Cowabunga! Willie Telfer exposes @joswinson's tax free slice...

It seems that its not only the teenage mutant ninja turtles that developed an affinity for pizza, but also our very own MP the bold Jo Swindon who salivates at the prospect of a delivery from the Dominos man. However in her case its not a wee margarita or four seasons but a bundle of fivers still piping hot delivered all the way from the treasure island of Jersey.

In the last year oor Jo has received ,in two installments,  £8 500 from Brompton Capital, yes you guessed, it's the company that made its fortune bringing the Dominos pizza franchise to the UK.

The company's owner Rumi Verjee who has an estimated worth of £125m has been throwing his dough, so to speak, at parliamentarians for some time now. The main beneficiaries being the lib dems £770k in all. 

Curiously he has also gifted plebgate minister Andrew Mitchell a cheeky wee £11k. The surprise outcome of this was of course. A lib dem peerage. Not bad for a guy whose company apparently employs no one and fails to turn over a profit in the UK.

Although his dealings have been cleared by the Electoral Commission the question our Jo has to answer is. Is she comfortable professing a purge on tax avoiders whilst filling her election kitty with this man's dubious donations.

Watch out for the next course, will Jo come clean and display the corporate roof sign of the pizza giant on her election vehicles or can the electorate be enticed to the ballot box by a free portion of cheesey garlic bread.

GARLIC BREAD. THE DIRTY BASTARDS.

Make PEACE a #ge2015 election issue! - opinion by Ron Mackay

Since 6th.Aug. 1945 I've opposed nuclear weapons. I've protested at Aldermaston, Dunoon and Faslane many times. I'm very worried at international developments. Russia has nuclear weapons – they're all in Russia. China has nuclear weapons they're all in China. The U.S. Has nuclear weapons but they're in Germany, Poland , and bases arround Russia and in Turkey and elsewhere

NATO is an aggressive, nuclear armed military alliance under U.S. Control.

I read Professor Tyler Cowan an economist at a U.S. University said a big war is needed to settle the economy. Amazon recently displayed a book -”Winter Kill – war with China has already begun “ There have already been 2 Wws essentially caused by economic problems. Are we to have a 3rd.

The winners in the first 2 WW s were the U.S. Bankers and arms manufactures. We are 20 mls. From a nuclear arms dump. 

The position is serious.

I'm a long standing member of CND (google Ron Mackay and his peace activism and you'll find me on U tube). I've been against nuclear weapons since the first one was dropped on the 6th.of August 1945. The planet is in its most dangerous situation ever. The present generation has the power to change life on the planet or to destroy all life on the planet. Many eminent individuals are warning that the situation is extremely serious. Naom Chomsky, John Pilger, Michel Chossudovsky and many others have voiced their concern.

We've had 2 world wars caused essentially by economic problems. The big capitalist powers have serious economic problems. Has there to be a third world war ? The signs are ominous.

The Westminster warmongers are spending £ billions, not just on trident and other nuclear weapons but on huge military projects. The US policy of perpetual war which our defence “experts” slavishly follow throws a heavy burden on the welfare state. Warfare and welfare are incompatible. The media plays a significant part in promoting war propaganda . It is a powerful opponent of the peace forces. We badly need a strong active socialist peace movement which can accommodate the socialists in the LP, in the SNP, in the Greens, in the SSP , in the CP and all the other socialists some of whom are in no political party. We have much in common not just peace but anti-trident, anti-austerity, green issues etc. This need is urgent and vital. This matter should be raised at every meeting held as we approach the elections.

Opinion: Angus Clark

Jo lies down with Coalition Tory Bedfellows- Yet again!

(Published in this weeks Bearsden /Milngavie Herald)

Only weeks ago in their autumn party conference in Glasgow the Lib Dems condemned the’ bedroom tax’ for discriminating against the most vulnerable in our society. I was therefore disappointed but not surprised to discover that local MP and Cabinet Member Jo Swinson gave her backing to the bedroom tax at a recent crucial Parliamentary vote. It confirmed my view that when it comes to the crunch, Jo will lay down to her Tory coalition masters – yet again! She has consistently supported Cameron and Clegg and voted for repressive measures that the Coalition has put in place. However this must rank as her greatest betrayal yet as this was a genuine chance to finish off this dreadful measure once and for all. Her path as a career politician is now secure in that she seems to place more loyalty to this neo- conservative led government than she does to the views of her constituents, many of whom are already affected by this attempt to make the most vulnerable make more sacrifice for the bankers’ crisis. Recent modifications to exclude certain categories of recipients do not address the fundamental regressive nature of the measures and Discretionary Housing Benefit will only assist a few for a very limited period of time.  

