WARNING: AL FAYED'S LAND MAY BE STORMED

"Scottish socialists have warned Mohamed Al Fayed that the grounds of his Highland castle could be stormed this weekend. They have asked permission to stage a demonstration on his land, to protest at his "continued and outspoken opposition to aspects of the Land Reform Act''. Press and Journal

VOTE PEACH FOR A PEACH OF A PARTY!
SCOTTISH SOCIALIST PARTY URGES VOTERS TO USE THEIR SECOND VOTE - THE PEACH BALLOT PAPER – EFFECTIVELY

Since the introduction of Proportional Representation in Scotland, there has been untold confusion about the second ballot. According to one study, only 8% of the electorate actually understands how it works. Others wrongly assume that the second vote is a second preference, or that you must vote for the same party in each ballot.

How It Works

You get three votes. The first vote, the aquamarine ballot paper, is for the constituency seat, won on the traditional first past the post basis.

But the second, the peach ballot, is for the regional list seat where MSPs are elected on the Additional Members system. Voters cast their peach vote for a "party list", submitted by the party with their candidates in order of preference. If the party wins a list seat, the candidate at the top is elected. If the party wins two seats, the top second candidate is also elected and so on.

The peach vote is calculated thus: party list votes are totalled by region, not constituency, and then divided by the number of seats the party has won - plus one. This eliminates parties who have already won the majority of constituency seats. The party with the highest resulting total wins a seat. Seven MSPs are elected this way per region, totalling 56 in all.

The third vote, the white ballot, is for council seats.

When is a Second Vote a Wasted Vote?

The big idea behind PR is that it allows for a more representative and more diverse Scottish Parliament. When a party wins a significant proportion of the constituency seats - as Labour did in 1999 and some polls suggest the SNP might do this time round - they become ineligible for regional list "top-up" seats. Therefore, giving them your second vote could be seen as a wasted vote.

Leading academic David Miller, of Stirling University's Media Group, makes the point that a second vote for Labour in Glasgow, going by 1999's figures, is a wasted vote as Labour gained all constituency seats with 46.5% of the vote, so did not qualify for any list seats. Nonetheless, 112,588 people gave Labour their second vote. In Scotland as whole 735,497 voters wasted their second vote by giving it to Labour.

A further point he makes is that, by observing voting patterns from last time, supporters of small parties can vote tactically on the peach ballot to ensure that a Tory doesn't pick up a list seat.

Give the SSP your Peach Vote

Of course we'd like all your votes, but we especially need your second vote. So, even if you give us your first vote, make sure you give us your second. If you give another party your first vote, but would like to see the SSP in Holyrood, then give us your second vote.

If seven out of every hundred Scottish voters give us their second vote on May 1st, we could return 8 MSPs to Holyrood and give Scotland's consensus politics a serious wake-up call!
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 07713 063647

SHERIDAN TO HAND MCCONNELL SERVICE TAX BILL
Press photographers welcome! Tomorrow, Thursday 24 April at 11 a.m. Tommy Sheridan, Convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party and Colin Fox, Lothians Top-of-the-List SSP Candidate, will knock on the door of Bute House, Edinburgh. They will be joined by other SSP members from Edinburgh who will compare their council tax bills with those of the First Minister and then present him with his Scottish Service Tax Bill, the SSP’s replacement for the council tax.

Sheridan said,
“Our proposal is much fairer than the regressive council tax, which the SSP will abolish, because it is based on an individual’s actual income and therefore, ability to pay. Jack and Bridget McConnell have annual salaries of £118,000 and £90,000 respectively but their Council Tax bill is only £1,545 per year. That is clearly grossly unfair.

Under the Scottish Service Tax, however, they would pay £16,700 and £11,100 respectively because they can afford it. The Scottish Service Tax, will start to redistribute wealth in Scotland from the rich and overpaid, like our MSPs to the poor, the pensioners and the low-paid”.

Editors: See case studies below for comparison of council tax and Service Tax bills:

Graeme Birtley [SSP Council Candidate in Edinburgh] is a fire-fighter. He lives in a flat in West Pilton and his Council tax band C bill is £1,211. His salary is £21,500 and his SST bill would be £517.50 [4.5% of £11,500 – N.B. the first £10,000 of an individual’s salary is exempt and the next £20,000 taxed at 4.5%]. His annual savings under the Service Tax would be £693.50, while his average monthly savings would be £57,80.

