My first Podcast

I recently recorded my first ever podcast, for the Sunday Times. They asked me to discuss the 300th anniversary of the act of union and the case for an independent socialist Scotland.

You can read my "script" below and view the podcast via the Sunday Times website in the coming weeks.

Hi , I’m Colin Fox. I’m the National Convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party and I’ve been asked to speak to you on the 300th anniversary of the act of union, about the case for an Independent Socialist Scotland

ITS ‘AYE BEEN’
There is a saying in the Scottish Borders -‘its aye been’.
It’s a phrase signifying a certain resignation, a sense that things always stay the same and it’s quite useless trying to change them.
It seems ironic then sitting in the Scottish Parliament because there were those who said throughout the 80’s and 90’s we would never have our own Scottish Parliament and never be able to make our own decisions.

This anniversary of the union offers us a chance to look at the present day political arrangements and consider how we can improve them.

DEMOCRACY and SOCIAL PROGRESS
The case for independence it seems to me is based on two fundamental pillars –democracy and social progress.
I believe Scotland as a sovereign nation is entitled to exercise democratic control of our economy and I am confident we are quite capable of running our own affairs. Dozens of countries big and small have gained their independence in my lifetime.
This period of reflection on the union then for me is not an abstract historic or dry constitutional debate. I believe Scotland would be much better off economically, culturally and politically if we were making our own decisions.

And you know I sense a very different kind of debate today on Independence from that which first raged around me as a 15 year old schoolboy in Motherwell in the late 70’s when ‘Its oor oil’ was unveiled as the slogan of the time.
Defenders of the union argued then that Scotland was too poor to stand on our own two feet. Of course the discovery of North Sea oil changed all that. And nowadays the argument has shifted considerably. Even unionists now accept that Scotland is a rich country. They now concede that we could go it alone but we are better off under the union, allegedly subsidized by England and safe from instability and violent threats inherent in the modern world.

A DEMOCRATIC SCOTLAND - SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC
I scoffed at those who told me when I returned after 8 years in London that ‘Scotland is essentially a socialist country’, but I would concede that our political centre of gravity is certainly social democratic by instinct, left of centre politically. The evidence of this all around us. Today Scottish public opinion is well to the left of New Labour.
Opposition to Trident is stark, privatization is despised, there is much greater support for public ownership here, a stronger sense of community, greater support for redistribution of wealth, we are much less monarchist and more internationalist in outlook , than the dominant South East of England.
Furthermore I have no doubt whatsoever that an Independent Scotland would not have sent our troops to IRAQ.
Neither do I believe Scots would spend billions promoting British and American imperial aspirations. Not when the option to spend the money on our much needed social services was posed instead.
Nor would Scots spend up to £75billions on more nuclear weapons of mass destruction, labeling our small country amongst the ‘notorious nuclear nine’: the 9 countries of the world armed with nuclear weapons.
All this is important in defining modern Scotland.

For me Independence is a democratic question. Support for Independence is growing and growing. I see support amongst the young and amongst the working classes as a whole twice as strong as in other groups. And the hideous but very real prospect of a Cameron /Tory victory at the next Westminster elections will I believe accelerate the momentum towards Independence considerably.
Remember how the ‘democratic deficit’ which developed under Thatcher and Major led inexorably to the creation of a Scottish Parliament? Well multiply that force ten fold and see the irresistible force really push aside the immovable object. !!!!!!!

I fully acknowledge that the case for independence must arouse and uplift Scots, enough for them to appreciate fully that it must fought for. Our opponents are not merely the unionist Tories of New Labour but the British ruling classes who see in the United Kingdom a power which they do not want to lose.

I want an Independent Socialist Scotland because I want to see all our revenues used for the best egalitarian interests of the people of Scotland, a planning of production, distribution and exchange based on need not profit.
A Scotland independent of the Bank of England yes but independent of the Royal Bank of Scotland too.

INTERNATIONALIST
Since I started with a phrase from the Borders let me finish with another which I love for all the wrong messages it sends out.
They say ‘A day out of Hawick is a day wasted.’
My vision of an independent socialist Scotland has little truck with such narrow nationalism. I see a Scotland which is outward looking, forward looking, ambitious, welcoming and internationalist, one that is better known for its fun loving, friendly ‘tartan army’ than its warmongering armies decked in tartan.

Pair team up to blast Blair's nuclear policy

I recently sent this press release to the Evening News, which was carried today!

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=195952007

Update - I just noticed that my good friend, Ron, had a letter published in the evening News tonight as well
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=195402007

Former MP and MSP Join Forces in ‘New Nuclear Labour’ Protest
Former MP Ron Brown will join forces with his Scottish Socialist Party colleague Colin Fox MSP in blasting government plans for more nuclear power stations and nuclear missiles at a public meeting in the city Thursday [8th Feb] night.

