Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): I cannot help but be cynical about the Executive's motivation behind the debate.
As I am sure the chamber recognises, the debate has the stamp of Mrs Thatcher all over it. It has the stamp of someone who believed that there was no such thing as communities or society.

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): Is the member aware of the qualitative research conducted by Barnardo's, which shows that some of the young people to whom she is referring are the most vulnerable victims in society? Will she confirm that the "plague" mentioned in yesterday's Executive press release was a reference to those people? Does she agree that that is an offensive word to use in relation to young people or to our communities? Does she also agree that it is as offensive as some of the references to people with mental health problems that have been made this week in the chamber?

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): We must ask why young people feel disillusioned and disjointed from the rest of society.
Many young people have no one to talk to. They come out of homes where there is so much deprivation. If people struggling on casual jobs are told at short notice that they have to work the night shift, who will do the homework with the children? Those are real issues in our communities. The Scottish Socialist Party is not out of touch; we are well aware of the issues in our communities.

Daily Record, 02/10/03
Scottish Socialist MSPs attacked Curran's comments.
Carolyn Leckie said: ``Does Margaret Curran want these people to be disappeared in the same way the street children of Brazil do, hunted down by gangs of vigilantes?
``Our young people must be included in Scottish society, not outrageously demonised as a ``plague''.''

Scottish Socialist Party justice spokesman Colin Fox described the proposals to tag child offenders as a "brutal and uncivilised" measure, claiming the anti-social behaviour debate had the "stamp of Mrs Thatcher all over it".

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 01/10/03

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosemary Byrne reacted with anger and disbelief to a Scottish Executive press briefing in which anti social behaviour in Scotland’s communities was described as a “modern day plague”.
Rosemary said;
“This kind of language from a Government minister is completely unacceptable.
“The young people that Margaret Curran is referring to are amongst the most marginalised and vulnerable of Scotland’s young people.
“I have figures from ‘Children in Scotland' which show that approximately 44% of young people in custody had attended special schools, Margaret Curran’s comments are completely unacceptable.”

Carolyn Leckie, Scottish Socialist Party MSP list MSP for Central Scotland added;
“Does Margaret Curran want these people to be disappeared in the same way that the street children of Brazil do, hunted down by gangs of vigilantes?
“By dancing to the tune of the tabloid press on law and order, Labour ministers are entering dangerous waters.
“The Scottish Socialists will continue to fight for inclusive and tolerant communities with public facilities that give our young people positive options in life.
“Our young people must be included in Scottish society, not outrageously demonised as a “plague”.

Letter to the Herald

Congratulations on your scoop on the failure of the Scottish Executive's healthy eating strategy and your excellent editorial on the need for free school meals as an essential part of any healthy eating campaign (September 29). The SSP warned at the time of the launch of the executive's strategy that it was doomed to failure because, up against the power of the fast-food industry, it would founder. All the research we have looked at suggests that a major social and cultural change is required to combat the unhealthy life of Scots which puts us at the top of the European league tables for heart disease, obesity, and cancer. The most successful country we have looked at, Finland, used free school meals consciously, not only to give a balanced, nutritious lunch but to re-educate the pupils and their parents in healthy eating. This was clearly shown by the BBC Frontline Scotland programme that should be compulsory viewing for the executive.

Last week you published the OECD league tables on education which placed Finland firmly on top and the UK slipping to 22nd. Part of their success they attribute to their free school meals, which not only give the pupils a healthy lunch, helping their concentration, but also teach them how to sit together and relate to each other rather than walking around the high street grazing on unhealthy fast-food, as many of our pupils do. To those Labour MSPs who claim pupils in Scotland would not eat free school meals, Finland shows this is nonsense as 95% of pupils take free school meals. Are we so different from Finland?

The Scottish Parliament will soon have a chance of voting again on the principle of free school meals. It is getting widespread support but unless the Labour-LibDem majority changes its position, it will fail again. On the basis of your article and your editorial, the SSP and, I'm sure, many Scots will hope that it changes its position.