Barbara Scott [SSP Council candidate in Fountainbridge] is a clerical secretary from Edinburgh. Her council tax band B bill is £991 after her single person discount. Her salary is £17,500 and her SST would be £337.5, thus saving her £635.50. Her average monthly saving would therefore be £54.46

Derek Durkin [SSP candidate in Edinburgh East and Musselburgh] is a postal worker. His Council tax band D annual bill is £1,415. Derek's salary last year was £16,380. His SST bill is £287.10 [4.5% of £6,380]. His annual saving would be £1,127.90 and his average monthly saving £93.99.
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518/07713 063647

100 arrested at Faslane base protest The Herald

SHERIDAN HAS A WORD WITH THE COPS
SSP CONVENOR TO ADDRESS POLICE FEDERATION CONFERENCE AT PEEBLES HYDRO WEDNESDAY, 11 AM


What's all this then?

Whenever Tommy Sheridan encounters the police, they're usually assisting him into the back of a police van. Today, however, he's made his own transport arrangements and will be meeting the police to refute the charge that socialists run away from serious law and order policies.

Come on, son, we don't want no trouble!

Nor do we. The Scottish Socialist Party has its roots in the working class of Scotland, and it's these same communities which suffer a disproportionate share of crimes. Radical action is clearly called for.

Tommy Sheridan says,
"While the mainstream parties are locked in a battle to see who can strike the most macho pose and lock-em-up the longest, the SSP seeks to tackle the causes of most petty crime - that is, poverty, drug culture, alcohol abuse and lack of amenities. New Labour used to talk about being 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime'. Now they don't even talk about the causes of crime. We also want more democratic control over the police so that they can more effectively protect local communities.

As we saw yesterday at Faslane, massive police resources are frequently deployed to counter legitimate political protests. A huge amount of time effort and money will be spent bringing these cases to trial.
We saw the same during last year's Govanhill Pool protests. Many working class communities feel that the police and judiciary are more concerned with defending the rich and powerful than with protecting their
areas from crime and violence."

Let's take down your details

The SSP's key crime and justice policies include:
* Funding youth facilities in every local community, run by young people themselves.
* Replacing the toothless Joint Police Boards with new community boards which would have a real say over how the police are deployed. These would involve councillors, MSP's and directly elected elected community representatives.
* Providing free pharmaceutical heroin on prescription to registered addicts to break the link between drug addiction and the petty crime perpetrated to feed that addiction.
* Expanding Scotland's alcohol rehabilitation programmes.

You have the right to remain silent

But we'd rather not. The Scottish Socialist Party believes that crime needs to be tackled from the ground up, not from the top down. As Tommy Sheridan says:

"Scotland has already has one of the highest prison populations per head in Europe. Yet a tidal wave of crime continues to engulf our communities. We need more than simplistic soundbite solutions from politicians scrabbling for votes.”
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Alan McCombes 07881 988337

SSP FIGHTS FOR THE PEACH VOTE

Scottish Socialist Party news conference

Wednesday 23 April at 2.00 p.m.

Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT)


The Scottish Socialist Party will hand out free peaches to the press on Wednesday to publicise its drive for the ‘peach vote’ on May 1st.

Tommy Sheridan, SSP Convenor said,

“There is still widespread confusion over the Holyrood voting system. To simplify things, we’re explaining to voters that there are three colour-coded ballot papers. The ballot form for the council elections is white. The ballot form for the first-past-the-post constituency seats is aquamarine. And the crucial ballot for the regional list is peach-coloured. Your peach vote is a proportional vote – and every peach vote will count for the SSP. We want all your votes: 1-2-3 = SSP. But if you only give us ONE vote, make sure it’s a peach.”

The SSP will explain that a Labour vote on the peach form is a wasted vote. In 1999 a total of 735,497 voters across Scotland wasted their regional (peach) vote by voting Labour in regions where they had no possibility of winning top up seats.

SSP election co-ordinator, Alan McCombes said,

“You might as well tear up your peach ballot paper as mark an X against Labour. But every peach vote counts for the SSP. Polls show that we are within one per cent in each region of winning an extra Holyrood seat. Just a few hundred peach votes for the SSP in every constituency could potentially deliver nine SSP MSPs – two in Glasgow and one each in the other seven regions of Scotland.”
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518/07713 063647

SSP TO HOLD ALL-WOMEN PRESS CONFERENCE WED 23 APRIL

PRESS INVITATION

VENUE: LAURIE'S, KING STREET, GLASGOW

Wednesday 23 April 2003 at 11 a.m.

Subject: Women and Sex


The Press Conference will be hosted by Scottish Socialist Party women candidates at the top of the regional lists who are likely to become Members of the Scottish Parliament after May 1st.
They include Carolyn Leckie for Central Scotland; Rosie Kane, the No. 2 in Glasgow and Frances Curran for the West of Scotland.

There will be four main topics including:
* free sanitary protection
* free morning-after pill available from pharmacies
* policies to tackle domestic abuse
* child care strategy.

