The Glasgow East by-election shows us the two Scotlands

BrianSJ

Thank you very much.
Your analysis illustrates the dreadful problem of government 'averages'. Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written eloquently about the huge practical difference between a gaussian analysis and an 80/20 analysis.

Silent Hunter

There is a lot of truth in what you say here Fraser, but tell me; If we could take the people from the worst areas of Glasgow East and place them in, for example Milngavie and then we went back there in a years time.....what do you think Milngavie would look like?

I would place money on it looking run down, dishevelled, litter everywhere, grafitti, cars up on bricks, front gardens used as toilets, fixtures and fittings ripped out of houses and sold...........in short, exactly the way a large area of Glasgow East looks today.

It doesn't matter where you put the feckless underclass; the result will be the same.

They are the 'cancer' of our society and they 'infect' the areas where they are put by councils who through political correctness fail to tackle the problem at source.

These people are not victims!

The people they are foisted upon are the victims.

The ones who work on low wages in the same estates and watch their freeloading neighbours living 'for free' off the state whilst they see their wages hammered by the 10p tax band fiasco and now their old cars taxed to the hilt. How the hell is that fair?

Until we address the gross unfairness in the system of benefits payments which favour the feckless, we may as well just accept the time coming when those in work say 'enough is enough'
Unfortunately at that point....the deserving poor will be caught up in the welfare shortfall.

Michael

Excellent Fraser. Keep going with this. Remebr though that IDS's report suggests copying a lot of costly Labour initiatives, and that these sink estates really grew during the '80s with high unemeployment and the move to disability benefits to massage the unemployment figures. My Tory supporting wife regularly extols the excitement of the '80s - it didn't feel that way in the ineer city. Labour ahve tossed money at the issue, but the outcomes have been poor. Make benefits much tougher, increase tax-free thresholds significantly, introduce a school voucher system (bring back grammar schools too),and remove the dead weight of regulators and inspectorates that blight public services would be my solutions to stimulating social mobility and renewal. At last it seems the country is ready for it.

Ann Sheridan

Fraser, that was an excellent analysis. It is not only good for Scotland but most of the rest of the UK especially my home region the North East of England. Within the same town you can have areas of affluence and a very high quality of life next to complete squalor.
Mt concern is that I believe certain Labour Councils and Councillors simply want to keep things that way. They frequently refer to our people or 'my estate' referring to a slum like Council Estate in their ward. There is alos a problem with regional planning policy which restricts housing developmet in these areas. For instance we have recently attempted to obtain planning permission for four houses on a brownfield site in a former mining village on a main bus route to Durham.

This was turned down on two grounds one of which was 'sustainability' the other was even more fatuous.

So without development and without educational opportunity these areas will continue to stagnate because the Conservatives can't win and it is Labour's interest to keep their fiefdoms intact.

Sarah M

Yes, according to the CIA World Factbook, life expectancy in the Gaza Strip is lower than that of Scotland as given in the Scotsman article. However, if you consider that only 2.5% of the Gaza Strip's population is over 65 (male 15,716/female 22,362 [source: CIA World Factbook]), are you sure that comparing life expectancy in Glasgow to that of the Gaza Strip isn't a little misleading?

oldtimer

Thank you for your analyses of Glasgow East. No doubt similar kinds of problems can be found in all the big cities, and maybe the towns, in the UK. Employment, for those able to get it, is a partial solution but that in turn depends on their willingness to work and the availability of jobs. A changed welfare regime proposed by the Conservatives will help get others to be usefully active. But it would not surprise me if there is an obstinate core who are beyond the reach of such incentives.

I saw your report on Politics Today followed by the Labour spokesman who tried to claim you had over egged the pudding (my words not his) and that great progress was being made in Glasgow East. He did not convince me.

Brown`s pledges to educate the world are as meaningless as they are arrogant; they are also convenient to him because it helps make him sound a man of great moral purpose without ever being held to account to deliver what he "offers".

Mr Eugenides

Excellent article, again, Fraser.

