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

DEFEND COUNCIL HOUSING

DEFEND OUR HOUSING!

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The RIGHT side of the road!

WE STAND TOGETHER!

Well comrades, it's been a brilliant campaign. We've delivered 100,000s of bulletins, and collectively campaigned our socks off! I couldnae be prouder of everyone and every word in our 'People not Profit' manifesto.

So much positive has come out of this campaign. Personally, I've got to know some really amazing people who would walk from here to the end of the earth for other people and the party has really pulled together. We've lots to celebrate!

We are The Party setting the political agenda.

Election Day will come and go but we'll still be here fighting shoulder to shoulder in our communities for a better world. We've done it all in good humour and real 'solidarity'. That, my friends means we're already on the winning side.

We'll be having a get together 'Doon the watter' on the Waverley on the 27th May and a BBQ in Mugdock in June. Be there!

Tuesday

Pam, Wullie and I leafleted Wullie's council ward of Craigton. Our sitting councillor Keith Baldessara's ward has been split in two, but his popularity should help in this new ward and hopefully get Rosie support too. He's easily the hardest working councillor in Glasgow. His record is inspiring. Like Jim Bolan in Renton it really shows what a socialist can do if elected.

It was a scorcher today and we put in a serious shift before heading for a smashing wee Italian cafe for fuel! After lunch the socialist 'gods' were shining on us when we bumped into George McNeilage who joined in our efforts. Halfing our work in the process. Wot a gem that man is!

Monday

Met Pam and Frances at Buchanan street bus station at 8am to campaign on our free public transport policy. We had a stall and leafleted until about 930. Then we headed off to pick up a few things in Stanley street and Wullie McGartland joined us to campaign on free school meals in Cardonald.

Although it was sunny, it was freezing in the wind and Frances and myself used that as the excuse for how ravenous we were all day. Though how she managed to sneak a gigantic yum yum out of greggs without me seeing i'll never know! We also leafleted the college before doing a stall in a different area of the Cardonald in the afternoon. We were really well received and a few folk said that they would like to rejoin the party. Brilliant!


Sunday

In the evening it was the hustings at st mary's church on home turf in Kirkintilloch. About 100 folk came along with the constituency candidates, ourselves and UKIP.

I was chuffed that a few of my students and their parents turned up in support.

I was chatting, as you do, with the other candidates before it and Stephanie from the Tories said that she had been interviewed about the election. She apparently said that she had learned from the most 'surprising of people' and name checked me! Then went on to say how she admired the fact that I was able to speak without fear or notes in some quite middle class environments. It was nice of her to say and she's a decent enough wumman but i'll let her intae a secret..... It's easy when you believe in what you're saying.

SSP candidates are not in this as a career move. We've the small matter of the world to change and will do so whether we're inside or outside the parley! Millions of people around the world agree and share this passion for justice and equality.

It's a shame for the other candidates, they may have paid agency workers to wear their garb and do the canvassing for them, but we have real comrades who make huge sacrifices for each other in a shared belief in humanity and the fight for a better world. That gives you amazing confidence.


In the morning I met with some of the other women SSP candidates to highlight the invisible nature of women and women's oppression in this election and politics generally. The SSP aims to take this seriously. We have a 50/50 policy in terms of our candidates, we are also working towards more inclusive methods of organising. We also have real demands. Listed below are some of our commitments. I am particularly proud of our progressive policy on prostitution. The Herald covered the story on Monday. Makes a change from constantly judging women politicians by their appearance. ( Though it must be said i'm on a mercy dash to the hairdressers on Thursday to get my roots done!)

We agreed to hold event at the Sandyford Initiative, 2-6 Sandyford Place, Sauchiehall St., in Glasgow at 12 midday. We want to highlight the demands below but also campaign for more and better non judgemental and supportive services for women.

