Before the rant a pic of earrings i made for myself last night...I like these ones and as usual they're sterling silver and swarovski crystal...6mm crystal cubes and silver cubes and 3mm round silver...I did consider crimping a silver crimp to keep the beads static at bottom of the wire but decided i rather like them being loose and moving about.
Tad out of focus LOL but you get the jist
Close up
And now the rant...Our council is broke...Regardless of how much they put up council tax they've been going broke for years...The council is heavily in debt and needs to make savings...This year they're not allowed to put up council tax as Holyrood has prevented all the Scottish councils from doing so...Even so our crappy council would have to treble it to get close to not being in debt...Also our council are almost as bad if not worse than Westminster at paying 5 and 6 figure sums of money to consultants and think tanks to come up with crappy ideas that never bluddy well get implemented...Even the good ones don't get implemented...Not only are they closing the ice rink (only one in north east scotland) closing one of the swimming pools but they are cutting opening hours at other sports facilities...They are making MASSIVE cut backs in care for the elderly and disabled...Next week when G reaches 18 he is supposed to move from childrens services to adult services...But there is NO POINT as he will get SOD ALL service...The ONLY people who are going to get any care services at all are those in the HIGHEST bracket...Those who are classed medium or low will get sweet FA...And those who are in the highest bracket are getting there's cut...The council have decided to save costs that they want more care to be done in the home by the family...Fandabbydosy NOT as who the hell is then gonna pick up the costs of the care for the carers when they fall ill due to being overloaded with caring...Respite is being cut drastically!!!!!!...So those who are already elderly and having to care for another elderly or disabled family member are going to end up needing cared for themselves...Those who have disabled children regardless of degree of disability are going to be forced into trying to obtain direct payments and then have severe restrictions put on what they can set up via the direct payments as a care package...With no thought as to what the child actually needs as care, respite or outreach worker doing with them...The council are removing funding from anything and everything with no regard as to where these groups or projects will obtain replacement funding from...With no regard as to how many people they put out of employment...Our local workshops for the blind and disabled yesterday had the funding they get from the council taken away completely...Which means it will have to close...That place of work has existed for donkeys years...Not just the last 20 but since before world war 2 i think...My uncle who is blind worked there since he left school until he retired a few years ago...When i had a damaged back for a year after i gave birth to Kerry my GP asked me what kind of bed i had...I told him my uncle had made it and that he was head of the bedding dept at the workshops for the blind...My GP said brilliant as they were excellent beds with brilliant mattresses suitable for anyone with a dodgy back...BTW my back got fixed by a chiropracter privately 14 months after i had Kerry and touch wood has been fine ever since...Best £1 i ever spent :o) He cost a quid as he got fed up being given chickens, eggs, veg and other farm products by the farmers he mainly sorted out in the evenings after his work LOL...Anyways i digress...50+ people will be out of a job as it is almost certain the factory will have to close...Where some of them will be able to get another job is beyond me...Schools are being closed or merged...Yet Holyrood wants all P1-3 pupils to be in classes of no more than 16 pupils by 2010...They want more sports provision but our council is either closing or severely cutting hours of nearly every sports facility in the city...They want to try and remove children resident in the city from going to Camphill school...Camphill is a Rudolph Steiner school on the outskirts to the west...It has recently been found to be one of the best schools for disabled children in the world FFS...It is private though and the fees are very expensive...It's the most expensive private school in Scotland...I have a friend who's severely autistic son boards there weekly and that costs either a 4 or 5 figure sum...Another very close friend her severely autistic son goes there but as a day pupil...As a day pupil it doesn't cost much more than what it costs from him to be at a state SEN school...Oh our delightful council is also looking at cutting school transport...Now what those cuts will be i don't know...Am kind of glad both the boys are leaving school this year...If they weren't and their transport was removed i'd be up a creek without a paddle...As they are at different schools in different areas of the city...G starting at 8.30am and M at 9am...But G school would be around 8 miles from G and G is where rush hour is on...So if i had to take G to school i would be sat in traffic for around an hour getting him there and an hour trying to get M to his school after i dropped off G...Our SNP/Lib Dem council are just a tad unpopular at the mo to say the least...I could go on and type all night about the cuts they have made...The majority of these cuts are going to affect children (so more will be on the streets), elderly and the disabled...We can't all afford to join private gyms that have swimming pools and besides most of them don't take under 16's...The cuts they are making go against everything that both Holyrood and Westminster want as facilities for the public...As several citizens and both local papers have commented 'Will the last person to leave Aberdeen turn the bluddy lights off'...Rant over sorry for that
