WE ARE NOW SENDING  COPY OF OUR NEW BOOK ‘MERE ANARCHY’ TO EVERYONE WHO PUTS A DONATION ON THE SITE AS A THANK YOU.

HOW DOES IT WORK? 

EASY

AS SOON AS WE RECEIVE YOUR DONATION WE WILL SEND AN E MAIL ASKING FOR YOUR ADDRESS. 

YOU E MAIL US BACK YOUR ADDRESS AND WE POST OUT A SIGNED COPY OF THE BOOK. JOB DONE.

HAVE A READ ON TO FIND OUT A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE NEW BOOK 

ALTERNATIVELY YOU CAN CHECK OUT

http://mereanarchybook.blogspot.com/ 

         This June the First Base Agency is releasing its fifth book – ‘Mere Anarchy’. The author of the book is the Agency’s Education Manager Mark Frankland who over the last decade has become one of Scotland’s premier thriller writers with book sales in excess of 100,000. Previous First Base books have been designed to raise public awareness about the some of dark areas where the Agency works – drug addiction, crime, and the demons that haunt many Scottish veterans.

         ‘Mere Anarchy’ is a little different. ‘Mere Anarchy’ paints a terrifying vision of a Scottish town in 2016 when Britain finally runs out of money and has to resort to drastic cuts in public spending. The IMF demands an immediate 25% adjustment. The leaders of the great corporations warn the Prime Minister that should he attempt to resolve the issue by raising taxes they will all leave. The only option is an immediate 25% cut. To balance its catastrophic books, the Government announces a withdrawal of all benefits with a mere month’s notice. Jobseekers, sick pay, Child benefit, Housing benefit…. everything. ‘Mere Anarchy’ is about what happens next.

         The book works on two levels. Firstly it paints a frightening of where we are now.  It shines a light on the monumental sums of public cash that pour into the chaotic world where the First Base Agency works. Heroin addicts who cost an average of £25,000 a year. Single mothers who would have to find a job paying in excess of £50,000 a year to earn more than they receive from the State. A booming illegal drugs industry that receives £250 million a year of its annual Scottish turnover directly from benefit payments. What would happen to the bottom ten percent of Scottish society should all benefits be withdrawn? Would the streets descend into anarchy? How far would the government be willing to go to keep a lid on? Behind the economic complexity of the currant crisis lies an alarmingly simple fact. One pound in four that the Government spends is borrowed. One pound in four that the Government spends goes on benefits. At some stage it will become clear that the only way to permanently balance the books will be to take an axe to one of the four areas where the Government spends the real money – health, education, pensions or benefits. It is hard not to conclude that benefits will be the only politically viable option. That is the second level. What might be about to happen next? 

         Author Mark Frankland found writing ‘Mere Anarchy’ to be an alarming experience. ‘Every day at First Base we see the street level consequences of the place the Welfare State has arrived at after 65 years. An average heroin addict in Scotland has a free house, no Council Tax to pay and £100 a week to go towards maintaining the habit. If it is a couple with kids, you can times that by four. Prison holds no particular fear: they will have no doubt served time many times before. Their criminal records mean that they are all but unemployable, especially now. On average these citizens cost £25,000 a year and we have over 60,000 in Scotland. Can this continue now that the money has more or less run out? Probably not. Were the Government to establish a regime of dormitories and soup kitchens for these ultra expensive citizens, it would no doubt be a hugely popular move with Middle Britain. The more I wrote, the more likely the whole scenario became and it left me feeling more than a little uneasy. Will it come true? Hopefully not. But we all need to wake up very soon to the fact that maintaining the raging chaos at the bottom of our society is costing way, way more than we can afford.’

‘Mere Anarchy’ is different to the other First Base books in a further respect. The charity is looking to use the book as a means to raise funds. Copies of the book are only available via www.justgiving.com/first-base-agency or from one of the volunteer First Base Agents who sell copies of the book. Frankland sees this as the kind of new approach First Base will have to adopt if the charity is to keep the doors and phone lines open in the hard years to come. ‘Over the last seven years, like many similar organisations, we have received money from both local and national government. It is very hard to see this state of affairs continuing. The Voluntary Sector is about to hammered by the cuts. Somehow we are all going to have to find ways of surviving on lots and lots of small donations from the public. That is what the ‘Mere Anarchy’ project is all about. Anybody who gives us a donation – any donation – either in person or via www.justgiving.com/first-base-agency will get a signed copy of the book. Hopefully they will then read it, like it and recommend it to friends and colleagues. We are encouraging all readers to help us market the book through social networking sites like Facebook. It is all very new to us and quite ambitious, but we are optimistic that it will help us to raise the cash we need to keep going.” 

