Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Cuts resurrected for Edinburgh schools

Saii | 26.01.2008 15:52 | Education | Social Struggles

The latest drive to improve education by New Labour got off to a bad start after Edinburgh city council set up a cross-party group to decide which schools get closed in 2008.

The renewed threat of closures resurrects a plan which local people had believed to be over when a community campaign overturned the proposed closure of 22 schools and four community centres in the city last year.

Edinburgh’s cuts are caused by a council budget deficit of over £10m, which critics say has been caused by mismanagement and overspends, which the council is attempting to rectify by slashing public spending on important services.

The failures of Edinburgh council highlight deep-rooted problems in New Labour’s promise to revitalise education, which saw the party embarrassed in December when the UK was shown to have one of the least well-educated populations in the developed world, with reading skills in particular freefalling from 3rd to 18th between 1997 and 2007.

Despite increasing headline funding for education since 1997, the government gives the calculated money per head of the population directly to local councils. With funding cuts and inefficiencies elsewhere in local budgets, education has repeatedly been raided to make up for shortfalls.
The government is planning to implement ‘ringfencing’ to force councils to spend education budgets on education, however even if this measure succeeds, it is likely to prompt large cuts elsewhere in council-run services.

Saii
- Homepage: http://libcom.org/news/

Comments

Hide 12 hidden comments or hide all comments

No longer a New Labour council

26.01.2008 22:41

This is inaccurate. The SNP run the council now.

CH


Funding

26.01.2008 23:31

No it's not, it's saying the new Labour funding system is at fault, not that they run Edinburgh council.

RR


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

CH vs LibCom first !

26.01.2008 23:50

Hiya CH

Are you still revealing posters identities by their IP addresss ? Never mind that, here you decrying a LibCom post. By claiming you make is Edinburgh council is run by the SNP.

Edinburgh is in fact run by Labour as stated. What a fucking idiot you are to act as an IM Scotland admin moderator and not to know that basic fact. And this after you defended the SWP/LibCom influence on IM Scotland ? Shame on you. To hell with the Lib Com fakers too, if I wanted to read the Edinburgh Eveing News then I would.

Fuckwits and fakers that you are.

Danny


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Edinburgh

27.01.2008 00:06

Okay, I take that back about the council, the Lib Dems are in charge in an alliance with the SNP. I don't take it back that you have been abusing your admin privileges or that you are friends with the LibCom crowd though. Welsh Andy calls you his best friend so you are fooling nobody by quibling with their PR here. It must be nice to be recommended by a class traitor. Personally I miss when folk like you or 'John.' were happy to post SW links here - like last month.

Danny


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Fair play

27.01.2008 00:47

RR: OK I see how the story could be intended that way. Wasn't my first reading though (obviously).

CH


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Ah

27.01.2008 08:24

Ah... so mild criticism of LibCom PR, only to be retracted. And yet no acknowledgement that CH is themselves LibCom, best mates with WelshBoy according to him. Want to admit to using IM posters IP addresses to identify those who criticise you ? Cos I can prove you did that.

For any regulars here, it is best to treat IM Scotland as a state asset while CH is part of it.

Danny


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Plain stupid ?

27.01.2008 08:56

Hey, On IM Scotland I just offered Plane Stupid some useful information, with the proviso that they only follow NVDA at airports.

This offer was hidden by CH since CH is a shit of the highest order. Still, I am probably the only activist who has crossed every runway in the north of Britain, and I do have specialist knowledge. If Plane Stupid are serious about shutting down airports safely then I do have some advice.

My advice to the IM collective is to watch out for folk who claim to decry LibCom while they actually support them, like CH does. I have to ask you CH , if LibCom is so brilliant that you always promote their reprints, then why do you pretend to oppose them ?

You fraud.

Danny


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Danny

28.01.2008 13:41

1. It's not a Libcom reprint it's a Freedom newspaper reprint. They co-operate from time to time (as does Freedom and Class War, the AF, Solfed, Black Flag, and indeed when Freedom puts its stories up on Indymedia direct) but share no personnel and are sperate entities.
2. Who gives a fuck where the news comes from if it's relevant and accurate?
3. Why are you wasting time slagging off Libcom anyway? If you don't like them, fine but this is supposed to be a newswire not an outlet for your personal vendettas.

RR


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

GRR

29.01.2008 16:09

"1. It's not a Libcom reprint it's a Freedom newspaper reprint. They co-operate from time to time (as does Freedom and Class War, the AF, Solfed, Black Flag, and indeed when Freedom puts its stories up on Indymedia direct) but share no personnel and are sperate entities."

My apologies then, there's been several 'LibCom reprints here that are actually just Edinburgh Evening news.

2. Who gives a fuck where the news comes from if it's relevant and accurate?

Aye, if.

3. Why are you wasting time slagging off Libcom anyway? If you don't like them, fine but this is supposed to be a newswire not an outlet for your personal vendettas.

I don't like the BNP or the SWP either. LibCom spams IM with every petty working dispute that has no relevance to either anarchism or activism. You support prison officers while decrying prisoners, you support arms manufacturers while decrying peace activist, you support

LibCom is a bunch of SWP entryists trying to coopt a wider movement now the SSP has sank, and consists of 'ex-SWP' who lie about their current contacts with the SWP. The decent people on LibCom demean themselves and their past by happily posting on a pseudo-site that is happy to host jokes about rape.

And m0ost of all - you do nothing but talk, talk talk like good and safe rebels.