The imposition of the bedroom tax is just the latest regressive measure to be given her support in her meteoric rise up the greasy political pole to Cabinet level, and she will no doubt be well rewarded. She also supported hiking University tuition fees up to £9000, a part privatised NHS, the dreadful Welfare Bill, War with Syria the lowering of taxes for billionaires and millionaires and Nuclear Weapons. Does she consider that this record fairly reflects the views of her constituents or the general populace-I think not. Some of her Lib Dem colleagues did indeed keep true to their principles and voted to scrap the bedroom tax and their action should be welcomed. Other MPs including Labour, decided that they had better things to do than turn up for this important vote which is very disappointing as this was a vote which could have been won, although I do not doubt that it would have been close.

Let’s be under no illusion, the bedroom tax is not a ‘single issue’ although it may appear so if directly affected. Governments don’t think that way! It is just one part of a concerted ideological plan to radically scale back the Welfare State [which has no democratic mandate].  Unlike the Poll Tax of the late 80’s which was aimed at the whole populace, the bedroom tax is targeted solely at social tenants drawing benefits both unemployed and in work, and by implication, already on or near the ‘breadline’ who are deemed to have an ‘extra room’. It therefore hits the unemployed and those in poverty wages ‘disproportionately’ leaving them hardly anything left over to live on. So much for the ‘Mansion Tax’ which Jo Swinson and the Lib Dems used to push for! Now it’s OK to penalise those at the foot of society, and join in with the Tories and the ‘Cabinet of Millionaires’ in giving the most vulnerable a ‘good kicking’. Who will be next in line?

                                                             

 We all know there is a better and more equitable way to tackle the nation’s housing shortage and overcrowding problems. The bedroom tax will never be a solution but it will and is leading to misery for thousands of adults and children, including ill health and suicide.

At the next Westminster election I am sure that the constituents of East Dunbartonshire are no mugs and will not be taken in by the Governments ‘fostered illusions’ over this and other matters. They should also cast an eye over Jo Swinson’s voting record before casting their vote.

More hypocrisy from @joswinson

Wages For Interns, Workfare For The Poor Says Jo Swinson MP

Little sums up the vile double standards at the heart of Britain’s class ridden society than acampaign against unpaid internships for graduates which ignores the massive expansion of unpaid work for everyone else.

More absolutely appalling hypocrisy by local MP @joswinson READ ON HERE  via @johnnyvoid

@joswinson part of ANOTHER expenses scandal...

As East Dunbartonshire working people, pensioners, job seekers and families struggle to heat their homes and pay for food, local Tory/Liberal Democrat Westminster coalition Minister MP Jo Swinson has been claiming from the taxpayer to pay her and her husband, MP Duncan Hames, electricity bill.
The SSP have published a pamphlet HERE exposing the extent of fuel poverty in Scotland.

Swinson  and her husband who have, at the lowest estimation, not including the fact they have expenses incuding food paid and subsidised, a joint income of £150,000 a year - claimed £569.72.  This in the face of the calls from coalition members to end the £300 winter fuel allowance pensioners receive.
Politicians and their banker pals gamble and play with our money and caused the financial crisis, but seem to be the only ones not ‘in this together’, with the rest of us suffering wage cuts and hugely increased food and energy bills.
There is a more detailed expose in this weeks Bearsden/Milngavie Herald - "Anger as YOU pay Jo Swinson MP’s electricity bill"

The Scottish Socialist Party have published an 8 point progamme to solve the problem of fuel bills:
-Cap gas and electricity bills immediately with no further rises permitted until fuel poverty is eliminated
-Investigate the big 6 energy companies on charges of profiteering and acting as an industrial cartel
-Double the Winter Fuel Allowance paid to the elderly and extend it to all other vulnerable groups
-Introduce a windfall tax on the big 6 energy companies profits to ensure all their existing 'powercard' customers are moved on to the cheapest tariffs instead of the dearest
-Diversify away from expensive and dirty fossil fuels used in the generation of electricity towards renewables
-Treble the sums spent on Government domestic energy saving schemes such as insulation, double glazing and efficient water boilers
-Build 100,000 new energy efficient new homes for the socially rented sector in Scotland annually to replace the worst of our current 'drafty, leaky and inefficient' stock, and
-Return the energy industry to public ownership to ensure every home has the heating they need and any profits go to the public purse.
Our pamphlet will be available for £3.99 from the Scottish Socialist Party website www.scottishsocialistparty.org

