Scottish Socialist Party General Election 2005

SSP: Police spying on visitors to Scotland

Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Colin Fox today accused Scottish police of spying on visitors to Scotland after it was revealed that hotels, bed and breakfasts, camping and caravan sites in Fife were being asked to provide details of bookings coinciding with the G8 summit between 6-8th July. The request was contained in a form letter, dated 23rd February 2005, from Supt. Ian Hutton to owners of hotels, bed and breakfasts, camping and caravan sites in Fife.

Colin said; "This is a major assault on civil liberties and amounts to nothing less than police spying on visitors to Scotland. "There will be hundreds of thousands of people from across the UK, Europe and the wider world who will come to Scotland to exercise their lawful right to peaceful protest at the G8 summit and yet the police are treating everyone of them as if they were law breakers and troublemakers. "The people of Scotland will be outraged that our reputation as a country that gives a warm welcome to visitors is being tarnished by Big Brother police and security services."

Scottish Socialist Party candidate for Glenrothes Constituency, Morag Balfour, has raised the issue in her campaigning work in the constituency.

Morag said; "This is a shocking development. "First we get fortress Gleneagles to protect political leaders responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, now Big Brother invades Fife. "The message this gives out is that if you are visiting Fife in early July then you are a possible troublemaker, hardly the traditional Fife welcome." [ends]

Morag Balfour (31) is the SSP's Peace and Disarmament spokesperson, Regional Chair of Mid-Scotland & Fife SSP and a member of the Iona Community. She is on the Executive of Scottish CND and is actively involved in Trident Ploughshares. She has taken part in numerous high profile demonstrations against the illegal Iraq war.