Edinburgh Evening News - Students to vote for a Coke boycott at unions STUDENTS are set to ban Coca-Cola from shops and bars at Edinburgh University over alleged human rights abuses at an overseas factory.

The Edinburgh University Students’ Association is next month expected to back a proposed boycott of the giant drinks firm.

The move would mean the company would lose its £120,000-a-year contract with EUSA and all advertising rights in buildings owned by the student union.

Eleven other universities worldwide - including four in England - have already introduced similar boycotts.

A global campaign was launched amid allegations that Colombian workers who attempted to unionise one of the firm’s factories were tortured, and another activist was murdered outside the plant’s gates.

Scotland Today: "With the Oscars taking place this weekend, on Wednesday February 23 all eyes were on on some young filmmakers from Scotland who were in London being honoured for their own work. Jude Law, Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen were among the judging panel who heaped praise on the pupils' short films.

The First Light film awards, celebrating films made by young people, was held at the Odeon West End in London's Leicester Square and it was a great day for Scotland and a group from Edinburgh.

Actor Colin Salmon announced: 'The winner of the first light award 2005 in the category of best documentary is - quite right too - Old Enough To Know Better.

Brian McLeod and Nick Erdly, John Cooper and Devon Simonsen are Pilton Video and they produced a documentary on the mass protest and school walkouts in Edinburgh in the days leading up to the Iraq war.

On had to lend their support to the proceedings were Lord Of The Rings star Sir Ian McKellen and Rupert Grint, famous, of course, as Harry Potter's mate Ron Weasley.

Rupert Grint said: 'It's wicked because I sort of started out quite young when I was 11 and it's such good experience, it's really good fun so it's good to see like younger ones as well getting into film as well.'

Sir Ian McKellen added: 'The films I've seen are quite extraordinary. I could have done nothing like that at their age or my own age.'"

Edinburgh Evening News - Politics - SSP leader Fox accuses ministers of censorship

NEW Scottish Socialist Party leader Colin Fox has accused the Scottish Executive of censoring debate on his Bill to scrap prescription charges.

A decision by the Scottish Parliament’s business bureau means the Bill will not be debated in the parliament until Christmas - a full two and a half years after it was first lodged.

Mr Fox, a list MSP for the Lothians, claimed the Executive parties, which have a majority of the votes in the bureau, were deliberately delaying the proposed legislation despite widespread public support.

"So much for the idea the parliament is ready to spring into action on new ideas," he said. "This suggests it has all the spring in its step of an extinct dinosaur.

"It means 75,000 people in Scotland will face another year when they will go without medicines they need because they don’t have the money."

Scottish Campaign to Remove All Prescription Charges

The Herald Editorial

It is enough to have Gordon Brown choking on his bowl of rice. The chancellor, who is visiting China, is a firm advocate of targeting state benefits on the basis of need. He believes universal benefit, with the odd exception, is wasteful. The Scottish Executive is at one with Mr Brown on the matter of free school meals. More than two years ago, it opposed a private member's bill in the name of Tommy Sheridan of the Scottish Socialist Party to introduce universal free school meals for primary and secondary pupils, in place of the means-tested model. The bill was defeated in the Scottish Parliament. Ministers argued that, if introduced, it would be a costly and wasteful policy.

Much to the discomfort of ministers, universal free school meals will not disappear from the political menu. The Herald reports today that the policy has been endorsed by academics at Dundee University in a paper welcomed by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). One of the authors is an SSP activist who supports the policy. The other describes himself as the "departmental Conservative". This suggests that the collaborators' findings are balanced. They certainly deserve to be taken seriously by Scotland's political class.

The authors concede there would be a cost in extending free school meals to all Scottish children. However, they maintain that the price would be worth paying because it would have a disproportionately beneficial impact on poor families. Some 100,000 Scottish children live in poverty and, according to the CPAG, many are either ineligible for free school meals or do not claim them. Serving them a meal a day (perhaps the only one) would mitigate the effects of poverty. Providing nutritious, appetising food would also improve long-term health prospects; encourage the habit of healthy eating; and raise educational standards over time.

These are also the executive's aims. Ministers are, however, dead set against universal free meals because they say the cost would be some £200m a year and maintain that resources would be better targeted on those who would benefit most. But, according to the academics, many of those who could benefit most, do not. Universality would include them. Opponents argue that the policy flies in the face of common sense because better-off families do not need it. Including them is therefore seen as a waste of resources. The report's authors conclude that waste becomes a significant factor in the case of only the wealthiest 10% of families. Many probably send their children to private schools, where the policy would not apply.

But where is the waste if children take free school meals? The uptake in those Scandinavian countries where there is universality (around 100%) suggests the initiative would also be effective in Scotland. The academics say poor families would gain most. Universality would remove the stigma attached to receiving the benefit. It would also be more cost-effective to administer. The paper makes a compelling case for the policy. If ministers are serious about tackling poverty, they must pay it proper heed so that, when universal free meals next come before the parliament for debate, they do not merely write the policy off as the work of an irritating opposition party. There is too much at stake for that.

icWestlothian - New Socialist leader makes his first official visit to West Lothian

Feb 18 2005

THE new leader of a major Scottish political party is set to make his first public engagement as convenor in West Lothian.

Lothians MSP Colin Fox was recently elected convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) taking over the post from former leader Tommy Sheridan.

Mr Fox will speak at a public meeting on the NHS in St Margaret’s Academy, Livingston, on Monday, February 21, ay 7.30pm.

The new convenor explained: “I am looking forward to the public meeting on Monday night and it isgreat that my first task as convener will be to speak in Livingston.

“Under New Labour our NHS has got worse – prescription charges have risen, we’ve seen the influx of the private sector which means that a journey to hospital means people now have to pay £10 to park their car.

“Now key services are being taken from our excellent publicly owned hospitals like St John’s and moved to the privately owned such as New Royal.

“At this public meeting we’ll be asking the people of West Lothian not to give up the fight, to get involved in the broad campaign and push for all services to be returned to St John’s.”

Steven Nimmo, SSP candidate for Livingston, who will also speak at the meeting, added: “Whilst the SSP has been actively campaigning on behalf of the broad campaign to save services at St John’s, we also want to speak to people about why we think there are the current problems in the NHS and how we would change them for the better.

“The SSP is an advocate and defender of universal benefits for all, the NHS being the prime example of a service that should be available locally and free at the point of need.”