NEW LABOUR MEDIA ATTACK GLASGOW SCHOOL CAMPAIGNERS

Below is some of the most breathtakingly sick media coverage I have seen in a long time.

It seeks to stigmatise the ordinary people working hard in the campaign to keep Glasgow schools open, by making them out to be dupes who are being used by drug dealers. And to not so subtly brand and stigmatise the campaigners by associating them and their communities with the scourge of drugs.

It is heartbreaking that people and communities who have had it drummed into them for decades that they don't matter, have finally got up off their knees to fight for something they care about and this is how they are branded. Labour who have betrayed the poor in Glasgow for generations are the ones who have to answer for the widespread drug problems. The fact that drug addiction is such a big problem in Glasgow makes it all the more despicable that New Labour plans to close schools that are a resource for the communities.

But let's not get it out of perspective - drug problems still cost only a fraction of what perfectly legal alcohol use costs us. The harm from all substances is concentrated in the poorest areas, where the people need extra resources, not robbed of their schools by New Labour who are giving public money away to property developers in Gasgow.

I wasn't planning to buy the Daily Record just now anyway, because of the despicable treatment of workers who are currently in dispute and who are being threatened and thrown on the scrap heap by a profitable company. But I don't know when I will feel like buying the Daily Record again, after this.

The Save our Schools campaigners might want to consider a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, on the grounds that there was insufficient balance in the story and it stigmatised a whole community. This story was clearly politically motivated, as the Daily Record is a New Labour paper and the powerful New Labour administration in Glasgow are currently being kicked up and down the park by this popular campaign.

How difficult would it have been to get a quote from a parent (perhaps anonymously) saying something along the lines of: "We completely condemn drug dealing that blights the lives of so many young people. We want a decent future for our kids and that is why we are fighting these school closures which we are opposed to because of x, y, z....."

I have total respect for the Save our Schools campaigners. The video of these couragous women (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhGGqgGE3R0 ) reminded me of learning about the Glasgow women who organised Rent Strikes in the early 20th century. I hope they take some comfort from the fact that when the media come after you like this, it usually means your actions are having an impact. All that good coverage the campaigners have achieved elsewhere in the media obviously has New Labour rattled.

FROM THE SCOTTISH DAILY RECORD:
Exclusive: Anger as notorious crime family hijack school closure campaign as cover to sell heroin
Apr 10 2009 Chris Musson
A CRIME clan have hijacked a campaign against school closures as cover to sell heroin.
The notorious Fox family have put up a poster outside their drug-den home saying: "Save Our School".
They have even started a petition protesting against planned primary and nursery closures in Glasgow.
But their interest in the campaign is simply an excuse for the stream of addicts turning up at their door.
A neighbour said: "It's an absolute joke. They are putting word about to go to the house and ask to sign the petition.
"It's so obvious what's happening but they seem to be getting away with it.
"They think the poster and petition gives them the perfect excuse for people coming and going all the time.
"But the idea that these rats care enough about their community to campaign against school closures is actually offensive.
"They have caused misery on this scheme for years and it beggars belief this latest trick is allowed to go on."
The Fox family have been dealing drugs in Calton, in Glasgow's east end, since the 1980s. They were unmasked by a Record investigation.
Yesterday, we watched addicts come and go while the Foxes flew the flag for the school closure protest.
The clan have a fearsome reputation for violence and are known for blatant drugdealing and threats to locals.
Their house on Millroad Street is home to Billy Fox, 32, and his brother John, 42.
John and brother Andrew, 39 - known as Sanny - were freed from prison on March 12 after serving three months each for dealing cocaine.
They have launched themselves straight back into the family business and backed Billy's plot to use the school closures campaign as cover.
The poster on the house gates says: "Save our School" and "20's plenty in a class".
It refers to Calton's St James's primary and nearby Queen Mary Street nursery.
Glasgow City Council plan to shut the schools and send pupils elsewhere.
Law-abiding locals are protesting against the closures and they say the small class sizes - currently 18 at St James's - benefit pupils.
Campaigners say as a last resort, the schools could be housed in the same building - the "Let 2 Become 1" reference in the Foxes' poster.
Another local said: "They think this campaign gives the house some sort of immunity.
"They're actually laughing about it, thinking how clever they've been.
"Parents at the school are disgusted and are ashamed that they've got a poster up. It doesn't help the cause." Billy and John took over the house after crime family head Ronnie, 72, died in 2007.

(ALSO THIS EDITORIAL:)

Get them out
Apr 10 2009
RecordView
The notorious Fox clan have been exposed numerous times by this newspaper for their drug-dealing and criminal lifestyles.
They are scum of the lowest order.
But even they have surpassed themselves with their latest scam to drum up customers for their dope pushing operation.
They're pretending to front a campaign to save their local school and have put up a poster calling on residents to sign a petition.
The reality is this lot don't care a jot about the school. It's just a front to cover the fact that the steady flow of punters to the house are there to buy tenner bags of heroin and the other drugs that the Foxes sell to hopeless addicts.
This violent crime clan have brought nothing but misery and degradation to the Calton area of Glasgow, where they rule by fear.
Locals are terrified and generations have been lured into drugs by their presence.
They've been kicked out the area before, thanks to ASBOs. But they've continued to control the area through their extended family and associates.
It's long overdue the police got a special hit squad together, battered down their doors, rounded up the lot of them and cleared them and their allies from the area once and for all.