Frances Curran said, “The SSP is the only party in Scotland that has a commitment to equal representation for women among our MSPs. The press can no longer call the SSP a one man band and tomorrow we will showcase the many policies that the SSP has for women in every area."
[ends]For further information contact Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518/07713 063647

Fears of plans to privatise Scottish Water

"Tommy Sheridan, leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, said the announcement was a scandal and urged Ross Finnie, the former environment minister, to intervene immediately.

"My fear is that it is being driven towards privatisation. We have to make a stand. The unions must fight to save these jobs."

"As far as I'm concerned Ross Finnie is still a minister until May 1. He should intervene to prevent any immediate job losses until parliament can debate the issue and see whether these jobs can be saved."

Where voters are likely to provide a Holyrood welcome for newcomers

"The intriguing question now is whether any of the above can be thwarted by the Scottish Socialists' Frances Curran, a 41-year-old mother, who is fighting Labour in Paisley South but also tops the SSP list.

West is third top after Glasgow and Central Scotland in the SSP's regional prospects.

Ms Curran, one of the party's most active women, was formerly on Labour's national executive, but found little socialist company there, which is why she joined Tommy Sheridan's party." The Herald

Party leaders to join the Faslane blockade The Herald

Election 2003 - Scottish Socialist Party - Scottish Socialist Party website SSP website reviewed by the Scotsman.

WEAPONS INSPECTIONS TO BE CARRIED OUT AT LABOUR HQ GLASGOW TODAY
Nuclear Weapons Inspectors will call at Scottish Labour Party headquarters, John Smith House, 145 West Regent Street, Glasgow, at noon today in search of illegal Weapons of Mass Destruction

Hans Blix and his team of UN Weapons Inspectors appear to have made an oversight in their bid to rid the world of dangerous, massively destructive weapons. Word has leaked out that a staggering 144 nuclear weapons are being stored, ready to use, right here in Scotland and that New Labour, the party that went to war with Iraq on the very issue of WMD, knew all about it!

FACT 1: Trident submarines, and their stock of nuclear warheads, have a published cost of £10 billion. But Sir Ronald Mason, Chief Scientific Advisor at the Ministry of Defence, believes the true cost is more likely to be £50 billion.

FACT 2: A single Trident warhead hitting a city centre would kill 125,000 people instantly and a further 28,000 within 12 days.

FACT 3: Trident is illegal. On 8 July 1996, the International Court of Justice gave its formal opinion on nuclear weapons, saying "states must never make civilians the object of an attack and must consequently never use weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets."

FACT 4: The party that finds the money for Trident cannot find the money for a public sector minimum wage of £7.32 an hour (cost: £350 million per year)

FACT 5: The party that harbours weapons of mass destruction does not consider the argument for universal, free school meals - which anti-poverty and health groups agree would result in a huge improvement in public health, and would cost £174 million per year - economically compelling.

FACT 6: Jack McConnell led his party in its support of a war "justified" by the enemy's harbouring of illegal weapons.
[ends]
For further details, contact Richie Venton on 07899 732068 or 0141 221 7714

SHERIDAN SAYS WESTMINSTER SHOULD PAY FOR HOLYROOD
As the cost of the new Holyrood Parliament soars towards £400 million, the Scottish Socialist Party today called for the cost of the building to be borne by the Westminster government.

SSP Convenor, Tommy Sheridan said:
“The Holyrood site was foisted on Scotland by the Westminster government. We were told it would cost the Scottish taxpayer £40 million – now it’s ten times that sum. The Holyrood decision was a monumental folly by Westminster – and Westminster should pick up the tab.
The Scottish taxpayer has paid plenty towards public projects sited in London. I want to see an independent Scottish Parliament. But this parliament does not even have proper fund-raising powers. Westminster wants to have our cake and eat it. It denies us control over our own revenues, yet forces us to spend hundreds of millions on a building commissioned by Westminster. As things stand, the Holyrood parliament building will cost £250 for every single family in Scotland. But if the costs are borne by the Westminster exchequer, it will cost just £6.50 a head across the UK. This is significantly less than the amount contributed by Scottish taxpayers to the costs of the Millennium Dome and Portcullis House.”
[ends]For further info contact Tommy Sheridan 07887 795075 or Alan McCombes on 07881 988337

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH TOMMY SHERIDAN

Tommy Sheridan and the Scottish Socialist Party enter the final ten days of the Scottish Parliament election campaign buoyed by recent opinion polls indicating at least 8% support across Scotland and very strong support on the streets for the SSP’s key policy of replacing the unfair council tax with the progressive income-based Scottish Service Tax.