We will have purpose made banners and a giant women's symbol and boards with our agreed priorities taken and and adapted from the manifesto in this order:

1. The decriminalisation of women involved in prostitution
2. Increased resources to enable a clamp down on kerb crawlers, teh closure of saunas, massage parlours and lap dancing clubs which operate as legalised brothels.
3. Free emergency contraception available across the NHS and pharmacies and women's centres regardless of where women live and equal access to women's health services, including non judgemental support, information and services for women who want terminations.
4. Greater funding for women's aid and other agencies which provide services for women who experience men's violence, abuse, rape and child sexual abuse.
5. Equal access for all women to fertility and insemination services.
6. A minimum of 12 months maternity leave, on full pay for public sector workersd, with the right to return part time. (with full powers over employment that should apply to all workers)
7. Free, publicly funded nursery places for all pre school children.
8. After school weekend and holiday clubs in every locality for school age children
9. Full implemenatation of equal pay in the public sector by levelling up, not down, including full settlement of back money owed. Equal pay is a right not a negotiation.
10. Free environmentally friendly sanitary protection for all women.

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Red Greenock, the Beach and the Workers Wage...

SSP Women Candidates...

PAMELA ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL (AND THE SHOWS!)

Tuesday 16th
Twechar Beach invasion!
As you already know we called a public meeting on housing in the village.
200 council houses are due to be demolished by the council, despite them
refusing the tenants a vote on the issue! Only 80 houses for social rent
will replace them, as well as another 40 that will be partly privatised at
more expensive rents. This is not a housing solution for the people, this is
for private profit.

The meeting was great. 60 people attended despite Man U being on the telly!
We made it clear that, in true Freire style, that we were there to listen and
offer our assitance to their campaign. It is a credit to the SSP that we
have arranged a housing surgery and another meeting for the Saturday and
Tuesday AFTER the election. We are in this for the long haul, because we are
part of these communities not parachuted in at election times.


Thursday 19th
Bearsden Churches hustings

This was the same day that the Poverty Alliance launched their manifesto and
I made it clear that our People not Profit manifesto is the only solution to
poverty and inequality. Other parties think cutting poverty by X% is
laudable, whereas we refuse to accept poverty at all in an oil rich nation!

Linda and I turned up to what was a very well attended (about 250 people)
hustings at kessington hall. It had a kinda dynasty ring to it and I was
disappointed to find that Blake and Crystal didnae appear....

There was the constituency candidates, including my first brush with the
Christian party as well as ourselves and the greens from the list.

Linda felt that I was well received on most issues. Questions ranged from
the state of the NHS, including the junior doctors' contract fiasco, to
which I responded by saying that it is indicative of what happens when we
allow Pirate Privateers who know the cost of everything but the value of
nothing to run our services.

I also trumpeted our free public transport policy in response to a question
on climate change but was surprised to find the green candidate rubbishing
our policy. From what I can gather their alternative is to install solar
panels on their four by fours!! Less than half of carbon emissions are
caused by individuals and it is a falacy to think that capitalism can have a
caring side that will save our environment. They talk the talk but don't
walk the walk. It seems they are sacred of offending business interests.
Everyone knows Radical Action is needed. I want to live in a Scotland that
has the guts to stand against the corporate greed that is destroying the
planet and take positive action to save it, not rely on the goodwill of
giant multinationals. But hey ho that's why I'm in the SSP not the Green
party.

Least said about our Christian candidate the better suffice to say he thinks
that the crisis in the NHS is due to moral decline, abortion rates and
teachers handing out condoms willy nilly. He was given short shrift by the
audience. It takes aw sorts right enough.

One man directly asked the New Labour candidate about the illegal war in Iraq.
To which he waffled that it wasn't illegal but said he knew it was 'a bit of
a mess'. I asked to be able to respond and got great applause when I said
that the 600,000 dead Iraqis and the over 100 British soldiers wouldn't
think it was a bit of a mess! And that it was sheer hypocrisy to have a
pre-emptive strike on a country under the guise of them having weapons of
mass destruction when our very own weapons of mass destruction are lurking
on the Clyde.

