyne the ceremonial display of flags is but one small indicator of the social spaces which different people occupy. At the opening of the Gathering the Royal banner or flag is the first to be raised, shortly followed by the banner belonging to the Marquis of Huntly, who fulfils the dual roles of feudal superior and local patron to the Aboyne Highland Gatherings and Games. Subsequent banners, raised on either side of the two flags, tend to provide not just a galaxy of colours but also an insight into the upper circles of power and social structure within the district, the Highlands and Scotland.
Ever since 1603 when James the Sixth moved the Scottish Court down to London, the Scottish elites have taken their cue from London. The process continued all through the 18th and 19th centuries as Scotland's 'Noble' families joined the Anglican Church, sent their children to English public schools and universities, married their English counterparts, and used their Scottish estates to fund their social life in London. This has had a profound anglicising effect on the influential upper reaches of Scottish society. To some extent the Scottish upper classes have become nominal Scots, Scots in name only. They are Scots who speak with English accents - or at least that variety of English accent which has become the language of power and influence. They are educated in English public schools like Eton College, Winchester and Harrow or English-style public schools like Fettes, Glenalmond and Gordonstoun which happen to be in Scotland. They prefer the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to the universities of Scotland. They also have a distinct tendency to marry their counterparts south of the border, who, very often inherit their land and property. Which is one of the reasons so much of rural and highland Scotland is owned from addresses in the better-heeled parts of the Home Counties and the West Country.
There are nine Scottish Dukes; Abercorn, Argyll, Atholl, Buccleuch, Fife, Hamilton, Montrose, Roxburghe and Sutherland. Six of them were educated at Eton, and only two in Scotland - The Duke of Argyll at Glenalmond and the Duke of Fife at Gordonstoun. And these schools while in Scotland have nothing to do with the Scottish educational system. There are sixteen 'Knights' of the Thistle, Scotland's highest order of chivalry. Only three were educated inside the Scottish system. There are 31 Queen's Lords Lieutenant in Scotland and there are There are 32 Queen's Bodyguard in Scotland, again most came from the same anglicised, social milieu of English public schools. The Scottish upper class - the social elite - is now more or less totally anglicised.
http://www.caledonia.org.uk/land/mccrone.htm
http://www.redflag.org.uk/articles/issix/is6noble.html
http://www.caledonia.org.uk/land/tjohnsto.htm
http://www.siol-nan-gaidheal.org/englishing.htm
Sunday, April 15, 2012
A sharing, caring Scotland
A total of 2,025,400 people had put their names forward for the NHS Organ Donor Register as of 31 March - almost 40% of the population. Across the UK, the number of people on the organ donation register stands at 30%.
Three people in the UK die every day because of a lack of access to organs. The Scottish government also said the number of people who died while waiting for organs fell from 38 in 2010-11 to 36 in 2011-12. The tragic fact is that more than 600 people in Scotland are still waiting for a life-saving transplant.
Three people in the UK die every day because of a lack of access to organs. The Scottish government also said the number of people who died while waiting for organs fell from 38 in 2010-11 to 36 in 2011-12. The tragic fact is that more than 600 people in Scotland are still waiting for a life-saving transplant.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION?
We are supposed to be living in an economic depression but this does not affect large sections of the owning class. More than 200 real estate brokers and lawyers, filed into an Off Broadway theatre last month to discuss a real estate boom. "While the brokers sipped wine and nibbled cheese, a panel of lawyers and a banker reviewed some of the biggest sales made to Russians, including the $188 million spent on properties in Florida and New York by trusts linked to Dmitry Rybolovlev, who made billions from potash fertilizer; the $48 million that a composer, Igor Krutoy, paid for an apartment at the Plaza Hotel; and the $37 million spent by Andrei Vavilov, a former deputy finance minister, on a penthouse at the Time Warner Center. .... Over the past four years, Russians and other citizens of the former Soviet Union have signed contracts to buy more than $1 billion worth of residential real estate in the United States, according to estimates from lawyers and brokers." (New York Times, 3 April) As the number of billionaires in Russia and Ukraine has more than tripled since 2009, to 104, according to Forbes, it is far from a depression for them. RD
TAXING YOUR INCREDULITY
A study by HM Revenue and customs found that the extremely rich are using avoidance schemes to reduce their income tax rate to an average of 10 per cent - less than half the level paid by the average Briton. The Chancellor personally studied the "anonymised" copies of the tax returns submitted by some of the country's wealthiest citizens which showed some people are able to avoid paying income tax entirely. "Mr Osborne told The Daily Telegraph: "I was shocked to see that some of the very wealthiest people in the country have organised their tax affairs, and to be fair it's within the tax laws, so that they were regularly paying virtually no income tax. And I don't think that's right. "I'm talking about people right at the top. I'm talking about people with incomes of many millions of pounds a year." (Daily Telegraph, 10 April) For a Chancellor of the Exchequer to be "shocked" and "don't think that's right" is indeed incredible. Millionaires protecting their property is the very basis of capitalism. RD
Scots Land?
In Scotland's feudal system of land tenure all rights of ownership are vested in the Crown as Paramount Superior. All rights of land ownership are deemed to derive from the Crown which is the ultimate owner in Scotland. However, it is hard to believe in an advanced industrialised democracy that a natural asset as basic as land can still be largely controlled by a small band of aristocrats. Yet in modern day Scotland a system of land ownership which is feudal and hierarchical has remained substantially intact since the 11th century. A mere 579 private landowners own 50 percent of all land north of the border, giving Scotland the narrowest concentration of land wealth in the whole of Europe. Even in industrialised parts of the area such as the "Mid-Scotland and Fife" EU parliamentary constituency, a small group of private landowners and aristocrats still control much of the land. The aristocrats of the houses of Argyll, Buccleuch, Home, Roxburghe, Stair, Airlie, Lothian, Montrose, Hamilton, Moray, Westminster, Burton, Cowdray, Dulverton and others still control about 13% of Scotland. The private ownership of land has allowed a tiny minority of people to control economic and social activity in Scotland, a small number of people are able to disproportionately influence the lives and environment of others.Tom Johnston in his 1909 book Scotland’s Noble Families wrote: “Show the people that our Old Nobility is not noble, that its lands are stolen lands – stolen by either force or fraud; show people that the title-deeds are rapine, murder, massacre, cheating, or court harlotry; dissolve the halo of divinity that surrounds the hereditary title; let the people clearly understand that our present House of Lords is composed largely of descendants of successful pirates and rogues… A democracy ignorant of the past is not qualified either to analyse the present or to shape the future and so, in the interests of the High Priests of Politics and the Lordly Money-Changers of Society, great care has been taken to offer us stories of useless pageantry, chronicles of the birth and death of Kings, annals of Court intrigue and international war, while withheld from us were the real facts and narratives of moment, the loss of our ancient freedoms, the rape of our common lands and the shameless and dastardly methods by which a few selected stocks snatched the patrimony of the people."
He denounced the Scottish aristocracy on the grounds that three-quarters of them were descendants of foreign freebooters who forcibly took possession of our land after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
“Your land, eh?”, asks the miner.
“Yes”, replies the laird, “and my grouse and my deer.”
“And who did you get this land from?”
“Well, I inherited it from my father.”
“And who did he get it from?” the miner insists.
“He inherited it from his father, of course. The land has been in my family for over 400 years,” the laird proudly declared .
“OK, so how did your family come to own this land 400 years ago?” the miner asks.
“Well....actually.... they fought for it!”
“Fine,” replies the miner. “Take your jacket off and I’ll fight you now for it.”
If it was only that easy but the story demonstrates is not that all land is illegally held and so it can justify seizing land by force but that historically, legal and political systems have acknowledged rights to land on the basis that the ownership is already properly established. Historically, such claims can be relatively easily disputed and it is only the existence of an agreed code of law that prevents rival claims being entertained. Rights in land are entirely dependent for their legitimacy on the wider agreement of the society upon whose legal system such rights rest.
Professor Cosmo Innes (1798-1874), Advocate and Professor of Constitutional Law and History wrote in his Scotch Legal Antiquities,
“Looking over our country, the land held in common was of vast extent. In truth, the arable - the cultivated land of Scotland, the land early appropriated and held by charter - is a narrow strip on the river bank or beside the sea. The inland, the upland, the moor, the mountain were really not occupied at all for agricultural purposes, or served only to keep the poor and their cattle from starving. They were not thought of when charters were made and lands feudalised. Now as cultivation increased, the tendency in the agricultural mind was to occupy these wide commons, and our lawyers lent themselves to appropriate the poor man’s grazing to the neighbouring baron. They pointed to his charter with its clause of parts and pertinents, with its general clause of mosses and moors - clauses taken from the style book, not with any reference to the territory conveyed in that charter; and although the charter was hundreds of years old, and the lord had never possessed any of the common, when it came to be divided, the lord got the whole that was allocated to the estate, and the poor cottar none. The poor had no lawyers.”
