Glasgow City Council blocks opening of new nursery facility.

Pollokshields Early Years Centre in Melville Street currently provides nursery care  for children from 3 and up. It is set to expand to include younger children 
 
The building work for this expansion was complete since August 2010. Since then the centre been waiting on a building inspection report from Glasgow City council, without which they cannot begin accepting children. The staff are in place and being paid.


Parents who wanted to place their children there have since been forced to look elsewhere for (much more expensive) childcare. often the very parents who need it in order to return to work 

There are children who could be benefitting from this excellent provision. Glasgow kids need and deserve the best start in life educational success starts from birth up 

Single mum Christine Bird said, "I am due to return to work in 3 weeks. My 2 year-old daughter would love to come here, it's a fantastic setting, affordable and just round the corner. I couldn't believe when I saw the 0-3 area all sitting unused. It's really hard to find good childcare, I don't know what we'll do. So many people are losing their jobs because of cuts, but the council waste money like this. It's a disgrace."

News of the World phone hacking.

The News of the World has released a statement on allegations of "Phone Hacking." It stated that it was about to support some litigants with an"unreserved apology and an admission of liability in cases meeting specific criteria."

In response Tommy Sheridan's solicitor Aamer Anwar has issued this statement.

""NEWS OF THE WORLD MUST BE INVESTIGATED FOR ALLEGATIONS OF  PERJURY AT SHERIDAN TRIAL"

Several Senior Editors of the News of the World testified during the Tommy Sheridan trial that phone hacking was down to a single rogue reporter. 

We always knew that to be a lie. News International is now accepting liability for several claims.

It is essential that the Scottish police and the Metropolitan Police examine the evidence of Andy Coulson as well as others to consider whether 

perjury was committed by them and whether they were aware of Mr Sheridan’s phone being hacked along with others.

If no one is above the law, then those who gave evidence on behalf of News International must be investigated over allegations of perjury.

News International must not be allowed to use their resources to buy their way out of criminal prosecution by silencing those who raised civil actions.

Aamer Anwar – Solicitor for Tommy Sheridan

"Solidarity with uprisings in the Middle East" Rally

In a bigger than expected turnout, over 400 people rallied in Glasgow's George Square to show their support for the wave of pro-democracy protests in the Middle East.  The crowd heard from a number of speakers including Peter Murray, the President of the National Union of Journalists and Miriam Al Khawaja who addressed those attending by phone from Pearl Square in Bahrain.

While the rally as called to support all of the protests in the Arab world, understandably, given the bloodshed in the last few days, it was the situation in Libya that dominated the event. The Libyan "independence flag" was flown by many of those in attendance and speaker after speaker called on the British government to break all links with the Gaddaffi regime. One protester said that while the Libyan government had tanks and aircraft "our dreams are our weapons." Home made placards also drove home the protesters message with some stating "Gaddaffi must go" while others called for "no more dictators." Amongst the many Bahraini flags present a child carried a placard that simply stated "No Shia no Sunni, just Bahrani."

As the rally ended the organisers, The Stop the War Coalition, announced plans to hold a march through Glasgow city centre this Saturday. As the crowd dispersed George Square echoed to an Arabic chant  that will be familiar to those who seen news reports of demonstrations in Egypt, ""Al Sha'ab yoreed isqat al nizam"; The People want to overthrow the regime.  

Glasgow Tuesday 22 February Words James Doleman Photos © Duncan Brown 

Anti-Cuts March at Glasgow University

Photographs by  Duncan Brown

It may have been the influence of last year's student protests in  England, or just the sheer scale of the cutbacks proposed, but whatever the reason, the attendance at today's anti-cuts demonstration at Glasgow University easily exceeded the numbers expected.

Around 3000 students and staff assembled outside the Hetherington building on University Avenue, itself occupied by anti-cuts  protesters on the 1st of February, before marching to the heart of the university cloisters where management were meeting to discuss a series of departmental closures and cutbacks in an attempt to save £35 million over the next five years. There were the usual placards from various political parties, but these were vastly outnumbered by homemade banners such as those from the threatened modern language department calling on the university not to "turn their 'Bach' on German" while another simply stated "don't trample on sociology." Another handmade sign harked back to the slogan of Paris students in 1968, "Soyez réaliste, demandez l'impossible" (Be realistic, demand the impossible)  while others thanked Steven Fry for his twitter comments yesterday that the proposed cuts were "sad."

At a rally after the march Sandra White, SNP regional member of the Scottish Parliament, called the proposed cuts "disgraceful," while Patrick Harvie, Green Party MSP for Glasgow stated that students had been "lied to" by politicians.  The biggest cheer of the day however was reserved for Megan, a student from the threatened department of Nursing studies, who told the crowd that there were many other nursing students who would have attended the march but could not as "they were already out on the wards saving lives."

As the rally ended one member of university staff remarked that the demonstration could be a "game changer" for the management's attitude to cuts. One young demonstrator told me "after Egypt no-one can say that demonstrations can never change anything."


Duncan Brown's full set of photograph's of today's march and rally can be found Here