Introducing West Of Scotland's SSP Candidate, Pamela Page

Read below to find out what Pamela Page and the SSP propose for the West of Scotland and the rest of Scotland!
Scroll down for the East Dunbartonshire Council candidates.

PAMELA PAGE- FOR THE PEOPLE OF WEST OF SCOTLAND - NOT THE
PROFITEERS!

Pamela Page is the SSP’s Top of List candidate for the West of Scotland. She lives in Kirkintilloch where she works as a Modern Studies teacher. She is a union rep in the EIS. As a community activist, Pamela has battled to save local bus services and is a determined opponent of the privatization of facilities through PFI.

"If elected I will strive to emulate current SSP west of Scotland MSP Frances Curran’s tireless fight alongside local communities in West Scotland against hospital closures and the privatization of our services.

I joined the SSP because it is Scotland’s anti-poverty party. This is the 21^st century yet parts of Scotland remain scarred with near Victorian levels of poverty. Scotland is not an impoverished 3^rd world country. There is no excuse or justification for poverty.

We in the SSP believe in taxing the rich, redistributing wealth and curbing the power of big business in a move towards a society where our wealth and resources are harmonized for the benefit of the people rather than plundered by an elite.

There are no career politicians in the SSP. We are the only party that insists that its MSPs live on no more than the average wage of a skilled worker. All four SSP MSPs donate half their salaries to aid the fight for a socially-just independent Scotland. If elected Pamela will do the same. “ Politicians are among Scotland’s privileged elite. Their 50,000 salaries – plus perks – puts them in the top 5% salary bracket. Which possibly explains why they are so out of touch with the real world!”

To this end I will wholeheartedly campaign for the SSP’s five flagship policies.

1) An Independence referendum within one year.

The 2007 election marks the 300^th anniversary of the union. Let’s make it the last anniversary!

Our call is for a Scottish Socialist republic, in which the people are sovereign, not monarchs or multinational leeches. We will fight for a nuclear free Scotland that is outside of NATO.

2) A Scotland Wide Free Public Transport Network

Dramatic and radical action is needed to move hundreds of thousands from private cars to public transport in the fight against climate change.

Does it sound too ambitious? Possibly, but in the 1930s/40s, the idea of a free National Health Service sounded like ‘pie on the sky’.

Many of us in the West of Scotland are all too aware of the cost of bus/ rail travel in our daily commute.

It is a matter of priorities. A free public transport system would cost 500 million pounds. This is less than a sixth of Scotland’s share of military spending.

Free public transport has been a resounding success in the Belgian city of Hasselt where since its introduction in the 1990s car use has plummeted and bus passenger numbers have risen by 1000%.

Instead of tax handouts, which mainly benefit the wealthy, the SSP will fight for the Scottish parliament to phase in the biggest pro-environment and pro- social inclusion measure enacted in Scotland for generations.

3) 100,000 new houses for rent

A million and a half Scots do not own their own home. For them the housing boom is a cruel mirage.

Decades of government cuts in housing support to local authorities, combined with the disastrous right to buy policy, has condemned hundreds of thousands of families to a life sentence served out in dilapidated crime ridden housing schemes.

Last year 11,200 council houses were sold off – but there was not one single new council house built in Scotland.

The SSP wants to redress this imbalance between private and public by building 25,000 new homes for social rent every year.

It is a myth that we can’t afford high-quality social housing.

In contrast to the mainstream parties, the SSP believes that high quality; low rent social housing holds the key to averting a future housing calamity in Scotland.

4) Nutritious Free School Meals for Scotland’s school children

According to a new report by Save the Children, nearly half of all families are living in poverty.For 6 years the SSP has spearheaded the fight for nutritious free school meals as part of a serious onslaught against obesity, junk food culture and child poverty.

The cost of free school meals is negligible when set against the overall budget of the Scottish parliament. Frances Curran’s bill would cost just 74 million pounds – one third of the Scottish parliament under spend last year.

Our politicians get subsidized meals at the parliament; surely our kids deserve the same!5) The replacement of the council tax with a progressive income tax.

The SSP wants to replace the council tax with a new system of taxation that truly reflects income differentials within Scotland.

Our alternative is the Scottish service tax. It is unashamedly redistributive. It would be based on annual personal income, thus shifting the burden of local taxation from the low income to the high-income households.

All earnings under 11,000 would be exempt. Earnings over 11,000 would be taxed progressively. Over two thirds of households would be better off, and the top 15% would pay more.

It is about time that the poor stopped subsidizing the rich!

In short we are for people not profit!"