Not only did the poor have no lawyers. They spoke no Latin either and were not in the habit of traveling to Edinburgh on a regular basis to examine the title deeds of the nobility. In Scotland, indeed in the whole of Britain, centuries of enclosure and eviction created a vast class of displaced people whose only recourse was to migrate to the industrial centres. This proved quite a convenient source of labour for the emerging industrial owners, who frequently converted their growing wealth into political power by purchasing land. This power was also reinforced through the provision of tied housing for their landless labourers.
Appealing to such concept as the "national heritage" allowed the Lords and lairds to insinuate their own histories and that of their families into that of the nation. They can present themselves not simply as the owners of appreciating economic assets, but as the "keepers of the nation's soul", the phrase used by the National Trust for Scotland. Scotland's lairds have sought to convert their own histories into that of the nation, so that, by implication, one cannot abolish one without the other. In recent years, landowners have also adapted their claim to authority not only based on their legal claim, but on the view that they are the proper managers - stewards - of Scotland's "natural heritage". It helps this claim that purchasers of land often view land as a means of consumption rather than production, that they have bought land for reasons of status conferment and consumption, rather than or as well as for its economic potential as a tradable commodity. In other words, they are making use of forms of what academics called cultural capital (rather than material/financial capital) to position themselves in the field. When they are most successful in doing this, management science conservationists have to work around and through them. They are involved in "objectifying" Scotland's natural heritage in such a way that assumes the rightness of the social order.
This "capture" of Scotland's heritage is an important weapon in class survival. The landowning establishment among Scotland's elite continue to have their links into financial and money-making circles, as well as considerable cultural power. The "mighty magnates" of 19th century Scotland - the men (and some women) who headed the great houses - were essentially a rentier rather than an entrepreneurial class, making their money from rents and investments. They were sufficiently astute to invest in the new industrial capitalism which ran Scotland economically and politically for so long, while being strongly represented on the boards of the major banks and finance houses. At the turn of the century, The Marquess of Linlithgow, for example, was a director of the Bank of Scotland, and Standard Life; the Duke of Buccleuch, of the Royal Bank, Standard Life and Scottish Equitable; the Earl of Mansfield, of the National Bank, and Scottish Equitable; and the Marquess of Tweeddale, of the Commercial Bank, Edinburgh Life, and Scottish Widows. Such hegemony has, of course, eroded significantly with the decline of indigenous Scottish capitalism and its replacement with multinational corporations. Nevertheless, the banks and finance houses still find it useful to have titled property represented on the board. Economic power in Scotland is an amalgam of old and new wealth, the individual and the corporate, the indigenous and the foreign, the private and the public. Commenting in the late 1970s, one journalist observed that Scotland's elites "all know each other - a tight circle of politicians, businessmen, civil servants, lawyers, trade unionists, churchmen, academics, and a nostalgic sprinkling of titled gentry" (C.Baur, The Scotsman, 18 September 1978).
The power and influence of thosed landed magnates has long been identified as one of the key features of landownership in Scotland. By and large there has been little movement in the Top Twenty chart of landowners in Scotland for more than a century. The mighty magnates of the 1990s such as the Duke of Buccleuch, the Duke of Argyll, the Farquharsons of Invercauld, the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of Seafield, the late Duke of Atholl, and the Countess of Sutherland owned great acreage in 1875, the last occasion when a comprehensive land register was compiled. The 1871 official enquiry into landownership in Britain was designed to show that land was far more equitably distributed than the radical critics of the day made out. What it actually revealed was a pattern of monopolistic than almost any other country in Europe. In 1872, the 1500 largest landowners in Scotland held over 90% of the country, a figure which had only dropped a percentage or two thirty years later. A small group of landowning families has remained relatively stable throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and as such have witnessed the arrival and departure of various people who might fit more easily within any nominal notion of a capitalist class or business elite.
Those whose ownership of Highland estates has not been dependent upon old hereditary wealth or have been part of a traditional labouring aristocracy have been joined at various points throughout the 1990s by the nouveau riches such as Philip Rhodes the property developer, Ann Gloag owner of the Stagecoach bus company, Peter de Savaray, Malcolm Potier, Keith Schellenberg, Mohammed Al Fayed owner of Harrods, Professor Maruma the German spiritual artist, and Fred Olsen the Norwegian shipping magnate. Undoubtedly, the mighty magnates have also been joined in the 1990s by a number of corporate lairds and trusts such as the Bocardo Société Anonyme and Ross Estates Ltd, the Co-op Wholesale Society Ltd, Eagle Star, Gallagher Pensions Trust Ltd, Midland Bank, the John Muir Trust, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Church of Scotland and the Assynt Crofters Trust. The State itself through the Crown Estate, the Ministry of Defence, the Forestry Commission and Scottish Natural Heritage still owns vast tracts of land. Yet what is significant is not so much the decline and fall of a landed elite or a traditional aristocracy, or even the extent to which changing patterns of wealth behind estate ownership emerged, but rather the stability of landownership and in particular the enduring nature of Scotland's magnates and those members of a British aristocracy who own land in Scotland.
Scotland's landed class has to an astonishing degree survived almost a century of change. Survival strategies have included marrying into new money, setting up trusts, carving out a niche in the city, letting out sporting rights, promoting family and heritage and selling off fractions of the estate. Despite the cost of maintaining huge estates and crumbling castles, inheritance taxes, hostile governments, calls for land reform and public access to land, Scotland's magnates and those members of the British aristocracy who own land in Scotland remain remarkably resilient.
Take the reported exchange in the Westminster's voting lobbies between the Tory MPs Tim Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, and Nicholas Soames, a descendant of the Duke of Marlborough, when the latter was dressed in his hunting gear. “Going rat-catching, Nick?” asked Sainsbury, to which the noble Soames is said to have replied: “F**k off, you grocer. You don’t tell a gentleman how to dress on a Friday.”
The aristocracy may be in decline, but their fall is some way off yet !
Top 20 aristocratic landowners in Scotland 1995
Owner Acres
Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry 261600
Capt AAC Farquharson of Invercauld 120500
Earl of Seafield 101000
Duke of Westminster 95100
Crown Estate Commissioners 94015
Countess of Sutherland 83239
Viscount Cowdray 76600
Sir Donald Cameron of Locheil 76000
Duke of Roxburghe 65600
Baroness Willoughby de Eresby 63200
Duke of Argyll 60800
John A Mackenzie of Gairloch 56900
Earl of Cawdor 56800
The Queen 55270
Marquess of Bute 53990
Sir Ivar Colquhoun of Luss 50000
Lord Burton 48000
Earl of Dalhousie 47200
Lady Anne Bentinck 45000
Earl of Stair 43674
Total 1,554,488
% of Scotland - top 20 aristocratic estates 8.01%
Total Acreage above 5000 acres owned by aristocracy 2,554,399
As a % of Scotland's total land mass 13.16%
http://www.scottishaffairs.org/backiss/pdfs/sa19/sa19_Jarvie_Jackson_and_Higgins.pdf
Scotland 19,068,631acres 100%
Urban 585,627 acres 3%
Rural 18,483,004 acres 97%
Of the rural land, 2, 275,768 acres are in the ownership of public bodies
and 16,207,236 are in the ownership of private bodies.
Of this privately-owned rural land:
One quarter is owned by 66 landowners in estates of 30,700 acres and larger
One third is owned by 120 landowners in estates of 21,000 acres and larger
One half is owned by 343 landowners in estates of 7,500 acres and larger
Two thirds is owned by 1252 landowners in estates of 1 ,200 acres and larger
Two thirds of Scotland is owned by one four thousandth (0.025%) of the people!
http://tipiglen.co.uk/property.html
REGION
Fife
325,865 area in acres
41 number of owners
111,300 acreage held by these owners
34.5% percentage of region
Central
666,007 area in acres
92 number of owners
331,336 area in acres
49.7% percentage of region
Tayside (part)
377,979 area in acres
23 number of owners
201,376 area in acres
53.3% percentage of region
http://www.caledonia.org.uk/land/documents/leonard.pdf
Friday, April 13, 2012
PROGRESSING BACKWARDS
In 1968 the US Supreme Court banned teachers from telling pupils that the theory of evolution is wrong, saying that to do so breached the principle of the separation of church and state. In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that the mandatory teaching of creationism was unconstitutional because it was illegal to advance a particular religion in schools. This legislation is about to be overturned by new measures in Tennessee. "The measure has already passed through the state's legislature, dominated by the conservative Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, and Governor Bill Haslam has until today to veto it. If passed, Tennessee would become the second state after Louisiana to allow teachers to challenge the accepted science on evolution and climate change." (Daily Telegraph, 9 April) 150 years after the publication of the "Origin of Species" religious zealots are still denying the unassailable evidence for evolution. RD
HARD WORK AND HARD FACTS
Workers are always being implored to work harder. In fact governments often say that the reason their standards of living are falling is because they don't work hard enough, but what about this American example? "In 2010, according to a study published this month by University of California economist Emmanuel Saez, 93 per cent of income growth went to the wealthiest 1 per cent of American households, while everyone else divvied up the 7 per cent that was left over. Put another way: The most fundamental characteristic of the U.S. economy today is the divide between the 1 per cent and the 99 per cent. .... Research by Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution, as part of the Economic Mobility Project, has shown that intergenerational mobility in the United States has fallen far below the levels in Germany, Finland, Denmark and other more social democratic nations of Northern Europe. Now, Saez's analysis of income data provides further evidence that mocks America's self-image as a land where hard work yields rewards." (Washington Post, 23 March) As workers we have found out that hard work makes us tired. It does make the owning class rich though! RD
More slums to come
Sri Lanka’s capital city Colombo is home to over 30 percent of the country’s population, one in every two people living in the Greater Colombo Area is a slum dweller.
Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, is home to 34 percent of the country's population and is the fastest growing city in Asia – around 40 percent of those living in Dhaka are slum dwellers.
In India fully half the population of the capital, New Delhi, lives in slums, while the figure could be as high as 60 percent in glittering Mumbai. Nation-wide 93 million people are estimated to be living in slums.
Ming Zhang, the World Bank sector manager for Urban Water and Disaster Management for South Asia, predicted that the urban population in South Asia would double in the next 25 years. Already one in every four persons is categorised under ‘informal population’ or living in shanties or slums in the urban areas of the region
Regional experts and those from the World Bank agree that most of the problems faced by the cities are man-made, primarily due to lack of proper planning.
"If we thought about proper urban planning, institutional coherence and community participation, we would be able to address a big chunk of this problem" Abha Joshi-Ghani, the World Bank's Sector Manager for Finance Economics and Urban Planning explained "We are depleting our resources by inefficient and indiscriminate use of resources." Joshi-Ghani told went on to say that any relocation of slum-dwellers has to take into consideration the incomes and lifestyles of those affected, which, if disrupted, could turn the solution itself turns into a problem. "Many think that cities make people poor, when in fact cities attract the poor who think they can make a better living there" she said.
Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, is home to 34 percent of the country's population and is the fastest growing city in Asia – around 40 percent of those living in Dhaka are slum dwellers.
In India fully half the population of the capital, New Delhi, lives in slums, while the figure could be as high as 60 percent in glittering Mumbai. Nation-wide 93 million people are estimated to be living in slums.
Ming Zhang, the World Bank sector manager for Urban Water and Disaster Management for South Asia, predicted that the urban population in South Asia would double in the next 25 years. Already one in every four persons is categorised under ‘informal population’ or living in shanties or slums in the urban areas of the region
Regional experts and those from the World Bank agree that most of the problems faced by the cities are man-made, primarily due to lack of proper planning.
"If we thought about proper urban planning, institutional coherence and community participation, we would be able to address a big chunk of this problem" Abha Joshi-Ghani, the World Bank's Sector Manager for Finance Economics and Urban Planning explained "We are depleting our resources by inefficient and indiscriminate use of resources." Joshi-Ghani told went on to say that any relocation of slum-dwellers has to take into consideration the incomes and lifestyles of those affected, which, if disrupted, could turn the solution itself turns into a problem. "Many think that cities make people poor, when in fact cities attract the poor who think they can make a better living there" she said.
PLAYING RISK WITH THE WORLD
It all began like a good disaster film. The gas alarm sounded and the emergency evacuation started. Only a small contingent stayed behind, labouring to plug the leak. Having failed to do so after hours of trying, they turned off all the machinery and electricity and fled the platform too. When the last helicopter lifted off, it left the drilling rig alone on a swelling cloud of highly flammable gas from the deep. For almost an entire week flickering way up at the tip of the 490-foot stack was an open gas flare. a company spokesman thankfully noted, the wind had been blowing the gas vapors away from the platform. If it hadn't, and the cloud of gas had come into contact with the flame, there could have been a massive explosion threatening to trigger an environmental catastrophe. Total, the French energy company that owns Elgin, the stricken platform, had lost complete control. Nor was this accident without warning. Weeks earlier, engineers working on the Elgin had noted troubling pressure fluctuations in the capped line. They tried to stop it with so-called drilling mud -- but the gas was quicker.
Despite the massive expenses and technical challenges involved in "high pressure/high temperature" drilling, multinationals like Total are currently investing several billion euros in them. The reason for this is simple. As Hauge, the president of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona puts it: "The easily recoverable reservoirs in the North Sea will soon be empty." Indeed, there are not many deposits left that can be exploited using conventional means.
The combined output of all British drilling platforms now lies at only half of what it was in 1999. In the meantime, the fleet of several hundred British platforms is becoming superannuated, with accidents as well as minor oil and gas spills more common. Forty-four of these monsters even date back to the 1970s, and workers on them are forced to labor just as hard against rust as they do for oil. Jake Molloy, an organizer for the union representing oil workers, has said "ageing infrastructure, a lack of maintenance and installation integrity" are among the union's primary concerns and noted that oil-rig crews often work under life-threatening conditions.
The major oil companies are increasingly handing over their ancient equipment to smaller firms, which then go after every last drop of oil and liquid gas they can. Hauge, the Norwegian environmentalist, finds this worrisome. "Small companies have less capacity to manage big accidents, both financially and technologically," he says.
Given today's oil prices, it's now worth it for companies to go after deposits that would have once been considered uneconomical. BP recently obtained permission to drill for oil in waters more than 1,200 meters deep northwest of the Shetland Islands, off Scotland's northeastern coast. Despite obvious dangers, the region's rich deposits make it appealing. BP has acknowledged that, in the worst-case scenario, a blowout here could threaten the far northern regions with an oil spill that would far exceed even the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster in size. It calculates that twice as much oil would gush up and cause several times as much environmental damage. But the company also adds that this is, of course, "extremely unlikely."
That is also precisely what engineers thought when they were drilling for oil over 21 years ago off the Scottish coast under contract from the energy giant Mobil, which would later become today's ExxonMobil. Their huge drill was penetrating at a depth of some 500 meters when it inadvertently punctured a methane bubble under high pressure. In an instant, the sea surrounding the drilling platform was transformed into something resembling a whirlpool. As has happened with the Elgin, the entire crew made it safely off the platform. But methane, which as a greenhouse gas is extremely harmful to the climate, continues to bubble up out of the sea floor even today. And nobody can stop it.
Despite the massive expenses and technical challenges involved in "high pressure/high temperature" drilling, multinationals like Total are currently investing several billion euros in them. The reason for this is simple. As Hauge, the president of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona puts it: "The easily recoverable reservoirs in the North Sea will soon be empty." Indeed, there are not many deposits left that can be exploited using conventional means.
The combined output of all British drilling platforms now lies at only half of what it was in 1999. In the meantime, the fleet of several hundred British platforms is becoming superannuated, with accidents as well as minor oil and gas spills more common. Forty-four of these monsters even date back to the 1970s, and workers on them are forced to labor just as hard against rust as they do for oil. Jake Molloy, an organizer for the union representing oil workers, has said "ageing infrastructure, a lack of maintenance and installation integrity" are among the union's primary concerns and noted that oil-rig crews often work under life-threatening conditions.
The major oil companies are increasingly handing over their ancient equipment to smaller firms, which then go after every last drop of oil and liquid gas they can. Hauge, the Norwegian environmentalist, finds this worrisome. "Small companies have less capacity to manage big accidents, both financially and technologically," he says.
Given today's oil prices, it's now worth it for companies to go after deposits that would have once been considered uneconomical. BP recently obtained permission to drill for oil in waters more than 1,200 meters deep northwest of the Shetland Islands, off Scotland's northeastern coast. Despite obvious dangers, the region's rich deposits make it appealing. BP has acknowledged that, in the worst-case scenario, a blowout here could threaten the far northern regions with an oil spill that would far exceed even the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster in size. It calculates that twice as much oil would gush up and cause several times as much environmental damage. But the company also adds that this is, of course, "extremely unlikely."
That is also precisely what engineers thought when they were drilling for oil over 21 years ago off the Scottish coast under contract from the energy giant Mobil, which would later become today's ExxonMobil. Their huge drill was penetrating at a depth of some 500 meters when it inadvertently punctured a methane bubble under high pressure. In an instant, the sea surrounding the drilling platform was transformed into something resembling a whirlpool. As has happened with the Elgin, the entire crew made it safely off the platform. But methane, which as a greenhouse gas is extremely harmful to the climate, continues to bubble up out of the sea floor even today. And nobody can stop it.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Life begins before conception!
Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to an anti-abortion bill that declares life begins two weeks before conception. A sentence in the bill defines gestational age as "calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman," which would move the beginning of a pregnancy up two weeks prior to conception.
Representatives passed a bill to prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy. Arizona the earliest definition of late-term abortion in the country; most states use 20 weeks as a definition. Nationally, 1.5 percent of abortions in the U.S. occur after the 21st week and 3.8 percent occur between the 16th and 20th weeks.
Representatives passed a bill to prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy. Arizona the earliest definition of late-term abortion in the country; most states use 20 weeks as a definition. Nationally, 1.5 percent of abortions in the U.S. occur after the 21st week and 3.8 percent occur between the 16th and 20th weeks.
Shift work is unhealthy
Shift work has been associated with a host of health problems. The evidence is clear that getting enough sleep is important for health, and that sleep should be at night for best effect”
Shift workers getting too little sleep at the wrong time of day may be increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity, according to researchers. The team is calling for more measures to reduce the impact of shift working following the results of its study.
Changes to normal sleep meant the body struggled to control sugar levels. Some participants even developed early symptoms of diabetes within weeks.
Participants in the study started with 10 hours' sleep at night. This was followed by three weeks of disruption to their sleep and body clocks. The length of the day was extended to 28 hours, creating an effect similar to a full-time flyer constantly getting jet lag. Participants were allowed only 6.5 hours' sleep in the new 28-hour day, equivalent to 5.6 hours in a normal day. They also lived in dim light to prevent normal light resetting the body clock. During this part of the study, sugar levels in the blood were "significantly increased" immediately after a meal and during "fasting" parts of the day. The researchers showed that the hormone that lower levels of insulin - the hormone that normally controls blood sugar - were produced. Three of the participants had sugar levels which stayed so high after their meals they were classified as "pre-diabetic". They also highlighted a risk of putting on weight as the body slowed down. "The 8% drop in resting metabolic rate that we measured in our participants... translates into a 12.5-pound increase in weight over a single year," they wrote.
Dr Orfeu Buxton said: "We think these results support the findings from studies showing that, in people with a pre-diabetic condition, shift workers who stay awake at night are much more likely to progress to full-on diabetes than day workers. Since night workers often have a hard time sleeping during the day, they can face both circadian [body clock] disruption working at night and insufficient sleep during the day."
Socialist Courier has previously reported the risks of shift ork and this lqatest finding simply confirms that capitalism is bad for your health.
Shift workers getting too little sleep at the wrong time of day may be increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity, according to researchers. The team is calling for more measures to reduce the impact of shift working following the results of its study.
Changes to normal sleep meant the body struggled to control sugar levels. Some participants even developed early symptoms of diabetes within weeks.
Participants in the study started with 10 hours' sleep at night. This was followed by three weeks of disruption to their sleep and body clocks. The length of the day was extended to 28 hours, creating an effect similar to a full-time flyer constantly getting jet lag. Participants were allowed only 6.5 hours' sleep in the new 28-hour day, equivalent to 5.6 hours in a normal day. They also lived in dim light to prevent normal light resetting the body clock. During this part of the study, sugar levels in the blood were "significantly increased" immediately after a meal and during "fasting" parts of the day. The researchers showed that the hormone that lower levels of insulin - the hormone that normally controls blood sugar - were produced. Three of the participants had sugar levels which stayed so high after their meals they were classified as "pre-diabetic". They also highlighted a risk of putting on weight as the body slowed down. "The 8% drop in resting metabolic rate that we measured in our participants... translates into a 12.5-pound increase in weight over a single year," they wrote.
Dr Orfeu Buxton said: "We think these results support the findings from studies showing that, in people with a pre-diabetic condition, shift workers who stay awake at night are much more likely to progress to full-on diabetes than day workers. Since night workers often have a hard time sleeping during the day, they can face both circadian [body clock] disruption working at night and insufficient sleep during the day."
Socialist Courier has previously reported the risks of shift ork and this lqatest finding simply confirms that capitalism is bad for your health.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
United Fans
For some on the Left, sport is little more than a way to enforce hegemony and control on the duped masses, another opium for the people to divert their attentions from their social problems and delay the revolution.
Following football is expensive, the games less competitive (between 1985-95, 13 different clubs finished in the top three of the , exactly the same number as in the previous decade and the decade before that. In 1995-2005 years, that figure was just six) and the matches less atmospheric than ever in all-seated stadiums with traditional albeit bigoted songs outlawed. So why do supporters still love it?
The identification with a team, its colours, and history involves football’s most direct appeal to the gut. The tribalism displayed by a community of fans has an almost immeasurable force. It creates instant rivalries where none may have previously existed. For a few hours supporters inhabit a place where only one identity is acceptable: to be a Rangers or Celtic or Aberdeen fan. Any statement that violates the group’s one idea can prove dangerous, and, in a few cases, fatal. Being a football fan entails loud, aggressive, expressions of triumphalism and total team worship.
The term “imagined community” comes not from an analysis of sports, but, from Benedict Anderson’s book on nationalism. Anderson sets out to study why people love, die, and kill for countries. According to Anderson, a nation is “an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.” Nationalism, then, is not “an awakening of nations to self- consciousness; it invents nations where they do not exist.” As Anderson puts it, “It is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep horizontal comradeship.” This phenomenon is not limited to political communities. Hence, beneath all the commercialism and competitive rivalry is a deeper yearning for community that we dismiss at our peril.
To yearn for the football stadium crowd is to yearn for belonging in community, to dream of some kind of connectedness with your fellow humans. The further our alienation moves towards an ever-more-atomised society, one solely centered on the isolated individual, the greater there will be attempts to reclaim our to-getherness. People look to sports for a sense of something larger because social relationships with one anotherhas severely eroded throughout our society. So people look for some kind of connectedness with the tribal identity of their football club allegiences. They believe that - on some level - there's a bond between them, the players and their team. They follow them everywhere, even fight for them.
Sadly, it's not reciprocated. Kiss the badge when a player first scores for their new club. Most fans buy it every single time. The fact that they'd switch employers for a 200% pay rise without a second's thought seems lost on them. And that's not all they buy. There's the pricy season ticket, the home strip, the away strip, the third alternative away strip, the premium rate text services and so on.
When are people going to realise that when your favourite club isn't counting your cash, it's laughing at you? Rick Gekoski writes in "A Fan Behind The Scenes In The Premiership". "I was reminded of a conversation I'd had with John Salako. 'Fans,' he said, 'most of them are sad. They think the game is more important than it is, it says something about the miserable kind of lives they must lead. They get things out of proportion.' Another player, who did not wish to be named, said: 'Fans? Come on. Players hate fans.' "
Don't become a slave to football's pointless merry-go-round. In 2005 there were just seven clubs in the country owned by supporters' trusts - while only 23 trusts have elected directors on the board. When it's your club being dragged over the coals by insolvency accountants or re-located by new owners , you fight tooth and nail. When it's the club up the road, you merely give a shrug of the shoulders. Time for real football supporters to stand united and kick off.
"Football without fans is nothing" - Jock Stein
Following football is expensive, the games less competitive (between 1985-95, 13 different clubs finished in the top three of the , exactly the same number as in the previous decade and the decade before that. In 1995-2005 years, that figure was just six) and the matches less atmospheric than ever in all-seated stadiums with traditional albeit bigoted songs outlawed. So why do supporters still love it?
The identification with a team, its colours, and history involves football’s most direct appeal to the gut. The tribalism displayed by a community of fans has an almost immeasurable force. It creates instant rivalries where none may have previously existed. For a few hours supporters inhabit a place where only one identity is acceptable: to be a Rangers or Celtic or Aberdeen fan. Any statement that violates the group’s one idea can prove dangerous, and, in a few cases, fatal. Being a football fan entails loud, aggressive, expressions of triumphalism and total team worship.
The term “imagined community” comes not from an analysis of sports, but, from Benedict Anderson’s book on nationalism. Anderson sets out to study why people love, die, and kill for countries. According to Anderson, a nation is “an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.” Nationalism, then, is not “an awakening of nations to self- consciousness; it invents nations where they do not exist.” As Anderson puts it, “It is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep horizontal comradeship.” This phenomenon is not limited to political communities. Hence, beneath all the commercialism and competitive rivalry is a deeper yearning for community that we dismiss at our peril.
