Scottish National Party wins the Scottish Election by one vote as inquiry begins into rejected vote papers

The results in the Scottish Election are in and show the SNP have WON the Holyrood election by one seat ! SNP : 47, Labour : 46

Now the negotiations will begin on forming the next Executive .. and as things currently stand, there aren't enough votes for Labour & the LibDems to form a majority coalition on their own ... so now the bargaining begins ...

It was certainly good to see Alex Salmond elected in Gordon. Holyrood will be all the better for his presence, but so far on the small party front, many have been squeezed out .. which isn't so good for democracy ... they gave the Parliament a different voice from the main parties, and their presence, will be missed.

I see the people of Roxburgh & Berwickshire managed to throw out Euan Robson at last .. giving a wee chuckle to the many constituents this LibDem failure threw to one side when they asked him for help .. me among them.

I will remember Euan Robson mostly, for insisting I drop all complaints against Scotland's most famous Crooked Lawyer - Andrew Penman of Stormonth Darling Solicitors, Kelso . For what motive Euan Robson did that, one can only speculate .. but it certainly wasn't of a motivation to help me, or other constituents whom Drew Penman had robbed while doing his duty as a crooked lawyer.

It would of course, have been good to see an SNP candidate in that constituency, but the people of Rox & Berwickshire don't seem ready for the SNP yet .. pity .. but as I see from some of the candidates they elected in Jedburgh - another two Tories pop up - a farmer I remember from his fox hunting days Sandy Scott (long history of unmentionables there, yet to be mentioned) and an ex Jedburgh Provost 'CD King' Len Wyse (still downloading, are you, Len ?) .. who I have the great displeasure of dealing with over his restrictions of discussing peoples problems with the Jedburgh Community Council he once served on as Provost, as well as on the side disgraceful comments against people in the town .. who may not have voted for him if they knew his opinions & more.

Jedburgh - nice town, shame about the people .. schools can't teach rabbits to catch mxymatosis but they do teach pupils to explode fireworks in classrooms .. and many of the die hard locals are invariably hostile towards anyone whose father isn't their mothers brother. The town amazingly has one of the biggest drugs & violence problems in the whole region, despite it's small size ... outsiders beware .. as I found to my cost when some of the town's rugby players decided to attack & burn our house down a few years ago.

Needless to say, Scottish Borders Council may yet be as corrupt again as it was before and has been since it existed .. no change there then unless the SNP shake things up a bit more and the good news is they did pick up some more seats in other parts of the region .. where sense prevails.

So, it's congratulations to the SNP .. and forward for Scotland !

Link to a couple of articles in the Scotsman and Herald on the news in the election Check the latest on the parties here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/default.stm

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1375675.0.0.php

Chaos at the counts mars a night of success for the SNP
DOUGLAS FRASER, Scottish Political Editor May 04 2007

TENS of thousands of rejected ballot papers in the Holyrood election and computer breakdown threatened to throw the Holyrood and council results into chaos early this morning.

In the relatively few results that were announced through the night, the SNP vote surged, but without a collapse of Labour's support. Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were among the SNP's most high-profile victors in Gordon and Govan.

Labour leader Jack McConnell was the first MSP to have his result declared last night, winning Motherwell and Wishaw despite a 7% swing to the SNP.

Rejected and spoiled ballot papers were running at around 1000 in most seats, and as high as 1850 ballot forms in Glasgow Baillieston. The problem could have rendered around 75,000 votes invalid, and that dragged down the official turnout figure.
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Concerns about the reliability of the count follow protests raised over recent days about delays in sending out postal votes. The controversy is linked to redesign of the Holyrood ballot form, and possible voter confusion with the radically changed voting system for councils.

Apart from those problems, the Western Isles count was delayed until 10am due to problems in flying ballot boxes from Barra to Stornoway.

Although the change in voting forms was disputed by the Scottish Executive, the decision on it lay in Whitehall, and Scotland Office minister David Cairns insisted on going ahead. Ministers also ignored widespread advice to split the day of the Holyrood voting from the new-look council elections.

Mr Cairns said last night the Electoral Commission will have to look into the problem, and Scotland Secretary Douglas Alexander said he had already asked the election watchdog to look into postal vote problems.

Mr Salmond, having gained the Gordon constituency from the LibDems on a swing of nearly 6%, said the decision to run two electoral systems on the same day was wrong.

He was heavily critical of the postal voting arrangements for the election, describing them as "totally inadequate".

He added that the decision to conduct a Single Transferable Vote (STV) election at the same time as a first past the post ballot for the Scottish Parliament was "deeply mistaken". "As a direct result tens of thousands of votes across Scotland have been discounted this evening," he said.

"That is totally unacceptable in a democratic society."

"With the SNP gaining seats, he went on to say: "There is a wind of change blowing through Scottish politics . . . a new politics is dawning in Scottish confidence."

SNP results were patchy, failing to take its top target of winning Galloway and Upper Nithsdale from Tory Alex Fergusson, or the number three target of Labour-held Cumbernauld and Kilsyth. The gains from Labour included Dundee West while holding Dundee East, making it the first all-Nationalist city. Deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon won Glasgow Govan from Labour's Gordon Jackson, its first general election win in the city. Willie Coffey won Kilmarnock and Loudoun from Labour's Margaret Jamieson.

Tricia Marwick gained Central Fife from Labour's Christine May, and Bruce Crawford came from third position to take Stirling from Sylvia Jackson of Labour on a 9% swing.

Tory Deputy Presiding Officer Murray Tosh failed to win his party's top target of Dumfries, which remained with Labour's Elaine Murray.

The LibDems had a disappointing night of results. Although they gained Dunfermline West from Labour, they lost Gordon to Alex Salmond and both their Borders seats were in doubt.

Labour faced SNP swings ranging from 4% to 15%, in the case of the Airdrie and Shotts seat where Labour faced pressure over changes to Monklands hospital services but still won.

