The Times
THE Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane yesterday told how she struggled for more than a month "in a very dark place" when she was laid low by depression last year.
She also described how the condition left her unable to communicate with her two daughters.
Ms Kane, who stopped work after suffering clinical depression, described her ordeal in her first broadcast interview since returning to work in the Scottish Parliament. She told the Radio 5 Live interviewer Simon Mayo that as her condition deteriorated her friends knew but she at first carried on working, in "complete denial".
"I hit a wall," she said. "I just retreated to the settee with a continental quilt. It sounds like you're down and you're having a duvet day but it's very, very different to that...I have two beautiful, bright, wonderful daughters and I was unable to communicate with them at any level."
Ms Kane said that she had received therapy, medication and counselling which helped her recovery, and she now organised her work in a different way.

Evening Times
CLAIMS that NHS bosses misinformed the public over the Queen Mum's hospital will go before a committee of MSPs.

Carolyn Leckie, Socialist MSP and ex-midwife who has campaigned for the Queen Mum's, said: "We need to be able to independently scrutinise the evidence.
"There is no point having a consultation if the facts are only in the domain of a select few."

Evening News
LOTHIANS MSP Colin Fox today condemned the 10p rise in prescription charges as "a sick joke" on April Fools’ Day.
The Scottish Socialist MSP, who is proposing a Bill to abolish the charges, said the increase to £6.40 per item from today meant prescription charges had gone up 3200 per cent since 1979.
"If the rise had only been kept to the rate of inflation, they would today cost just 64p instead."
He condemned prescription charges as a tax on illness.
"Many will feel the Scottish Executive are making April fools out of patients. There are already 70,000 people in Scotland who cannot afford to get the medicines they need. Today’s increase adds insult to injury," he said.
Mr Fox said Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm had told him that patients need not be deterred from obtaining medicines on financial grounds because there was an extensive system of exemptions and remission of charges.
However, Mr Fox said that this system was decades out of date, full of anomalies and prevented many patients from accessing NHS treatment.

The Times
JACK McCONNELL was accused of sexism yesterday after he said that striking female nursery nurses were being manipulated by men on either side of the dispute.
The Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie, who has been a vocal supporter of the nursery nurses, accused the First Minister of "outrageous, patronising sexism".
She added: "To suggest that the nursery nurses are still on strike today because of anything other than their own will, determination and the justice of their case is an outrageous insult to these brave and courageous women.
"Yet again Jack McConnell is doing his Pontius Pilate impersonation, washing his hands of any responsibility for this dispute. The fact of the matter is that the First Minister and the Scottish Executive could end this dispute tomorrow morning if they told Cosla to settle."

Edinburgh Evening News
PARENTS and politicians were today set to stage a march in protest against the proposed closure of a city primary school.
Scottish Socialist Party MSP for the Lothians Colin Fox was to join marchers objecting to plans to close Lismore Primary School under council cost-cutting moves.

The Scottish Socialist Party today announced its list for the
forthcoming European elections on June 10th.
The list is as follows

1) Felicity Garvie
2) Dr Nick McKerrell
3) Hugh Kerr
4) Catriona Grant
5) Lynn Sheridan
6) John Sangster
7) Andrew Rossiter

The voting system used means that the list is regional and
gender balanced.

Topping the list is Felicity Garvie, 49, who is married to
Stuart, a toolmaker by trade.
She has two sons Tommy (19) and Adam (15).
Felicity has worked as Office Manager to Tommy Sheridan for
almost five years.
Prior to that she lived in Cologne, Germany, for almost 20
years and has active in the international socialist movement
for 28 years.
Felicity said;
"It is an honour to be top of the Scottish Socialist Party's
list for the European elections and our aim is to relegate the
Liberal Democrats to 5th place in Scottish politics.
"The Scottish Socialist Party will be launching our distinctive
European election campaign in opposition to the xenophobic,
Union Jack waving Tories but also in opposition to New Labour,
the SNP and Liberal Democrats who prostitute themselves before
the bankers of Frankfurt.
"They support a big business Europe; we support a people's Europe."