To yearn for the football stadium crowd is to yearn for belonging in community, to dream of some kind of connectedness with your fellow humans. The further our alienation moves towards an ever-more-atomised society, one solely centered on the isolated individual, the greater there will be attempts to reclaim our to-getherness. People look to sports for a sense of something larger because social relationships with one anotherhas severely eroded throughout our society. So people look for some kind of connectedness with the tribal identity of their football club allegiences. They believe that - on some level - there's a bond between them, the players and their team. They follow them everywhere, even fight for them.
Sadly, it's not reciprocated. Kiss the badge when a player first scores for their new club. Most fans buy it every single time. The fact that they'd switch employers for a 200% pay rise without a second's thought seems lost on them. And that's not all they buy. There's the pricy season ticket, the home strip, the away strip, the third alternative away strip, the premium rate text services and so on.
When are people going to realise that when your favourite club isn't counting your cash, it's laughing at you? Rick Gekoski writes in "A Fan Behind The Scenes In The Premiership". "I was reminded of a conversation I'd had with John Salako. 'Fans,' he said, 'most of them are sad. They think the game is more important than it is, it says something about the miserable kind of lives they must lead. They get things out of proportion.' Another player, who did not wish to be named, said: 'Fans? Come on. Players hate fans.' "
Don't become a slave to football's pointless merry-go-round. In 2005 there were just seven clubs in the country owned by supporters' trusts - while only 23 trusts have elected directors on the board. When it's your club being dragged over the coals by insolvency accountants or re-located by new owners , you fight tooth and nail. When it's the club up the road, you merely give a shrug of the shoulders. Time for real football supporters to stand united and kick off.
"Football without fans is nothing" - Jock Stein
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Food for thought
Drones are going mainstream in the US. According to an Associated Press release, February 27, civilian cousins of the unmanned military aircraft that have tracked, spied on, and killed terrorists in the Middle East and Asia are in demand by police departments, border patrols, power companies, news stations, and news papers, all wanting views that are too dangerous for planes and helicopters to get. It matters nothing to these groups that the ordinary citizen may object to being spied on. The only worry that the US government has is that they could collide with planes or come crashing to the ground. Better that capitalism takes the nose -dive!
Toronto Hydro is laying off almost two hundred workers as it struggles to trim $20 million in costs. John Camilleri, head of C.U.P.E. Local One, told demonstrators that cuts are raising questions about whether there will be enough staff left to do the work, " There's no shortage of work. In fact, there is a back-up of maintenance work to be done." So workers are being laid of when there is plenty of work to keep them busy. One thing about capitalism -- it's sooo logical.
A recent Toronto Star article focused on the plight of gold miners at La Rinconada in Peru, which, at 5 200 metres above sea level, is the highest mine in the world. Corporation Minera Ananea S.A., the owners, allow groups of young men to work for two weeks for no pay, and, if productive, are allowed to work for a day or two for themselves. Like all mining, it's dangerous work with a constant fear of rock falls, inhalation of toxic gases ,and the need to extract the gold by hand using mercury, itself a highly toxic chemical. A group of miners excavated 65 grams that brought each of them $238.50 It might be several weeks before they are so lucky again and several months before the UN environmental program decides on a legally binding global mercury treaty. Nobody forces these men to work for so little, for so long, and in such dangerous circumstances. So what does? It's something called economic necessity, bearing in mind they have families to support. Let's speed the day when such conditions of work will not be necessary. John Ayers
Toronto Hydro is laying off almost two hundred workers as it struggles to trim $20 million in costs. John Camilleri, head of C.U.P.E. Local One, told demonstrators that cuts are raising questions about whether there will be enough staff left to do the work, " There's no shortage of work. In fact, there is a back-up of maintenance work to be done." So workers are being laid of when there is plenty of work to keep them busy. One thing about capitalism -- it's sooo logical.
A recent Toronto Star article focused on the plight of gold miners at La Rinconada in Peru, which, at 5 200 metres above sea level, is the highest mine in the world. Corporation Minera Ananea S.A., the owners, allow groups of young men to work for two weeks for no pay, and, if productive, are allowed to work for a day or two for themselves. Like all mining, it's dangerous work with a constant fear of rock falls, inhalation of toxic gases ,and the need to extract the gold by hand using mercury, itself a highly toxic chemical. A group of miners excavated 65 grams that brought each of them $238.50 It might be several weeks before they are so lucky again and several months before the UN environmental program decides on a legally binding global mercury treaty. Nobody forces these men to work for so little, for so long, and in such dangerous circumstances. So what does? It's something called economic necessity, bearing in mind they have families to support. Let's speed the day when such conditions of work will not be necessary. John Ayers
Who's country does it belong to?
Scotland is on the verge of having its first Chinese laird. Wealthy Chinese investors are said to be scouring the property market to find a Scottish castle to buy.
Leading property agents are reporting a rise in interest from rich Chinese and Taiwanese buyers, who have made their fortunes in the Far East boom. Wealthy Russians are also snapping up prime properties in Edinburgh for the first time. Prices in central London have been driven up by wealthy Russians seeking a safe environment to invest. Agents say the next step could be the purchase of Scottish landed estates, which, even with thousands of acres, are relatively inexpensive compared to London. In Kensington, the average residence costs £2m.
Jamie Macnab, of estate agent Savills, said it had also seen an increase of interest in Scottish rural properties from China. “It’s a market we expect to grow. We’re constantly looking at how to attract Asian money, and we’re confident it will come. We had one young Chinese man who came into the Edinburgh office recently, hired a cab and then went to view eight properties in Fife because of the golfing interest. Golf is a key reason why the Chinese and the Koreans want to buy property here.”
John Coleman, head of residential and farm agency at Smiths Gore in Scotland, said: “There have been one or two large Chinese consortiums looking for investments in the UK and have looked at a few Scottish estates but we’re unaware of any transactions having gone through yet. They are testing the water, and they’ll do it in London first.”
At least three country castles on sale for more than £2 million have been sold or are under offer after buyers sought to avoid the end of the stamp duty holiday in last month’s Budget. Sales prior to the Budget attracted a 5 per cent tax, which has now risen to 7 per cent. Deals signed prior to change will have saved the buyer £40,000 on a £2 million property.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
PUTIN AND PLAY ACTING
When the opposition brought 100,000 people onto the streets of Moscow, pro-Kremlin activists tried to match that number, filling a square across town with legions of people chanting slogans in support of Putin. His supporters organized a demonstration bigger than anything the opposition has been able to muster. More than 100,000 people gathered at the walls of the Kremlin. Suspended high above the throng, the state-run television cameras captured an image that night of overwhelming, even fanatical support for Putin. That was the image beamed into millions of Russian households on election night. But at ground level, the picture looked a lot more complicated. "About an hour after Putin addressed the crowd, TIME followed a group of demonstrators into a nearby subway tunnel, where about 100 of them lined up to receive about $10 apiece. Policemen stood by the entire time watching because it is not a crime to pay people for attending a political rally. And as far as moral qualms are concerned, one brigadier on duty that night told TIME he had none. "It's a paid flash mob," he said, smiling as he declined to give his name. "It's normal." (TIME, 21 March) That is capitalism for you - bribery is normal. RD
POLICE AND PREJUDICE
Ever since the days of Dixon of Dock Green on the television, the media have always depicted the police as decent even loveable characters, but recent events have shown this up as a complete fiction."Eight Metropolitan Police officers and one other member of staff have been suspended as the IPCC investigates 10 complaints of racism against the force. Earlier the Met said an acting sergeant and two PCs based in Newham had been suspended over a claim of racist abuse after last year's London riots. .... In total, 20 officers are being investigated in relation to the 10 claims of racism." (BBC News, 5 April) Unfortunately like other members of the working class many policemen are prejudiced against other ethnic groups despite the rosy TV fiction. RD
Friday, April 06, 2012
Olympic Holocaust Deniers
We have all heard of the Jewish Holocaust - of the Armenian holocaust by the Turks, and through history there were many other such genocides.
Circassians have been outraged by the selection of Sochi, a Russian resort city on the Black Sea, to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Sochi was the site of the Circassian capital and the area where the Ubykh tribe made the Circassian "last stand" in 1864. The Olympics will be held on the 150th anniversary of these mass killings. The Sochi Olympics, in other words, will be played on a gigantic graveyard.
The Circassians are a mostly Muslim people who self-identify as Adyghe. The traditionally nomadic Circassians were organised into tribes and clans and lived by a code of behaviour known as khabza, which stressed honour, hospitality, respect for elders, egalitarianism and liberty. This ethos helped the Circassians, renowned for their warrior prowess, to successfully defeat every major power that passed through their mountainous region, including the armies of Attila the Hun and the Mongols. Khabza would also allow the Circassians to preserve their identity through the anguish and turmoil of exile. Circassians dominated the ranks of the Mamluks, a caste of elite soldiers who were taken from the Caucuses and dispatched across the Muslim world. In the 18th century, Russia acted to exert direct control over Circassia by military conquest and was met with fierce resistance. Over time, the Circassian tribes began to more efficiently organise and formally declared Circassian independence, which was recognised by Britain in 1838. By the 1860s, however, the Circassians proved unable to hold out any longer against an expanding Imperial Russia who coveted their mountainous homeland. One by one, the Circassian tribes were decimated with thousands killed, their lands settled by Cossacks, Slavs and others.
