Last week saw the birth of the SSP's new My Space website. In all honesty I don't know what a My Space is but it certainly looks great and we have 150 friends linked to it already! check it out for yourself at:
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Saying No to Trident
This is a copy of an article I recently sent to the South Edinburgh Echo
Look around South Edinburgh. Look at all the things that need improving here.
Think what we could do if we had the money to build new Council housing affordable to everyone, for all the necessary improvements to our local NHS, for our schools, our social services and leisure facilities, for free travel on the buses for everyone, for more community workers and community policemen, and all available today. It would be great wouldn’t it? It would dramatically improve the quality of life for everyone in South Edinburgh.
Once you’ve thought about that, think about this. Tens of billions of pounds, which we could spend on all these areas of our lives, across Britain, Tony Blair intends to spend instead on a second generation of nuclear missiles.
And across Britain people are pressing Westminster not to vote for a second generation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. And I am on their side.
To me Britain’s Trident nuclear submarine fleet, part of our ‘WMD’s, as well as being lethal to humankind are also immoral and illegal. For all their sophistication theses missiles are incapable of distinguishing between enemy soldiers on the one hand and an innocent civilian population on the other. And that makes them illegal under International law [see International Court of Justice opinion 8 July 1996].
Further international obligations under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty which Britain has signed demands the 8 nuclear weapons holding countries [USA, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the UK *] stop developing new weapons and all other countries in the world not to start to develop any.
Britain’s plans to build a second generation of missiles therefore make a mockery of our international non proliferation treaty obligations.
The sight of Labour politicians desperately trying to make the case for Trident in recent weeks is a remarkable spectacle. Almost to a man and woman they argued against nuclear weapons when they wanted to get elected. Jack McConnell, David Hamilton, Nigel Griffiths all nuclear disarmers once but now warmongers and militarists.
‘Trident provides a deterrent in an uncertain world’ they now repeat ad nauseam – when was the world anything other than uncertain- ‘so we need these weapons to protect our security and ‘Britain’s vital interests’.
But hold on, who is it that is threatening to invade us or breach our sovereignty? If it is Al Quaida then these weapons are useless against them because that enemy cannot be identified geographically and discriminately. And surely the more apt question in the world today is who protects the world from us?
It is hard to find a period in history which compares with this where Britain has such an appalling international reputation after the catastrophic failure of policy in Iraq.
Having gone along with George Bush in a madcap illegal invasion of a sovereign country we have earned pariah status in much of the world. Britain now has an appalling reputation as a warmonger and not a peace loving nation. Britain and US military families continue to pay an awful price for Bush and Blair’s reckless decision to invade and occupy another country, against the wishes of both the international community and the Iraqi people themselves.
Spending £25billion or more on British weapons of mass destruction to further threaten the world with nuclear annihilation will do nothing to calm international anxieties about Britain’s belligerence nor make the world a safer place for any of us.
I believe developing a second generation of nuclear weapons is a betrayal of future generations keen to live in peace with other nations and I urge Nigel Griffiths my Edinburgh South Westminster representative to vote against developing these evil weapons.
ENDS
[* Although North Korea test fired nuclear missiles late last year it is not considered a nuclear nation as far as the NNPT is concerned]
Look around South Edinburgh. Look at all the things that need improving here.
Think what we could do if we had the money to build new Council housing affordable to everyone, for all the necessary improvements to our local NHS, for our schools, our social services and leisure facilities, for free travel on the buses for everyone, for more community workers and community policemen, and all available today. It would be great wouldn’t it? It would dramatically improve the quality of life for everyone in South Edinburgh.
Once you’ve thought about that, think about this. Tens of billions of pounds, which we could spend on all these areas of our lives, across Britain, Tony Blair intends to spend instead on a second generation of nuclear missiles.
And across Britain people are pressing Westminster not to vote for a second generation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. And I am on their side.