GS London

I concur with the previous commentors: A concise peice which strikes immediately to the point about the welfare state; perhaps the most important sentence being, "[to] think that the taxes Labour charge somehow promotes a more cohesive society..."

At this I would ask a sweeping question: If, just like religion or taste in music, mutual suffering can bring a demograph together, why should any of that demograph vote to change it?

Perhaps to do so would open up the possibility of one's neighbour becoming better off. This feeds into that most nasty, peculiarly British instinct: "if I'm going down, you're coming with me." This is an understandable if dark version of "we're all in this togeter," but with no intention or motivation to get out.

One hopes that, party politics aside, some are (as Oscar Wilde said) looking at the stars.

Stu

Excellent post, Fraser.

Surely we should use the more positive and politically correct term 'Developing Scotland', though?

scribbler

To what has been said above, I would add bring back manufacturing for social as well as economic reasons. The 'feckless' are quite unable to work in the service sector. That leaves them with the public sector (and you can only employ so many dustmen), benefits or crime as the only option for an income.
Until manufacturers can be persuaded back to the UK (with perhaps massive tax breaks) these people have no hope of a proper job.

Craig Strachan

"Prime and Third Scotland are half a mile apart in some places, but the two nations don’t interact. "

Oh, I dunno. My own childhood experience was of the Bearsden/Drumchapel interface. There was interaction. All those fond encounters with roving teams from the Drum...especially vivid if I was in my Glasgow Academy uniform.

But you are definitely on to something here, Fraser. I do hope Cameron takes it up seriously. His "chide-a-chubby" speech in Glasgow didn't do it for me. I don't recall obesity being escpecially common amongst the Drum. They were wolfishly lean, in the main. "Chide-a-chibby" would be more like it.

Victoria Street

"Those in sink estates are regarded as being devoid of political capital for any mainstream party. The welfare ghettos are, for Westminster, terra incognita."
Since 2002, however, IDS has put these issues at the heart of the Conservative inner policy debate. Ignoring the Howard hiatus, it has been a key plank of policy since. Cameron's first speech in his leadership campaign was on poverty and his first appointment as leader was to make IDS chair of the social justice commission.
Some may doubt the sincerity of some Tories on this subject, but there is no doubt that it has played a major part in the 'detoxification' process and in attracting more young people and 'progressive' thinkers to the Conservative platform.

Tiberius

This research, Fraser, is top drawer, but the solutions are very complex. Silent Hunter, unfortunately, makes very good points.

Daniel

But she’s right: the most deprived parts of Britain are safe Labour seats - today’s equivalent of rotten boroughs

While I agree with the general thrust of the article, this is just pish.

Is Henley (a safe Tory seat) a "Rotten Borough" then? Clearly, you find it incredible that these people should be allowed to exercise their democratic rights.

KB

The programme can be seen here. Fraser's segment starts at 6:42.

Nick Kaplan

Ending absolute poverty as seen in Third Scotland should be a top Tory priority if (hopefully when) they win the next election. I am fed up of hearing the typical media assumption (and qualifier with which the BBC start every single report on the issue of poverty) that poverty is an area that concerns only Labour. The truth is Labour governments love poverty, its where all their votes are, and the only solutions they offer to poverty are designed to keep the poor completely dependent on government handouts so they can retain their votes e.g. Tax Credits. However, real poverty, defined in absolute terms, has always been the concern of right wing governments who understand that absolute poverty (at least the financial kind) cannot be fought through redistribution and handouts (i.e. taxing the rich to close the gap and end relative poverty by dragging everyone down) but through economic growth and job creation. The next government must improve our education system (instead of just making exams easier so it looks like it’s been improved), get people back to work, stop low income workers from having to pay any taxes at all by increasing the threshold, and most importantly develop an absolute measure of poverty rather than continuing with the current governments relative measure which is just a secretive way of pursuing their socialist agenda to achieve equality rather than wealth for those at the bottom.

nicodemus31

Daniel- I think the point being made is that the neds DON'T exercise their democratic rights. For some reason I can't imagine them having too much of an interest in politics & the finer points of social welfare policy being debated here.