Labour's majority in Glasgow Kelvin was slashed to 1207, and in Glasgow Anniesland, held by the late Donald Dewar, there was a 4% swing from Labour to SNP.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=693382007

The Election: What went wrong?
Focus
PAUL RIDDELL

IT WAS a night that will be remembered less for the eventual winner than for the fiasco surrounding what ought to have been a simple process: counting the votes.

The introduction of a new electronic counting system combined with a new single ballot paper for both the constituency and top-up list votes for the Scottish Parliament resulted in delays to scores of counts and thousands of spoiled votes.

Why did it go so badly wrong?

SNP leader Alex Salmond blamed the decision to hold the council elections on the same day as the Holyrood elections under a new single transferable vote (STV) system of proportional representation. He is right. The complexity of the STV system requires electronic counting equipment. Ministers decided to go the whole hog and introduce electronic counting for the Holyrood elections at the same time.

Returning officers who warned that the counts should not begin until Friday morning because the system, although tested, was untried on an election night, were over-ruled.

Two major things went wrong:

* Counting machines operated by the firm DRS failed, resulting in counts being suspended in the early hours in Aberdeen, Argyll & Bute, some Edinburgh seats, Eastwood, Linlithgow, Livingtson, Perth and Tayside North and Strathkelvin & Bearsden until later today.

* Voters appeared confused about the new ballot papers, which carried on the left-hand side a list of those standing for list seats and on the right candidates for constituency seats. Instead of putting one cross in a box on each side, many voters put two crosses in separate boxes on the left, invalidating their ballot. There are estimates of at least 100,000 spoiled papers - which means 5 per cent of voters were disenfranchised.

In one seat, Airdrie and Shotts, 1,536 papers were rejected - more than Labour's margin of victory in the seat.

The Scotland Office, which was responsible for administering the election, ordered an investigation by the independent Electoral Commission.
Alan Campbell, returning officer for Aberdeenshire, said ministers in the Scottish Executive had ignored advice to delay the count.

"All the returning officers in Scotland did recommend to Scottish ministers that we, in fact, start this whole count process on Friday morning rather than on Thursday evening," Mr Campbell said.

"Our advice was rejected. We went along with it. People have done their best, but clearly this is a new system and there will be occasional glitches. Staff have not worked on this before," he added.

Ken Ritchie, chief executive of The Electoral Reform Society, said: "It is clear that the fault is not a consequence of the voting system. When the system was first used in 1999, the number of spoilt ballots was less than 1 per cent. We need to understand what has gone so wrong as to increase this number more than tenfold.

"Neither is the fault in the electronic counting technology. While the counting equipment has experienced teething problems in some areas, it is not the equipment that has caused people to make mistakes in the completion of their ballot papers."

In his speech after winning the Gordon constituency, Mr Salmond said: "It is also the case that the decision to conduct an STV election at the same time as a first-past-the-post ballot for the Scottish Parliament was deeply mistaken.

"As a direct result, tens of thousands of votes across Scotland have been discounted. That is totally unacceptable in a democratic society."

A picture is worth a thousand words - Images of fraud reveal corruption & deceit by lawyers & accountants in the Scottish Borders

It's always good to put a face to a crook - as an old retired Policeman friend of mine says ... and to be sure, a 'big wheel' in the Roxburghshire Bar Association has obliged, by sending me a picture of the infamous Norman Howitt - the accountant who was executor of my late father's estate, and not content with ruining that, he decided to steal my mothers money too.

Norman Howitt, Chartered Accountant, JRW Group Galashiels :

To my surprise, a well known Borders lawyer has broken ranks and sent me a big fat file on Norman Howitt and his firm, Welch & Co, Accountants - where there seem to have been a few problems with clients swept under the carpet .. in true tradition Howitt style.

In fact, Howitt seems to have a few sidelines as well as his main business as an Accountant, all the worse for the poor people of the Borders sadly ... where rip off after rip off is the norm. I certainly wouldn't be trusting a man who stole a pensioner's state pension book, bank book & tried to take the rest of her assets, not to mention causing the occasional client to go bankrupt .... and I will show you some of what I mean the following images of fraud, deception and greed ...

You can see why I don't care much for Norman Howitt in this next picture, which is of my mum's pension book, which Norman Howitt stole for himself.

Bit odd that one, isn't it ? An accountant, stealing an old age pensioner's state income book ? garnishing it for his own custody ? How many accountants keep clients pension books for themselves - and who at the Benefits Agency handed over the pension book in the first place ?

What, pray tell, could Howitt's defence be on that one ? Something like perhaps " Oh, m'lord, I desperately needed an elderly woman's pension book to keep by my bedside ..."

Bit sick, isn't it ? .. and even worse ... some bent official at the Benefits Agency in Galashiels gave Mr Howitt my mum's pension book - no strings attached ! .. then covered up the whole thing when enquiries were made as to what happened to it. Could it be a few palms were greased by Mr Howitt on this one ?

No wonder the lawyer who sent me a batch of files on Mr Howitt's antics for other poor clients, says Howitt is now known to some as "Pension Book Howitt" .. after what he did to my mum. Do you know any accountants, or indeed, other 'so-called' professionals such as lawyers & the like, who confiscate their clients pension books ? Answers in the comments section please.

Norman Howitt's greed didn't stop there though .. oh no ... it got much worse .. just look at these next images of a bank book belonging to my mother ... where, again, Norman Howitt confiscated the Bank book for himself (after setting up the account in the first place) and it was then systematically drained over a few weeks, until my very tearful & upset mum broke down in the house and told me she was being robbed blind by Howitt and a long lost relative, Susan Begley, who was about to go bankrupt & saw my mum as an easy target to con 15,000 plus as much more as she could get - all with the blessing of Norman Howitt.

It gets worse of course - much worse. Not content with taking my mum's pension book and bank accounts, Norman Howitt decided to take everything she had, and create a secret trust which he would manage himself, and of course, force my mum to pay him for doing so, all done in collaboration with my mother's crooked lawyer Nigel Hall of Haddon & Turnbull Solicitors, Hawick. Here are copies of the secret trust documents which were drawn up by Norman Howitt to keep control of my mum's money for himself .... :

You might be wondering how on earth Norman Howitt was able to do all this, and how my mum appointed him to represent her affairs. Well, as you can see from this next letter, which my mum told me she had to write out from a typed letter which was put in front of her to copy, she was forced by her niece, one Mrs Susan Begley, of Charlesfield, StBoswells, Scottish Borders, & Norman Howitt to write and sign the letter - without a witness or consultation with anyone, appointing Howitt and Welch & Co Accountants - Norman Howitt's company, as her agents. The most important condition of this signing, was, that the whole thing was to be kept secret from me !

Now, one might think that's a bit strange, my mum appointing Norman Howitt as her agent .. because Norman Howitt was executor of the estate of my father, who my mum had obtained a divorce from in 1989 .. so how could the executor of my late father's estate also represent my mother, who had a claim on my father's estate ? ... bit of a conflict of interest there one might say ? .. well .. yes .. but as you can see, going back to the terms of the secret trust deed which Norman Howitt set up for his own control - he was obviously hell bent on keeping every single penny of my late father's estate for himself - not allowing me, my mum or anyone to have a claim or secure any inheritance on it .. and my mum was simply used as an excuse to obtain full control over the money & estate for his own ends .. along with of course, the ends of crooked lawyer Andrew Penman, who knew every detail about this extensive con for some time ... We now come to a letter which Norman Howitt, Susan Begley, and my mother's lawyer, Nigel Hall, who saw a great benefit to himself in what Norman Howitt & Begley were proposing, forced my mum to sign, again without consultation to anyone else, and under tight condition of secrecy, instructing that any money my mum receive, be given direct to her con artist relative, Susan Begley.

Now, there's a problem with this letter as you can see - a fairly major problem ... THE DATE. If you co back to the handwritten letter my mum was forced to sign appointing Norman Howitt and Welchs Accountants as her agents .. you will see the date on that letter is 30.10.1991 but the typed letter which requires that my mums money be given direct to her con artist niece, Susan Begley (a close friend of Norman Howitt by now) .. has a date of "April 1990" which would make that 17 months earlier. It seems the incompetence of faking files & documents & arranging the secret theft of much of my mum's money grew even more of a strain for Norman Howitt, Susan Begley and crooked lawyer Nigel Hall, because we now come to a letter typed by Nigel Hall, dated 20th February 1992, confirming that the payment of 15,000 had been made to Susan Begley (Mr & Mrs James Begley).

So what he have here folks, is a rather complicated embezzlement of my mum's money, by a crooked accountant, a crooked lawyer, and a long lost niece who was on the verge of bankruptcy .... and each of the players certainly seemed to enjoy their part to the hilt - they certainly profited from it extensively. Norman Howitt, of course, got off with not even a slap on the wrist from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, because as you can see from the investigation of my complaint against crooked Howitt's activities, the Director of Legal Services for ICAS - Tom McMorrow, covered the whole thing up in his response to my complaint.

Funnily enough, there is no mention in McMorrow's investigation of Howitt's stealing of my mum's pension book, bank book & the secret trust .. as well as a few other things, but Tom McMorrow is well used to covering up for crooked accountants, so that's no surprise at all. If you think that's bad ... remember Norman Howitt also filed false reports with Lothian & Borders Police at Wilton Hill, Hawick to try and cover up the fact he had stolen my late father's car and sold it to a friend ... which I wrote about here : Complaining against a lawyer ? You should expect a knock from the Police .. and even worse was to come ....

When my mum died in tragic circumstances, through hospital negligence, Norman Howitt, Andrew Penman, and the Bosses at the Law Society of Scotland thought they had won the lottery

.

Norman Howitt was busy celebrating with crooked lawyer Andrew Penman that the death of my mum would take such a toll on me, betting that I would also die, and that would be the end of their problems. They were of course, wrong.

So, Norman James Howitt, Chartered Accountant, is still at large, according to my legal source from the Borders, ripping off clients again ... and has worked his way into a Directorship of the well known Eildon Housing Association in the Borders, and is also a Board member of the Borders College in Galashiels . Norman Howitt is also an official with Scottish Building - where he can be contacted to recommend building companies for work.

You can all see why I don't really care much for Norman Howitt, or these crooked lawyers such as Andrew Penman, Nigel Hall, and the rest. Howitt wanted me dead. He still does, because he hates me publicising this story on what he did and got away with. He lied to the Police, he lied to his own regulatory body, ICAS, he lied to clients, and he lied to everyone who asked him what he had done. He is definitely a dangerous person, a liar, and a thief, and be warned - he will do the same to anyone, as he did to my family, and preying on the elderly, as he did with my poor mum, came very easy to him.

This is all, sadly, just another example of how a fraudster can get away with fraud ... as Norman Howitt certainly seems to done .. but its always good to put a face to a crook, as my old retired Policeman friend says .... and it's good to publish what that crook did .. just incase others fall to the same fate ... and maybe, just maybe, it might work to get rid of the way in which crooked accountants fiddle complaints against other crooked accountants ... as happened here.

The way it's done in the Scottish Borders - cover up the scandal & protect the guilty.

I should be worried, if I still lived at my old address in Bongate, Jedburgh, Roxburgh.

I should be worried, because of all the threats I get over my campaign against the legal profession - and articles I either write here or leak to the media on politican subjects .. it seems that my house in Bongate, Jedburgh is the one usually mentioned in whatever threat of the day I receive. That's life though ... expose corruption & you have to expect something in return .. and certainly when it comes to the Scottish Borders .. the threats fly thick & fast.

Take for example this one : "We're going to blow your wee house in Bongate, Jedburgh all the way to the moon" or "expect a gas explosion you little *******". Another one I like is "There's going to be a ******* big hole in the Bongate one of these days soon" ... and there's always ones like "We're going to machine gun your house" ...etc. A fine example of Jedburgh then ...

Well, that would be fine for some, if I were there .. but I'm not .. and despite the obvious .. there are seemingly plenty of 'bad eggs' out to get me at my old house. Oh well ... it won't affect me lads .. but I would assume the current tenants of 45-47 Bongate who were, I understand, part of the crooked deal to prize the property away from me in the first place in late 2003, will have to be watchful.

I had a few threats like that from neighbours when I actually lived in the Bongate - quite a few of those threats came from well-known-to-Scottish-Borders-Council violent neighbours over the last two years of my stay there, after my mum had died.... these people hell bent on a daily torture of my life, to get me out.

What did anyone do about it ? Absolutely nothing. The Community stood by and laughed in my face. Len Wyse, the Jedburgh Provost, ordered the town's Community Council not to help me or respond to any letters .. and Scottish Borders Council took a leading role in driving me out of my home, by giving my violent neighbour everything he wanted - despite the fact the Council had a big enough file on his own threats & intimidation of other neighbours. The local Police also did nothing .. actually they were turned against me .. and after I discovered there was a serving Policeman who was an 'investor' in the nasty neighbour's plans for my house ... it became a wee bit more clear as to why no one would help me.

Maybe the current tenants of my old house in the Bongate can rely on one of the Police Officers, who was also an 'investor' in the gang of crooks who got my property in 2003 to defend them ... no doubt he will be able to help them against the hordes of threatening lawyers, some of their more worrysome clients such as ex-killers, burglars, drugs & arms dealers, & the odd politician seemingly out to cause a small mushroom cloud in the Bongate.

I bet whoever the insurers are to those premises must be thinking long & hard about their policies on those properties though.. because Jedburgh is one of those small places where more than the occasional insurance fraud takes place ... and the whole thing might just be a ruse by the group of people who conned me out of the properties in 2003 to recoup some of their own losses on the failed business & poor rennovation work they did ... adding more intrigue to the situation.

In any case, now that is out the way, I can get on to the article for today.

Scottish Borders Council went to court at the weekend, in an act typical of the Council, to stop the Sunday Mail newspaper publishing the whereabouts of a recently released sex offender who was involved in the horrible Miss X abuse scandal to hit the Borders several yeas ago. Scottish Borders Council spent at least £12,000 on the Court action against the Sunday Mail in the High Court - but failed to prevent the newspaper from running the article.

Read some more about the Miss X Rape Scandal in the Scottish Borders here :

Miss X report passed to procurator-fiscal
Vital Miss X file removed, claims MSP
Social work department shake-up after sex abuse case & Borders social work chief quits

There are a few other 'choice links' on those Scotsman pages to articles on this case, and others relating to Scottish Borders Council .. well worth a visit.

Anyway, while Scottish Borders Council spent plenty of the taxpayers money covering up their failures in the original Miss X investigation, they have now had to spend some more to protect one of those found guilty in the case from having his whereabouts published in the newspapers.

The thing is, in the Borders .. you never really know who you are living near to .. and no doubt, again, residents may well be alarmed to think of a sex offender involved in such an insidious case as the Miss X abuse scandal - which went on for so long .. to be living near to them.

It's nothing new though ... as the Scottish Borders seem to have been used s a dumping ground for all sorts of released criminals .. even, it is alleged, some ex-terrorists who shopped their own for protection & an anonymous place to live. Imsgine that ! .. residents in the Borders might just be living next to serial bombers & mass murderers, not just sex offenders.

Andrew Lowe, the Social Work Director is reported in the BBC follow up article today : Sex offender court spend defended saying "I don't feel comfortable with the spin that has been put on it by some newspapers who seem to suggest we were only about protecting the rights of the offender" Lowe goes on to claim "The effort that was made on Saturday was to ensure the anonymity of the offender so that we could do that job - with our partners in the police - as closely and as effectively as we could,"

Who is he trying to fool ?

Scottish Borders Council are full of spin themselves. From my own experience in exposing some of their frauds & fakery when it comes to explanations on Council activities .. I found them to be endemically corrupt .. and nothing has changed, from the information I still receive from sources within the Council.

I think SBC are more concerned with keeping the debate on their original failure to protect Miss X from getting back into the public domain - that is what's really at the heart of the matter - nothing to do with protecting the community .. and certainly nothing to do with working with their partners in the local police .. whom many also wonder what the local cops were doing while Miss X was being abused all those years.

Read on for the article, from the Sunday Mail, which Scottish Borders Council tried to stop being published

BEAST FREED EARLY
EXCLUSIVE Outrage as sex attacker wins release despite shunning treatment over gang's vile assaults
By Robert Fairburn

A MEMBER of a gang who raped and tortured a mentally handicapped woman has provoked fury by being freed early - despite refusing to go on a rehab scheme. Alexander Maben, 43, was released after serving just four years of a seven year sentence for his part in the attack on the girl, known only as Miss X.

But last night, his victim's relatives and politicians demanded a change in the law. A family member said: "This is a shock. It seems like only yesterday he was jailed. If he refused rehab he shouldn't be out."

Nats justice spokeswoman Christine Grahame said: "The Scottish Parliament, with the support of the SNP, is looking to end the early release scheme. "If serious sex offenders are still considered a risk to the community then why are we letting them out at all?"

Maben was caged in July 2002 for a string of horrific sexual offences. He and pals James Mercer, 39, and Ross Douglas, 30, admitted subjecting Miss X to vile assaults over three months. Douglas also admitted rape. He was given 10 years, while Mercer also got seven.

Miss X, now 34, was stripped, starved, handcuffed and severely beaten. In one attack, the trio poured turpentine over her but it failed to ignite, so they stripped her and tried to set fire to her clothes. Hotel kitchen worker Maben admitted helping Mercer force her to strip, shaving her head, sexual assault and repeatedly stamping on her head and body.

The abuse began after social workers sent Miss X to live with Mercer in Newton St Boswells, Roxburghshire, after her mother died in November 2001. Her nightmare ended in February 2002 after a friend saw she was hurt. Doctors at Borders General Hospital found 71 injuries. Maben is now in temporary accommodation.

Prisoners who address their offending behaviour by attending rehab are usually released halfway through sentences. Those who do not, like Maben, serve two thirds. A police source said: "He was uncooperative inside and has made it clear he won't conform to rehab after release." The Scottish Prison Service said: "The choice of participating in rehab programmes remains with the prisoner."

Miss X led to a shake-up of social work care for mentally ill people.

Life & Times in Jedburgh take a turn for the worst ...

It seems that the Royal Burgh of Jedburgh,my former town, has become a place where drunken & drug filled youths terrorise the tourists, valdalising everything in their path. Hmmm .. I sort of remember Jedburgh has always been a bit likie that .. so why the cry of foul now ?

I remember when drunken members of Jed Thistle Rugby Team went round smashing up peoples property, vandalising cars, and setting alight all kinds of things ... people targeted in their homes by jealous elements of the town, drugs being sold openly - for years, even at the town's secondary School ... but what can one expect from the youth of a town where the parents insipire their children to carry on hatreds of others though the generations ? .. I don't think we can expect much really.

In 1990, our family was targeted by some of the Town's Rugby playing & businessmen's sons, in a frightening attack in the early hours of a July Sunday Morning, where around 8 men broke into our property with weapons, even a can of petrol, to burn down my late father's old shop in the Bongate & terrorise myself & my mum. I caught one of the attackers, Mr Raymond MacKay, and handed him over to two attending Police Officers, PC Ian Anderson & another ... My mum & the Police listened while Raymond (we knew him well, used to live opposite, in the Bongate) confessed openly, (although he was drunk) .. that he & his friends were there to "wipe us out" because they were jealous I had a car and that I was to inherit my father's properties. Such noble motives then, for what could have been an attempted murder ?

Not surprisingly, because the group of attackers contained members of the Town's Jedforest Rugby Club (which my father had played for in his own youth). we heard nothing more .. no charges were preferred against the rest of the villians .. and that was it. Pretty horrible thing to happen then, you may think .. and you would be correct .. but, it's happened before in Jedburgh .. and has happened a few times to others since that attack on us by some of the children of the town's 'great & good'.

Jedburgh is one of those .. hard to describe communities. A lovely town, don't get me wrong .. in it's architecture .. for instance, Jedburgh Abbey has to be the most beautiful Abbey in the Scottish Borders .. although I would say that of course, because I lived there ... but the townsfolk can be twisted to the point of hatred which one can only shiver at .. and openly delight in the suffering of others. Also, the murders the Town has suffered in recent times .. these have usually went unsolved ... or have occurred over typical drunken fights which the town suffers every weekend.

For instance, don't go thinking I ever got any support from others in Jedburgh for my stance against crooked lawyers. Most of the people in the town were delighted when they heard Andrew Penman & Norman Howitt had robbed my fathers assets - I would say, there was almost a 'party atmosphere' among some over the coverage I had in the Scotsman newspaper ... a very strange reaction indeed. Even after my mother died .. a neighbour couldn't wait to tell me I was an 'orphan' .. this comment coming from a 60 year old adult who lived within the grounds of a Church ! .. not something which troubled me too much though, as one of her sons had been in on the attack on our property I mentioned in 1990. Only a few people (not being from Jedburgh themselves) had anything to say on this by way of support, but I did have some friends who were instrumental in exposing what happened to me at the hands of the legal profession .. those persons I shall not identify, but my eternal gratitude & respect goes to them.

The townsfolks hatred continued though, past the death of my mother, and from late 2001 to the end of 2003, when I left Jedburgh, I was subject to a bitter campaign of violence, verbal abuse, and almost daily attacks of vandalism against my property, in a bid to force me out so that a neighbour could buy it up on the cheap.

I had no friends of course, at Scottish Borders Council .. due to my exposing of their incessant corruption (albeit from sources within the Council workforce) .. so when the Bosses at SBC realised this 'neighbour' (who had a history of violence & threats to others) was out to force me out of my home .. the Council joined in with glee .. and a long running legal action in Jedburgh Sheriff Court, to obtain an interdict & claim damages for vandalism & harrassement against a neighbour, was about the only thing I could do to keep the fearsome locals at bay - with almost daily visits to my property from the Police over further incidents of harrassement & violent threats towards me.

Even my legal action against the violent neighbour in Jedburgh Sheriff Court was fiddled to the extent that opposing legal counsel lied through their teeth ... tried to thwart my legal aid application, lied to the Sheriff, tried everything they could to wipe my side of the story out .. byt when my MSP, Phil Gallie, intervened, helping me to get legal aid .. then, as surprises go, the violent neighbour's lawyer asked to settle the case the very next day .. and sure enough .. a couple of weeks later in Jedburgh Sheriff Court .. that was the end of it .. with this same neighbour, who had led me a life of hell, along with his biker colleagues from all over the Borders for 2 years, asked to buy my late father's property in a deal which then went on to be ruined by .. yes, you guessed it, a lawyer from Edinburgh who walked away from the deal taking a sick note of stress, to get out of the mess he created.

Think I didn't do anything for my community ? well .. think again.

I mentioned that Jedburgh had been full of drugs for a number of years .. from at least 1993 I should say .. where a well known family who lived in the infamous "Bongate View' Council tenements .. were openly dealing drugs to the townsfolk and were carrying out systematic burglaries of all premises within Jedburgh.

Not one of the gutless cowards on Jedburgh Community Council, or Scottish Borders Council, did anything about this mob ... even the local Police seemed powerless, while car after car and child after child visited Bongate View for their drugs supply. I remember one day, for instance, two uniformed Police officers were there to servce a warrant on the family's matriarch for shoplifting .. but customers had arrived for their weekend supply of cannabis & whatever .. so the son of the family had to sit in the car with the customers while the Police finished their business .... wholesome stuff, don't you think ?

The whole mess only ended when I asked Lothian & Borders CID from Hawick to use one of my fathers buildings in a surveillence operation against the dealers - but after months of work, the operation was botched and eventually, only meetings with the then head of Housing for the then Roxburgh District Council at Hawick, got this lot evicted .. to Niddrie in Edinburgh, where I'm sure they were happy.

