Evening Times: Patients 'will suffer in NHS budget cuts'

PATIENTS needing hospital treatment in Lanarkshire are facing bed cuts and a reduced quality of care, an MSP said today.
Carolyn Leckie accused the Scottish Executive of a failure to provide adequate funding to NHS Lanarkshire after it emerged it was facing spending cuts of up to 15% to meet its budget.

The Herald: Leak shows SNP swithered on support for war

JOHN Swinney's European election campaign was again undermined by a rebel MSP yesterday, after the leak of an internal note showing the SNP was ready to switch its stance on the Iraq war.
Written in September 2002 by Campbell Martin, the suspended MSP for West of Scotland, the unofficial minute suggests that rather than opposing the war on principle, the SNP was ready to jump sides as it weighed up the electoral pros and cons.
Mr Swinney has put opposition to the war at the heart of his Euro campaign, and rival parties last night branded him an opportunist...

But the Scottish Socialist party said Iraq would still be a "blood-soaked nightmare" even if the SNP had got its UN resolution.
"These minutes show that the SNP's position is based on electoral expediency as opposed to political principle. We believe parties should base policies on principles not pragmatism."

Press Release: 07/06/04

Nursery nurses call for European vote for SSP

Nursery nurses from across Glasgow will gather tomorrow outside Glasgow City Chambers to call for a vote for the Scottish Socialist Party in Thursday's European elections. Also attending this event will be SSP MSP's Carolyn Leckie and Tommy Sheridan who have championed the cause of the nursery nurses in the Scottish Parliament.

The nursery nurses are furious at their treatment at the hands of Scotland's overwhelmingly Labour councils and the Labour dominated Scottish Executive. In particular, nursery nurses in Glasgow point to the Labour council's use of anti trade union legislation brought in by the Tories which allowed Labour councillors to threaten them with the sack unless they returned to work.

Nursery nurse Irene Lang from Govan said; "Thursday will be an opportunity for people who have been treated badly to make their feelings known. I will be supporting the SSP – they have been fantastic in their support on the picket lines."

Carolyn Leckie, Scottish Socialist Party MSP for Central Scotland said; "The fight for proper recognition of the job that the nursery nurses do will go on as will the struggle for equal pay for women workers. "We will hold Labour to account for their appalling treatment of the nursery nurses including their use of anti trade union legislation brought in by the Tories. "The nursery nurses know that when it came down to it the £1.5 million paid by UNISON in donations to Labour bought nothing but backstabbing and sell outs."

Scottish Socialist Party
National Office
70 Stanley Street
Kinning Park
Glasgow G41 1JB