The point is, many of this underclass we are discussing have no interest in life other than where the next sensory fix is coming from; be that booze, drugs or violence. The fact is that when police attand "domestic" disturbances in these areas, because they have been summoned to do so by the "victim", in general, one of 2 things occurs:

1.The victim rounds on the police when they attempt to arrest the accused "get aff ma man ya f*****g...." or

2. The incident turns out to be so minor as to almost warrant wasting police time charges being brought. Real incidents have occurred such as neds hiding the remote control from their other halves then phoning the police to complain about it. Others include police being called to attend a domestic disturbance only to be informed by the "victim" that the disturbance was on account of the fact that "he wouldnae go oot n get a carey-oot".

I illustrate these real examples to try to show you that when we beat our chests and our hearts bleed to try to fathom a solution to this issue, we need to be aware that we are, to an extent, pissing in the wind.

Marian C

A truly excellent piece Fraser. Well done

Tina

Excellent piece. You are one of the best writers around. But do you think Cameron is really serious about tackling the situation? In light of the 'no votes in the poor'. If he is serious it's going to be very difficult, these people won't want to come off benefit and help themselves easily. Also Labour will just go negative and trot out the old nasty party line of attack. I don't know if the Tories can win the next election or not, but I hope to God they can.

Tom

The thing is, it's not just Scotland your analysis applies to. It's exactly the same in England and Wales (NI is different becasue of the whole religous situation). Think of Labour strongholds like Merseyside, Manchester, the North East of England, South Wales etc.

Stewart

An excellent piece Fraser, I remember reading much favourable comment about it in the SoS and other Sundays at the time. Some excellent points are also made in the comments above. The fact is that however well intentioned some of the Labour politicians are when they start off in politics, by the time they are in a position to do anything about their constituents plight they are too concerned about being stabbed in the back not because they are wondering around their constituencies but because of the spiteful, vindictive nature of left wing politics in Scotland. If this is not the case, then they have been given a ministerial role and can no longer see further than the boundaries of the Westminster village. The cynical ones know that spending money on the poor of their constituencies is a waste. Their majorities don't need to be bigger and some other issue is always just around the corner to distract attention. However, this time it may not be so easy. If Glasgow East leads to Brown losing his job it will be remembered for some time and the SNP and Labour will fall over themselves to pour money into that constituency and others like it. The problem is that they will do it so quickly that the money will be wasted and 6 months later nothing will have changed.

Stewart

Brown and the Labour politicians would rather look 1000 miles away to do good because they despise their electorates. Familiarity bred contempt in that they grew up nearby these deprived areas if not actually in them and they saw the undeserving with their own eyes. They'd rather give our taxes to starving third world kids and to be honest if there was ways of making sure that wasn't embezzled by third world dictators or siphoned off by charity directors for dubious causes like 'fighting global warming', I would too. Most of the children in the third world have not had a chance from birth let alone weekly benefits which make working a mugs game. Labour will take the votes of Glasgow East and the like and say bugger off, see you in 4-5 years. They then shout at the rich in society as though it was their fault that their constituencies are so poor. As Michael Corleone said "This contempt for money is just a trick of the rich to keep the poor without it".

CP

Anyone see the response to the piece by the guardian columnist on the show. Clueless. As Fraser said, the left cannot comprehend that throwing money at poverty doesn't work

