SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 30/01/04

The Scottish Socialist Party group in the Scottish Parliament today issued a statement giving “complete and unequivocal support” to BBC staff and journalists who had taken action in protest at government attacks on the organisation and laid a motion in the Scottish Parliament attacking the Hutton Report as a cover-up conducted by a handpicked member of the establishment with a track record of covering up the activities of the secret state.
The SSP group also attacked Tony Blair for staging a ‘coup’ at the BBC in order to put his own loyalists into position.
Tommy Sheridan said;
“The Hutton report was a classic whitewash by an establishment judge who learned his whitewash techniques over Bloody Sunday in Derry and as a Diplock judge in Northern Ireland.
“I commend the BBC staff who demonstrated yesterday and the Scottish Socialist Party will be supporting them against the coup that New Labour has staged in the BBC.”

Scottish Socialist Party MSP for Central Region, Carolyn Leckie, has lodged a motion on behalf of the SSP group in the parliament attacking the Hutton report as a “cover-up” conducted by a hand picked member of the British legal establishment who had previously attempted to cover-up the role of British paratroopers during the now discredited Widgery Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday massacre of unarmed civilians.
The Socialists view the attacks on the BBC in the Hutton Report as an attempt to create a climate of fear and intimidation within the organisation and further evidence of moves towards the suppression of free and open reporting within the UK.
Their motion congratulates all members of BBC staff in Scotland and the rest of the UK for taking action in defence of journalistic integrity within the organisation
The SSP motion calls on Tony Blair to resign for leading the country into war on the basis of a “tissue of lies”.
[ends]

Edinburgh Evening News
There have been fresh calls for a Scottish Parliament debate into the arrest of five Algerian men in Edinburgh on terrorism charges.
The charges against the men - and four other men - were dropped last month almost a year after the arrests.
Scotland Against Criminalising Communities today supported the motion tabled in the Scottish Parliament in December by Socialist MSP Colin Fox MSP. The motion says that the issue "highlights the flaws in the Terrorism Act 2000".

BBC News Online
Three people have been charged with drugs offences at Scotland's first cannabis café, police said.
A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said: "Three people have been arrested and charged with possession of drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act."
He added: "Two people were seen using drugs within the premises."
The Purple Haze Cafe, a former greasy spoon, was opened on Thursday afternoon as a private members' club.
Café owner Paul Stewart said that cannabis would not be on sale.
Mr Stewart said he wanted to highlight the discrepancy between the way that the reclassification of the drug was being implemented on different sides of the border.
"In the rest of the UK the presumption of arrest has been taken away, but that presumption still remains in Scotland," he said.
Scottish Socialist Party MSPs Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne signed up to become members of the cafe.
Mr Sheridan said: "The people in this cafe want to take drugs off our streets and I think most people in Scotland would want to take drugs off our streets."
Earlier, First Minister Jack McConnell had condemned the cafe.
He said: "Those who are attempting to interpret the law for their own ends, I think, should think about the consequences of their actions."
Mr McConnell said Scottish police forces would continue to report cases involving cannabis to procurators fiscals, who would then consider what action should be taken.
He also described the Socialists' position as "shameful" and attacked "those who intend to interpret the law for their own ends".

Call for 'Blind Eye' to Cannabis The Scotsman

SSP backing for Scotland's first cannabis cafe

Kevin Williamson, the drugs spokesman for the Scottish Socialist Party, who is spearheading the SCCM campaign, said he wanted to build a network of tolerance zones across Scotland.

Mr Williamson said: "We want to expand it across the whole of Scotland, with the objective of calling on the Executive, the police forces and the local authorities to create Scottish-wide cannabis-tolerant zones until our parliament has the powers to change the law."

He said the campaign also wanted to turn the zones into cannabis information centres and monitor arrests for personal possession of cannabis. The Scotsman

Alarming Rise in Mumps sparks new row on MMR Evening Times

SSP worker arrested in parliament over Saudi protest

A SCOTTISH Socialist Party employee was arrested in the Scottish Parliament yesterday during a protest against Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to London.

