LEONARD CHESHIRE DISABILITY BECOMES FIRST CHARITY IN SCOTLAND TO ACHIEVE INVESTORS IN PEOPLE PLATINUM AWARD
Leonard Cheshire Disability have become the first charity in Scotland to achieve the coveted Investors in People Platinum Award. Continue reading Top award for Leonard Cheshire Disability
A very happy birthday to Tony Delahoy, who celebrates his 95th birthday today.
Normandy veteran Tony, who received France’s top honour, l’ Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur, in 2015, has kept the NEN supplied with a regular stream of letters for as long as I can remember.
Londoner Tony’s passion for social justice burns as brightly as it ever has and there’s no sign of the Delahoy inkwell drying up just yet, as the following letters show. Keep up the good fight, Tony!
Dear Editor
There are many people who have the skills and ability in finding solutions to problems that can and do occur everywhere: e.g. fire fighting, repairing and reconnecting electricity transmission cables, telephone cable maintenance, water supply pumping stations, sewerage and sanitation contro. The list of skills needed is indeed a very long one; these skills being supplied by ordinary working people, men and women, on a daily basis.
The whole working population also supply the knowledge and labour to produce what is needed for us to live or to exchange with goods produced by working people of other countries.
But there are times when this ability to pursue a stable life is halted by financial and individual investors deciding to close down industries that they consider not making enough profit, regardless of the devastating effect of unemployment. The knock-on effect of not having a wage can only lead to cutbacks in other industries as sales decline.
It cannot be right that such power over peoples’ lives should be in the control of investors who, in effect, are just gamblers.
Tony Delahoy
Dear Editor
Wool and Eyes
Today, the ‘in-word’ is productivity. It is said that if the volume of everything produced could be increased it would solve all our problems. But this raises the question: for whom?
Owners of industries would not doubt expect their employees to work harder or faster, with our without new technology, for the same wages. This raises the question: who would be able to buy all this extra productivity, bearing in mind that employers in other countries are doing the same thing?
So just to say that more productivity is the answer to our problems is misleading to say the least. Unless those who make the things have the ability to buy them, industries will start to decline, leading once again to an economic slump that will affect the whole population.
If this is the only plan – mainly for the benefit of the already very rich owners – then it is time this sytem of capitalism gave way … as did slavery, serfdom and feudalism throughout the long history of peoples’ struggle.
Tony Delahoy
On this ground we stand and stare
Feel earthy roots beneath our feet
Down, down, layers of sparks,
Timbers, songs, memories, lives lived
Turn your eyes to the sky
The wind blows and the clouds swirl
The seas and oceans call us
Tides glitter as the lighthouse beams
Light dark light dark light dark
See the bare hills and islands
From the sky our land is a small, precious thing
And us in it, a thing to treasure
Gica
Makin A Brew Craigroyston Parents Poetry Group
Edinburgh is set to dazzle next month with the launch of Edinburgh Lumen, a stunning immersive visual and sound display that will brighten up the city centre’s dark winter nights.
Continue reading Edinburgh set to dazzle in February as Lumen lights up city centre
The number of people suffering from flu-like illnesses in Scotland more than doubled in the first week of 2018 compared to the previous week and is four times higher than the same week in 2017. Continue reading Winter health crisis: Scotland’s flu rates double in a week
Dear Editor
The continuing cuts in public services of all kinds are taking a dreadful toll on communities throughout the UK, undoing decades of struggle to put them in place.
The continuing fall in the value of wages, particularly now given higher prices every week, should convince the majority of the working population that private ownership of major industries are incapable of any other action.
There have been slumps in varying degrees of severity, the cost of which are passed on to the population: there can be no justification for such callousness in the pursuit of profit-making by privileged financial investors.
All of this show the urgent need for public ownership of at least the essential services: energy distribution, passenger transports of bus, rail and tram, water supply and sewerage – all of these industries should be working for the benefit of all, not a few investors.
We have to move on from the failed system of private ownership; there is no logical reason or sense in not doing so.
Tony Delahoy
Sillverknowes Gardens
Plans to introduce legislation to ban the manufacture and sale of plastic stemmed cotton buds have been announced by Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham. The proposals will be put to public consultation and would make Scotland the first country in the UK to legislate against these environmentally damaging items. Continue reading Saving Our Seas: Scottish Government to consult on plastic cotton bud ban
BURNS NIGHT COMMUNITY CEILIDH
Royston Wardieburn Community Centre
Saturday 3rd February, 5 – 9pm
The first indoor rugby game in Scottish Schools’ history will take place on Saturday (13 January) at the Oriam Stadium, Heriot-Watt University when Merchiston and Dollar Academy are scheduled to play an exciting line up of matches. Continue reading Beating the Big Freeze: First indoor rugby game in Scottish schools history
Latest figures from the Scottish Government have revealed that the transformative Baby Box policy has already benefitted 3834 newborns across NHS Lothian since they were introduced last summer – and over 22,000 have so far been delivered across Scotland. Continue reading 3834 Lothian newborns have received Baby Boxes
