Shame on the Scottish Executive this christmas
Tommy Sheridan writes in the Scottish Daily Mirror
December 17, 2003, Wednesday

I MAKE no apology for returning in this column to the plight of Scotland's nursery nurses.
The media has largely ignored their case for a decent wage, with local and national politicians continuing their patronising policy of supportive words - but no action to back them up.
Nursery nurses do a vital job for our kids' education in those crucial early years.
Nobody who starts out on a career in education does so in the hope of making themselves rich.
But surely to goodness the minimum anyone should expect is a decent living wage in line with the responsibilities of the job?
Our nursery nurses are being denied this basic right.
An average wage for these workers is just £13,361 a year and there has been no review of their pay since 1988.
Over the past year, the number of pre-school places has increased by four per cent, yet staffing levels have dropped by 13 per cent.
These facts give the nursery nurses a cast-iron case for a significant pay increase and new job description. Three years ago, they lodged a wage claim in a bid to address the low pay which blights their occupation.
But that claim was completely ignored by their employers, leaving the workers with little option other than to reluctantly organise industrial action.
In a ballot at the end of April, 87 per cent of nursery nurses voted in favour of strike action.
Many Scots are right behind them. In Edinburgh, more than 12,000 local people signed a petition in support of the nursery nurses in just a few days.
BUT employers seem to think it's their job to play Scrooge this Christmas.
Scotland's local authorities are represented by Cosla and, not only have they refused the very reasonable demands presented by the workers' union Unison, they have actively sought to set the workers against each other by attempting to negotiate individual local agreements.
I have questioned the First Minister in Parliament over the treatment of the nursery nurses and asked him to intervene with Cosla on their behalf.
My colleague Carolyn Leckie has lodged a motion calling for Cosla to settle to the workers' satisfaction before Christmas.
Scotland's politicians, however, seem to have very little to say about paying these vital workers a living wage.
Perhaps they are embarrassed by the fact that an average MSP is paid the equivalent of four nursery nurses.
And in Jack McConnell's case, it's the equivalent of nine nursery nurses.
Unison commissioned a poll to find out public attitudes to public sector workers.
And nearly 90 per cent of Scots thought public services would not be delivered successfully unless staff were paid a fair wage and treated fairly.
Who could disagree?
Ah yes... Jack McConnell and the Scottish Executive.
They seem to be happy enough taking large salaries from the public purse, while denying workers who play a vital role in the early years education of Scotland's children a decent wage.
Shame on them this Christmas.

Evening News - MSP bid for single MMR

MSP bid for single MMR
THE Scottish Parliament is to hear renewed calls for babies in Scotland to be offered single MMR vaccines.

Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie is proposing a Single Vaccinations for MMR (Scotland) Bill in a bid to increase uptake of measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations by making single jabs available on the NHS.

The proposal has been signed by 14 Scottish Parliament members.

Take-up of the combined vaccine has fallen in recent years following speculation about a link between the jab and autism.

Bill would allow right to free single jabs for MMR

PLANS to give parents the right to free single vaccinations for MMR were presented yesterday by the Scottish Socialists.
Carolyn Leckie, SSP list MSP for Central Scotland, who is also a midwife, unveiled a proposed back-bench bill to go before the Scottish Parliament encouraging worried parents to choose single vaccinations instead of the all-in-one MMR jab, which has been suspected by some health experts of being the cause of the rising incidence of autism. The Herald

Evening Times
Scottish Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan today challenged First Minister Jack McConnell over the nursery nurses' continuing wage dispute.
At Thursday's First Minister's Questions he will demand to know whether Mr McConnell believes "an MSP to be worth the average pay of four nursery nurses and a Cabinet Minister six nursery nurses".
Mr Sheridan said: "Politicians wax lyrical about the importance of children's education yet the case of these frontline workers is being ignored.
"The salary levels of Scots nursery nurses are pathetic, relative to the job they perform.
"It's time the First Minister intervened on their behalf."

A former Scottish National Party MSP is defecting to the Scottish Socialist Party.
BBC News Online

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 14/12/03

Leading Scottish National Party figure and ex MSP for the West Of Scotland Lloyd Quinan has announced his resignation from the party he has been a member of for 29 years.
Lloyd, 46, will announce at a press conference in Glasgow City Chambers that the Scottish National Party has shown a repeated failure to take the initiative in the fight for independence and that he has decided that the Scottish Socialist Party paints a vision of the Scotland that he wants to see.
Lloyd Quinan joined the Scottish National Party in 1974 and has been a lifelong republican socialist and internationalist.
Lloyd brings to the SSP a vast range of experience through decades of campaigning and trade union membership.
Lloyd was a member of Alex Salmond’s shadow cabinet and is widely known through his work on Scottish Parliament cross party groups on Autism, Palestine and Europe.
Lloyd said;
“After decades membership of the Scottish National Party I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the party I joined in 1974 no longer represents the vision of Scotland that I believe in.
“The leadership of the SNP have let the party down over participation in the Independence convention and over the crisis in the fishing industry.
“The Scottish Socialist Party is a progressive, developing party.
“It is internationalist, fights for equality and is socialist.
“The SSP paints a vision of the kind of Scotland I want to see, the SNP under the current leadership completely fails to do that.”
Tommy Sheridan welcomed Lloyd’s decision to leave the SNP and join the Scottish Socialists.
Tommy said;
“I have known Lloyd for many years and he is a man of principle and integrity.
“His decision to leave the SNP and join the Scottish Socialist Party is one I know he will not have taken lightly.
“I would appeal to all those in the SNP who are dismayed at the timidity of the leadership and the move to the right on a whole range of issues to come and join Lloyd in the SSP.”