Jo voted for war - against her Constituents wishes.

by Campsie SSP member, Neil Scott

Far from NOT being a vote for war, as some like our local MP Jo Swinson have billed the recent Syria motion that was defeated in Westminster, a yes vote would have meant that attacking Syria would have very much been on the cards.  The resulting no vote actually stayed the murderous hands of the US military as well as our own for long enough to ensure that Assad was talked round by the Russians and his chemical arsenal is now being destroyed by international experts.

Jo, as I wrote in a blogpiece, here had a dilemma - she says her instinct is to vote against war, but thought that the international community should be able to rain down from sky borne drone and missile, it's moral authority and disregard the wider authority of the United Nations.  She says as much in the blogpiece.

There is a dichotomy - a contradiction actually - in her words and in her actions.  There is definitely a contradiction in her "relief" at a UN "approach"; the fact that the motion did NOT give the UN primacy and the fact she actually feels that the UN is not the place that the final decision would be made.

On the contrary - Swinson felt that an undefined "international community" should be able to act without the consent of the United Nations.

Who are this "international community?"  The proposed action, of course, was proposed by the US.  An action the UK colaition did all they could to support.  Does Jo think that this country and the US have the moral authority to act alone in intervention in civil wars because other countries like China and Russia have "...such scant regard for the human rights of its own citizens?"

I won't defend obvious human rights abuses by China and Russia - but do we wield moral authority like Gods of Gods? Is she implying the moral authority of the UK is without stain?

The US - a country that has jailed Bradley Manning, the Cuban 5 and many without trial in Guantanamo Bay is unquestionably a moral authority above the rest?  Really?

 And our country that has recently carried out human rights abuses such as the police killings of Jean Charles de Menezes, Azelle Rodney and Ian Tomlinson; the torture and the deaths in UK armed forces custody of Iraqis such as Baha Mousa;  historical torture of Northern Irish political prisoners and the shootings and beatings of demonstrators there; the alleged collusion of security forces in the killings of lawyers, Pat Finnucane and Rosemary Nelson; the death in custody of the refugee Jimmy Mubenga and the continued detention of child refugees, despite assurances from the Liberal Democrats that this practise would stop. Or is it just because we are Western English speakers that gives us moral superiority?

I really am at a loss to see why we above the others are purest.  The list of human rights abuses carried out in this country goes on - but you get the picture. Jo believes that our Government, along with the US, have the moral right to police the world. The fact is, Russia nor China are muscling in on the middle East in quite the same militarist, missile laden and murderous drone way we are.

As well as that, Jo, in her letter below, admits that "all [of those constituents who contacted her prior to the vote]were against the UK taking military action in the immediate future..."

Yet, she felt she had the moral authority to 

1. keep the military option live by voting yes and 

2. by open admission in her blogpiece, ignore the UN if China and Russia had blocked a UN motion to take action ("I accept that the doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ can mean that action to prevent humanitarian calamity is appropriate.  I don’t accept that a country like Russia or China that has such scant regard for the human rights of its own citizens should always be able to stop an otherwise united and outraged international community from acting in extreme circumstances.")

All of the nonsense in the email below about her voting for this motion because it was not a direct call to arms is negated by her want to disregard how the UN security Council would have most likely voted - ie. no to military intervention in Syria.


Nick Clegg's stuttering and obfuscating on the night of the vote, when asked if this motion would mean that their would be a further Parliamentary debate, in my opinion, meant that the House voted no.  Clegg swung the vote through the perception of his dishonesty.  A man few in the UK now trust.  

Of course he couldn't guarantee that such a mealy mouthed motion would stop the PM bringing us to war by, for example the use of the Queen's Prerogative as Blair did in 2003 when he ordered "our boys" in to Iraq (the Queens Prerogative is a power that should have no place in a modern Western democracy; a power that it is used as a smoke-screen by ministers to obfuscate the use of power for which they are insufficiently accountable and a power that has brought us to war despite the democratic wish of the people or its elected representatives, of the UK).