What happened to the drugs ? well, the dealers only went to other parts of the town .. most of it was being brought in from Hawick anyway .. and I remember vividly, years later from the Bongate View troubles, a Tabloid reporter contacting me from Glasgow over a story that even a Policeman's son had been selling the ectasy drug at the town's secondary School ... again .. not much was done, and the boy certainly never prosecuted .. I wonder if that lad put on his cv he was a former drugs dealer too.

Suffice to say .. it was a horrible time .. something I have yet to write about in detail .. but it showed to me the depravity of the Jedburgh Community, where crooked elected Councillors were just liars .. basically criminals, really .. they would fiddle planning applications & lie .. happily make racist or sectarian comments in public .. run round spreading gossip & lies . out of a twisted jealousy which one can hardly define through words.

I think, I could safely call Jedburgh, the North Korea of the Scottish Borders. Just think of it that way .. and then make it about 10 times worse. I feel sorry for the good people there .. because there are some .. but the town is being run by a dangerous clique who will stop at nothing to get their way .. and violence seems just a part of their vast arsenal they employ against those which don't fit their mould.

I really don't see how the Town Provost Len Wyse can stand there pontificating about these things, when he refused to help me when I asked for Community Council support against those who were causing me grief ... I was told he arbitrarily declared at one Community Council meeting 'there would be no answering any letter from Peter Cherbi and no member of the Community Council was to contact him' .. after Councillor Hugh Wight jumped up one night and made a "frenzied verbal attack on me" .. wanting rid of me from the town.

Well, they got their way, I was driven out .. but Wyse, Wight, and the rest of them, are the problem for Jedburgh .. not the town's youth. After all .. how can the young be expected to act any different, when the adults act like, or worse than, animals.

Here then are a selection of articles from the "Southern Reporter"of news from Jedburgh, which saw a lot of bad publicity this week .. the story on town violence (which is excessive compared with other towns its size in the Borders) and the loss of the Jedburgh Cottage Hospital ... seems Jedburgh is dying on it's feet these days .. but I think the people should really be questioning who their leaders are .. because they aren't doing a good enough job at all.

Maybe the town would benefit from some new blood ?.

As for me .. I'm glad to be out of it ..and to be able to see from afar, what a silly, corrupt wee place it has become .. or was it ever anything different I now ask myself ...

http://www.borderstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=968&ArticleID=1819458

Mob doesn't rule Jedburgh claims provost

CLAIMS that tourists will think twice before stopping overnight in Jedburgh because of "mob rule" by rowdy local teenagers have been dismissed by town provost Len Wyse this week, writes Mark Entwistle.

In last week's Southern, a visitor from Leicestershire complained about the behaviour of Jedburgh youngsters during a stay to celebrate a golden wedding anniversary.

D.T. Alexander, from Melton Mowbray, wrote that on previous trips the couple had always found Jedburgh to be "a quiet, respectful town and a pleasure to visit".

However, the letter continued: "On this occasion we walked along the river banks and up the town to get a meal. In the Market Place we observed a group of teenagers on the benches and they appeared to be indulging in alco-pops and other drinks.

"We returned to the guest house about 7.30pm and soon after we heard a lot of noise from Queen Street. A group of teenagers was observed – shouting, swearing, climbing over fences, being sick on the pavement and making a downright nuisance of themselves with their noise and behaviour.

This behaviour carried on until after 10pm – by this time the gang numbered between 20 to 30 teenagers. On going to my car on the following morning, I found that the windscreen wipers had been tampered with and the driver's side wing mirror ripped apart, with the glass smashed and the plastic components scattered.

"On making inquiries about reporting the vandalism to the police, I was informed that the police station at Jedburgh is unmanned after certain hours. I did wonder why no police intervened the previous night, but was informed that the nearest active police station was at Hawick.

"Speaking to other residents in the Queen Street area, they informed me that this behaviour is normal every Friday/Saturday night and most residents just shut their doors and curtains, and let mob rule roam the streets
.
"What a pity that Jedburgh has fallen victim to this obnoxious behaviour and no doubt many tourists, like myself, will think twice before stopping overnight".

However, Provost Wyse says the royal burgh is no different from any other Border towns when it comes to young people.

"I appreciate that older people may feel a bit threatened or intimidated by groups of youngsters hanging about, but apart from a bit of minor vandalism occasionally, there's no real problem. There's never any violence," he told TheSouthern this week.

"There's a bit of under-age drinking going on and that's what leads to the kids being a bit loud."

However, Provost Wyse did feel that a police presence on foot in the town more often – particularly at weekends – would go a long way to cracking down on such behaviour.

"That's what's really needed, more bobbies on the beat. We could do with more of that – however, the situation still isn't as bad as that letter in TheSouthern last week made out."

http://www.borderstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=968&ArticleID=1819566

Century of care ends in tears
Bob Burgess

TEARS flowed this week as the last patients were moved out of Sister Margaret Cottage Hospital in Jedburgh.

There were similar scenes at Coldstream where the doors were also closed. Both hospitals have been axed by NHS Borders with the sanction of the Scottish Executive.

Campaigners who fought to retain the hospitals claimed the closures were part of a cost-cutting exercise – a charge denied by health service bosses who maintained they were part of a much-needed re-vamp to move the health service forward.

Staff members Carol Wright, Margaret Irving, Annie Stewart, Moira Kelly, above, prior to the closure. Photograph: Alastair Watson

The last patient moved out of Jedburgh on Tuesday and into the Borders General Hospital. Others have gone to the new Hawick community hospital and some have gone home. At Coldstream, patients have moved to The Inch at Kelso.

NHS Borders chairman Tony Taylor declared: "On behalf of the board, I would want to record my thanks and gratitude to all of the staff, both past and present, of Jedburgh and Coldstream hospitals for their personal service and for their major contribution to health care in these community hospitals."

Inside the Jedburgh hospital yesterday staff were preparing for the final shutdown. Minor emergency cover was being retained until 8am today

All that remained of more than a century of community care were memories and gratitude. Wards stood empty – beds stripped to the springs. In the deserted day-room a box full of well-read books and a battered box of draughts; a television and mini stereo bore the labels of their new destination – Millfield and Kelso.