The night didn't finish till well after ten and I was feeling a bit jiggered
with working this week but managed to rouse myself to make a few points in
my closing remarks. Namely that I was delighted to see the other parties
falling over themselves during the election to support the SSP's demand for
the scrapping of the hated council tax but wondered why when they had the
opportunity to get rid of it in the Parley they refused. It's just another
example of how the SSP have been the conscience of the parliament, shaping
the agenda on free prescriptions, free nutritious school meals and asylum to
mention a few issues that we have campaigned for week in week out. Not just
in the few weeks in the run up to an election.

I ended by saying that if elected I wouldn't disappear into the cosy parley
atmosphere. I would follow Frances before me on the streets, picket lines,
taking direct action at Faslane and wherever else, fighting injustice,
shoulder to shoulder with working class people in our communities. Refusing
to take the 53,000 salary that Msps and 5% of the population earn.

Vote Pamela Page on a worker's wage!

At the end of the hustings a young man came up to the platform to shake my
hand and say hello. I got a tremendous boost when he said that he was
thinking of voting for Sheridan but had changed his mind during the hustings
and was voting for us! Integrity Indeed.


Saturday 28th

Greenock

Pam, Davy and I campaigned in Greenock today, which has become the Petrograd
of the West in recent weeks. We did a stall on the council tax and were well
received. I was delighted that three people asked about joining. One woman
asked who we were and said " Brilliant I was asked earlier on by another
'socialist' party and said No I want to join the SSP!' Welcome comrade!

We made a wee trip to the shows by the shore... long story photeez to
follow... but needless to say our national secretary is certainly a risk
taker. Don't know if Al Green would have went on some of those rides. I
stuck to the tame waltser type extravaganza but think i'm a land lubber to
be honest.

Greenock is the business though, my nana is from there and Davy Landels is
no bad either! the Mighty Morton have won the league too so lots to
celebrate!

Our Campsie comrades were out campaigning locally. Busy week ahead but i've
taken a weeks unpaid leave so dying to get stuck in!

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!"

EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE SSP ANNOUNCE THEIR COUNCIL CANDIDATES!

Scottish Socialist Party East Dunbartonshire Council Candidates

WILLIE TELFUR - TWECHAR CANDIDATE WITH PROVEN RECORD OF GETTING THINGS DONE!

FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR ALL

The people of Twechar have suffered for years from a privatised transport system that puts profits before people. We have had to campaign time after time just to keep the irregular evening bus service. We are a prime example of the shortcoming of Scotland’s expensive and inadequate public transport system.

With congestion and pollution choking our towns and cities and scientists ringing the alarm bells over global warming, we need radical action.

By scrapping the £4 billion of prestige transport projects such as M74 and the Edinburgh airport rail-link, we could fund the infrastructure for an expanded, publicly-owned transport network. And by imposing a modest payroll tax on big business, we could run our buses, trains, ferries and underground free of charge.

A vote for the SSP is vote for fare-free transport.

HOUSING

East Dunbartonshire council says they want to modernise housing in Twechar. Sounds good except they plan to demolish 185 council houses and only rebuild 80 for renting. Another 40 will be partly sold off to the private sector. This will result in more expensive rents, - an immediate rise of 10% and the scrapping of the two weeks free rent in March and at Christmas. There will be no guaranteed future rent caps, even though every other scheme like this over the past few years in other areas across Scotland have had this promise. A quick look at the sums shows that some local people will be forced to move out of the area.

This is not a housing solution to suit the people of Twechar. It is being forced on us without a ballot. Why is the council scared to let people have their say? They are scared we would insist on a better solution to our local housing needs.

Nationally, the SSP promise to fight to for 100,000 new homes for rent - bringing house-building in the social rented sector into line with the private sector. Sky-high property values mean misery, overcrowding and even homelessness for hundreds of thousands of young people and low paid workers.

We want to build flats for young people and houses with gardens for young families. To fund that ambitious programme, we will campaign for the cancellation of all local authority housing debt, and for councils to be allowed to levy a ‘millionaire’s tax’ on all land and property worth over a million pounds.