Jo Swinson has, over and over again, been seen to vote against what the people of East Dunbartonshire first voted her in on.  The Liberal Democrats once proudly boasted their record on voting against war. Jo, swung by the ambitious ex-Tory Nick Clegg has voted against the council of her own constituents. From University fees through to the privatisation of the English NHS, her support for the impoverishing and dreadful welfare bill, some of which has been highlighted by the UN as it expressed it's "shock" at how aspects of it were pushing people into poverty; to rely on foodbanks and to suicide.  

So much for the coalition adhering to the advice of the UN.  

I have reproduced the email I received from Jo below.  Our original FOI request is at the bottom of this article.  

Her statement that it "was not as straightforward as constituents asking me to vote yes or no," would be laughable if it were actually not so sinister.  This was a vote for or against keeping the military on standby - and in fact more than that - it allowed the military to begin a build up towards intervention - an intervention she knew would happen.

If not, she is self deluded about her responsibility to her constituents.  

She obviously thinks she has the authority to overrule the electoral authority those who voted for the "anti-war, anti-tuition fees, left of Labour" Lib Dems.

Dear Mr Scott,



Thank you for your email.



As an MP handling correspondence from constituents, I am not subject to Freedom of Information legislation (but I will do my best to answer your question nevertheless). If you want to make a Freedom of Information request to my Department (which is subject to FOI), details of how to do so can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request. There is no reason that constituents should attempt to contact me at the Department, however, as I publicise this email address as my constituency address. Personally, I am not aware of any constituents having contacted my via the Department about this.



To answer your question, many of the emails I received where before the motion we were due to vote on was even published, and of those that were sent afterwards hardly any referred to any specifics of the motion itself. Therefore it was not as straightforward as constituents asking me to vote yes or no. In fact from the comments I received I think many people were under the impression that the House of Commons would be voting on military action, which of course as you know, we were not.



You will note, for example, that the motion we were voting on did not permit the UK carrying out military action alone unless a further vote had taken place, and called for the UN weapons inspectors to be allowed to finish their work. Many of those who emailed me argued along similar lines. Whilst all were against the UK taking military action in the immediate future, many people attached conditions in which they felt military action would be justified, whereas others simply stated that there should be no military action at all.



From the end of July until the evening of 29th August (when the vote took place), I received 57 emails from constituents on this issue. This included several from people who emailed more than once. Of those, 22 were sent prior to the motion even being published at 6.55pm on 28th August, and so could not have been specific to the actual motion. Of those sent after, the vast majority continued to comment on the issue generally, rather than the specifics of the motion.



The media so often like to present such matters as ‘for’ and ‘against’. However, these issues are generally more complex than that and I felt I had a responsibility consider what we were actually voting for: a motion condemning the actions of the Syrian regime in using chemical weapons against innocent civilians, noting that the UN weapons inspectors be allowed to finished their work, and noting that no military action would be taken without a further vote. There was nothing I disagreed with in that.



I hope that this answers your question. However, please do let me know if there is anything else I can assist with.



Yours sincerely,



Jo Swinson MP

Swinson's swan song...

It comes as no surprise that Jo Swinson is going to lose her East Dunbartonsire constituency seat.

According to her, she has worked hard as a constituency MP. And, yes, she does whizz from photo op to photo op around East Dunbartonshire. She also claims local campaign after campaign "hers" and if won, "her victory," from the locally hard fought campaign for a youth cafe in Milngavie BEFORE she was an MP to the recent climb down by Tescos over a new superstore in the village. 

Even local Liberal Democrats are saying she is over stepping her own ego. 

After she sent out leaflets  congratulating herself over the Youth Cafe, a local youth worker I know who had worked on the project with local people for years, vowed never to vote Lib Dem again.

At the recent "victory rally" of the local anti Tescos group, she managed to alienate more local people- including a number of lifelong members of her own local party committee who left the celebrations in disgust- and obvious distress- after her now typical "praise me" speech to a disbelieving audience.

Add to this the various clubs hitherto having had no interest from her into which she parachutes for a photo, and hops in the car to meet the next deadline of a local paper's photographer and you have a huge population of people in East Dunbartonshire who know what her "hard work" adds up to- publicity and self congratulation.

Swinson is a "big hitter" in the cabinet not because she is a big ideas person, or even someone who has built anything of notable value in her constituency, but as someone who has entered the right wing world of Nick Clegg without question for careerist opportunity.  The people of her constituency did not vote for any of the Tory policies she has supported,like University fees, a privatised NHS and Royal Mail (in fact her election materials made big of the "fact" she would protect RM- we knew better when she publically condemned posties striking to save their jobs and conditions of work a few years ago), the dreadful welfare bill that impoverishes the vulnerable further (including the vicious bedroom tax) and her recent support for war and nuclear weapons. 

