I remember, as a first year apprentice (1980ish), the auld joiners, (they were auld to me at that time) talking fondly of the old Coonty Cooncil and how much more effective it was than the Stirling District Council Property Maintainance Department, in all its inglorious, hands tied behind its back, reform. By the end of my apprenticeship there were already moves towards private-contract-tendering for chunks of it. A few people started making lots of money and SDC tradesmen on the street had to wear flack jackets as protection from the wrath of the tenants scorned. The service delivered by bright yellow Bedford Vans: SDC livery screamed it, as if it wasnt a big enough target already (and it was all about bonus - 125% production which had to be acheived to make a living wage). The lessons section of (below) Andy Wightmans fascinating video really brings home an understanding of what the affection was that my journeymen had for the old system, not least because it was easier to keep folk in better fettle. This is very well worth a watch. Extracts from Andy Wightmans blog - Land Matters. andywightman/?p=3843 “By packaging British citizens up and selling them, sector by sector, to investors, the government makes it possible to keep traditional taxes low or even cut them. By moving from a system where public services are supported by progressive general taxation to a system where they are supported exclusively by the flat fees people pay to use them, they move from a system where the rich are obliged to help the poor to a system where the less well-off enable services that the rich get for what is, to them, a trifling sum. The commodity that makes water and power cables and airports valuable to an investor, foreign or otherwise, is the people who have no choice but to use them. We have no choice but to pay the price the toll-keepers charge. We are a human revenue stream; we are being made tenants in our own land, defined by the string of private fees we pay to exist here.” James Meek. All of this was forecast by Jimmy Reid in his famous rectorial address – Alienation – in 1972. “Let me right at the outset define what I mean by alienation. it is the cry of men who feel themselves the victims of blind economic forces beyond their control. it is the frustration of ordinary people excluded from the process of decision making. The feeling of despair and hopelessness that pervades people who feel with justification that they have no real say in shaping or determining their own destinies. Many may not have rationalised it; may not even understand, may not be able to articulate it. But they feel it.” https://youtube/watch?v=hdT6wrGvfs8
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 03:38:10 +0000
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