The MP for Leith from 1979-1992 Ron Brown has long opposed government plans for nuclear power generation. He told us
‘The nuclear option being promoted by Tony Blair and his big business cronies is unacceptable for a number of reasons.
First it leaves behind dangerous waste, toxic contaminants lethal to human life for 1,000 years to come. It is therefore not only the most expensive way to generate electricity it is also far and away the most dangerous. Has Tony Blair forgotten about Three Mile Island and Chernobyl? I find it incredible that on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, where perhaps as many as 100,000 people may have perished, and Tony Blair proposes to build 20 new nuclear reactors. I would far rather the £50bn set aside for such schemes went into new renewable technologies and projects such as hydro electric, clean coal generation, wind, wave and solar power. Having worked on hydro electric schemes myself I believe Scotland can lead the world again in this technology. As an Amicus trades union member I share the SSP’s non nuclear vision and believe only this party stands up for socialism, trades union values and democracy.’

The government’s plans for nuclear weapons have also come under fire. Lothian’s MSP Colin Fox is appalled at plans to develop Trident Two.
‘Tony Blair is dead set on spending £25bn of our money on more nuclear ‘weapons of mass destruction’. This Prime Minister warns the rest of the world not to develop nuclear weapons and signs up to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, then he turns around and threatens the rest of the world with ‘mutually assured destruction’. He must be stopped. Does he ever stop to think what instability he causes around the world? The man with warmongering, belligerent form bar none, after his invasion of Iraq, now threatens the world with his own second generation of nuclear missiles.
The Scottish Socialist Party is steadfastly opposed to the development of Trident. I can think of a thousand better ways to spend £25billion pounds; on our health, education or social services. I am confident voters will reject New ‘Nuclear’ Labour.’

The public meeting will take place in the Communications Workers Union premises at 15 Brunswick Street, Leith on Thursday 8th Feb at 7.30pm.

Simclar fight back

No doubt you'll have heard about the Simclar workers, who occupied their factory over the weekend in opposition to closure of the plant.

On Saturday night, along with scores of other SSP members, I showed my support and solidarity with the workforce.

We'll be showing this support again on Thursday when they lobby the Scottish Parliament at 12 noon!

S2M-5472 Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP) : prescription charges review

That the Parliament notes that it is now exactly one year since the Stage 1 debate on the Abolition of NHS Prescription Charges (Scotland) Bill and since when the Scottish Executive promised to come forward with proposals to increase the list of long-term conditions exempt from payment; further notes that Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care, Lewis Macdonald MSP, has stated that he acknowledged that “the current charge and exemption arrangements are no longer fit for purpose and that changes are necessary” and that “we will review the exemption arrangements for people with chronic conditions” but that no changes have been brought forward by the Executive in a year despite giving repeated assurances in parliamentary answers that a decision was imminent; believes that no promised proposal has emerged because all medical experts have warned the Executive not to try to list the many different chronic conditions in an order of those that are more “deserving” or “painful”; considers that this is precisely what would be needed in order to distinguish between those conditions which are to be exempt from charges and which are not; notes that in 40 years medical opinion has veered away from such an approach because it was simply not possible on medical grounds to make such a judgement; believes that the Executive has failed to keep a promise it made to the Parliament and has dashed the hopes of thousands of chronically ill patients, and reiterates its belief that the fairest and most sensible way forward is to follow the example of the Welsh Assembly and abolish the £6.75 prescription charge for every patient.

Lodged on 24 January 2007

Follow this link to read my letter in the Linlithgow Gazette

http://www.linlithgowtoday.co.uk/mk4custompages/custompage.aspx?SectionID=3433

S2M-5473 Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP) : Welsh Assembly abolishes prescription charges

That the Parliament congratulates the National Assembly for Wales for taking the decision this week to abolish completely NHS prescription charges for every patient in Wales from April 2007; agrees with the Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services, Dr Brian Gibbons AM, that the measure will reduce patient inequality and particularly benefit those patients with chronic illnesses or on low incomes and “enable those people who need medication to get it to improve their health and ultimately their quality of life”, and believes that Scotland should follow the terrific example set in Wales and also abolish the charges.

Supported by: Ms Rosemary Byrne, Frances Curran, Rosie Kane, Carolyn Leckie, Campbell Martin, Eleanor Scott, Tommy Sheridan, Chris Ballance, John Swinburne

SSP launches My Space site

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:

http://www.myspace.com/votessp

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]