Thursday, September 30, 2004

Budget fails to tackle poverty

BBC NEWS: "Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan asked a series of questions, including how many children remained in poverty, how many new homes would be built for the social rented sector and how much had been set aside for addressing the 'equal pay gap' between the wages of men and women, particularly in the public sector.

Mr Kerr said 'too many children are still in poverty' and the executive had to continue to work hard on addressing that.

With Mr Sheridan shaking his head in disapproval, Mr Kerr referred the question on new homes to the communities minister.

He added that the executive ran 'very forward-looking pay policies to ensure that does not occur' within the administration.

Mr Sheridan later said the minister had failed to answer all of the questions put to him."
Scotsman: "Tommy Sheridan, of the Scottish Socialists, said: 'After five years in power, the Scottish Executive unveils its plans to improve the health of our children and their generosity amounts to free water for school pupils. It is absolutely pathetic.' "

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Prescription Charges – The case for Abolition

Prescription Charges – The case for Abolition

Colin Fox MSP writes:

I was on Princes Street in Edinburgh on Saturday. The Scottish Campaign to Remove All Prescription Charges was conducting a street stall. The response from the public was fantastic. It always is. It is easy to see why the polls show support for scrapping this 'tax on the sick' running at 7 to 1. And can I say a big thank you to all the Scottish Mirror readers who stopped to sign our petition.

One senior citizen I met, a man called Tommy from Livingston, asked if I knew why the charges were introduced in the first place. I did but let him tell me anyway. 'To pay for Britains involvement in the Korean War.' He told me. And he was right, at least in part. 'Surely', he laughed, 'after 53 years we must have paid for it by now!'

Read More Here

(from Scottish Daily Mirror 27th Sept.)

SSP call to renationalise utility firms

Evening News: SSP call to renationalise utility firms

MASSIVE fuel price rises have made the case for renationalising gas and electricity companies, Tommy Sheridan has claimed.

The Scottish Socialist Party leader said the recent increases made a mockery of the Scottish Executive’s plans to reduce fuel poverty and proved the free market did not work. He said the only way to deal with the situation was to take the energy companies back into public ownership.

Record increases in British Gas prices came into effect last week, putting gas bills up by 12.4 per cent and hiking electricity bills 9.4 per cent.

And ScottishPower has announced a ten per cent rise due to come into effect on Friday.

Mr Sheridan said: "ScottishPower and Scottish Gas are clearly exploiting their market dominance to fix prices.

"Privatisation and competition are driving ever more Scots into fuel poverty, making a mockery of the Scottish Executive’s pledge to reduce fuel poverty.

"The case for publicly owned power companies is there for everyone to see. Scotland has a surplus of power and yet prices go up with yet more Scots facing fuel poverty.

"The power companies should be taken back into public ownership and the obscenity of Scots who can’t afford to heat their homes ended."

Support Striking Soapworks workers

ic Dunbartonshire - Soap factory dispute goes on

Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan and Glasgow MSP Rosie Kane have joined the picket line at the Soapworks factory in the city.

Workers at the facility, which makes soap and other beauty products, are taking the action amid a pay dispute.

Last week, TGWU members staged a two-day walkout at the company, a subsidiary of the Body Shop."

Monday, September 27, 2004

SCRAP: Scottish Campaign to Remove All Prescription Charges

SCRAP: Scottish Campaign to Remove All Prescription Charges

Colin Fox, Scottish Socialist MSP for the Lothians, is introducing a bill into the Scottish Parliament to scrap prescription charges. The campaign to support this move has now got a website. Check it out for full details.

Aims and Objectives of the Bill

* The main objective of the Bill is to provide free access to all people who require drugs, medicines or appliances, or pharmaceutical services regardless of their medical condition or their ability to pay.

* Abolition of the current charging scheme removes the need to grant exemptions to sufferers of designated chronic conditions. The Bill will ensure greater fairness by enabling all sufferers of chronic illnesses (whether designated or not) and those who require drugs, medicines or appliances to cope with their conditions by obtaining free prescriptions.

* This approach will also address the inequity of the current remission arrangements particularly for those who cannot afford prescription charges and yet fail to meet the criteria to receive assistance.

* The Bill should contribute to the overall health and well-being of those living in Scotland.

* The abolition of prescription charges will bring Scotland in line with Wales, where their First Minister Rhodri Morgan confirmed in June 2003 that the Welsh Labour administration will fulfill its election manifesto pledge to abolish all prescription charges by 2007.

OUTRAGE OVER MSP'S £200K LEGAL AID FEES

Daily Record

Scottish Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan said elected representatives should be restricted to one paid job.