Doctor Nick McKerrell is 33 and a lecturer in law at Glasgow
Caledonian University and lecturers union convenor.
He was legal spokesperson for the campaign to save Govanhill pool.

Hugh Kerr was a Labour member of the European Parliament and
former press officer for the Scottish Socialist Party.

Hugh said;
"I gave Felicity my second vote in these elections myself and
believe that she is an excellent candidate for the European elections.
"I will be campaigning hard along with the rest of the SSP to
get Felicity elected to the European Parliament."
[ends]

Report in the Herald

Thousands of striking nursery nurses have marched through Edinburgh to the headquarters of COSLA. They called on COSLA to immediately meet their demands for a fair national pay agreement. Singing and chanting they surrounded the COSLA hq to hear speakers from Unison and also Colin Fox MSP who called for the Scottish Parliament to intervene. The demonstration showed the continuing determination and unity of the nursery nurses who had travelled from all over Scotland to attend the demo. The strikers used the skills learned at work to adapt some nursery rhymes adding their own words, one of which related to COSLA chief Pat Watters..."Tommy says sack him, and we're gonna back him!"

Gallery of pictures of the demonstration

Tommy Sheridan SSP convener addresses conference

The Herald: Scottish Socialists reject move to ban religious schools


THE annual conference of the Scottish Socialist party yesterday rejected calls for a ban on all faith-based schools after a strongly-contested debate in which many delegates fought to uphold the party's support for secular education.
Although the amendment continued the party's commitment to a secular Scotland in the long run, it upheld existing policy of accepting religious schools where these had strong local support.
John Milligan, from the RMT rail union delegation, said the SSP had to back religious schools, which meant primarily Catholic schools in Scotland, if it wanted to win support from the public and grow as a party.


RMT delegate John Milligan addresses conference

"I ask conference to recognise the reality out in the country and stand full square behind the SSP's policy. It's a good policy and worth fighting for," he said.
He was backed by Charlie McCarthy from Anniesland in Glasgow, who said the motions calling for a ban on religious schools were "the most dangerous ones at conference," adding: "If we ban it, we would have to enforce it on people who would be really annoyed by it and we would face a backlash."
The conference backed a motion agreeing that the SSP wanted a secular Scotland but calling for a nationwide debate over the next 12 months to help deliver a detailed policy.
There was also compromise during a contentious debate on prostitution and the tolerance zones being advocated in the bill from independent MSP Margo MacDonald. Angela McCormick, from Maryhill East, urged delegates to back tolerance zones to minimise the risks faced by sex workers.
She said the whole party opposed prostitution but it needed to work "from where we are today and not where we wish to be tomorrow".
The conference also offered condolences to Tommy Sheridan, the party's convener, who missed the second day of the event because of the death of his grandmother.

BBC News Online
Scottish Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan has demanded the resignation of Scotland's top councillor over the nursery nurses strike.
In a speech to his party's conference in Edinburgh he branded Pat Watters a "disgrace" for his handling of the dispute.
Mr Watters is president of the local government body Cosla.
The SSP is campaigning for a national settlement but Cosla is negotiating local deals.
Speaking at his party's annual conference in Edinburgh on Saturday, Mr Sheridan said: "We should say today to New Labour's Pat Watters, you are a damn disgrace.
"On the one hand he calls for call for national pay for councillors of £25,000 a year but he's not prepared to support national pay for nursery nurses of £14,000 a year. It's time for Pat Watters to resign."
The comments caused a roar of applause and shouts among the 400 delegates packed into Edinburgh University's George Square Theatre for the two-day annual gathering.

Nursery Nurses Address SSP Conference



COSLA's Rebuttal
BBC News Online: Cosla laughs off resignation call
"Pat Watters is an excellent president of Cosla and his position as president has nothing to do with the SSP or indeed the parliament."
"Pat has a long history in trade union negotiation and not once during this dispute has he had a go at the nursery nurses - only their claim.