CMS

I used to do a lot of market research in this and other similar areas in the West of Scotland. What you say is very true, as it concerned mostly TV I didn't find it too hard to get interviews. I was truly shocked at times, filthy houses, neglected kids but with TV and stereo equipment we couldn't afford, so clearly it was not lack of money but total lack of any aspiration for themselves or their kids. I felt desperately sorry for the hard working people I did meet there and the only real poverty I saw was among, lonely, frightened pensioners trapped in these ghettos. I often stayed to talk for a while greatly delaying my work but some rarely had anyone talk to them. Later I was a member of the Children's Panel and it would break your heart seeing lovely bright little kids who had no chance whatever of a decent life. Drug and drink addicted parents, or parent more likely, kids born to young girls who were thrilled to have a baby to love but wanted us to take the out of control 10 year old off their hands. I grew up in a very working class area but it was totally different then. We never had much but there were plenty of books, parental aspirations were high and we had a good council house. Owning a home was never even considered a possibility. Thanks to this background I went to Senior school, to university as did my husband from a similar background in the Scottish borders. We had a superb education and I don't think that is still available to most children from our background. My family were largely Labour supporting, except my mum who voted Conservative, she always said Labour only pretended to care about people like us. I can't think of any answers Fraser, the rot set in long ago and I often wished we could take these promising little kids away and give then a chance but it was rarely possible. All I can say is that every Chancellor should have a sign saying 'don't subsidize what you don't want more of' free housing for teenage mums is an example of that. Early motherhood is a rational choice if you have no education and no prospects a least you get a house and income, often for life but it can be a disaster for both mother and child(ren). One funny incident from my market research days all the talk of religion reminded me of. It was in a very 'orange area' and before I was allowed in I was asked what school I went to! fortunately in this case the right one, I had this experience teaching computing in the early days too. We went to different schools and it was not unusual to be relegated to spare rooms for breaks if we were the 'wrong' religion. Sorry this is so long, your article brought back a lot of memories.

CMS

A PS to my previos post. I enjoyed your programme but Andrew's new sidekick is unable to conceal her left bias. Why oh why doesn't the BBC give Andrew Neil the Any Marr show, he is by far the best political interviewer they have. Better than Paxman, and without the sneer. You only have to see him on the little watched Straight Talk to see that and why did News 24 stop Head to Head? I really liked that programme.

David

Correction for Sarah - apples and oranges

"However, if you consider that only 2.5% of the Gaza Strip's population is over 65 (male 15,716/female 22,362 [source: CIA World Factbook]), are you sure that comparing life expectancy in Glasgow to that of the Gaza Strip isn't a little misleading?"

Life expectancy is measured from birth and doesn't depend on proportion of population in a specific age group.

Fraser Nelson

Sarah M has a point in that Gaza is indeed a small sample. The following countries have life expectancy higher than Gaza (and, ergo, the City of Glasgow): Algeria, Armenia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, North Korea, Romania, Samoa, Venezuela, Vietnam

Anthony Gray

For a Scotsman, Fraser makes a good job of being a Little Englander. He’s keen on data but so selective in his use of them. The briefest look at some long run economic data would tell him about 1) the persistent nature of structural problems in Glasgow East and 2) the interrelationship between the Glaswegian, Scottish, UK and global economies.

I’m neither impressed nor fooled by the three points of his argument – they just don’t stand up to rigorous analysis. The most telling word in this article is the typo “cant”. There have been some major socio economic improvements in the last decade for people who want to look – even in Glasgow East. The problem is that in some areas, notably the poorest in the UK, the rate of improvement has not kept pace with that in better off areas. The result is a widening rather than a narrowing of disparities.

His use of life expectancy, as a measure of well being, is useful – but the comparators he comes up with surely are inapposite (why not try comparing the best and worst “performing” areas in Glasgow East / Scotland; Liverpool / England and Belfast / Northern Ireland for the years 1977, 1987, 1997 and 2007?). And then dig a bit deeper for some long run data on the “big killers” and the prevalence of smoking, drinking and poor diet, for the same years, to try to understand why these problems are also so persistent, the extent of progress that has been made in tackling them and what remains to be done.

Barry

Anyone who seriously thinks a rich Old Etonian toff like David Cameron is going to help people in these kind of areas has basically got a screw loose. The man is a snob and he proved that with his disgraceful speech the other day. The ONLY hope for Britain is to pull this country out of the EU as it is only then we can start to rebuild our manufacturing base which will help areas like Glasgow East and also the wider economy. It is no coicidence that Britain has become de-industrialised due to our Common Market/EU membership and the Tory disdain for manufacturing industry under Mrs Thatcher. Mr Cameron won't even offer this country a post-ratification referendum on the Lisbon Treaty let alone what many people want ie one on our withdrawal.