Sheridan added: 'MSPs and MPs are paid fantastically well for the job they do.

'Politicians are overpaid. If we had performance-related pay we would be paid a damn sight less.'

Back human rights during China trip, McConnell urged

Sunday Herald

Tommy Sheridan, the Scottish Socialist leader, blasted McConnell for not sending out a clear message to Chinese authorities, adding: “It is an outrage that the promotion of human rights is not central to the trip . It would be a disgrace if the man who is supposed to be Scotland’s leader goes to China just to do the bidding of big business.”

FBU political funding move

[Sunday Herald]

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) cut its links with Labour in June in protest at the government’s behaviour in its recent strike. It plans to fund individual candidates who oppose the private finance initiative and support public services.

Friday, September 24, 2004

Rosie Kane: Asylum seekers have fewer rights than their pets

The Herald

This pet rat has ‘more rights’ than its owners

MEET Maxi, the rat with more rights than an asylum seeker.
The claim was made yesterday by Rosie Kane, the socialist MSP, who has taken in the rat as a lodger.
The male rodent was left behind in the flat of a family of Azerbaijani asylum seekers who were seized by immigration officials in a dawn raid in Glasgow last Saturday.
Maxi was subsequently rescued from the flat in Sighthill by inspectors from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and has since been "liberated" from Cardonald cat and dog home by Ms Kane for a £13 fee.
At a press conference, the rat's treatment was contrasted with that meted out to its owners.
Julia Gulshan Babayeva and her sons Alex, 19, and Aziz, 18, were taken to a detention centre at Gatwick airport, outside London, after the raid and are expected to be deported to Azerbaijan on Monday.
Supporters claim that Ms Babayeva, an Armenian who fled to Scotland with her sons in 2001, was sexually abused by police in Azerbaijan and her husband killed after he refused to serve in the military. Her sons are said to face jail for avoiding military service.
Ms Kane rescued the rat after Alex Babayeva told her he was "really worried" about him.
"The point is that Maxi has got more rights than the kids," she said.
"It's funny in a way, but the reality is the mother and kids have not seen a doctor. Maxi had seen a vet. The mother and kids haven't seen an agency that could help them. Maxi did, in the form of the SSPCA."
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "It is right and proper that people who have no rights to reside in the UK should be removed."

NHS: Glasgow board told: ‘the public no longer trusts you’

The Herald

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Community Campaign Saves Lismore Primary

The Scotsman

Scottish Socialist MSP Colin Fox said: "I would like to give full credit to the parents and all those who fought hard to keep Lismore School open. Their arguments have been fully vindicated and they deserve every credit for what has turned out to be a remarkable victory for a determined local community."

Friday, September 17, 2004

Staffed hospital beds are cut by 23% in 6 years

Evening Times

THE NUMBER of staffed beds in Glasgow hospitals has fallen by more than 20% according to statistics revealed today.
Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie obtained official figures from Parliament which show the reduction across all specialities in the NHS.
The figures show that in 1998 hospitals in Greater Glasgow had 8059 staffed beds, which had fallen to 6181 in 2004 - a reduction of 23%.
Across Scotland the fall was more than 7000 beds, down 20% from 37,998 to 30,071.
Ms Leckie, the SSP health spokeswoman, said that the figures showed why the public was outraged over the state of the NHS in Scotland .
She said: "This is clear evidence that the NHS is creaking at the seams."
"Across all specialities between 1998 and 2004 there has been a 20% cut in average available staffed beds.
"These figures explain why the public and NHS staff are up in arms at further cuts.
"With a 20% cut in available hospital beds and up to a third in some specialities, it is not an understatement to say that this is the biggest crisis the NHS has ever faced."

MSP makes bid for 'Bond' mission

The Scotsman

SCOTS film star Dougray Scott, tipped to be the next James Bond, is being lined up for an appearance in Edinburgh’s Southside.

Lothians Scottish Socialist MSP Colin Fox is hoping the Fife-born actor will agree to perform the official opening of his new constituency office.

Scott, 38, who appeared in Mission Impossible 2 and Enigma, joined the Scottish Socialist Party last year. And Mr Fox, list MSP for the Lothians, said he was inviting him to perform the official opening at the shop-front office at 52 Clerk Street, which is already operating 9am to 5pm every weekday.

"I’ll try to get him to come along the next time he’s up watching his beloved Hibs," said Mr Fox.

SSP responds to Fraser Report

BBC NEWS: Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan said the report posed more questions than it answered.