On the walls of a corridor were colourful photos of happy Christmas parties, joyful concerts, proud visits by Jethart Callants; nurses and staff in comic dress, enthusiastic outings and merry birthday parties. We were told by one member of staff: "This is all so sad – very sad. They will realise in a few years time just how big a mistake they have made."

Looking at the photos another staff member told us: "The last patient left yesterday and when we came back into the hospital it was so very strange – no patients. We just stood still. It was so very quiet.

"There have been a lot of tears. Tears from patients, tears from their families and tears from staff."

But we were told that staff from the Sister Margaret had visited the Hawick hospital and found their former charges in good fettle. "They seem to be settling in fine after some early apprehension."

Jedburgh Provost Len Wyse who led the campaign to save the hospital stood in an empty ward and admitted: "This is a big blow to the town. I still believe that our case was not listened to – we had an excellent argument against closure, but it was ignored.

"I don't feel a lot just now but we have a meeting of our action group tonight and all this will really kick into me tomorrow."

Security guards move in today and tomorrow joiners will board up windows and doors.

Closing Borders Hospitals - At least for Jedburgh, an improvement rather than an injustice ...

My old town of residence - Jedburgh, makes it to the news today - not because of the local band of crooked lawyers (there are many), and not because of the partial restoration of the Waverly Rail link (which I support).. which should bring some welcome and much needed changes to the Borders.

The reason for the town`s appearance on the news is of course that we learn the Cottage Hospital in Jedburgh - where i have been a few times in the past to patch myself up or visit elderly friends, is to be closed.

Ah - an opportunity to lobby for it to remain open then, you think ? certainly not ! but after a friend in Jedburgh today told me to watch the news reports, I just couldn`t resist a comment to give a reality check on the situation - as one who has actually been in the place before.

Watching the news today, you would think the Cottage Hospital in Jedburgh is some kind of saviour to the town ... and it may well have been so in the past ... but times change - and with all the Doctors, nurses, and medical staff stationed at the Jedburgh Health Centre, conveniently located just a short walk from the town centre .. the Cottage Hospital sits at the top of Castlegate - up a steep hill and hext to a cemetary. Great place for a hospital then, and in winter when Scottish Borders Council fails to clear the snow or ice ... almost inaccessible.

So, what`s up ? why the cries of injustice to Jedburgh of the closure of the Cottage Hospital and the promised development of the current Health Centre with expanded facilities ?

Well - it just gives some people something to shout about - maybe try and rally the mob and make a name for themselves when they don`t really have it ... nothing more than that really .. as a former patient of the place, I for one (and I know many more) would have been much happier to have walked or have been transported to the Health Centre for treatment rather than scale the heights of Castlegate to get to the Cottage Hospital, and then wait for a Doctor to come up from the Health Centre to attend the patient. Where`s the logic in that then, Mr Burt et all ?

I wonder how much Euan Robson really did with regard to allegedly campaigning for the retaining of the Jedburgh & Coldstream Hospitals ... he certainly never did anything for some people who raised issues about planning applications, crooked lawyers or public servants ..., even trying to cover up for a crooked lawyer by insisting one of the solicitors former clients desist from complaining against them .. naughty naughty.

Maybe the clue lies elsewhere .. with the decision announced on the same day of the Scottish Parliament`s support of the Borders Rail link ... was there some political trade off where the lib dems agreed to go softly on the shouting over hospitals for their precious rail link ... which many fear will turn into yet another great waste of money in the Scottish Borders .. since the actual railway line won`t actually link up with Carlisle, as it previously did before Lord Beeching`s report closed it down in 1969.

I have to laugh a bit at some of Jedburgh`s self glorified saviours who came forward to the media claiming all kinds of disgust and shame on the Health Minister Andy Kerr`s decision. On what platform do they do this ?

If anyone ever complains about something in Jedburgh - it gets swept under the carpet and the people who complain are victimised to the point where in some cases, they are viciously hounded out of the town by those who have appointed themselves in charge .... something I`ve personally witnessed more than once I`m sad to say.

Give the Borders a chance, guys .... instead of trying to keep the Region preserved in formaldehyde as it has been for at least, the span of my lifetime and a hundred years before that.

The expanded services announced by Health Minister Andy Kerr, for the more centrally located Jedburgh Health Centre where the staff & Doctors work as hard as possible to tend those who require medical care, .. should be praised and accepted as a modern day improvement and convenience (as long as they materialise of course), rather than giving yet another platform to the `aye bin` set, who want to keep the town as it was a hundred years ago ...

That`s wee Borders toon politics for you ... bit of a grey area .. not much honesty to those who seek it, .. and plenty of animosity from those who want to bury the dirt ... maybe the new rail link will bring in some new blood to the region to change that kind of thinking ..

Read on for the article ... from "The Scotsman", at :http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=878682006

Fury as two Borders hospitals axed
HAMISH MACDONELL

TWO hospitals in the Borders are to shut, it was announced yesterday, after Andy Kerr, the health minister, gave the go-ahead for the closures despite a vociferous local campaign to keep them open.

Mr Kerr announced that the Sister Margaret Cottage Hospital in Jedburgh and the Coldstream Cottage Hospital would be shut down and their inpatient services transferred to bigger hospitals in Hawick, Kelso and Duns.

The minister said it was vital health boards sought better ways of delivering services and insisted: "The NHS cannot stand still." But his decision was condemned by MSPs and local campaigners who vowed to fight on, through the courts in necessary, to save their hospitals.

George Burt, one of those fighting to save the Jedburgh hospital, said the local population would be "disgusted at this decision".

Mr Burt, a international consultant who works with the EU on governmental plans across the continent, said he had never come across a worse example of a government misusing its procedures to drive through a decision like this. He added: "We will be talking as soon as possible to see what we can do next. There are other legal options we can take."

Euan Robson, the Liberal Democrat MSP for the area, vowed to fight on alongside the local campaigners. He said he was "deeply disappointed" with the minister's decision which, he said, had been swayed by the weight of professional medical opinion, not by the local population.

Derek Brownlee, Tory MSP for South of Scotland region, said the announcement coincided with a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the reopening of Waverley rail link.