The Circassians fought so tenaciously that the Russians decided to remove them, either by death or deportation. The Circassians describe this operation as the first modern genocide. Of a population of 2.5-3 million Circassians, the Circassians told us, around 1.5 million were killed and roughly the same number expelled, of which around half died within months of famine and disease. These figures were corroborated by many scholars from around the world. Only a very small number of Circassians survived in the Caucuses and today, 90 per cent of the world's 5-6 million Circassians live in the global diaspora, while around 700,000 are split between three Russian republics.
Similar to the Turkish denial of the Armenian holocaust, the Russian government does not appear to recognise that a genocide occurred. When President Vladimir Putin gave his speech to the International Olympic Committee in 2007 to secure Russia's bid, he described Sochi as a place inhabited by ancient Greeks with no mention of the Circassians. Putin has renewed policies to curb the expression of Circassian culture, prohibiting schools from teaching the language and restricting Circassian language media. Circassians also faced restrictions on travel between the republics, which required permits that were often difficult to obtain.
A country that gives the most rights to Circassians is Israel, where they are allowed to preserve every single aspect of identity. Perhaps, they remember with gratitude the protection the Circassians gave their Jewish communities during the Second World War when Hitler's Nazis hunted them down.
Georgia has given Circassians refugee status and has officially recognised that the Russian actions in the 19th century constituted genocide. Georgia will be the first country to build a commemorative monument to the Circassian genocide to be unveiled this May at the anniversary of the Sochi massacre.
Circassians have been outraged by the selection of Sochi, a Russian resort city on the Black Sea, to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Sochi was the site of the Circassian capital and the area where the Ubykh tribe made the Circassian "last stand" in 1864. The Olympics will be held on the 150th anniversary of these mass killings. The Sochi Olympics, in other words, will be played on a gigantic graveyard.
The Circassians are a mostly Muslim people who self-identify as Adyghe. The traditionally nomadic Circassians were organised into tribes and clans and lived by a code of behaviour known as khabza, which stressed honour, hospitality, respect for elders, egalitarianism and liberty. This ethos helped the Circassians, renowned for their warrior prowess, to successfully defeat every major power that passed through their mountainous region, including the armies of Attila the Hun and the Mongols. Khabza would also allow the Circassians to preserve their identity through the anguish and turmoil of exile. Circassians dominated the ranks of the Mamluks, a caste of elite soldiers who were taken from the Caucuses and dispatched across the Muslim world. In the 18th century, Russia acted to exert direct control over Circassia by military conquest and was met with fierce resistance. Over time, the Circassian tribes began to more efficiently organise and formally declared Circassian independence, which was recognised by Britain in 1838. By the 1860s, however, the Circassians proved unable to hold out any longer against an expanding Imperial Russia who coveted their mountainous homeland. One by one, the Circassian tribes were decimated with thousands killed, their lands settled by Cossacks, Slavs and others.
The Circassians fought so tenaciously that the Russians decided to remove them, either by death or deportation. The Circassians describe this operation as the first modern genocide. Of a population of 2.5-3 million Circassians, the Circassians told us, around 1.5 million were killed and roughly the same number expelled, of which around half died within months of famine and disease. These figures were corroborated by many scholars from around the world. Only a very small number of Circassians survived in the Caucuses and today, 90 per cent of the world's 5-6 million Circassians live in the global diaspora, while around 700,000 are split between three Russian republics.
Similar to the Turkish denial of the Armenian holocaust, the Russian government does not appear to recognise that a genocide occurred. When President Vladimir Putin gave his speech to the International Olympic Committee in 2007 to secure Russia's bid, he described Sochi as a place inhabited by ancient Greeks with no mention of the Circassians. Putin has renewed policies to curb the expression of Circassian culture, prohibiting schools from teaching the language and restricting Circassian language media. Circassians also faced restrictions on travel between the republics, which required permits that were often difficult to obtain.
A country that gives the most rights to Circassians is Israel, where they are allowed to preserve every single aspect of identity. Perhaps, they remember with gratitude the protection the Circassians gave their Jewish communities during the Second World War when Hitler's Nazis hunted them down.
Georgia has given Circassians refugee status and has officially recognised that the Russian actions in the 19th century constituted genocide. Georgia will be the first country to build a commemorative monument to the Circassian genocide to be unveiled this May at the anniversary of the Sochi massacre.
STUNNING STATISTICS
New statistics show an ever-more-startling divergence between the fortunes of the wealthy and everybody else. Even in the USA, a country that sometimes seems inured to income inequality, these figures are truly stunning. "In 2010, as the nation continued to recover from the recession, a dizzying 93 per cent of the additional income created in the country that year, compared to 2009 — $288 billion — went to the top 1 per cent of taxpayers, those with at least $352,000 in income. That delivered an average single-year pay increase of 11.6 per cent to each of these households. ....The bottom 99 per cent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay per person in 2010, after adjusting for inflation. The top 1 per cent, whose average income is $1,019,089, had an 11.6 per cent increase in income." (New York Times, 25 March) Most American workers counted themselves lucky if they had a microscopic increase on the previous year while the millionaires wallowed in additional millions. RD
Thursday, April 05, 2012
bankers cash in
Royal Bank of Scotland investment banking boss John Hourican pocketed £4.7 million yesterday as he exercised lucrative share options in the bank – after helping push through thousands of redundancies in the division last year.
Hourican’s sale of 17.6 million shares after exercising share options, at an average price of about 27p, comes after RBS’s global banking and markets division has made some 5,000 people redundant. This has been with the encouragement of the UK government as RBS has scaled back its investment banking activities to focus on UK lending. Recently, it emerged that Hourican received a total pay and awards package, including bonuses, of about £7.5m last year.
It came on the same day that Toby Strauss – insurance chief at Lloyds Banking Group, sold 1.2 million shares worth more than £380,000.
Hourican’s sale of 17.6 million shares after exercising share options, at an average price of about 27p, comes after RBS’s global banking and markets division has made some 5,000 people redundant. This has been with the encouragement of the UK government as RBS has scaled back its investment banking activities to focus on UK lending. Recently, it emerged that Hourican received a total pay and awards package, including bonuses, of about £7.5m last year.
It came on the same day that Toby Strauss – insurance chief at Lloyds Banking Group, sold 1.2 million shares worth more than £380,000.
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
EUROPEAN CRISIS
An outsider often sees more of a situation than most of those involved at first hand do. Here is an example of a US observer's view of the present economic crisis in Europe. "Today, hundreds of thousands of people are living in campgrounds, vehicles and cheap hotel rooms. Millions more are sharing space with relatives, unable to afford the basic costs of living. .... Now, economists, European officials and social watchdog groups are warning that the situation is set to worsen. As European governments respond to the crisis by pushing for deep spending cuts to close budget gaps and greater flexibility in their work forces, "the population of working poor will explode," said Jean-Paul Fitoussi, an economics professor at L'Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris. (New York Times, 1 April) RD
Football Blues
Rangers and Portsmouth are not alone.
One-in-five clubs in the Football League (refers to the three divisions below the top flight - the Championship, League One and League Two) are in "poor financial health", according to a survey by administrators Begbies Traynor. Begbies Traynor are presently overseeing the administration of Port Vale FC.
"Many clubs are continuing to spend too much, principally on players' wages, as they always have done" it said.
Of 68 teams surveyed in those divisions, 13 have signs of distress such as serious court actions against them, including winding-up petitions, late filing of accounts and "serious" negative balances on their balance sheets. That 19% compares to just one per cent in the wider economy, the firm said.
"While Premier League clubs are guaranteed huge television money every year and some have extremely wealthy backers, there are signs of genuine financial distress among a significant number of football league clubs," said Gerald Krasner, a partner at Begbies Traynor. "The sales of season tickets for next season, many of which are paid for during April and May, could provide some short-term relief for struggling clubs, but it won't solve the underlying problems."