As well as "banking" lots of political dissatisfaction through her obvious self publicity, she has lost the support of the mainstay centre left East Dunbartonshire voter.

She is "a big hitter" in the dreadful double talk of the LibDem- "Everyone knows the Conservatives can't win in East Dunbartonshire," she says. Well yes, we do know that. ED has never come near to voting Tory- but she knows she has lost the Labour voters who had turned to her as a protest against their support for Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and dissatisfaction with what had happened to the economy post 2008 - so its time for her to court the nasty right wing tory anti-working class /anti-public sector worker/anti NHS poor baiting Westminster Etonian old boy network supporters and cap doffers.

Thank the stars East Dunbartonshire has few of those.

Regarding her support for war in Syria, we have sent her this FOI Request.

"In her blogpiece on the liberal democrat website, titled Syria Debate, Posted on August 30, 2013 Jo Swinson states "Parliament was recalled todebate and vote on the UK’s response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, a serious and sombre issue that I know from my email inbox many of my constituents have been taking a keen interest in.  Here I set outhow I approached the issue and why I decided to support the motion." 

I would like the Minister and her office to send to me the total number of emails from constituents she had recieved prior to the debate on 29 August in Westminster on the topic of the Syria conflict. 

I would like this figure broken down into the total number of constituents emails that expressed the view that they were againstmilitary action in Syria / or asked her to vote against motion and the total number of constituent emails that expressed the view that theywere for military action in Syria/or asked her to vote for the motion."

Think before you vote for Jo...

Letter in today's Bearsden & Milngavie Herald

Dear Sir/Madam, 

Before the Westminster general election, our local MP. Jo Swinson, espoused fine, compassionate Liberal principles and was generally applauded for her attitudes.  It is very sad that thereafter, and particularly since her elevation to the Cabinet, she seems to have forgotten those principles and her compassion. 

She has consistently supported and voted for all the repressive measures the UK Coalition has put in place, but the clearest demonstration of her abandonment of the compassionate ideals which the old Liberal Party held dear, was her callow support of the Coalition's attempts to railroad Parliament into supporting a military bombardment of Syria.

Yes, the Ba'athist Government of Syria is vicious - and so are elements of the extremist opposition.  What did Ms Swinson think would be achieved by British military actions against Syria, apart from yet more bloodshed?  Did she really believe that external military action would help bring that tragic country's civil war to an end? How sad that an MP who once  seemed honourable should now seem to place loyalty to a harsh Conservative-led Government above  compassion for her fellows at home and abroad. 

Perhaps her constituents should look at her voting record in Parliament before voting at the next Westminster general election. 

Yours faithfully, Bill Newman,

Swinson's Rung

Article on the Government's Syrian war defeat and its implications for Jo Swinson by SSP Campsie member Neil Scott.

The Libdems who voted for war seem to have changed their minds about capital punishment-or does it not count if the criminals are arabs?

'Kill the bad arabs, but reduced jail sentences for those who have family who might vote for us.'

Another principle floated down the Swannee for another rung up the sleazy, greasy pole for some of the right wing cabal who planned and instigated the coup against the "left" social democrats who had boosted their party through the 90's and 2000's and turned it into a viable force.

Read more of the article here...

Local press article on SSP Campsie war intervention...

CLICK HERE

Also covered by Newsnet Scotland

CLICK HERE

SSP Campsie plea to Minister

SSP Campsie members Neil Scott and Angus Clark delivering a letter on behalf of local Socialists urging  Jo Swinson MP and Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition Minister to vote against murderous military intervention that is being promoted by Tory Prime Minister David Cameron. The letter can be read here

No to war in #Syria

Open letter from Campsie Socialists to Jo Swinson:

Dear Jo Swinson

We understand that Parliament is to be reconvened this Thursday in order for the Prime Minister to put forward a case for intervention in the dreadful Syrian Civil War.  This comes on the back of the US and UK governments already supplying help to the opposition forces – forces that include groups that are linked with terrorism across the world. 

This is a war that has on both sides, what MP Paul Flynn has described as “evil fanatics.”  He has warned that this civil war with large economic powers at loggerheads supporting different outcomes, could very quickly escalate into a regional war and, dreadful to think, a world war.

The use of chemical weapons, and the TV images of this dreadful incident, is abhorrent. But this act of mass murder should not be used as a reason for military intervention that will only make living in that region much more dangerous.  Military intervention will only displace millions more people and lead to many more people losing their lives.