Eddie Truman, a press officer with the SSP, was ushered from the chamber by police after a disturbance in the public gallery as Prince Turki al-Faisal took his seat in the VIP area.

The ambassador was also the target of a silent protest by MSPs from the Scottish Socialists in the main chamber.

Four SSP MSPs stood up holding printed cards that spelled out the slogan: "Despots not welcome here."

The four, Tommy Sheridan, Frances Curran, Carolyn Leckie and Rosemary Byrne, sat down after the Presiding Officer, George Reid, told them: "I will not have demonstrations in this parliament. Please sit."

Carolyn Leckie, the SSP MSP for Central Scotland region, had earlier failed in an attempt to suspend parliament’s standing orders to enable a debate to take place on the visit by the ambassador.

She described Saudi Arabia as "a totalitarian regime" which detained women for riding in taxis with unrelated men and appearing with their heads uncovered, and which beheaded people for adultery.

And she sought a debate "on whether we should welcome the representative of that regime" to the parliament. The Scotsman

BBC News Online
The Scottish Socialist Party has staged a protest in the Scottish Parliament against a visit by the Saudi Arabian ambassador.
Four Socialist MSPs stood in silence displaying placards reading "despots not welcome" when Prince Turki Al Faisal entered the chamber.
Earlier, the party had tried to move an emergency motion condemning what they described as the totalitarian regime in Saudi.
However, the move was refused by Presiding Officer George Reid.

RMT 'breached' Labour party rules

Bob Crow has demanded the right to appeal the decision

One of the unions that helped found Labour has been warned it may have to leave the party because of a row over the rules.

Rail union the RMT has threatened legal action, after the Labour party decided it had breached the rules by allowing affiliation to other parties. BBC News

Labour threatens to cut ties with founding union The Guardian

Union issues legal threat to Labour The Scotsman

BBC News Online
Campaigners have vowed to break the law by opening a cannabis cafe in Scotland when the drug is reclassified.

Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) drugs spokesman Kevin Williamson said the executive's stance had left the law looking "mangled".
He said: "It's one of these laws that's dishonest and hypocritical and like every dishonest and hypocritical law it has to be challenged."
He added: "We want to build a network of cannabis tolerant zones across Scotland beginning with the Purple Haze Café and expanding it across the whole of Scotland with the objective of calling on the Scottish Executive, the police forces and the local authorities to create Scottish-wide cannabis tolerant zones until our parliament has the powers to change the law."

The Scotsman
The visit has drawn ire among members of the Scottish political community.
Carolyn Leckie, a Scottish Socialist MSP, has lodged a motion in the Parliament describing the Saudi government as a dictatorial and oppressive regime and calling on MSPs to boycott a forthcoming reception with the ambassador.
The prince was due to host a dinner last night for politicians, academics and business leaders with an interest in the Middle East at the Caledonian Hilton Hotel, Edinburgh.
Jack McConnell, the First Minister, had already indicated that he could not attend, because of other engagements, and Ms Leckie urged other MSPs to snub the prince.
She said: "Scottish Executive ministers will be dining with a despot and they will be guilty of gross hypocrisy for doing so.
"These same ministers sent Scottish troops off to die in a war ostensibly to rid the Middle East of a dangerous tyrant, and yet here they are sitting down in one of Edinburgh’s most expensive hotels to take dinner with a member of the Saudi Royal Family, a totalitarian regime whose security forces arbitrarily arrest and detain citizens who have no legal ability to change the government."
She added that the regime was guilty of suppressing freedom of speech and expression.

Sunday Herald
The 39-year-old anti-nuclear, anti-poll tax, anti-sunblock Scottish Socialist leader appealed to readers scunnered by mainstream politics, who repeatedly attached to him the words “honesty”, “integrity” and “passion”.
His mum said: “I am very proud of what Tommy has done.”
Scottish Conservative chief whip Bill Aitken said: “The ego-tripping antics of Tommy Sheridan … are an affront to all honest citizens and an abuse of our police and courts.”
You said: He’s “a visionary within a political environment which has sunken to managerialism”; “hopefully he’ll go down in history as the first president of the Republic of Scotland”; “great tan”.