Monday, April 02, 2012
A FRIGHTENING FUTURE
An alarming advance in modern technology has been developed in Brazil. Children up to the age of 14 have had electronic chips implanted into their uniforms in the north-eastern city of Vitoria da Conquista. Authorities say the tracking devices will provide an easy way to combat truancy. "The students' whereabouts are fed into a central computer when school starts. Staff are informed immediately if the child is absent, and if any student is still absent 20 minutes after lessons begin, parents receive a text message to their phones. City education secretary Coriolano Moraes says the innovation, which cost the government $670 thousand to design, is aimed at helping parents. "We noticed that many parents would bring their children to school but would not see if they actually entered the building because they always left in a hurry to get to work," he told the Associated Press news agency." (Russia Today, 23 March) No doubt many dictators will be looking forward to obtaining this excellent method of surveillance to deal with their dissidents. Isn't capitalism a wonderful system? RD
A TRASH CAN SOCIETY
The assumption is often made that extreme poverty may exist in some backward Asian or African countries but that Europe is free from the worst examples of poverty. This is obviously not the case. "To see Gunther rummaging through trash cans in Berlin, you might assume he was homeless. But the 61-year-old is actually one of a growing number of pensioners looking to earn extra cash through bottle recycling. Significant numbers of financially destitute people are now resorting to collecting discarded glass and plastic bottles, which carry a redeemable cash deposit, as a means of supplementing their income. But whereas the majority of those collecting used to be the homeless, alcoholics and drug addicts, more recently it is Berlin's pensioners and long-term unemployed who are increasingly turning to the practice in order to make ends meet." (Der Spiegel, 23 March) Germany may be one of the most advanced capitalist nations in the world but that does not stop it from suffering from the same social problems as all capitalist nations. RD
Britain's '101 Wealthiest Asians 2012'
LN Mittal and his family continue to head the list at £13.5 billion.
The Hindujas, whose activities span from transport to oil, have seen their fortune improve further with a wealth of £9.5 billion during the year, up by £ 500 million, are second in the list.
Anil Agarwal chairman of Vedanta Group is third in the list with a fortune of £3.2 billion
Lord Swraj Paul chairman of Caparo and Chancellor of Westminster and Wolverhampton Universities is 7th in the list with a wealth of £675 million, up by £75 million from 201
The Hindujas, whose activities span from transport to oil, have seen their fortune improve further with a wealth of £9.5 billion during the year, up by £ 500 million, are second in the list.
Anil Agarwal chairman of Vedanta Group is third in the list with a fortune of £3.2 billion
Lord Swraj Paul chairman of Caparo and Chancellor of Westminster and Wolverhampton Universities is 7th in the list with a wealth of £675 million, up by £75 million from 201
Italian Inequality
The Bank of Italy reveals that the wealth of the country's 10 richest individuals equals that of Italy's 3 million poorest.
10% of the richest Italian families own 40% of net national wealth
10% of the richest Italian families own 40% of net national wealth
Sunday, April 01, 2012
THE SOCIAL SCRAPHEAP
After a lifetime of toil many workers imagine that at least their twilight years will be spent in some sort of retirement with ease and care - but if they happen to be ill they certainly won't. "Hospital wards caring for elderly patients have up to a third fewer nurses working on them than other wards, research suggests. A survey of almost 1,700 nurses for the Royal College of Nursing found staffing levels on older people's wards was significantly lower than those for other specialties and general medical admissions. Overall, wards for elderly patients had one registered nurse for every 9.5 patients compared with an average of one for every 6.7 patients. One third of the nurses questioned said the staffing shortages meant they were unable to help patients eat and drink." (Independent, 20 March) Having helped to produce all of world's wealth the old worker is condemned to the social scrapheap. RD
Fighting for Bangladeshi women in Glasgow
Women and men from UK Feminista took to the high street to protest against the exploitation uncovered in factories supplying Nike. The actions, taking place outside Nike stores in London and Glasgow. The demonstrations are a response to new research published by War on Want which has uncovered the systematic violations of workers’ rights in Bangladeshi factories supplying garments for Nike, Puma and Adidas.
All factories visited were illegally employing staff for more than 60 hours a week, and five of the six failed to pay the legal minimal wage. Eighty five per cent of Bangladesh’s garment workers are women. 1 in 10 workers experiencing sexual harassment. Many are refused maternity rights or simply fired when discovered to be pregnant.
Low paid jobs are consistently filled by women. Women lack other employment opportunities due to poor access to education, and are affected by entrenched gender stereotypes around what constitutes ‘women’s work’. These include assumptions around their primary roles as carers rather than breadwinners, stereotyping women as supplementary earners and so excusing the payment of low wages. In this way firms like Nike are able to profit from gender inequality through utilising a cheap, female labour force subsidised by stereotypes.
The protest was not asking for boycott. Neither did it aim to ladle guilt onto women as consumers over where they shop. Instead it was a protest in solidarity with garment workers in Bangladesh which aims to spotlight the ability of firms like Nike to reap huge profits relies on gender inequality and demanded that Nike takes positive steps to end this.
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/03/nike-exploitation-women-workers-bangladesh-uk-feminista-protest/
Less poor? But more hungry!
Indian government officials have argued against many sceptics that they have reduced poverty yet two thirds of the country's population is eating less than what is required.
According to the National Institute of Nutrition, an average Indian male of age 18-29 years and weighing 60kg needs 2,320Kcal per day if he does only sedentary work. The Planning Commission had adopted 2,400 Kcal (rural) and 2,100 Kcal (urban) as the minimum daily requirement norm.
There has been an actual declined from 2,153Kcal per person per day in the period 1993-94 to 2020Kcal in 2009-10 in rural areas and from 2,071 to 1,946 Kcal in urban areas according to the report of the National Sample Survey Organisation.
According to the NSSO report, protein consumption too has fallen from 60.2g to 55g per person per day in rural areas and from 57.2g to 53.5g in the urban areas between 1993-94 and 2009-10.
Average calorie intake among the poorest tenth of the population is just 1,619 Kcal in rural areas and 1,584Kcal in urban areas, reveals the NSSO report. The richest 10% of the population consumes 2,922 Kcal in rural areas and 2,855 Kcal in urban on an average.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Poverty-down-but-not-the-hungry/articleshow/12487352.cms
According to the National Institute of Nutrition, an average Indian male of age 18-29 years and weighing 60kg needs 2,320Kcal per day if he does only sedentary work. The Planning Commission had adopted 2,400 Kcal (rural) and 2,100 Kcal (urban) as the minimum daily requirement norm.
There has been an actual declined from 2,153Kcal per person per day in the period 1993-94 to 2020Kcal in 2009-10 in rural areas and from 2,071 to 1,946 Kcal in urban areas according to the report of the National Sample Survey Organisation.
According to the NSSO report, protein consumption too has fallen from 60.2g to 55g per person per day in rural areas and from 57.2g to 53.5g in the urban areas between 1993-94 and 2009-10.
Average calorie intake among the poorest tenth of the population is just 1,619 Kcal in rural areas and 1,584Kcal in urban areas, reveals the NSSO report. The richest 10% of the population consumes 2,922 Kcal in rural areas and 2,855 Kcal in urban on an average.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Poverty-down-but-not-the-hungry/articleshow/12487352.cms
Saturday, March 31, 2012
PORCHES AND POVERTY
African countries are often portrayed in the media as desperately poor but some of its citizens are extremely rich. Nigeria's super rich are no strangers to conspicuous consumption, and there's no better way to flaunt your wealth than by buying a brand new European sports car. "German car maker Porsche officially opened a new car dealership on Friday in the heart of Lagos' wealthiest district, Victoria Island, a place with one of the world's highest concentrations of millionaires. .... The oil wealth of Africa's biggest producer has made multi-millionaires of its elite in the past few decades, even while absolute poverty has increased to 60 per cent of the population." (Reuters, 21 March) RD
PROMISES AND PROFITS
The manufacturing giant Foxconn has pledged to sharply curtail working hours and significantly increase wages inside Chinese plants making electronic products for Apple and others. "The shift comes after a far-ranging inspection by the Fair Labor Association, a monitoring group, found widespread problems including at least 43 violations of Chinese laws and regulations, and numerous instances where Foxconn defied industry codes of conduct by having employees work more than 60 hours a week, and sometimes more than 11 days in a row. .... The monitoring group, which surveyed more than 35,000 Foxconn employees and inspected three large facilities where Apple products are manufactured, also found that 43 percent of workers had experienced or witnessed accidents, and almost two-thirds said their compensation does not meet their basic needs." (New York Times, 29 March) Promises from the capitalist class mean nothing, they will only invest their capital where it gets the biggest return. RD
Weir the people
The board of Weir Group has rewarded chief executive Keith Cochrane with a near-£1 million bonus and double-digit pay rise.
Cochrane received a £625,000 salary and £975,000 bonus as part of a £1.62m package, up from £1.26m the previous year.
Finance director Jon Stanton will receive a 5 per cent rise to £420,000 from next month. For last year Stanton received a £392,500 salary and £400,000 bonus as part of an £806,957 package, up from £732,573.
