The Herald: Council joins calls for Dungavel rethink

SCOTLAND'S largest council yesterday added its weight to calls for the reform of Dungavel detention centre. In an uncomfortable move for the Scottish Executive and Westminster, Labour-run Glasgow City Council called for a root-and-branch review of the use of the former Lanarkshire prison for housing asylum seekers and their children. Charlie Gordon, council leader, said locking up children at the centre was "morally wrong"...

In a motion to a full meeting of the council, Keith Baldassara, Scottish Socialist, called for Dungavel to be closed and all its asylum seekers released into the community.

He praised Glasgow for housing some 11,000 asylum seekers under the Home Office dispersal programme, and educating thousands of their children in mainstream schools. He said Dungavel was the opposite of such an enlightened model and "no civilised society can accept that children are detained there. (It) is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights."

Telegraph | News | Green Party fails to stop erection of radio masts: "But the Greens, who have the support of the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Socialist Party, claimed the signal used by Tetra had been associated with adverse health effects."

The Scotsman - Scotland won't go soft on cannabis Colin Fox, an SSP MSP, said it was a "colossal waste" that 70 per cent of police anti-drug work was spent chasing cannabis users. "Scotland’s police and court time is being taken up with the prosecution of cannabis users," he said.
"By ruling out a change to the guidelines in Scotland, the First Minister is ensuring that Scotland will continue to live in the past when it comes to making progress on these arcane and outdated laws."

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 18/09/03

The Scottish Socialist Party today attacked Jack McConnell for condemning Scotland to live in the past when it comes to reform of the drugs laws on a UK wide basis.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is to issue new guidelines in relation to the arrest and charging of those caught in possession of cannabis.
At First Ministers questions in the Parliament on Thursday, Jack McConnell said that there were no plans for the Scottish police to be issued with similar guidelines.
When pressed by Scottish Socialist Party MSP Colin Fox on the issue, McConnell stated that the Scottish police would continue the battle against hard drugs despite concrete evidence to the contrary
Colin Fox said;
“The First Minister seems to be completely oblivious to the reality of drugs cases that come before Scotland’s courts.
“71.34% of all drugs seizures in Scotland are of cannabis
“78% of drugs possession arrests in Scotland are for cannabis.
“Even when it comes to the major arrests for supply and trafficking, over 50% are for cannabis.
“Scotland’s police and court time is being taken up with the prosecution of cannabis users, something that is going to end in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The First Minister, by ruling out an equivalent move in Scotland, is ensuring that Scotland will continue to live in the past when it comes to making progress on these arcane and outdated laws.”
Tommy Sheridan further said;
“It is time for our First Minister to stop being a dope in relation to cannabis.
“England, Wales and Northern Ireland are moving on but dopey Jack wants to keep us in the dark ages.”

The Herald

Letter to the Herald

I was struck by the quote on your front page (September 17) attributed to one of Mr McConnell's "special advisers". In a groundbreaking statement of faultless logic, he said: "So that is the starting point. What we are currently doing is not working."

Great. So what about the failed approach to poverty and low income? Poverty is more prevalent now than four years ago and the army of working poor grows incessantly. What the executive is doing to tackle this scourge is not working. What about the illegal drugs strategy? Earlier this month Scotland recorded a tragic milestone with a record 382 deaths from illegal drug abuse. The executive's moralistic get-tough approach has delivered more drugs deaths, more drug addiction, more drug-related crime, and more drug-related prisoners. What it is doing is not working.

In the field of dietary ill health, we observe a time-bomb of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related illnesses while the executive makes good speeches but votes against universal and healthy free school meals with milk and water for every Scottish child. What the government of Finland did to tackle the same dietary ill-health problem has worked. What the Scottish Executive is currently doing is not working.

Is this honest approach by the special adviser a welcome and new development in government policy, or merely an empty phrase aimed at bolstering an even more empty and reactionary criminal justice approach, engineered to cater for the insatiable hunger of the reactionary tabloids and not to serve Scotland's communities?

Tommy Sheridan MSP, Scottish Parliament.

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | McConnell calls for 'popular justice'

The Scottish Socialist Party accused Mr McConnell of following Margaret Thatcher's law and order agenda of the 1980s.

"Criminologists the world over agree that there is no evidence that increasing sentences has any kind of deterrent effect, all it does is fill up the prisons," said the party's justice spokesman Colin Fox.

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 16/09/03

Scottish Socialist Party Justice Spokesperson Colin Fox MSP tonight reacted to the Apex Lecture of First Minister Jack McConnell on justice issues.
“The heavily hyped and spun speech contained nothing more than rehashed platitudes with no evidence of any kind of new thinking on behalf of the First Minister
“Jack McConnell is regurgitating the right wing Thatcherite law and order agenda of the 1980’s; he is Scotland’s very own Norman Tebbit.
“While the Scottish Socialist Party had a manifesto commitment to reforming the judiciary in our Holyrood election manifesto, Labour had nothing to say.”
On sentencing policy Colin Fox said;
“Criminologists the world over agree that there is no evidence that increasing sentences has any kind of deterrent effect, all it does is fill up the prisons.
“Locking people up does not prevent crime, it is as simple as that.
“In the United States, they lock up 5 times as many people per head of population as we do in Scotland, they use the electric chair to execute criminals and yet the United States is the most violent society on earth.
“What people in the communities that we represent want more than anything else is a solution that addresses offending behaviour, filling up the jails does not do that.
“Everyone is aware of the rampant inconsistencies in sentencing policy that have to be addressed in Scotland. There have been big increases in violent crime, serious assaults and rape and yet the jails are full of people who have committed crimes of poverty, unable to pay fines or for not having a television licence”.
“Extraordinarily, the First Minister claimed that there could not be a link between crime and poverty because the Scottish Executive had solved the problem of poverty and yet there was still an issue with serious levels of crime.
“For the First Ministers information, government statistics show that poverty in Scotland under New Labour is increasing with 1 in 3 of our children living in poverty.”
“Poverty does not excuse crime but the link is proven.”

Politicians would be to blame for racist backlash Letters, The Herald

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Bid to free Dungavel children : Campaigners against the detention of children at the Dungavel centre have started a fundraising campaign to get more families released on bail.

Prominent members of the arts community have also pledged to raise the issue on the international stage.

Award winning actors, writers and directors attended the launch of the fund - including Peter Mullan, David Hayman and Gary Lewis, who starred in Billy Elliot.

They have promised to raise the issues surrounding Dungavel when attending premieres and arts festivals.

Campaigners say about 23 children are being held at the centre at present but they hope to raise enough money to get them out.

The fund has been set up by the anti-racist charity Positive Action in Housing, who are also asking for offers of accommodation from the public.

Dungavel may lead to Mullan film The Herald