MONDAY 21 APRIL

Tommy will today outline the party’s continued support for nuclear disarmament and commit himself and many SSP parliamentary candidates to peaceful civil disobedience during tomorrow’s blockade of the Faslane nuclear base.

Tommy said,

“Nuclear weapons are simply inhumane and illegal. We waste over £1.5 billion a year maintaining these weapons of mass destruction when this money could instead be used to provided decent pensions for our pensioners and support over five times as many jobs. In other words, nuclear disarmament is not just about peace, it’s also about improving the quality of life for our senior citizens and creating thousands of jobs.”


TUESDAY 22 APRIL

Tommy Sheridan will join the Really Big Blockade at Faslane’s North Gate on Tuesday from
8 a.m. onwards.

After that, if at liberty, he will speak at a public meeting in Springburn, alongside SSP candidate Margaret Bean, who is a health service worker at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The meeting starts at 7.30 p.m. in All Saint’s Secondary School, 299 Rye Hill Road, and will highlight the SSP’s policies to tackle poverty in one of the poorest constituencies in Britain.

Later on in the evening, he will appear in a Newsnight face-to-face interview at 10.30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL

After meeting so many members of the Police Federation at Faslane, Tommy Sheridan will address delegates at their annual Conference in Peebles Hydro from 11 a.m. He will discuss and promote the SSP’s anti-crime policies linked integrally to the war on poverty and the legalisation of cannabis to isolate deadly heroin and genuinely force the dealers in death off our streets.

At 2 p.m. the SSP will launch their vital “CAMPAIGN FOR THE PEACH VOTE”. The SSP intends to highlight the nature of the complicated electoral system by emphasising the importance of the variously described “2nd vote / list vote / peach vote”.

Tommy Sheridan will say:
“We are appealing for the peach vote across Scotland. In particular we ask those who will vote Labour with their first, or constituency vote, not to waste their peach vote. The party list ballot paper is peach coloured. The SSP relies on the citizens of Scotland supporting us with their peach vote.”

At 7.30 p.m. that evening, Tommy will address a public meeting at Bell College in Hamilton with Carolyn Leckie, SSP top of the list candidate for Central Region and Willie O’Neill, PPC for Hamilton South.


THURSDAY 24 APRIL

Tommy and Colin Fox, SSP top of the list candidate for Lothians will present a Scottish Service Tax bill to First Minister Jack McConnell at Bute House in Edinburgh at 11 a.m.

Tommy and the SSP will highlight the fact that well-paid individuals like Jack McConnell will pay significantly more to maintain local services under the Service Tax to allow pensioners and low paid workers to pay less. The Service Tax is both progressive and redistributive and the First Minister can certainly afford to pay more on his £118,000 a year salary.


FRIDAY 25 APRIL

Tommy will address the Chartered Institute of Professional and Financial Accountants’ Annual Conference at the Moathouse Hotel, Glasgow at 9.15 a.m. He will then speak at the West of Scotland Seniors’ Forum hustings at the Mitchell Theatre at 11.30 a.m.

At 2 p.m. on Friday Tommy will attend a Press Conference (Venue to be confirmed) to explain the SSP’s minimum wage policy of £7.32 an hour for public sector workers in Scotland.

Later on that day from 7 p.m. onwards, Tommy will be joined at the Mitchell Theatre, Granville Street, Glasgow by Ken Loach, the socialist film director and Peter Mullan, SSP member and actor/director to address an election rally.
[ends]
For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Alan McCombes on 07881988 337

SSP gain in polls

Another poll was published last night by YouGov for the Mail on Sunday, showing Labour nine points ahead of the SNP on first- vote intentions, by 35 to 26%, and ahead on second-vote intentions by 28 to 24%. It also shows the smaller parties to be up on their 1999 results, with the Tories appearing to beat the LibDems on both votes. The bad news for Labour is that Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan is seen as far more impressive than any other leader -- while 31% of those polled say Jack McConnell has performed badly. SNP leader John Swinney is thought to have been the least impressive party leader.

The question of how much the Iraq war has moved voter opinion suggests that the biggest winner has been the most stridently anti-war party, the SSP. But the most striking part of the poll is how much those intending to vote Labour and Conservative on their first vote say their voting intentions have been altered because of the position taken on the war. Both parties have attracted voters -- 10% of Tory voters and 11% of Labour voters say they have shifted their voting intentions.

There has been anecdotal evidence of Tory votes moving to Labour on the issue. Sunday Herald

Note: The Mail on Sunday YouGov poll has put the SSP on 4% in the constituency first past the post vote and 8% in the regional list vote.

I'd vote Scottish Socialist, says Hollywood star Dougray Scott Sunday Herald