The interventions in the Middle East, and especially in strategic and resource rich countries, is reminiscent of the build up to the situations that led to the two world wars in the early twentieth century.  After both world wars, the middle-east was carved up in the interests of the imperial powers – not of the people in the region.  What happens in Syria in the coming weeks will have huge implications in countries, including ours, across the world as the world powers line up to carve out what the unrest in the Middle East allows them to. 

Western intervention never works, is always self-serving and always increases human suffering.  This should be the lesson of history you take with you to the chamber on Thursday.

Please act with the evidence of history, please act with principle and please act with compassion.  We should not be backing war in this region.

Campsie Branch (East Dunbartonshire) SSP

Bedroom tax... From Twitter...

From SNP MP Angus Robertson via twitter last night:

RT @MorayMP:

Only four out of 59 Scottish MPs voted for bedroom tax:

@DavidMundellMP TORY
@MichaelMooreMP LIBDEM
@acarmichaelmp LIBDEM

**@joswinson** OUR MP, A LIBDEM. 

It's time for Jo to go.

The only way to stop the London based Tories from wreckng Scotland again is a YES vote next year.

Jo Swinson in Lib Dem cover-up..?

Jo Swinson implicated in Liberal Democrat cover-up of sexual impropriety..? More HERE from Channel 4 News...

East Dunbartonshire Schools closures/consultation

The Scottish Socialist Party in East Dunbartonshire welcomes the protests against school closures and the extremely flawed consultation process in East Dunbartonshire and offers it’s help in this important grassroots reaction to the policies of Westminster that are impacting negatively on our local community.

The reduced budget sent north by Danny Alexander, Jo Swinson, George Osborne, Clegg and Cameron et al, is now effecting the future of our children (in the face of increased and much higher amount of revenue sent south).  Policy in Scotland, of not just the Scottish Socialist Party, but the SNP and Greens, has been to reduce class sizes and increase the ratio of adults to children.  The reduction of budgets has meant that the Westminster and local councils are at times quoting spurious research that goes against all that the monied class believe, ie, that small classes make no difference.

Cameron and his pals, pay large amounts of their accrued millions for the education of their children in order to ensure their children’s time spent with the teacher is maximised. 

In private schools, class sizes are as low as 8. 

It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that the amount of time a teacher can spend on children’s personal education is vastly different from a child thrown into new of the huge superschools. State schooling is being reduced to “controlling behaviour” with overcrowding the norm as soon as the new “minimum standard” superschool is opened.  It is a disgrace that the Liberal Democrats and Tories are telling working class/middle class families that their child deserves to be almost chained to a desk in the cramped conditions 32 in a class with one adult overseeing, creates.  Huge, impersonalised schools go against the spirit of the New Curriculum for Excellence – a curriculum designed to help give a child a love of learning, a freedom to explore and child centred/led education.

The present East Dunbartonshire Council, a coalition between vicious, uncaring Tories and New Labourites who have damned us to the thievery of PFI/PPP (which is ensuring our council is paying a huge chunk of your hard earned taxes, on an annual increasing basis, to private profiteers) have been determined to make our parents and children pay ever since the Save Our Schools campaign – a cross constituency united campaign – won their case within a week just over two years ago.  We knew this would come back sometime mid-term in the Council’s life.

The Scottish Socialist Party realise that the demographics of communities change, but at the same time, if that demographic has changed in such a way that ensures class sizes are not more than twenty, then the local schools and children benefitting from this change should be seen as the model for the future.  Not herding children across the constituency to be lost in schools of thousands of their peers.  The Tories, New Labour, and the Liberal Democrats seem to think we should always drive to the bottom, and this has become clear on the English NHS, pensions, welfare and painfully in England, education.

Twenty in a class is plenty – more than plenty. 

Twenty in a class ensures an average of 75 minutes a week of a teacher’s time is spent with your child.  The present 32 in a class means 46 minutes on average (compare this with the private school average of 187 minutes a week – over three hours – are we really “all in this together?”).

Large class sizes are detrimental to our children – and school closures rather than reinvestment in some of the smaller country and urban community schools, ensure our children struggle and have an unhappy school life isolated from their community. Current practise in replacing smaller schools with super-schools impair implementation of the New Curriculum for Excellence, so disadvantaging our children. The marketisation of Education has disadvantaged many low and middle income families.

