SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 17/01/04

The Scottish Socialist Party Parliamentary group today issued a warning to the Scottish Executive that they would be “dining with despots” if they were to accept an invitation from His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al Faisal for dinner at the Caledonian Hilton Hotel on Monday, 26th January.
Scottish Socialist Party National Convenor Tommy Sheridan denounced the visit in the strongest possible terms, saying;
“Jack McConnell and his band of tinpot democrats are going to commit an act of breathtaking hypocrisy.
“They were cheerleaders for the illegal war on Iraq, partly on the basis that Saddam was a dictator and a lack of democracy in that country.
“Now we find them putting on their lounge suits for a dinner date with members of the Saudi Royal Family, despots to a man, ruthless rulers of a country that the CIA reports its citizens ‘have neither the right nor the legal means to change their government’”.
Sheridan accused the Saudi regime of consistently denying it’s citizens basic human rights, of being involved in the torture of detained prisoners and of the prohibition or restriction of freedom of speech, the press, the right to assembly, association , movement, the practising of religion and the rights of workers.
Sheridan said;
“The Scottish Executive don’t need to take my word for it, they just need to read the US Department of State report on Saudi Arabia as I have.
“In it they will find a detailed account of the activities of the despots who run Saudi Arabia.
“What I read turned my stomach and neither I nor any other Scottish Socialist Party MSP will be accepting our invitations to dine with these monsters.
“Jack McConnell is presumably able to take dinner with Prince Turki Al Faisal knowing that his government beheads women.
“The Scottish Socialists will not be dining with despots.”
[ends]

Notes:
US Department of State report on Saudi Arabia

Evening Times
DEVELOPERS have been given permission to build three blocks of flats on land next to the closure-threatened Queen Mum's Maternity Hospital.
Glasgow MSP Carolyn Leckie said: "Housing developers must be licking their lips at the prospect of building on the hospital site because of the price of properties in the area.
"People are kidding themselves if they believe flats will not be built on the hospital land if the site is sold off."

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit Press Release: 15/01/04

Scottish Socialist Party MSP calls for equal access to sexual health education and services.

Scottish Socialist Party Health Spokesperson Carolyn Leckie, commenting on the Executive's Sexual Health Strategy, today called on the Scottish Executive to commit enough resources through core funding to enshrine the rights of all to comprehensive sex and relationships education throughout their life.

Carolyn said;

"In supporting the aims of the Sexual Health Strategy, we must also understand that, without the eradication of poverty and gender inequality, our achievements will be limited.

"I am concerned that the local consultations to which the strategy refers might lead to unequal access and provision.

"That must be tackled head on.

"Every child and person in the country, no matter what school they go to or what community they live in, should have equal access to advice and provision."

Carolyn specifically called for women to be given equal access to terminations and an end to the ability of individual consultants to frustrate access to terminations on the basis of their own value judgements.

She said that every woman should have access to termination services within one week and that women and staff should be free from harassment.

Carolyn said that there was a particular need to cater for women suffering from domestic violence; the last thing they need is being obstructed from obtaining a termination beyond the 1st trimester. Carolyn called for 24 hour availability of emergency contraception which should be free.

Ms Leckie took to task politicians who were critical of women who have children at a young age.

Carolyn said; "We should not blame young women individually and tar them as irresponsible.

"I have looked after a lot of these young women in my career as a midwife; they have impressed me enormously with their stoicism, maturity and commitment to their responsibility.

"Lots of these young women show wonderful commitment in dealing with the situation in which they find themselves.

"Instead of blaming them and seeing them as irresponsible, we should blame the sort of society that leads a significant number of women in their teenage years to conclude that the only way for them to feel valued or important is to become a mother."

On attitudes towards sex Carolyn said;

"We must tackle the double standards in our society whereby sex is regarded as a matter of titillation to be sniggered at.

"At worst, sex can be used by men to abuse and have power over women. "Tabloid newspapers compete to have the most provocative front page on which women are reduced to body parts, with their faces often not shown.

"The general portrayal of sex is that it is something that is done to women – and the younger the better – by men.

"Such attitudes to sex are a monumental problem for society.

"They place huge pressure on everybody, particularly the most vulnerable; they distort relationships and contribute to young people's negative experiences."

Press Association
Rosie Kane made a characteristic return to politics today with a passionate plea to the Home Office to allow two Latvians living in her constituency to stay in the country.
Ms Kane, who has just returned to work as a Socialist MSP for Glasgow, is known for her campaigning against the Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire.
And after a five-week break to recover from depression it seems her ire has not died.
Following the news Latvian couple Genadijs Suhotskis and Jelena Serenja have been detained in Dungavel for deportation back to Latvia, the MSP fired off a letter to Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes in protest.

BBC News Online
Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan said the Scottish Executive should adopt the Welsh Assembly's positive approach.
Mr Sheridan said: "The Welsh Assembly has put into place some radical measures that the executive could very easily implement if they had the political will to do so.
"Policies such as the provision of free breakfasts to all primary school children and the abolition of prescription charges are the kind of progressive policies the executive refuses to even contemplate.
"In stark contrast, the executive seems determined to prevent any kind of progressive change in Scotland."

BBC NEWS | Scotland | SSP calls for poet laureate move: "SSP calls for poet laureate move

Scotland should appoint its own poet laureate as a tribute to Robert Burns, according to the Scottish Socialists. Socialist MSP Colin Fox said a poet should be appointed every January to produce verses 'true to Burns' egalitarian beliefs'. The MSP for the Lothian region said it would mark the bard's significant contribution to Scots culture.

Mr Fox sang Burns' 'A Man's A Man For A' That' during the swearing in ceremony in parliament in May. Andrew Motion, the UK's poet laureate, was appointed in 1999 and succeeded Ted Hughes. Mr Fox said Scotland should appoint its own poet laureate.

'At this time of year when the whole country thinks about Burns with Burns suppers and so on, I thought that there's not really a living monument, something the country can look towards in celebration,' he said.

'There are other things ongoing, such as the plan to rename Prestwick Airport as Rabbie Burns International, but rather than looking back I thought we should come up with something newer and fresher.'

Mr Fox said the poet laureate should be elected each year either by members of the poetry community or in a wider vote across Scotland.

'This would give up and coming and aspiring poets a chance to get work for one or two years, paid for by the Scottish Executive,' he added.

Mr Fox revealed that he has been swamped with requests to speak at Burns Suppers this year after television pictures of his performance at the swearing in ceremony.

He said: 'I've been inundated with requests. I don't know how I'm going to do them all but people have said they want me to do the Immortal Memory as I'm a bit of a Burns celebrity.

'So I'm going to try and go to as many as I can and have a wee dram, but I'll probably be sick of haggis by the end of it.'

Robert Burns was born on 25 January, 1759 in the village of Alloway near Ayr."

Daily Record
POP Idol winner Michelle McManus is set to score another No 1 in the Scottish Parliament.
The nation's favourite is set to win more votes than any other motion tabled in the Parliament's five-year history.
Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie has tabled a motion applauding Michelle'ssuccess in becoming the first Scottish female singer to enter the charts at number one with her debut single.
It looks certain she will get the backing of almost all of the 129 MSPs at Holyrood.
Leckie said: ''I believe her victory can be an inspiration to women everywhere to follow their own dreams.''

The Scotsman
The Scottish Socialist MSP Rosemary Byrne has tabled a parliamentary motion, calling for a complete moratorium on the practice until the Scottish Executive provides details of the number of sites across Scotland where this form of disposal is taking place.

Firebrand Rosie Returns to Work Sunday Mail

I Never Want that Darkness Again The Herald