Labour appeared alarmed by the increasing support for Tommy Sheridan's bill to abolish council tax. The Scottish Socialist leader received support from two Nationalist back benchers, taking the number of signatures required to allow the proposal to make progress to above the necessary threshold.
Mr Sheridan has already fought high-profile campaigns in pursuing popular causes with privately proposed legislation. These include the abolition of warrant sales and poindings, and proposals to provide free meals to all primary school children.

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 30/09/03

The Scottish Socialists have begun moves to support the Consumer Council and other agencies which have called for the end of junk food advertising to children.
Carolyn Leckie MSP, the Scottish Socialists health spokesperson, has sought a meeting with the Parliament’s Non-Executive Bills Unit to discuss the framing of a Private Members Bill outlawing junk food advertising in Scotland.
Miss Leckie said,
“Now that we have proof from the Food Standards Agency that the advertising of junk food to children definitely affects what they eat we have to act.
"The food industry has known that for donkeys years and has spent billions targeting our kids to persuade them to eat junk. I’m examining whether we could introduce a law outlawing the advertising of junk food to children in Scotland.
"We believe that we could introduce this measure given that there was an earlier proposal from the SNP to outlaw tobacco advertising which was ruled as competent because it was a health related issue.
"If our children’s diet isn’t a health issue nothing is. We have to act now if we want to give today’s children a decent future. We believe that a law banning junk food advertising would go hand in hand with our free School Meals proposal in starting to change Scotland’s dietary habits for the better”.

"All my activity is aimed at silencing the weapons and seeking a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish problem"
Leyla Zana in her defence speech at the State Security Court, 1994

Public Meeting

Freedom for the Kurds - Freedom for Leyla Zana
Turkey, its human rights record in the aftermath of the war and ongoing repression of the Kurds

5.30-7.30pm
Wednesday, 8 October 2003

Committee Room 4, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh

Hosted and chaired by Frances Curran MSP

Speakers include:

• Akif Bozat, Kurdistan National Congress (KNK)


• UK representative, Mark Muller, barrister and Chair of Kurdish Human Rights Project

Leyla Zana, in jail since 1994, remains a potent symbol of Kurdish resistance and won many accolades for her stand for peace and reconciliation in a truly democratic Turkey. Recently, the unilateral ceasefire adopted by the Kurdish PKK in 1999 and upheld by its successor KADEK, the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, came to an end. Turkey had failed to respond in any meaningful way and instead sought to enforce a complete surrender on the Kurds through a so-called Repentance Law. Now KADEK has issued a “road map” providing a credible blueprint for peace and renewed hope for a resolution of the Kurdish question. This fragile hope needs to be encouraged and the proposals seriously discussed. The paper reforms adopted by Turkey need to be implemented. The reforms will only become credible for the Kurds when political prisoners like Leyla Zana and Abdullah Ocalan are freed.

Leyla Zana is an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience and her many accolades include the European Parliament’s Sakharov Peace Prize.

Supported by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign

The Appledore Work-In

Workers at the Appledore ship-yard in Devon have occupied it to save their jobs. Read more about the struggle and find out how you can help at the link above, which is a blog set up by the workforce.

End the Occupations of Iraq and Palestine. Demonstration, Edinburgh 27.9.03

Click on the link above to see pictures of the demonstration.

Healthy eating campaign branded a failure

AN expensive and high-profile campaign by the Scottish Executive to improve diet and help banish the "sick man of Europe" tag has failed to win widespread public support.
New statistics show only 0.5% of Scots have called the Healthy Living advice helpline in the nine months since Jack McConnell launched the initiative, describing it as a "long-term commitment to improve our nation's health".
Despite a multi-million-pound TV, radio, and newspaper advertising campaign featuring celebrity chef Nick Nairn, figures show the number of calls to the helpline has slumped dramatically...

The executive has already begun a second phase of promotional multi-media advertising, estimated to cost more than £1m in what is expected to be a three-year campaign.
However, Tommy Sheridan, convener of the Scottish Socialist party, said the healthy living campaign was "as useful as a chocolate teapot".
Mr Sheridan, whose free school meals bill was defeated in the Scottish Parliament last year, said: "They should stop wasting our money. If they were serious about tackling this health timebomb, they would adopt universal, nutritional and free school meals. The key to changing attitudes is through the schools." The Herald