A vote for the SSP is a vote to build high quality housing for low-cost rent.

SAVE STOBHILL HOSPITAL

We only have to look at the two closest General Hospitals to Twechar, Stobhill and Monklands to see that the NHS is no longer safe in new Labours hands. As regards Stobhill, the arrogant Labour Party turned it’s back on huge campaigns to keep it a General Hospital whilst shovelling piles of your money into the long discredited and very poor PFI alternative. The SSP over a number of years have been to the forefront of campaigns to keep emergency services not only at Stobhill but also at Monklands.

With nearly 500 beds at Stobhill due to disappear, where will people go when they need treatment? The Royal in Glasgow is already overcrowded and just think of the problems getting there in an emergency.

Sure, Stobhill has been starved of funds in recent years. But the answer is to invest in the NHS for the future. New Labour only offers closures and privatisation. Stobhill has a pleasant environment and plenty room for expansion.

It was Socialists who set up the NHS – only Socialists can save it.

It is time to put people before profit. It is time to vote Scottish Socialist Party.

MOIRA BROWN - FIGHTING FOR LENZIE AND SOUTH KIRKINTILLOCH

TIME FOR CHANGE

Moira Brown is a self-employed photographer who spends her spare time campaigning for social justice. Married to Eric, she has been living in Lenzie for two years. She believes that the Scottish Socialist Party provides an important voice for the people of Scotland and hopes you will become convinced of this too.

Moira believes that “we are already experiencing extreme capitalism in this country. Do we really want to be like the United States where a baby is more likely to die in New York than in the city of Beijing?”.

She also says: “If elected I will work hard to promote the rights of the community and individual constituents. I will also work to:

• Promote the SSP’s programme for an integrated FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM. And to campaign for the reopening of the rail line from Glasgow Queen St to Aberfoyle via Kirkintilloch, Milton of Campsie, Lennoxtown etc. (closed in 1966)

• Promote the provision of free school meals for every child in East Dunbartonshire.

• Oppose the current council tax system and promote a fairer income-based tax.

• Oppose the sale of land to developers unless there is an adequate provision made for social housing.

• Oppose the renewal of Trident as this could pay for sorting out all of the above! “

ACTION TOWARDS GAINING HEALTHY SCHOOL MEALS FOR ALL CHILDREN

We, the Scottish Socialist Party have supported the Free School Meals campaign (www.freeschoolmeals.org) from the outset. The Executive has already made a concession which is the extension of free meals to children of families on maximum Working Families Tax Credit. This could mean that 70,000 – 93,000 more children from low-income families will become entitled to free school meals. This initiative was introduced in Hull in 2004 and has been a resounding success (according to teachers and health professionals alike). The cost of this? Pennies compared to the cost of hosting the Olympic games in London which is of no benefit to the people of Scotland whose taxes are helping to pay for it.

In the long term this policy will actually save money on:

(1) teaching time spent dealing with the consequences of hyperactive and/or undernourished children.

(2) improving every child’s chances in life so fewer fall by the wayside.

(3) NHS resources by forming good eating habits when children are young.

(4) social work time spent dealing with challenging children.

(5) administration (systems to collect money cost money).

THINKING THAT WOULD SOLVE THE CAR PARKING PROBLEM AT LENZIE STATION –- without building a multi-storey car park or introducing parking charges!

How could people in the 19^th and much of the 20^th century live without cars in Kirkintilloch and it’s environs, yet today the norm is that we need one each?

The answer to this question is threefold. Firstly, prior to the 1960’s if you lived in Kirkintilloch, Milton of Campsie or Lennoxtown, you could hop on a train into Glasgow. Secondly, train fares were a good deal cheaper then in comparison to the average wage. Thirdly, our ancestors did not have to worry about making a reservation for their bicycle! And these were the days when congestion and global warming were not even issues.