He said: 'It does not answer two main questions that the Scottish public will have about the new parliament building.

'Someone made a fortune from this project - who was it and who let them get away with it?

'Are we seriously expected to believe that in selecting the Holyrood site that Donald Dewar, a member of the UK Cabinet, did not discuss the site with his cabinet colleagues?'

Mr Sheridan added: 'For all the cost and grandeur of our new Scottish Parliament building the biggest scandal is that it does not have the powers it needs to change the lives of the people of Scotland decisively for the better.'

Monday, September 13, 2004

Rose Gentle at Socialism 2004: "Blair must quit"

The Scotsman

Blair Urged to Quit over Soldier's Death

By Leigh Arnold, Political Reporter, Scottish Press Association

The mother of a Scots soldier killed in Iraq repeated calls for Tony Blair to resign today, on the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the US.

Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra, said the Prime Minister “makes me sick”.

Mrs Gentle also reiterated her demand that British troops be brought home during a Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) rally in Glasgow.

She said: “Tony Blair said if there were no weapons of mass destruction he would resign, which he hasn’t. So is that another lie he has given us?

“And why has he still not decided to meet the parents of the sons who’ve been killed.”

She added: “If he’s any sort of person he should resign and stop getting young boys killed.

“I would love to see him come up and see my other boys grieve and see how he can stand to look at it when Gordon’s not here for Christmas.

“I hope he enjoys his Christmas because I won’t. The man makes me sick when I see him on the telly with his stupid grin.”

Gordon, from Glasgow, was serving with the Royal Highland Fusiliers when he was killed on June 28, just weeks after completing his training.

Mrs Gentle believes his death could have been avoided if his patrol had been equipped with an electronic signal jamming device which would have stopped the bomb being detonated.

The family have launched a campaign against the war and are now taking steps to sue the Ministry of Defence for negligence over Gordon’s death.

She told the 300-strong audience at “Socialism 2004 – The World Is Ours” that her son had died in “an illegal war”.

Her voice breaking with emotion she said: “It eats me away to think that they had the equipment that could have prevented the bomb going off, but it was left in a cupboard and placed on two hours after Gordon’s death.”

Mrs Gentle said she had received hundreds of letters of support urging her to continue fighting, including some from soldiers and their families.

She added: “I firmly believe that the time has come for the Government to bring our soldiers home, away from the illegal war in Iraq.”

A host of politicians and international speakers were addressing the weekend rally at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Among those taking part were SSP leader Tommy Sheridan and comedian Mark Steel as well as visitors from Darfur, Columbia and the Basque country.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Scottish Parliament Bills - More of the Same

BBC NEWS: "Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan said: 'What we have from Mr McConnell as a prescription for the low pay and pensioner poverty sickness that afflicts so much of our small nation is more of the same New Labour Thatcherism.'"

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Soldier's mother demands Iraq withdrawal

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Soldier's mother demands Iraq withdrawal

The family's cause has been taken up by the Scottish Socialist party and the Stop the War coalition.

Family friend and Scottish Socialist party member George McNeilage claimed today that Fusilier Gordon Gentle would still be alive if a "vital" piece of equipment had been fitted on his vehicle instead of sitting in a storeroom.

The equipment, an electronic device which jams radio signals used to detonate roadside bombs, was not attached to Fusilier Gentle's vehicle when he was killed. Mr McNeilage added that his regiment was the only one in Iraq which did not have the equipment installed.

SSP's opening day republican protest

The Herald: SSP plans for alternative Holyrood opening party
THE Queen will not be invited, but she may just be able to hear the festivities from her garden.The Scottish Socialist Party unveiled its plans yesterday for a republican alternative to the royal opening of Holyrood next month, centred on the signing of a new declaration of Scottish independence.The Socialists' morning ceremony is due to take place on Calton Hill on October 9, a few hours before the official opening of the parliament building in the valley below.

The Scotsman: "SCOTTISH Socialists are planning a republican alternative to the official opening of the new Scottish Parliament by the Queen next month.
It will take place on Calton Hill, looking down on the new £431 million building, a few hours before the official ceremony on October 9.
And the focus will be the signing of a new declaration of Scottish independence.
If the weather is poor, the Scottish Socialist Party hopes to use the old Royal High School, the building originally earmarked to be the home of the parliament.
SSP leader Tommy Sheridan said: 'We believe there is a grotesque contradiction in celebrating the opening of a lavishly expensive parliament building which does not have the power to prevent Scotland being dragged into murderous wars, or to rid the country of nuclear weapons, or to open our doors to those fleeing persecution and famine.'"