"In the best Labour traditions, there is a clear attempt to bury bad news behind the publicity on Waverley Railway Bill debate,"said Mr Brownlee.

"The health minister has shown just how little influence the Borders has on this Executive - and how little influence the Lib Dems have within it."

However, Mr Kerr defended his decision and announced that Jedburgh would get a re-developed health centre instead of its hospital. He said population projections for the Borders predicted that people would live longer, but could develop chronic conditions such as arthritis or heart disease. This required more preventative and continuing care rather than occasional emergency inpatient spells.

Mr Kerr said: "The development of Jedburgh Community Health Centre will play a central part in achieving modern and expanded facilities, and supporting improved health and well-being."

A quick trip back to October 1996

As a reader & friend reminded me, I omitted a scan of one of one of the local newspapers articles on my case - this particular one coming from a local newspaper of the time [now sold] the "Jeburgh Gazette", which was written by Mr John Dawson .. so, here it is.

The article is based on the coverage I received in "The Scotsman" article on 11 October 1996, and other media outlets .. when I had sent the actual Law Society report on to Michael Forsyth - the then Scottish Secretary of State - and now a Lord in the House of Lords, with as he recently claims, an interest in why reforms he passed at the time, were never implemented .... only time will tell on the explanation on that one though ... and what did my request to Mr Forsyth gain ? the answer - nothing really ... as usual, the normal snot nosed responses from Scottish Office civil servants who enjoy & joke about playing god with peoples cases & lives ....

Stay tuned tomorrow - for the actual Law Society report on Mr Penman ... the swindle unfolds .. on me, and on many others like me .. and this, is why I am publishing all this info .. because these types of cases are very common, and if at least someone takes notice of this and changes their relationship with their Scottish lawyer to one of being watchful & suspicious of their activities .. then at least, I have helped a person ... as I have always tried to do over the years to the hundreds of people who have contacted me seeking help with their cases, which I have always given if I can, never at any cost.

1994 - The start of the campaign against dishonest Scottish Lawyers

1994 - this was the start of my campaign against the crooks of the Scottish legal profession - in my case, it was the lawyer who was handling my dead father's estate, who ripped my family off, along with the Executor - the infamous Norman James Howitt, an accountant with Welchs in Galashiels, Scottish Borders, Scotland.

The series of articles I am putting up begins with October 1994 - this article written by William Chisholm, of "The Scotsman" Newspaper.

Coverage also followed at the time on television & radio, & in the local press to the Borders.

I put these articles up in this blog, as they are still relevant to today's world in 2006.

People are still getting ripped off by their lawyers in Scotland, and what I have been through, (along with the long successful campaign I & others pursued to bring an end to self regulation - with the recent announcement from the Scottish Executive that independent regulation will be imposed on the legal profession) will, I hope, help others who have similar experiences.

The first article : 18 october 1994:

Son threatens to walk away from inheritance

By William Chisholm, The Scotsman Tuesday 18 October 1994

A 20-year old man from Jedburgh speaks of disinheriting himself after battling almost five years for a share of his father's ￡300,000 estate.

Peter Cherbi, 20, from Jedburgh, says the years since his father Gino died in January 1990, have been a living nightmare which shows no signs of ending.

He has lodged an official complaint with the Law Society of Scotland seeking an inquiry into the alleged failure of administrators to settle his late father's affairs.

In his letter to the Law Society, Mr Cherbi names the accountant Norman Howitt of John Welch & Co, the estate's executor, and the solicitor Andrew Penman of Kelso law firm P & J Stormonth Darling, legal adviser to Mr Howitt.

Mr Cherbi has received demands for council tax and inheritance tax on the estate, even though he has yet to inherit.

None beneficiaries named in his father's will who were to receive legacies ranging from ￡500 to ￡2000 have not been paid, according to Peter Cherbi. They include relatives in Italy and France and neighbours in Jedburgh.

Gino Andrew Cherbi came to Scotland from his native Tuscany as a boy in the 1920's. He became a successful businessman in the Borders with a restaurant and shop in Jedburgh. He invested shrewdly in shares and also owned race horses and greyhounds.

At the time of his death at the age of 72, he had a wide ranging portfolio of shares, unit trusts and bank accounts as well as property. He was also the proud owner of a classic 1950s Sunbeam Alpine Mark 3 motor car. In 1990 a Kelso garage valued the car at ｣4000. According to Peter Cherbi, it was sold in 1993 for ￡1,200, although he had received a higher offer.

A document drawn up in1990 showed the estate to be worth ￡257,211 exclusive of Italian assets. The famly had expected administration to take two years.

Mr Cherbi last night said he was so disillusioned he was prepared to give up his inheritance.

"The process has caused me so much emotional strain and expense that I feel like walking away", said Mr Cherbi.

"I have been a victim of my late father's will rather than a beneficiary"

The case is being brought to the attention of local MP Archy Kirkwood, who is a lawyer.

"It would appear legal regulations which allowed this kind of thing to happen must be flawed and should be scrutinised nationally to stop others suffering the same fate as myself", said Cherbi.

"I would be interested to hear from others who have undergone a similar experience"

He is also contemplating court proceedings against the executry for compensation.

Mr Howitt claimed Mr Cherbi's affairs had been extremely complicated. he did not wish to respond to Mr Cherbi's allegations through a newspaper, but would deal with them if they were put to him by Mr Cherbi's solicitor.

Mr Howitt said "I am aware of some of the difficulties but I don't believe Mr Cherbi should have taken his complainit to the press".

Mr Cherbi countered "We have been trying to get facts from the executry for a year via my own solicitor. It was precisely because of the inaction of the trustees that I decided to bring my concerns into the public domain"

Mr Penman said "Some of the issues Mr Cherbi has raised with you have been dealt with. some others are new allegations and comments" Mr Cherbi should have raised his concerns through his lawyer or wth the executry, he said.

"If at that point he is not satisfied with our responses, then it would be appropriate for him to take further steps", said Mr Penman. "It would be inappropriate to discuss the details. Those discussions should be a matter between Mr Cherbi and ourselves"