Laban Tall

Fraser : "I finish my BBC film on the motorway which dissects Glasgow East and can in one hour take you from Edinburgh New Town to Glasgow’s West End. You can look at the high rises and shudder as you belt towards Byres Road, but that’s the closest you get to it."

Laban : "It was February 2000, and we were in the Central Belt, driving between Glasgow and Stirling, on our way for a week in Glenlivet ... the football coverage had finished, the kids were half asleep and we had another 200-odd miles to cover. Nearly time for 'Take The Floor' - Scottish country dance music on BBC Scotland. Give the kids a taste of the vanishing culture of Scotland - whether they like it or not. On a long journey I claim 'droit de driveur' over the stereo.

Time for the seven o'clock news - which brought me straight back to present day Scotland.

"A mother has appeared in court charged with throwing her six year old son to his death from the fourteenth floor of a Glasgow tower block"

Apparently she'd woken the kids up in the middle of the night then thrown one off the balcony. She was said to have 'drug and alcohol problems'.

This cheerful item was followed by the story of two 'security guards' who had tortured one of their colleagues to death in a Leith flat over a three day period - apparently for amusement.

Well, I thought - who needs Irvine Welsh when you can just pick up the local paper ? At the time I think I'd just finished reading 'Filth' - the heroic tale of an ordinary copper fighting the neds of Edinburgh in his own idiosyncratic style.

The car was warm, children sleepy, on our way to hills, snow, air, a little house by a church (and a distillery) in a Catholic valley - a different world from the schemes we could see from the M8. The contrast between the Scotland of our destination and the Scotland we were driving through was striking."

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2005/12/mum-dont-do-that.html

Dr Peter Davies

Fraser
This series of articles on Glasgow East has been very insightful.

The Health/Wealth education inequalities have grown under new Labour's policies. This is Labour's disgrace and a large part of the reason we should get rid of them- their policies make things worse.
Thank you.

Silent Hunter

CMS:

Thanks for a really excellent piece of writing - It was a real insight by someone who clearly knows what they are talking about from a first hand perspective.

Thanks again :O)

Barry:

Oh Dear!

'...a rich Old Etonian toff ...'

It's like Crewe & Nantwich all over again! LOL ........the New Nasty Party proles never learn, just like their party never listens.

And what exactly have Labour and having a Labour MP done for the people of Glasgow East?
Apart from their MP spending £500,000 of their money on himself.

Presumably you take exception to David Cameron's speech because maybe you recognise yourself in his description.

So we pull ourselves out of the EU......OK? How does that help us?
And where does the investment come from to recreate a manufacturing base?....America?
They're broke too!

And how are you going to compete with the rates of pay manufacturing in India, China and the far east, see as the norm?

Well? Barry?

Let's hear the answers then.

T.McCORMACK

My thoughts on how 'to make Glasgow better for her own people.
Mark out a square area at a time to be renovated. move the people to an other area or temporary housing. Build plenty of houses with small gardens. Small prim. schools, from 4year olds who only play and have stories for a year,then small classes.Remedial teachers early so they won't be needed later. Religious schools to give back their roots.
Older children do community tasks after school, eg. to help younger ones with their sums and reading, tiding up their streets ect. Home hygiene, cookery lessons.
Boys to play football,swimming and computers
When they are so tired,they won't need to hang about.

Smaller secondary schools near to homes.
Smaller schools,with Grammar too.
Homework to be done at school, so they are free to acquire hobbies and Church youth clubs to give them guidance and new interests.
Parents to be able to use schools in evenings. Mothers to do a few hours work
most days.
plenty of jobs available, dinnerladies,school cleaners and running or supervising after school events.
What these people need is someone to take an interest in them and their families and for them to make some money. Give them back their pride.