Research on lower Primary Years (P1-3) gives us much more to think of (while being told that because of our tax money being frittered on Bankers debts we must tighten our belts):

http://www.classsizeresearch.org.uk/results1.html (Department of Psychology and Human Development at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.)

We were heartened to see the schools campaigners on the streets this weekend, the same weekend the YES Scotland campaign were campaigning for a fairer Scotland.  In an independent fairer Scotland, our children’s future would be placed above the profits of the PPP/PFI companies and budgets would be decided by people closer to where they impact. 

We urge all parents and those concerned with education to unite and fight the Tory/New Labour coalition in East Dunbartonshire Council as it places paying the increasing PPP/PFI bill above the future of our children.  Budgets should ensure maximised child/teacher time and space for children to learn.

To sum up - considerations for East Dunbartonshire Council and it’s current Education policy:

• The rising population in the country, and indeed the rising birthrate in East Dunbartonshire.

• The impact of closures on Class size. The need for larger classrooms, more “schooling space” – ie. indoors and outdoors and smaller class sizes.

• The impact on special needs pupils if forced out of building.

• The impact on mainstream children’s mental health after separation from their peers and established community.

• The financial cost of refurbishment/clustering/ sharing resources rather than closure/ building schools with larger populations.

• The community cost of closure.

• The impact on parents/children regarding childcare.

• The impact on implementation of the New Curriculum for Excellence.

• The impact on children’s journey to schools. Child safety – children should not have to walk/travel far to school. This also affects children’s health, and road safety as those who have cars will tend to drive them.

• The impact on education workers. The diabolical numbers of newly qualified teachers in East Dunbartonshire, and indeed across Scotland, without work. The numbers of other educational workers who will lose work due to closures.

• The impact on receiving schools ability to ensure “McCrone” can be properly operated.

• The impact of the flawed consultations and subsequent 22 closures in Glasgow has already been proven to be catastrophic.

Of course, the Scottish Socialist Party feel that the only way to bring power to communities in Scotland over their budgets that impact our schools, hospitals, pensions and welfare, is to vote YES in 2014.

Jo welcomes five more years of Tories at Westminster...

Why the EU referendum means Five more years for the Tories... by Neil Scott, SSP Campsie member.

Cameron has just created his NEXT coalition partners for 2015, UKIP. 

He has just shafted the Libdems bigtime. Kicking a referendum into the medium grass (after 2015) means the Tories will get 5 more years and UKIP, winning some seats, will go into coalition creating the most right wing Government the UK has ever known. 

The unquestioning faithfulness of the Liberal Democrats to the Tory programme, and the realisation that they, in the words of Martin Luther King, prefer a "negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice," has destroyed Clegg and Swinson's party.  An increasingly hammered, impoverished working class will see the yellow albatross's off.  A middle class who this week will see their wages reduced on average by £30 a month after capitulation by the LD's on pensions are leaving them in droves.

Cameron does not want to leave the EU, nor does he really care about re-negotiation.  He does care about power in order to impose a dystopian future on the "UK", and this announcement of a referendum will more or less ensure a weaker opposition and a stronger right-wing coalition.

I don't feel sorry for quisling Libdems, but I did warn Jo Swinson she was a patsy (this article has my twitter conversation with her after the Coalition agreement was signed - HERE). 

The patsies have just overseen the death of their party & the re-election of the greedy, lying, vicious Tories. 

Long may the Libdems be in the wilderness for damning England to Tories part two. 

Martin Luther King's words from the same letter written from a Birmingham, Alabama jail, "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."  The working class of Scotland understand these words.

I am so glad we can vote to never have a Tory Government come 2014, and kick Jo Swinson and her Liberal Democrats right out of a job near to power.

The democratic deficit. Remember, our MP was one of those who voted "yes."

East Dunbartonshire Thatcherite

Please use these as you see fit.

The Swinson List

Jo Swinson has sent out an email asking those on her email list if they will be avoiding shopping in companies who have been shown to actively tax avoid.  This is SSP Campsie Organiser, Neil Scott's brief reply.

"I will be avoiding Starbucks (which will be a huge chunk from their profits as I am a coffee fiend :P ).  I also avoid all Nestle products and have done for many years and choose not to shop - if I can -in ASDA because of Walmart's terrible employee relations and use of Workfare, and likewise I will be doing my best to avoid Tescos for their use of Workfare slavery.  Also, the charity, PDSA and as much as I can, those on this list  who have not pulled out of the scheme.  