To me Britain’s Trident nuclear submarine fleet, part of our ‘WMD’s, as well as being lethal to humankind are also immoral and illegal. For all their sophistication theses missiles are incapable of distinguishing between enemy soldiers on the one hand and an innocent civilian population on the other. And that makes them illegal under International law [see International Court of Justice opinion 8 July 1996].
Further international obligations under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty which Britain has signed demands the 8 nuclear weapons holding countries [USA, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the UK *] stop developing new weapons and all other countries in the world not to start to develop any.
Britain’s plans to build a second generation of missiles therefore make a mockery of our international non proliferation treaty obligations.
The sight of Labour politicians desperately trying to make the case for Trident in recent weeks is a remarkable spectacle. Almost to a man and woman they argued against nuclear weapons when they wanted to get elected. Jack McConnell, David Hamilton, Nigel Griffiths all nuclear disarmers once but now warmongers and militarists.
‘Trident provides a deterrent in an uncertain world’ they now repeat ad nauseam – when was the world anything other than uncertain- ‘so we need these weapons to protect our security and ‘Britain’s vital interests’.
But hold on, who is it that is threatening to invade us or breach our sovereignty? If it is Al Quaida then these weapons are useless against them because that enemy cannot be identified geographically and discriminately. And surely the more apt question in the world today is who protects the world from us?
It is hard to find a period in history which compares with this where Britain has such an appalling international reputation after the catastrophic failure of policy in Iraq.
Having gone along with George Bush in a madcap illegal invasion of a sovereign country we have earned pariah status in much of the world. Britain now has an appalling reputation as a warmonger and not a peace loving nation. Britain and US military families continue to pay an awful price for Bush and Blair’s reckless decision to invade and occupy another country, against the wishes of both the international community and the Iraqi people themselves.
Spending £25billion or more on British weapons of mass destruction to further threaten the world with nuclear annihilation will do nothing to calm international anxieties about Britain’s belligerence nor make the world a safer place for any of us.
I believe developing a second generation of nuclear weapons is a betrayal of future generations keen to live in peace with other nations and I urge Nigel Griffiths my Edinburgh South Westminster representative to vote against developing these evil weapons.
ENDS
[* Although North Korea test fired nuclear missiles late last year it is not considered a nuclear nation as far as the NNPT is concerned]
Unite the Clubs
The issue of facilities for young footballers across Edinburgh, and the Lothians, has recently been highlighted.Parents and coaches in Edinburgh have formed "Unite the Clubs" to campaign for improved facilities at public pitches across the city. I've already asked questions in the Scottish Parliament about this issue and will be supporting their march in Edinburgh on 14th February.
I'd also encourage as many people as possible to visit their website http://www.unitetheclubs.co.uk/
And to sign their online petitions to the Scottish Parliament http://www.gopetition.com/online/10970.html
and Edinburgh Council
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
Celebrating Robert Burns the radical
I'll be leading a tribute to ‘Robert Burns the radical’ at the SSP's annual ‘Alternative Burns Supper’ on Friday 26th in the Canons Gait on the High Street.
We recognize in Robert Burns someone who was passionate about independence, a true radical who spoke out in favour of the French revolution and the American revolution and was a member of the Scots reform movement. Here was a man advocating workers representatives in Parliament a hundred and fifty years before Keir Hardie, demanding universal suffrage way before the suffragists, and fighting for the abolition of slavery and celebrating Scots hero’s like Wallace and Thomas Muir the leader of the United Scotsmen.
Burns is for me a hugely inspiring figure. He championed our own Scots culture when the ruling classes here considered it couthy, backward and rude. He was a figure the establishment truly feared and he has through his work retained his potency today. He was a close friend and collaborator of Scotland's great blacklisted painter Alexander Naysmith.
Robert Burns is rightly celebrated the world over and his attraction is that he was truly a poet of the common man and a genius to boot.
The SSP has proudly marked the anniversary of his birth for a decade now by debunking the myths and explaining who Robert Burns really was, what he really stood for and what he left us. I believe we owe him that much.