T.McCORMACK

My thoughts on how 'to make Glasgow better for her own people.
Mark out a square area at a time to be renovated. move the people to an other area or temporary housing. Build plenty of houses with small gardens. Small prim. schools, from 4year olds who only play and have stories for a year,then small classes.Remedial teachers early so they won't be needed later. Religious schools to give back their roots.
Older children do community tasks after school, eg. to help younger ones with their sums and reading, tiding up their streets ect. Home hygiene, cookery lessons.
Boys to play football,swimming and computers
When they are so tired,they won't need to hang about.

Smaller secondary schools near to homes.
Smaller schools,with Grammar too.
Homework to be done at school, so they are free to acquire hobbies and Church youth clubs to give them guidance and new interests.
Parents to be able to use schools in evenings. Mothers to do a few hours work
most days.
plenty of jobs available, dinnerladies,school cleaners and running or supervising after school events.
What these people need is someone to take an interest in them and their families and for them to make some money. Give them back their pride.

Colin Campbell

I have vivid memories of driving on that motorway as I travelled around First Scotland over twenty yeas ago. Seems nothing much has changed. Perhaps the area needs to be levelled and the Commonwealth Village constructed there.

Mick Collins

Might I suggest that on the anniversary of the ill-fated Darien Scheme it is time for the Scots to decide once again if they are part of the Union or not.

If you are, please dissolve the Scottish Assembly (not Parliament Alex!) and the cash you waste on it to massage the egos of the Labour and SNP politicos OR to remove yourselves totally and stop spending hard earned English tax money on your Marxist social experiments.

Faux Cu, Palais Bourbon

Greeting Scottish subjects!

From my moniker and posting address you may devise that I live far, far away, away beyond Engerlandshire. However, after just installing a 100 Gigathingy fibre optic in my Palais, I have been exploring what it actually does!

I Googled the words Independence, Freedom, Engarlandshire, Democracy and Referendum and I alighted on various links to newspapers and television stations in a place called Scotland which is also called, by the people of Engarlandshire, North Britain! Very interesting, I thought.

So I have been following your various local servile newspapers, wireless broadcast and tele-transmissions. They have been very enlightening for me in my quest to understand people of the lower orders outside my Palais.

I see you have a token participation in how we govern you (my class you know, through my proxies), as I write, in a bidonville you call Glasgow East.

I further see that in this vague geographical area called Glasgow East you have a very high percentage of, what we call outside the Palais, the “unwashed.” However, I will talk about the reporters and politicians later.

My confusion knows no end when I look at the map and see that Glasgow East is to the right of Glasgow but everyone says that is on the left? Maybe your World is upside-down, or my map?

So, what does this word “left” mean in Glasgow East.

1. Men have, in different arrondisements, an average life expectancy of less than men in The Gaza Strip, Baghdad, Bangladesh and Soweto!
2. It appears that no one, apart from your reporters, politicians, gendarmes and social workers work.
3. There is a serious hard drug problem.
4. Many people leave school with no certificates of educational supremacy
5. There is a near absence of university education qualification.
6. There is a serious crime problem, including theft of personal property and violence against individuels.

Now I understand, left means, left behind !

I have some suggestions to help you perfect this brilliant strategy you have in Glasgow East. Something to make it more efficient and more cost effective!

Point 1

a) Why do you need them?
b) Children and future subjects can be bred more efficiently in laboratories and all we would need would be a small nucleus of sperm collected from selected male breeding stock.
c) If the existing males have a lower life expectancy than The Gaza Strip, Baghdad, Bangladesh and Soweto why do you not move them there? Not only could we make them productive, see later points, but they would be so for longer! This would solve a small local series of problems and would be economically efficient.
d) Outsource all manufacturing to the above. Who needs smoky, dirty industry in your Glasgow East utopia, and you can always get some tree huggers to rejoice and dance around the Maypole celebrating the reduction in pollution. Note Point 2 d) below