TO FIND OUT MORE, HAVE A LOOK AT THESE SITES

www.mereanarchybook.blogspot.com - For extracts and more about the book

www.first-base.org – For more about The First Base Agency and our work.

www.thecull.com – For more about Mark Frankland’s other novels

www.justgiving.com/first-base-agency - To make a donation. 

       TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR – 07770 443483

 UPDATE 13 MARCH 2010It is early days yet, but already letters are coming in from the MPs who have received their copies of ‘Afterwards’. Some of course are the standard acknowledgement from a faceless secretary. But most are personally written with genuine interest. The majority who have written seem to be resolved to read the book and in fact a few have already started it. It might just contribute to a real difference being made. If it does, we’ll be pretty proud of what we have managed to achieve.

UPDATE 10 MARCH 2010

First up, a huge thank you to each and every one of you who has donated with such spectacular generosity. It is hugely appreciated.

At First Base we try to work on different levels. To be honest, when all is said and done, we are a small charity in a small town. We do our best to help all the clients who come through our doors and most of the time we are pretty successful. But we also like to try and make a larger impact when we can: punch above our weight if you like. For a year now we have been supporting veterans suffering the misery of PTSD. We won an award from Veterans Scotland to produce our fourth book – ‘Afterwards’, which tells the stories of three Scottish soldiers whose lives became a nightmare once they took off their uniforms. Our goal was to show the reader what PTSD actually looks like when you stare it in the face. The three guys who told their stories with such withering honesty did so out of a sense of duty. None of them found much help when the nightmares and flashbacks started to take over their lives. Instead they suffered alone, choosing only the solace of the bottle. They allowed us to tell their stories so that future generations of soldiers might have more support than they have received.

Six hundred and fifty key names on our address list were every MP in the House of Commons. Well, as you can see from the mailbags in the photo, delivery was made early this week. We handed the books over to Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox MP on a visit arranged by Colonel Bob Stewart. You might remember Bob – he was the call a spade a spade guy who got right into the Serbs’ faces in Bosnia in the 90’s. Happily Bob still calls a spade a spade and let’s hope that never changes once he enters the Commons himself as MP for Beckenham. Bob is President of a campaigning outfit called ‘Action for Armed Forces’ who specialise in taking direct action on behalf of squaddies and ex squaddies. They do stuff like chaining themselves to the Buckingham Palace railings. Typical young tearaways. You can see one of them in the second picture. George. He’s the one in the middle with the sand coloured beret and the chest full of medals. Want a potted biography? Tough, you’re getting one whether you like it or not. George joined the Sherwood Forresters in 1936 and four years later he found himself on the beach at Dunkirk. He got a ride on a destroyer and the destroyer got sunk. Thankfully the next boat made it back across the Channel. He was one of the first to join the newly formed SAS and jumped with the Paras at Arnhem. He was captured and sent to a POW camp. He escaped. He was captured and sent to another POW camp. He escaped again. As he made his way through France he bumped into the French Foreign Legion coming the other way. Wanna join George? Sure, why the hell not. He fought with the Legion all the way to the end of the war. Last year he was furious with the army. He was determined to jump out of a plane to celebrate the 65^th anniversary of Arnhem. They told him no. Why the hell not? Well George, the thing is you might get killed. Funny how nobody worried too much about that the first time around. George is 89 now and still up for the fight. For all of us it was an honour to have him with us.