Danny


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Whoa there Danny...

30.01.2008 08:36

Lots of You's in there Danny despite the fact I'm not even part of the Libcom collective.

I do however know them, apparently unlike you, and they are not swappie entrists to the activist movement that's a bizarre assertion to make. I think one of them is an ex-swp member, like a good 20% of the rest of the movement must be before they wised up, and that's it. Straight up libertarian otherwise. They don't even engage with activist events or people afaik, which generally is something entryists are supposed to do - where would they 'entry' a non-hierarchical series of disparate grouplets anyway?

If you must engage in these petty squabbles on IM at least avoid flinging untrue smears around, there's plenty of things Libcom can be criticised for and that isn't one of them.

And exactly how are working disputes irrelevant to anarchism? The whole point of anarchism, as far as I'm concerned, is to help wrench power and wealth from the hands of the elites and put it in the hands of the dispossessed - in short, to equalise society.

This is in part what success in workplace disputes does, along with the other benefits including increased solidarity amongst the working class (note this doesn't just include workers, it includes anyone who isn't a boss), better organising for future struggle and opportunities for the anarchist viewpoint to reach an audience which doesn't consist primarily of people with lots of spare time who can afford to run around fields all day 'being activists'. How is that less important than reporting on how half a dozen people stood outside their local garage with a banner for a couple of hours (no I'm not having a go at people who do that)?

RR


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

RR

30.01.2008 10:24

DON'T FEED THE TROLLS

AA


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

The admin is still SWP

30.01.2008 12:55

"I think one of them is an ex-swp member, like a good 20% of the rest of the movement must be before they wised up, and that's it."

So you estimate that 1 in 5 in the movement is ex-SWP but only one member of LibCom is/was ? I don't agree with your first figure and I know your second figure is wrong.

For example, the LibCom admin denied having any contact with the SWP for over seven years and yet a week later here he is reposting Socialist Worker crap here -
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2007/09/380102.html

So the main guy at LibCom is claiming to be an anarchist while he is in fact one of the less than 8,000 people who read the SWP hymn sheet, certainly the only person here who pretends reprinting it is an anarchist act.

"And exactly how are working disputes irrelevant to anarchism? "

Have a look at that link - LibCom were supporting the prison officers. How the fuck is a bunch of prison officers getting better pay and conditions for oppressing their own class part of the anarchist struggle ? It isn't. It is in fact contrary to the anarchist struggle.

Danny


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

That's your evidence?? Ffs...

30.01.2008 13:31

You know nothing of the sort Danny. I repeat, I know the various collective members, and not one of them is a current member of the SWP. Running Socialist Worker news articles ocassionally when they have something useful to say is not the same thing as being a paid up swappie.

What's more 'Libcom' did not support the prison guards. They republished one news article from the SW, in which (if you read carefully) the prison guards are heavily criticised for their repressive role and the walkout is simply used to call for similarly militant actions from other sectors of the workforce - there is no callout for solidarity action.

There was no Libcom statement issued on the collective's views one way or the other, and the only debate on it was in the forums, which they participate in but do not write the majority of the posts for. Are you suggesting they should have banned debate on the subject or denied it was happening?

Still waiting to hear how workplace solidarity is 'anti-working class' btw.

RR


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

V for Vendetta

30.01.2008 16:24

"I repeat, I know the various collective members, and not one of them is a current member of the SWP"
You aren't repeating yourself there, you originally claimed that only one member of LibCom is ex-SWP when I recognise far more than that - closer to your 20% figure. Whereas in the rest of the anarchists I know I'd put the percentage of ex-SWP at less than 1 %. To falsely imply that only one LibCom member is ex-SWP may have been an honest mistake on your part - but to then claim you had actually claimed something completely different is obviously deliberate deception.

Unless you have access to the SWP membership lists your subsequent claim that you know noone in LibCom is a current SWP member is at best unknowable.


"Running Socialist Worker news articles ocassionally when they have something useful to say is not the same thing as being a paid up swappie."

You have admitted the SWP use entryism ? That's a tactic where a small number of people infiltrate a bigger group, gravitate to the levers of power and take control of it.


"What's more 'Libcom' did not support the prison guards."

The "ex-SWP" (cough) LibCom admin did by publishing that Socialist Worker article here.


"Still waiting to hear how workplace solidarity is 'anti-working class' btw."

No, you are not waiting to hear it, you are waiting for your brain to process it. Workplace solidarity with prison officers is not the least bit anarchist, but it is the policy of the SWP. Next LibCom will be supporting the police in their pay demands. If there were concentration camps here then LibCom would be supporting better pay for the guards.

By the way, you also accuse me of a vendetta. Tthe word vendetta comes from the latin stem of 'vindictive' means a blood feud between two families which is hardly accurate. I recognised someone ex SWP from LibCom at a gig I'd organised recently, so I paid for their ticket and introduced them to the singer - but then they don't repost dodgy Socialist Worker articles. Everybody thinks it is so understandable to have been seduced by the SWP, but even when I was a youth I saw that as shameful. I was approached by a Socialist Worker sellers when I was 16 like everyone else was, but their patter was crap and it was hard not to humiliate them in the street. I'd sometimes buy a copy and flick through it, but it was out of pity like buying a Hare Krishna book. To still fall for that shit as an adult is even more shameful, but what is unforgivable is to masquerade as a libertarian while lokking, walking and quacking like a Swappie.

Danny


Hide 12 hidden comments or hide all comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech