Alan McCombes, press and policy coordinator of the Scottish Socialist Party made the following statement :
“My decision, which I took with the full support of the SSP, not to hand over the documents demanded by the court was not one taken lightly but in the full understanding of the possible serious consequences that could follow.”
“However I took my stand on the clear position that the Scottish Socialist Party, like all democratic organisations, has the right to hold private discussions on sensitive matters and for those discussions to remain confidential.”
“That is not only my view but also the view taken by both the SSP’s executive and our National Council composed of rank and file delegates from across Scotland”
“ Scottish Executive has argued precisely this view on such sensitive matter as the Shirley McKie case, the handling of the scandals around Hepatitis C and many PFI contracts which are paid for by public money”
“We now face the grotesque position that a small party is being pressed by the state to hand over its internal records while the Executive is allowed to keep policy decisions and other matters of vital public interest under lock and key.”
“To comply with the demand to hand over the documents would endanger the right of free debate inside political parties and mean that out rights of free association would be threatened.”
“ In such discussions the keeping of records and minutes is a vital part of ensuring that elected officers are accountable to their members and meeting the court’s demand to hand over internal records threatens that right.”
“My legal team Paul Cullen and Fred Tyler presented a powerful case for my position and I pay tribute their skills is so doing and thank them for their work.”
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Friday, May 26, 2006
Alan McCombes Jailed
BBC NEWS: "At the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Friday, Lady Smith granted a News of the World motion and ordered Mr McCombes to hand over 'all and any' documents.
Referring to his refusal so far to disclose the minutes, she said: 'It is difficult to resist drawing the conclusion he puts his loyalty to the Scottish Socialist Party above his duty to this court.'"
Referring to his refusal so far to disclose the minutes, she said: 'It is difficult to resist drawing the conclusion he puts his loyalty to the Scottish Socialist Party above his duty to this court.'"
Friday, May 19, 2006
Letter from SSP to Hugo Chavez
Scottish Socialist Party representative Barbara Scott presented the
following letter to President Chavez during his recent visit to London.
Letter from SSP to Hugo Chavez:
Dear President Chavez,
The executive committee of the Scottish Socialist Party, our six elected
members of the Scottish Parliament and our entire membership welcome you to
the United Kingdom.
Scotland is an ancient nation within the UK state with a vibrant movement
seeking its full independence from the UK.
The SSP fully supports this aim.
Like Venezuela, Scotland has lived with the consequences of a close
relationship with a powerful neighbour.
In our case this has involved us in the economic and military structures of
the imperialist British State, a situation we are striving to end.
In particular this relationship has, in a parallel to Venezuela's
experience, seen our large oil reserves plundered by multinational
companies.
We have followed with great interest and a warm sense of solidarity, the
progress of the Bolivarian revolution and its liberating impact on the lives
of the Venezuelan people.
You will know that the annual congress of the Scottish TUC last month
supported the Bolivarian process in your country and intends to invite
fellow workers from Venezuela to Scotland.
We have and will continue to offer our fullest solidarity with both you and
the Venezuelan people who are charting a progressive path for Venezuela
which is an example for the world.
Please accept our warmest best wishes and solidarity both to yourself and to
the Venezuelan people whose actions and victories we are following with
close interest and the strongest sense of solidarity.
following letter to President Chavez during his recent visit to London.
Letter from SSP to Hugo Chavez:
Dear President Chavez,
The executive committee of the Scottish Socialist Party, our six elected
members of the Scottish Parliament and our entire membership welcome you to
the United Kingdom.
Scotland is an ancient nation within the UK state with a vibrant movement
seeking its full independence from the UK.
The SSP fully supports this aim.
Like Venezuela, Scotland has lived with the consequences of a close
relationship with a powerful neighbour.
In our case this has involved us in the economic and military structures of
the imperialist British State, a situation we are striving to end.
In particular this relationship has, in a parallel to Venezuela's
experience, seen our large oil reserves plundered by multinational
companies.
We have followed with great interest and a warm sense of solidarity, the
progress of the Bolivarian revolution and its liberating impact on the lives
of the Venezuelan people.
You will know that the annual congress of the Scottish TUC last month
supported the Bolivarian process in your country and intends to invite
fellow workers from Venezuela to Scotland.
We have and will continue to offer our fullest solidarity with both you and
the Venezuelan people who are charting a progressive path for Venezuela
which is an example for the world.
Please accept our warmest best wishes and solidarity both to yourself and to
the Venezuelan people whose actions and victories we are following with
close interest and the strongest sense of solidarity.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
KANE FREED ON NUKE RAP
Daily Record SCOTTISH Socialist Rosie Kane walked free from court yesterday after refusing to pay a fine for a nuke protest.
The 44-year-old MSP was found guilty of a breach of the peace at the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde in August 2004, but refused to pay a £150 fine or carry out a supervised attendance order.
At Glasgow District Court yesterday, magistrate Barry Nisbet freed Kane with a reprimand, saying: "I hope you are proud of your contempt of the law and of the Scottish legal system."
Outside court, Kane said: "It's not about contempt -most of Scotland is against nuclear weapons.
"All I was doing was upholding international law."
The 44-year-old MSP was found guilty of a breach of the peace at the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde in August 2004, but refused to pay a £150 fine or carry out a supervised attendance order.
At Glasgow District Court yesterday, magistrate Barry Nisbet freed Kane with a reprimand, saying: "I hope you are proud of your contempt of the law and of the Scottish legal system."
Outside court, Kane said: "It's not about contempt -most of Scotland is against nuclear weapons.
"All I was doing was upholding international law."
Murky Water at Loch Duntelchaig
Highland News: NORTHERN Constabulary's top cop has been called in to sort out a tangled angling wrangle.
Chief Constable Ian Latimer will now find himself enmeshed in the fishy furore over rights in the former Inverness water supply at Loch Duntelchaig, just a few minutes' drive from the city.
As exclusively revealed in the Highland News, Highland Fishing Tackle, of Grant Street, has acquired the "exclusive" use of the loch from Scottish Water and is charging £15 per head for people to fish.
To add to the local grief, it has issued a public warning that anyone caught by its bailiffs will be reported to the police.
But this has ruffled the feathers of local trout fly fishers and others who use the loch, which also boasts pike, eels and Arctic char.
They say that traditionally Loch Duntelchaig was a safe haven for youngsters learning to fish, and for outings where families could enjoy themselves without having to pay for the privilege.
Now, the Scottish Socialist Party's Highlands and Islands regional chairman George MacDonald has joined in the fray and is demanding answers from Mr Latimer.
This week he condemned Scottish Water for trampling over people's civil rights and also ignoring Scottish law, as well as claiming company spokesman Jason Rose was being "economical" with the truth.
Mr MacDonald said: "He claims that Scottish Water is saving us - the customers - money by passing control of fishing rights on Loch Duntelchaig to a 'local interest group'.
"Perhaps Mr Rose could enlighten us by explaining at what point a commercial concern, whose sole purpose in life is to make a profit, becomes a local interest group?"
He fumed: "It would appear that Scottish Water is prepared not only to trample all over the civil rights of the people, but also to completely ignore Scottish criminal law.
"At no time has it been enacted making it a criminal offence to fish for wild brown trout, pike, eels or Arctic char in Loch Duntelchaig.
"If Highland Fishing Tackle is charging the public £15 per annum to fish for these species in the loch, then I would suggest that they are guilty of extracting money under false pretences and that Scottish Water are their partners in crime.
"If anyone is to be reported to the police, perhaps they should be first."
Mr MacDonald revealed that the Scottish Socialist Party has written Mr Latimer requesting clarification of civil liberties under Scots law.
"We shall continue, as ever, to fight for the rights of the Scottish people in their struggle against faceless, bureaucratic quangos, " he said.
Chief Constable Ian Latimer will now find himself enmeshed in the fishy furore over rights in the former Inverness water supply at Loch Duntelchaig, just a few minutes' drive from the city.
As exclusively revealed in the Highland News, Highland Fishing Tackle, of Grant Street, has acquired the "exclusive" use of the loch from Scottish Water and is charging £15 per head for people to fish.
To add to the local grief, it has issued a public warning that anyone caught by its bailiffs will be reported to the police.
But this has ruffled the feathers of local trout fly fishers and others who use the loch, which also boasts pike, eels and Arctic char.
They say that traditionally Loch Duntelchaig was a safe haven for youngsters learning to fish, and for outings where families could enjoy themselves without having to pay for the privilege.
Now, the Scottish Socialist Party's Highlands and Islands regional chairman George MacDonald has joined in the fray and is demanding answers from Mr Latimer.
This week he condemned Scottish Water for trampling over people's civil rights and also ignoring Scottish law, as well as claiming company spokesman Jason Rose was being "economical" with the truth.
Mr MacDonald said: "He claims that Scottish Water is saving us - the customers - money by passing control of fishing rights on Loch Duntelchaig to a 'local interest group'.
"Perhaps Mr Rose could enlighten us by explaining at what point a commercial concern, whose sole purpose in life is to make a profit, becomes a local interest group?"
He fumed: "It would appear that Scottish Water is prepared not only to trample all over the civil rights of the people, but also to completely ignore Scottish criminal law.
"At no time has it been enacted making it a criminal offence to fish for wild brown trout, pike, eels or Arctic char in Loch Duntelchaig.
"If Highland Fishing Tackle is charging the public £15 per annum to fish for these species in the loch, then I would suggest that they are guilty of extracting money under false pretences and that Scottish Water are their partners in crime.
"If anyone is to be reported to the police, perhaps they should be first."
Mr MacDonald revealed that the Scottish Socialist Party has written Mr Latimer requesting clarification of civil liberties under Scots law.
"We shall continue, as ever, to fight for the rights of the Scottish people in their struggle against faceless, bureaucratic quangos, " he said.
Renton fight their corner
Scotland on Sunday: WHEN Irvine Welsh needed a name for the anti-hero of his drug-infested novel Trainspotting, he chose Renton. It was perhaps significant that nobody in the village of that name in the Vale of Leven in West Dunbartonshire complained about a potential slur on their reputation.
For Renton is multiply deprived, home to high unemployment and serious drug addiction problems, a post-industrial wasteland of a kind that is common in Margaret Thatcher's true legacy to Scotland. It had one hope - its people. The majority of residents are decent folk, and they somehow have an amazing community spirit, as shown by the number of clubs and organisations in the village.
Some are proud to wear the name of Renton, from where the first football world champions famously hailed. The village team were Scottish Cup winners and beat English cup winners West Bromwich Albion to claim the 'world' title in 1888.
Renton Amateur Boxing Club was just one organisation happy to be associated with the village. For more than 30 years since it was founded by Richard 'Skeets' Gallacher, the world's best amateur flyweight in 1948, Renton ABC had survived like beacon of hope for boys and young men.
Located in the village's Community Education Centre in the Main Street, Renton ABC welcomed young pugilists from any background and first Skeets Gallacher and then present trainer John Connolly taught them the disciplines of the Noble Art.
In March, in a decision of almost monumental folly, owners West Dunbartonshire Council summarily closed Renton CE Centre. For good measure they closed Renton Library. The boxing club's leadership was not consulted. Nobody was...
Questioned by Scotland on Sunday, West Dunbartonshire would only say "the Council does not accept that it failed to comply with any statutory provisions requiring consultation. This is the subject matter of a Petition for Judicial Review which is to proceed to a Hearing the Court of Session and so it would be inappropriate to comment further."
In other words, they didn't bother consulting and Robert Toole and Pauline McGoldrick have them bang to rights.
Jim Bollan is a left-wing firebrand, a member of the Scottish Socialist Party, who has recovered from great personal tragedy - his daughter committed suicide in Cornton Vale prison and his wife passed away having never fully recovered from the loss - to lead the community in their fight against West Dunbartonshire.
"It's as if they wanted to close down Renton altogether," said Bollan. "I can't help thinking that it was payback time by New Labour for the people of Renton voting for me." The fact that White and his cohorts hail from Clydebank, traditional rival town to Dumbarton, was also not lost on Bollan...
According to Jim Bollan, the council's actions have sparked a new air of revolution in the village. It would appear that Renton's boxers, indeed Rentonians everywhere, have only just begun to fight.
For Renton is multiply deprived, home to high unemployment and serious drug addiction problems, a post-industrial wasteland of a kind that is common in Margaret Thatcher's true legacy to Scotland. It had one hope - its people. The majority of residents are decent folk, and they somehow have an amazing community spirit, as shown by the number of clubs and organisations in the village.
Some are proud to wear the name of Renton, from where the first football world champions famously hailed. The village team were Scottish Cup winners and beat English cup winners West Bromwich Albion to claim the 'world' title in 1888.
Renton Amateur Boxing Club was just one organisation happy to be associated with the village. For more than 30 years since it was founded by Richard 'Skeets' Gallacher, the world's best amateur flyweight in 1948, Renton ABC had survived like beacon of hope for boys and young men.
Located in the village's Community Education Centre in the Main Street, Renton ABC welcomed young pugilists from any background and first Skeets Gallacher and then present trainer John Connolly taught them the disciplines of the Noble Art.
In March, in a decision of almost monumental folly, owners West Dunbartonshire Council summarily closed Renton CE Centre. For good measure they closed Renton Library. The boxing club's leadership was not consulted. Nobody was...
Questioned by Scotland on Sunday, West Dunbartonshire would only say "the Council does not accept that it failed to comply with any statutory provisions requiring consultation. This is the subject matter of a Petition for Judicial Review which is to proceed to a Hearing the Court of Session and so it would be inappropriate to comment further."
In other words, they didn't bother consulting and Robert Toole and Pauline McGoldrick have them bang to rights.
Jim Bollan is a left-wing firebrand, a member of the Scottish Socialist Party, who has recovered from great personal tragedy - his daughter committed suicide in Cornton Vale prison and his wife passed away having never fully recovered from the loss - to lead the community in their fight against West Dunbartonshire.
"It's as if they wanted to close down Renton altogether," said Bollan. "I can't help thinking that it was payback time by New Labour for the people of Renton voting for me." The fact that White and his cohorts hail from Clydebank, traditional rival town to Dumbarton, was also not lost on Bollan...
According to Jim Bollan, the council's actions have sparked a new air of revolution in the village. It would appear that Renton's boxers, indeed Rentonians everywhere, have only just begun to fight.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Socialists take a pop at closure of The Venue
THE closure of Edinburgh live music club The Venue has prompted calls in the Scottish Parliament for more action to preserve popular culture.
Scottish Socialist leader and Lothians MSP Colin Fox has tabled a motion, regretting the sale of the Calton Road venue for redevelopment as flats, offices and an upmarket delicatessen, and calling on the Scottish Executive to take a lead in protecting cultural venues from "the worst ravages of developers".
Mr Fox said The Venue had long been a supporter of both signed and unsigned bands and its closure was a further erosion of the Capital's music scene.
He added: "This is indicative of the increased emphasis placed on development to the detriment of popular culture, which is out of keeping in a city with the reputation of Edinburgh."
Edinburgh Evening News
Scottish Socialist leader and Lothians MSP Colin Fox has tabled a motion, regretting the sale of the Calton Road venue for redevelopment as flats, offices and an upmarket delicatessen, and calling on the Scottish Executive to take a lead in protecting cultural venues from "the worst ravages of developers".
Mr Fox said The Venue had long been a supporter of both signed and unsigned bands and its closure was a further erosion of the Capital's music scene.
He added: "This is indicative of the increased emphasis placed on development to the detriment of popular culture, which is out of keeping in a city with the reputation of Edinburgh."
Edinburgh Evening News
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