5 days ago
Minorities are being blamed for failures of the UK class system
Oh, there were some workers already on strike in disputes with bosses as well as government; Birmingham bin workers, for instance. Us working-class folk should be in complete solidarity with them, but they did NOT come out on strike in response to calls from fascist fans of that con man Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the alias 'Tommy Robinson'.
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Fascists did manage to assemble in various places, but they weren't 'on strike'. The number of folk who actually went on strike in response to this ridiculous call for a 'Great British Strike' was zero.
From my point of view, it's not just Sir Kid Starver's regime that is corrupt, the entire 'United' Kingdom ruling class is a mass of corruption. There is widespread, justified anger. This was an attempt by fascists to harness that widespread anger for their own advancement. Their attempt ended in abject failure, but they will probably try again. Like all fascists, they seek to blame minorities for things that are in fact failures by the class system. The best way to defeat them is through challenging corrupt class rule with genuine working-class solidarity.
Dave Coull
Findowrie
AFTER nearly a year in office, Labour's betrayal is obvious. Like under the Tories, the poor and vulnerable are again targeted. From the winter heating debacle and failure to protect the Grangemouth refinery, to the plight of the Waspi women and the war on benefit claimants along with the fishing industry, this UK Labour Government is faltering. With fuel bills soaring, especially in Scotland, and more people going hungry, the cost of living is leaving many families unable to afford the basics.
Surely any Labour government should be targeting the billions lost each year in corporate tax avoidance and fraud. Indeed, instead of stealth taxes, a penny rise in income tax would bring in billions for the NHS, rail and roads; along with abandoning Trident, Britain's broken-down, American-owned, so-called independent nuclear deterrent.
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Furthermore it's actively rumoured that the UK fleet of Vanguard submarines, which carry the outdated Trident nuclear missile system only 20 minutes from Glasgow, is falling apart! These weapons of mass destruction, at huge expense, do not protect us but actually make us a target!
In truth, only a richly endowed independent Scotland (in line with happy and prosperous Nordic countries), in full control of all its assets, can progress towards a fairer, greener and prosperous nation; working with the other nations of the British Isles, Europe and the world.
Grant Frazer
Newtonmore
FOR those who have lived and practised in the 'managed decline' era of our NHS, the Auditor General of Scotland, Stephen Boyle, offered some hope this week. Against a background of continued failure of current political and senior managers to fully address excess mortality and more than half a million anxious people on waiting lists, Mr Boyle informed us this week that in order to remain 'affordable and sustainable', NHS Scotland's governance needs to be strengthened and that reform is urgently necessary.
This 'reformation' has been called for from voices in the wilderness for decades now and amounts to this. The multiple levels of a self-propagating, top-down managerialism and political interference in the goal-setting and delivery of care to the sick and the worried well by doctors and nurses has to end. In addition, the constant drain on resources by inflated and non-contributory corporate salaries on health boards and the numerous parasitic panoply of legal and consultancy gravy trains linked to 'marketisation' need to be thoroughly scrutinised by disinterested experts, namely the Scottish public!
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Once again, I and my people call for an urgent national conversation in a national health convention heavily recruited from a breadth of our citizenry and not a perfunctory 'consultation' run by the politicians and so-called experts who have overseen the evolution of the present crisis.
It cannot be overstated the extent to which true national 'reformation' policies in all the domains of public services, not only the NHS, will provide a meaningful alternative to Reform UK in Scotland. In the year leading up to the Holyrood elections, I hope to see all patriotic parties provide some kind of vision for the health of the nation that heeds the Auditor General's critique of the malgovernance and mismanagement of the NHS.
The well-researched and radical work of Common Weal, the non-party-political think tank, would be a good place for policy-makers to start, and multiple freedom of information requests from individual citizens about corporate remuneration, expenses, procurement, 'time and motion' studies and legal and PR expenditure in health boards could start the 'audit' process that will begin the 'reformation' that is urgently necessary. Lives literally depend on it!
Dr Andrew Docherty
Selkirk
OUR beloved PM described the car crashing into the public in Liverpool as appalling. I've yet to hear him use that word to describe the indiscriminate bombing and starvation of a civilian population.
Jim Butchart
via email