Legal and commercial director Alan Mitchelson, who is standing down at the forthcoming AGM, received a £344,127 salary and £350,000 bonus as part of a £708,584 package, up from £665,887.
Cochrane received a £625,000 salary and £975,000 bonus as part of a £1.62m package, up from £1.26m the previous year.
Finance director Jon Stanton will receive a 5 per cent rise to £420,000 from next month. For last year Stanton received a £392,500 salary and £400,000 bonus as part of an £806,957 package, up from £732,573.
Legal and commercial director Alan Mitchelson, who is standing down at the forthcoming AGM, received a £344,127 salary and £350,000 bonus as part of a £708,584 package, up from £665,887.
Friday, March 30, 2012
GOOD AND BAD NEWS
Global warming may be bad news for Greenland's polar bears, wolves, musk ox and whales, but it could mean new economic opportunities for the capitalist class. Satellite images taken over the past several decades show the dramatic disappearance of ice. A study just published by scientists with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research shows that this ice could lose a fifth of its mass in the future. The weakening ice is making the island's rich stores of raw materials accessible. Along with uranium, zinc, iron ore, copper and gold, Greenland's ancient rocks also harbour large quantities of those minerals known as "rare earth". "Rare earth minerals are used in the manufacture of mobile phones, laptop computers, flat screens, fuel cells, LED lights, motors for electric cars and in laser technology. They provide the basis for entire high tech industries." (Die Welt, 21 March) Global warming may lead to disaster for millions of workers but it it is just another "economic opportunity" for the owning class. RD
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Football democracy
One of Scottish football’s leading administrators has called for the game to accept that supporters matter more than television companies, and to rethink the balance between the demands of broadcasters and the interests of supporters.
Hibernian managing director Fife Hyland said the demands of broadcasters had been too easily allowed to outweigh the interests of supporters, particularly when it came to deciding kick-off times. “We know TV is important to Scottish football but it’s not the be all and end all,” he said.
For many of the Scottish football clubs , match-day receipts remain several times greater than income from broadcasting. For example, in their last published accounts, for the year to July 2010, Hearts revealed that their matchday revenues were more than two and a half times greater than their income from broadcasting. Their income from TV was £1.5million, while that from matches (gate receipts plus smaller associated items such as programme sales) was £3.9m. There is an even greater disparity across the city Hibs are understood to take in around four times more from match-days than they do from broadcasting.
The Old Firm, Rangers (presently insolvent) and Celtic dominate Scottish football. A new £80m TV contract with Sky and ESPN, is dependent on the provision of four Old Firm fixtures a season and shows the importance of Rangers and Celtic. The ten non-Old Firm clubs in the SPL want to change the league’s voting structure, which at present requires an 11-1 majority for substantial changes to be passed. Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston said that he would urge the ten to resign if Rangers and Celtic continued to block democratisation of the rules on voting. The Old Firm have historically shown their ability both to ignore the common good where there is a buck to be made, and so it was to prove again.
Managers and directors of the ten have begun to make it clear that a future without the Old Firm was not only an option, but might even be preferable. Fans will see their departure as a chance for real competition to be returned to an SPL championship
Hibernian managing director Fife Hyland said the demands of broadcasters had been too easily allowed to outweigh the interests of supporters, particularly when it came to deciding kick-off times. “We know TV is important to Scottish football but it’s not the be all and end all,” he said.
For many of the Scottish football clubs , match-day receipts remain several times greater than income from broadcasting. For example, in their last published accounts, for the year to July 2010, Hearts revealed that their matchday revenues were more than two and a half times greater than their income from broadcasting. Their income from TV was £1.5million, while that from matches (gate receipts plus smaller associated items such as programme sales) was £3.9m. There is an even greater disparity across the city Hibs are understood to take in around four times more from match-days than they do from broadcasting.
The Old Firm, Rangers (presently insolvent) and Celtic dominate Scottish football. A new £80m TV contract with Sky and ESPN, is dependent on the provision of four Old Firm fixtures a season and shows the importance of Rangers and Celtic. The ten non-Old Firm clubs in the SPL want to change the league’s voting structure, which at present requires an 11-1 majority for substantial changes to be passed. Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston said that he would urge the ten to resign if Rangers and Celtic continued to block democratisation of the rules on voting. The Old Firm have historically shown their ability both to ignore the common good where there is a buck to be made, and so it was to prove again.
Managers and directors of the ten have begun to make it clear that a future without the Old Firm was not only an option, but might even be preferable. Fans will see their departure as a chance for real competition to be returned to an SPL championship
one law for the rich , another for the poor
Five years ago Scotland’s wealthiest woman Stagecoach tycoon, Ann Gloag, to defend her privacy challenged the right to roam legislation, winning her battle against the Ramblers Association Scotland and Perth and Kinross Council to erect a fence around a 12-acre area of Kinfauns. Yet she is now happy to proposal to build another house which has led her neighbours to complain that it would ruin their privacy and seclusion.
Forestry Commission Scotland also objected, warning authorities that were the scheme to go ahead, it would ruin an area of ancient woodland and was in direct contravention of planning policies.
As part of the local authority’s decision to approve the plans for the new properties, Gloag will pay a £12,790 “education contribution” fee as a condition of the planning permission. The money will be used to fund improvements and increase pupil capacity at the nearby Kinnoull Primary School.
Socialist Courier wonders what does constitutes a bribe?
http://www.scotsman.com/news/ann-gloag-wins-battle-to-extend-stagecoach-empire-1-2201868
Forestry Commission Scotland also objected, warning authorities that were the scheme to go ahead, it would ruin an area of ancient woodland and was in direct contravention of planning policies.
As part of the local authority’s decision to approve the plans for the new properties, Gloag will pay a £12,790 “education contribution” fee as a condition of the planning permission. The money will be used to fund improvements and increase pupil capacity at the nearby Kinnoull Primary School.
Socialist Courier wonders what does constitutes a bribe?
http://www.scotsman.com/news/ann-gloag-wins-battle-to-extend-stagecoach-empire-1-2201868
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
MONEY AND MORALITY
Three years ago, Europeans lauded new weapons export rules meant to control the trade of military technology and equipment. The "Security-related export controls II" rules state that export approval should be avoided in the event that weapons "might be used for undesirable purposes such as internal repression or international aggression or contribute to regional instability." "But it appears that some European Union members are disregarding these rules when it comes to Saudi Arabia. A European Commission summary obtained by SPIEGEL shows that combined exports from member states amount to the EU being the world's largest exporter of weapons to the Middle Eastern country. In 2010, member states delivered at least 3.3 billion euros ($4.34 billion) worth of military equipment and licenses to Riyadh." (Der Spiegel, 19 March) When it comes to making a profit, fine words like "undesirable intentions" mean very little. Sweden, for example, helped the Saudis build a missile factory and sold them some 330 million euros in defence technology in 2011. Meanwhile, Finland recently received an export permit to deliver 36 grenade launchers, and Germany is preparing 270 Leopard 2 tanks for delivery. Great Britain is providing fighter jets RD
dirty glasgow
Pollution in several residential areas of Glasgow has reached potentially deadly levels. All the air quality monitors in the city are exceeding the maximum level for particulate pollution – one of the most dangerous forms with microscopic particles which can cause breathing and blood problems as well as increased risk of heart attacks.
Chris Connor, air quality specialist at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, said "There is a particular concern about young children and toddlers in buggies as they're at a similar height to exhausts where the cocktail of pollutants is at its highest concentrations."
Broomhill Drive, Byres Road, Nithsdale Road and Battlefield Road are among the worst affected, with most of the pollution thought to be caused by buses, cars and taxis.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
POLITICS AND PAYBACK
Just in case that you thought only British capitalists have access to their government here is an example of how this practice is international. "President Barack Obama is using privileged access to the White House to reward his most generous financial supporters. Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum cannot match his move. More than 60 of Mr. Obama's biggest campaign donors have visited more than once for meetings with top advisers, holiday parties or state dinners." (Independent, 26 March) He who pays the piper calls the tune. RD
POLITICS AND PAPACY
The papacy has changed a great deal. We now have press reporters calling him by his first name, and even more than that. "Benedict dons a Mexican sombrero as he preaches Mass to 300,000. More than 300,000 Catholic pilgrims gathered in the central Mexican city of Silao on Sunday to hear Pope Benedict XVI say Mass in the country on his first official visit to Latin America." (Daily Telegraph, 25 March) They even have him depicted in mass circulation newspapers wearing a sombrero. Wow, is this the new with-it Pope? No, this is a Pope who is so concerned by falling collections in churches that he has to travel the world rallying his faithful. Years ago the pope didn't even have to leave the Vatican to fill the church's coffers. RD
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Paternalism is a common attitude among well-meaning social reformers. Stemming from the root pater, or father, paternalism implies a patria...