In the Canons Gait tomorrow night we will sing and dance and eat and drink to one true working class hero. He’s one of us.
Burns is for me a hugely inspiring figure. He championed our own Scots culture when the ruling classes here considered it couthy, backward and rude. He was a figure the establishment truly feared and he has through his work retained his potency today. He was a close friend and collaborator of Scotland's great blacklisted painter Alexander Naysmith.
Robert Burns is rightly celebrated the world over and his attraction is that he was truly a poet of the common man and a genius to boot.
The SSP has proudly marked the anniversary of his birth for a decade now by debunking the myths and explaining who Robert Burns really was, what he really stood for and what he left us. I believe we owe him that much.
In the Canons Gait tomorrow night we will sing and dance and eat and drink to one true working class hero. He’s one of us.
Tickets £7 and £4unwaged – haggis neeps and tatties included.
New council houses - what a good idea!
I had a letter published in the Evening News today, you can read it by following this link
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=124192007
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=124192007
PPP/PFI shame
S2O-11504 - Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP) : To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review its policy on PFI projects, in light of the findings by Edinburgh University¿s Centre for International Public Health that payments from NHS boards across Scotland to private financiers will increase from the current £107 million to £510 million per year by 2011.
Answered by Mr Tom McCabe (21 December 2006): Public Private Partnerships are an important part of the Executive’s mixed economy approach to the modernisation and investment agenda to grow the Scottish economy and provide better public services.
Payments by public bodies to private sector PPP consortia are for services provided over the length of the contract - these include capital construction, lifecycle maintenance and facilities management, and not just the upfront construction cost of the asset. I do not recognise the £510 million figure to which you refer.
Answered by Mr Tom McCabe (21 December 2006): Public Private Partnerships are an important part of the Executive’s mixed economy approach to the modernisation and investment agenda to grow the Scottish economy and provide better public services.
Payments by public bodies to private sector PPP consortia are for services provided over the length of the contract - these include capital construction, lifecycle maintenance and facilities management, and not just the upfront construction cost of the asset. I do not recognise the £510 million figure to which you refer.
Free school meals hypocrisy
I have to congratulate Jim Devine MP and Michael Connarty MP for the stand they have taken in support of the principle of free nutritious school meals. I couldn’t agree more with the motion they signed in the House of Commons condemning the Liberal Democrats for cancelling the successful scheme they’ve ran in Hull for the past 3 years.
If only Mary Mulligan and Bristow Muldoon had shown the same social conscience then perhaps our bill to introduce free school meals across Scotland wouldn’t have been derailed by the labour led Executive.
It seems that the opinion of the Labour party is that it is ok for children in England to receive free school meals but for some reason it isn’t ok in Scotland – the word hypocrisy springs to mind.
Perhaps, for the Labour Party, the three words attached to the free school meals bill, Scottish socialist party, were the problem. Only the SSP is committed to delivering Free Nutritious School Meals for all our children.
The motion signed by Jim Devine MP & Michael Connarty MP read:
"That this House… believes that a more nutritious diet for schoolchildren has a central role in combating this public health problem; applauds Hull City Council's three-year pilot scheme, combining increased investment in healthier school food ingredients with the abolition of charges for primary school meals…"
If only Mary Mulligan and Bristow Muldoon had shown the same social conscience then perhaps our bill to introduce free school meals across Scotland wouldn’t have been derailed by the labour led Executive.
It seems that the opinion of the Labour party is that it is ok for children in England to receive free school meals but for some reason it isn’t ok in Scotland – the word hypocrisy springs to mind.
Perhaps, for the Labour Party, the three words attached to the free school meals bill, Scottish socialist party, were the problem. Only the SSP is committed to delivering Free Nutritious School Meals for all our children.
The motion signed by Jim Devine MP & Michael Connarty MP read:
"That this House… believes that a more nutritious diet for schoolchildren has a central role in combating this public health problem; applauds Hull City Council's three-year pilot scheme, combining increased investment in healthier school food ingredients with the abolition of charges for primary school meals…"
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