I will also be avoiding Marks and Spencer and Waitrose because of their refusal to dis-invest from Israel.

 I will also be ensuring, along with my SSP comrades and those new socialist contacts in East Dunbartonshire who I have met in relation to the Radical Independence Conference, that your part in the destruction of the Education , and NH services in England and welfare across the UK and support for what are now being seen to be LETHAL cuts are well publicized.  It is disgraceful what you have actively VOTED FOR as an individual and as a member of the Liberal Democrats, these terrible cuts to have taken place in England - cuts that benefit the few investors, including politicians,  in Serco, ATOS and the companies in waiting who are ready to break up and profit from our services.  

The impoverishment of an increasing number of people, and the abhorrent reliance on foodbanks (something your coalition partners seem to welcome) shows how much the poor and rich really are NOT in this together.  

Our publicly owned services should be protected in Scotland, and I feel avoiding the Tory, Liberal Democrat and New Labour driven "Better together" campaign is the best thing Scots can do to ensure this happens.


Neil Scott"

Unionist "No" Campaign Hijacks Milngavie Lights switch on

Please Read the original Bearsden Milngavie Herald article HERE

Our reaction:

Shoppers and those in Milngavie to see the switching on of the Christmas lights were reminded last week by Jo Swinson why we are “Better Together.”  The Scottish Socialist Party don’t have any problem with Jo bringing the discussion to the streets of Milngavie.  In fact, Jo being the face of the Better Together campaign in the area goes someway to remind us what remaining in the political Union will bring us if we don’t achieve independence.

Jo is an enthusiastic member of the Tory/ Liberal Democrat coalition.  She voted for student fees in English Universities.  She voted for the privatisation of the English NHS.  Though, thank goodness, at the present time Swinson and her Westminster friends cannot give our health and education systems away to their friends.  But competition law may impose a dismantled NHS – one that most Doctors in England are convinced will lead to a system similar to that in the US, where regardless of pain or suffering, if you haven’t got the right insurance, you will have to suffer on.

The biggest reminder that Better Together enthusiast Jo brings to us of what a No vote in 2014 will bring for the people of Scotland is her and her party’s enthusiasm for austerity.  In fact, all of the parties involved in the Better Together campaign agree on this.  None of them are fighting the 25% slash in the Scottish budget this year – that means a 25% cut in the East Dunbartonshire education budget and a 25% cut in our NHS and a 25% in our social care budget. 

The three parties, Tory, Liberal Democrat and Scottish New Labour agree on introducing cuts that will throw those people in our society in the direst need into ever deepening poverty, the difference between the Better Together chums being the timescale.  Swinson’s coalition Government, under the financial guidance of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Danny Alexander and George Osborne have admitted last weekend that they ‘got their figures wrong’ and austerity will last even longer and be even deeper than first thought.  The more Swinson is on the streets of East Dunbartonshire reminding us what their campaign really means, the better.  The Sunday Herald last week highlighted the effects of her support for the misnamed “reform” of Social Welfare – the headline on the first page ran, “Sick and Disabled Forced to work Without Pay.”

On the other side of the discussion, the Yes Campaign is made up of parties and individuals with sometimes differing  visions of what an Independent Scotland can be, from Women for Independence, through the Radical Independence movement, Trade Unionists for Independence and groups across the political and cultural spectrum organising for a better Scotland.  But we are all agreed on fundamental things.  We agree that independence will see democracy coming closer to the people of Scotland.  We agree that the people of Scotland are blessed with talent, resources and creativity that will transform this Liberal Democrat/ Tory austerity blighted country into a country, not unlike her Nordic neighbours that are fairer, greener and more prosperous, and have done so with less spread of resources.  We are agreed that Scotland will speak her own voice and make her positive contribution to the world.  Jo and the Tory/Liberal Democrat/ New Labour coalition want us to continue with the union – a union that has created the fourth most unequal country in the developed world. A United Kingdom that has become two nations, one for the rich and one for the rest. The campaign against independence does not invite us into its Britain of wealth and privilege. It expects us to endure our Britain of austerity and exploitation.

Jo wants us to vote No to independence because they want us to vote Yes to inequality, Yes to poverty, Yes to corporate greed. They want us to know our place, not to get ideas above our station. They do not even offer to try to be better.

Next year, Jo’s vision of cuts, austerity and rumoured further bankers bailouts may mean that there will be no Christmas lights switch on for her to ‘hijack.’