Point 2

a) Merge the careers of Reporters and Politicians, make them mutually indistinguishable.
b) I am being disingenuous; of course we all, in the Palais, know that reporters and politicians don’t work. So now is the time to remove this veil of pretence.
c) Select these Political proxies carefully to reflect the people they purport to represent. Pay careful attention to language, clothing, fat, unhealthy or hunted looks are especially exploitable.
d) You should centralise all information dissemination on the proxy administrators of the State, the political Class. You could keep a few people in little Media and News Offices with big titles, such as Publisher, Editor and Political Editor but then you could feed them their stories from the Central Clearing House, and they could adjust the content to confuse the literate.
e) Give them limited riches, titles and other privileges.
f) Control access to the Internet.
g) The Political Class can be bought with money vouchers and other vouchers. Be careful to ensure that they have a good financial plan when they can no longer be of economic use. You could even let them vote their own salaries; it will be much less expensive in the long run than the alternatives. Once on the take they are forever dependent!

Point 3

a) Get these people off illegal hard drugs. Find a chemical substitute, one that you can control and keeps these addicts tied to the State and not the dealers for their fix. Make the State the dealer! This has also the advantage of having a marginal, but voluminable, effect on criminality and your Political proxies can use that to justify their salaries and pensions!
b) Baffle people with statistics to ensure that not many people are educated into how to understand them. Make the source of the data opaque.

Point 4

a) Give anyone a coloured certificate whether or not they can read and write. If they cannot do either, give them a bigger more colourful certificate with gilt edging.
b) They have depending, on their sex, a monetary value as consumers and wealth generators.
c) Note that this is finite and self limiting with respect to Point 1 c)

Point 5

a) Put special talent scouts into schools to identify young people for career grooming
b) Pay particular attention to control types, who can be groomed for the Internal Security Forces and compassionate types, who can be groomed for The Social Welfare Forces. Ensure these two Forces -are worked in rotas so that when it comes to the pre-mating rituals, union is easier within the groups and between them. Ensure that the individual identity of either group is not merged or diluted by the other.
c) Create a secret control group within the Social and Security Forces to identify and weed out dissenters from the declared Common Good
d) Send a high proportion of the more, but not the most, intelligent to University, re-designated community colleges, to study for Social Care degrees and if necessary, conjoin these degrees with other suitable qualifications like needlework, physical education, painting, reflexology, transcendental meditation; nothing too challenging to the individual or the State.
e) By re-designating these qualifications as Social Care degrees you can move Scotland up the international education tables and allow your political proxies to be fair proud! Make sure that the Ministry of Dis-Information publishes this achievement widely to the masses to lull them into thinking that they are progressing.
f) Keep a few Universities for the education of the next ruling proxy class.

Point 6

a) See 1 c)
b) Decriminalise political crime
c) See 3 a)
d) Build a BIG prison in the middle of the Bidonville, where drugs are freely available but are contained
e) Open sub branches of your political proxies in the prison and select promising talent for future exploitation in covert operations and para military units.

Of course I don't live in a real Palais and no, not the Dennistoun one either.

Just a delusional Inner Bearsdenite aka Maryhill am I, but also brought up in a cooncil hoose.

Delsusional why? would have thought that with oil reserves greater tha Kuwait11 years, on Labour government in Westmidden, 8 years of Labour Executives in Holyrood and c800 years of Labour of Glasgow, from the St Mungo parish to the Glasgow City Cooncil we would not have the disgrace that is Glasgow East and other parliamentary constituences.

I smell blood in Glasgow East and hope that the voters there bring in the pig transporters to take away this evil and corrupt bunch of Porkers to the abatoir!

So there!

Anthony Price

I'm slightly surprised that no-one has cited Dickens' 'Bleak House' -a major theme of this novel is poverty and deprivation in the midst of plenty. Rabbi Blue's 'Moral longsightedness' is exemplified by the actions of Mrs Jellby (Dickens calls this 'Telecsopic Philanthropy') and other 'philanthropists' who are more interested in the Africans than the London Poor on their doorsteps. As a scene, the visit to the brickmaker's cottage wouldn't take to much rewriting to re-cast as a visit from a present day Guardianista instead of a Victorian lady - i.e. patronising and utterly without insight.

