Reply to John Reid by Tommy Sheridan

It is tribute to the success of Scotland’s newest party that the UK Chairman of the Labour Party takes time out to launch a tirade against the SSP. But John Reid’s criticisms are way wide of the mark.

He describes the SSP’s manifesto as a “fantasy” because we boldly go where the timorous beasties of New Labour fear to tread.

John Reid has some brass neck. As a Cabinet Minister he picks up a pay packet of £2500 a week.

Yet he describes as “unbelievable” our call to raise pensions to £150 a week.

And he ridicules our call for a £7.32 minimum wage – even though that’s the target set by the official Low Pay unit.

Yes, we want to tackle poverty and reclaim the public assets plundered by the last Tory government.

Many of the SSP policies that John Reid rants against were once advocated by John Reid himself and by the Labour Party.

His most outrageous criticism is that the SSP are exploiting the war in Iraq for political gain.

That is nonsense. The SSP opposed the bombing of Belgrade during the 1999 election, even though it was an unpopular stance to take.

We opposed the bombing of Afghanistan – and that too was an unpopular in the aftermath of the September 11 atrocity.

John falsely accuses me of comparing our troops to Nazi war criminals. I know serving troops in the Gulf. Members of the SSP have family fighting on the frontline.

I don’t lay any blame or criticism at the door of the young soldiers who have been sent to the killing fields of Iraq.

The people I blame are politicians and the fatcat oil tycoons who started this war for their own greed and glory. They wouldn’t dream of laying their own lives on the line.

John Reid is duping voters when he says a protest vote for the SSP will help the nationalists and the Tories.

Under the Holyrood voting system, a second vote for Labour is a wasted vote in most regions of Scotland, because Labour has no chance of winning any list seats.

In contrast, the SSP is vying with the Tories and SNP for top-up seats in every region of Scotland.

So whatever you do with your first vote, at least consider giving your second vote to a new party which offers something different from the stale grey porridge of the old parties.