            The big guy in the brown leather jacket is Willie. His is the first story in the book and he did the hand over. That was pretty special too. When I first met Willie in homeless accommodation in Livingstone, the idea of heading down to Westminster seemed about as likely as travelling to Mars. Well, we all got there in the end and we were given the opportunity to say what we had to say. Will it make a difference? We hope so. There are 650 books to be read. It is actually pretty encouraging when an itsy bitsy charity like First Base can get a half hour slot with the guy the bookies think is odds on to be the next Secretary of State for Defence. I guess we have the likes of George to thank for that. The trip meant hotel rooms and taxis and other expenses. Thanks to this page, we were able to cover these costs. Hopefully we will have managed to make a difference.

SO WHO ARE WE?

The First Base Agency is a small, independent charity based in Dumfries, South West Scotland. We run a wide variety of projects, all of which are seeing increasing demand as the recession deepens. We support families affected by a loved one’s drug and alcohol misuse, young women at risk of violence and veterans drinking or taking drugs to blot out memories of battle. Every year we give drug and alcohol awareness presentations to over 2500 school pupils and issue over a thousand emergency food parcels to those in need.

         Right now we have a financial problem and we hope you can help. As a part of a severe regime of cost cutting, our local Council has withdrawn the £10,000 funding they have awarded to us every year since 2003. We are finding it really hard to plug the gap this has left in our finances.

         We have resolved to try and tackle the problem in the style of a church roof appeal. It is unlikely in the current climate that we will find one or two large funders to make up the lost £10,000. Instead we are asking as many people as we possibly can for a donation. We have written to local businesses. We are giving presentations to local groups – last week we raised £150 from the Rotary Club and one of the town’s golf clubs. £9850 to go! Of course we have cut any cost that is cut-able. We have always prided ourselves on keeping the cost of running The First Base Agency as low as possible, and we have now reduced our annual running costs by 20% to £75,000.

         Any award you might be able to make to us will make a difference. I think the enclosed letter will tell you a lot about the way we work. It is written by one of our young female clients. We were able to help her to turn around her life and now she is giving back to the community by going into schools to pass on the hard lessons she has learned. Our services made a difference to her and her family, and now she is making a difference herself.

         Thank you so much for taking the time to consider us. To find about more about what we do visit us at www.first-base.org.

              Dear

            I would like to introduce myself and tell you a little about what I am doing at the moment. I am Carly and when I was 13, I made some mistakes which completely wrecked my life for nearly ten years. Like so many other teenagers, I started drinking and smoking cannabis. We had never had much drug and alcohol education when I was at school and I thought it would be OK. Everyone said it would be OK. Everyone said that everyone else was doing it and that it was no problem. Well, it wasn’t OK. And it soon became a huge problem. My school work went down hill and I started to spend far too much time with the wrong people.  

            You should know that I didn’t come from a bad family. Quite the opposite. I was doing well at school, I was popular and everyone said I had a bright future. But it still only took a short time for my life to fall to pieces. By the time I reached fifteen, having tried every drug I could, I arrived at a place called heroin.

            And I stayed there for six long, desperate, miserable years.  

            Thankfully my family never, ever gave up on me. My mum found The First Base Agency. For six years my family and all the people at First Base refused to give up on me and finally I was able to wake up from my nightmare and get clean.

            Of course I got into all kinds of trouble and my final appearance in front of the Sheriff resulted in a 200 hour community service order. First Base asked the Sheriff if it might be possible for me to serve my community by going into local schools and telling the pupils about all the mistakes I made and the awful consequences that followed. Thankfully he agreed and over the last year I have had the opportunity to talk to hundreds of young people all over Dumfries and Galloway, both with First Base and several police officers.  

            You should know that I do not talk much about the years I lost to heroin. Instead I focus on how my problems got started with alcohol and so called recreational drugs. I have worked hard with everyone at First Base to make sure that I never stray into any inappropriate areas and I have received nothing but praise from the schools that I have visited. This of course has been wonderful for me and it has done much to rebuild my self esteem. Of course I did many things I am deeply ashamed of in the years I lost to heroin. Going into schools to pass on the lessons I have learned the hard way goes some way to making up for that dark time in my life.

            I like to think that I am not a bad person. I simply made some stupid mistakes when I was young, naïve and eager to please. I paid a very heavy price for those mistakes. Now I very passionate about helping future generations to steer clear of the mistakes I made. I hope that you will be able to find some space in your timetable for me to come and speak to the pupils at your school.  

            Thank you for finding the time to read this.

           Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.