ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH TOMMY SHERIDAN

Tommy Sheridan and the Scottish Socialist Party enter the final ten days of the Scottish Parliament election campaign buoyed by recent opinion polls indicating at least 8% support across Scotland and very strong support on the streets for the SSP’s key policy of replacing the unfair council tax with the progressive income-based Scottish Service Tax.


MONDAY 21 APRIL

Tommy will today outline the party’s continued support for nuclear disarmament and commit himself and many SSP parliamentary candidates to peaceful civil disobedience during tomorrow’s blockade of the Faslane nuclear base.

Tommy said,

“Nuclear weapons are simply inhumane and illegal. We waste over £1.5 billion a year maintaining these weapons of mass destruction when this money could instead be used to provided decent pensions for our pensioners and support over five times as many jobs. In other words, nuclear disarmament is not just about peace, it’s also about improving the quality of life for our senior citizens and creating thousands of jobs.”


TUESDAY 22 APRIL

Tommy Sheridan will join the Really Big Blockade at Faslane’s North Gate on Tuesday from
8 a.m. onwards.

After that, if at liberty, he will speak at a public meeting in Springburn, alongside SSP candidate Margaret Bean, who is a health service worker at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The meeting starts at 7.30 p.m. in All Saint’s Secondary School, 299 Rye Hill Road, and will highlight the SSP’s policies to tackle poverty in one of the poorest constituencies in Britain.

Later on in the evening, he will appear in a Newsnight face-to-face interview at 10.30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL

After meeting so many members of the Police Federation at Faslane, Tommy Sheridan will address delegates at their annual Conference in Peebles Hydro from 11 a.m. He will discuss and promote the SSP’s anti-crime policies linked integrally to the war on poverty and the legalisation of cannabis to isolate deadly heroin and genuinely force the dealers in death off our streets.

At 2 p.m. the SSP will launch their vital “CAMPAIGN FOR THE PEACH VOTE”. The SSP intends to highlight the nature of the complicated electoral system by emphasising the importance of the variously described “2nd vote / list vote / peach vote”.

Tommy Sheridan will say:
“We are appealing for the peach vote across Scotland. In particular we ask those who will vote Labour with their first, or constituency vote, not to waste their peach vote. The party list ballot paper is peach coloured. The SSP relies on the citizens of Scotland supporting us with their peach vote.”

At 7.30 p.m. that evening, Tommy will address a public meeting at Bell College in Hamilton with Carolyn Leckie, SSP top of the list candidate for Central Region and Willie O’Neill, PPC for Hamilton South.


THURSDAY 24 APRIL

Tommy and Colin Fox, SSP top of the list candidate for Lothians will present a Scottish Service Tax bill to First Minister Jack McConnell at Bute House in Edinburgh at 11 a.m.

Tommy and the SSP will highlight the fact that well-paid individuals like Jack McConnell will pay significantly more to maintain local services under the Service Tax to allow pensioners and low paid workers to pay less. The Service Tax is both progressive and redistributive and the First Minister can certainly afford to pay more on his £118,000 a year salary.


FRIDAY 25 APRIL

Tommy will address the Chartered Institute of Professional and Financial Accountants’ Annual Conference at the Moathouse Hotel, Glasgow at 9.15 a.m. He will then speak at the West of Scotland Seniors’ Forum hustings at the Mitchell Theatre at 11.30 a.m.

At 2 p.m. on Friday Tommy will attend a Press Conference (Venue to be confirmed) to explain the SSP’s minimum wage policy of £7.32 an hour for public sector workers in Scotland.

Later on that day from 7 p.m. onwards, Tommy will be joined at the Mitchell Theatre, Granville Street, Glasgow by Ken Loach, the socialist film director and Peter Mullan, SSP member and actor/director to address an election rally.
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For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Alan McCombes on 07881988 337