Mike

Excellent article, that states the obvious to the more enlightened Scots tired of the Westminster Tory/ New Labour square dance.

The points you make re enforce many Scots Commitment to the idea that only Patriotic Scots are capable of tackling Scottish Problems.

The inter generational plague of lack of purpose and goals is not something that will be cured in the short term. If we start now, by taking control of our Scottish Society we will not see substantial movement on this matter for three generations. However if we continue to follow the path of being submissive to a failed Westminster System there will be a lot less chance of ever freeing our fellow Scots from slavery to the Unionist System. In 2010 we will all have the opportunity to cast our vote to free our nation from the control of another foreign nation. The choice is simple, Vote for a sentence of more of the same or Vote the Scottish Way, where Scotland will be governed by a new era of dedicated politicians free from the influence of Westmonster.

MikeMSN

You can go to, say, pubs on the edge of these areas where unemployment/disability rates are so high, and you will be served by people from Poland.

State education is poor, but it's hard to succeed when your pupils are unmotivated. It's that experience of the lack of need to work, which bolsters the anti-intellectual, anti-education culture which notoriously and fatally pervades far too many schools.

The answer is to individualise welfare, like Chile and Singapore, so that those who create the wealth - the workers - are those who benefit from it, rather than the state. National Insurance premiums from employee and employer should be paid, tax free, into the individual's account where it should earn tax-free interest. The state can make use of the unwithdrawn sums, as at present with National Insurance, which is simply a tax. Withdrawals would be for purposes and at life stages determined by the state: centrally, retirement would be financed by the money in the account. On death, the balance would be part of the individual's estate.

This system rewards work and responsibility. Those who are not employed would still have to be maintained by handouts, but it would provide motivation and hope in school and adult life. Experience in the countries which run the system proves that it shrinks the underclass. Do it, Tories.

Coal miners daughter

Very good article. I too, like your Dad Fraiser, grew up on a council estate but the difference, which you point out, was people worked. I would not like to be the Tory government who are going to have to sort out this mess. Together with every other disaster this government has caused.

Laurence England

Why has nobody outrightly condemned the words of (though, I hasten to add not the person of) Silent Hunter? I find his comment quite shocking and more than a little disturbing.

Barry

Silent Hunter, I am NOT a Labour voter. Infact, I have NEVER voted Labour and wasn't one of the many millions who were conned in 1997 by so-called 'New Labour'. I just think NEITHER Labour or Mr Cameron's Conservatives will ever sort-out Britain's fundamental problems and this includes the structural problems we have with our economy.

We could pull out of the EU! It is noteworthy that before we entered Ted Heath's so-called 'Common Market' Britain had a TRADE SURPLUS with those countries which comprised it and with the rest of the world but since we joined we have run-up a huge TRADE DEFICIT with the EU countries and the rest of the planet. This reduces our longterm growth rate and no doubt this has affected places like Glasgow East very severely. Japan shows what can be achieved when your country has its sovereigty. What I do know is that a very priveleged person like Mr Cameron should think a bit more before he castigates everyone who is poor ect. Is it any wonder why the Tories are so unpopular in Scotland? Please, don't infer I'm some kind of raving Red socialist just because I think people like Mr Cameron should be careful with what he says about people less fortunate than himself.

R Bell

I think you make a mistake when you attribute the poverty partly to well meaning left wing policies. In actual fact, it benefits the Labour party to keep people underprivileged as it means they retain their vote. This is why Thatcher tried to sell off council houses - the idea being that people who own their houses, lean to the right.

Same with Glasgow, with deprivation Labour can point the finger at the evil Tories, and SNP, even though they've had as much power there for decades.

Eric

Edinburgh believe it or not comes a very close 2 nd to Glasgow in poverty stakes as well .Theres no window dressing in Glasgow and thats the way its always been .

Paul Waygood

I think that the Scot's can kiss my milky-white English arse. The b*stards are getting greater benefits from MY tax pounds and will do so in the future. If they want independance, fair play, but don't expect me to pay for it.
The Scots: Scroungers, through and through.