This railway branching off to Kirkintilloch from Lenzie is just one of the valuable railway routes that has been denied to the people of Scotland since that short sighted idiot Beeching had it closed. He is long gone but we are still suffering (those who have to finance a car just to have it sit all day at Lenzie train station and those living near the station who feel the parking is disrupting their lives). And the problem is getting worse.

Huge areas of Scotland could be regenerated if all the old railway routes/stations were reinstated and fares reduced to NIL. People could travel to work more easily, consider jobs that would otherwise be unfeasible and Scottish families could explore Scotland at the weekends. We live in a beautiful country but at present it cannot be explored properly without a car.

So how much would it cost to have a great, free integrated public transport system in Scotland? Well, it would cost a lot less, for example, than renewing Trident!

This is not a pipe dream we are talking about – this is something our great-great grand parents once took for granted and so should we.

BILL NEWMAN - THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE TORY PARTIES IN MILNGAVIE!

Bill Newman has lived locally for some 12 years and has been active in politics and trade union activities throughout his adult life. He firmly believes that only socialism can bring about a fairer society locally and nationally. The Scottish Socialist Party is determined to challenge the self-seeking, business-friendly agendas of the LibDems, New Labour, Conservative and SNP at all levels.

He says, “In Milngavie, as elsewhere in East Dunbartonshire, I will:

__ Oppose the Council Tax and promote a fairer income-based tax.

__ Oppose the building of schools and hospitals by PFI (private finance) methods which raises costs to the local community, limits the facilties available and prioritises profits to private companies above the interests of pupils and patients.

__ Oppose the sale of land to private developers unless adequate provision is made for affordable property for rent.

__ Promote the provision of free school meals for all school children.

__ Promote the Scottish Socialist Party's programme for an integrated FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM locally and nationally.

__ Protect and extend local facilities and the surroundings for all citizens, not least to improve the deteriorating condition of Milngavie town centre.

Public Transport in Milngavie could be greatly improved. The SSP propose a Free Public Transport System.

In the Belgian city of Hasselt, which covers an area double the size of Dundee, congestion was eliminated in the late 1980s after the introduction of a totally free public transport system. Within a year, bus passenger journeys rose by 870 per cent and have now increased by over 1000 per cent. In dismal contrast, the Scottish Executive has set a target for an annual increase of one per cent in bus journeys and two per cent in rail journeys.

In recent months, the Danish government has commissioned a research group to examine the feasibility of a free public transport system (Copenhagen Post November 22, 2006 ).

The Melbourne Age newspaper, edited by Andrew Jaspan (a former editor of the Sunday Herald, The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday) has called for state-wide free bus travel in Victoria (A radical idea, The Age, May 5 2006)

Matthew Parrish, a Tory MP under Margaret Thatcher, who played a key role in destroying South Yorkshire’s cheap fares policy, now admits he was wrong and has called for London-wide free bus travel: “I was wrong. I have changed my mind…Never mind the ideology, it just makes sense.” (It’s big, it’s red, and it’s free – and it will save London; The Times. May 8 2003)

Visit Scotland (formerly the Scottish Tourist Board) recently published a report which set out the policy implications of global warming by 2015: “In order to reduce dependency upon the car, we will see a number of measures to move people onto public transport. These will include free public transport for all in Scotland, whether this is buses or trains”. (Visit Scotland report: Tomorrow’s World, May 2006)

Neil Scott, Bearsden North -

GET KIDS OFF THE STREETS—GIVE THEM SPACE!

Neil Scott is a husband, a father and a Primary School Teacher who lives in Castlehill, Bearsden. He has lived in Bearsden for seven years.

One of the few places children have to play football or other active games in the Courthill and Castlehill Areas is in front of the Courthill shops. There are plans to take this away from them.

I recognise the need for affordable housing, but affordable housing should not mean cramped housing. Cramming more houses into Courthill is going to ensure more teenagers on the streets with nothing to do. It wont be long until the only green to be seen in the area will be the empty bottles of buckfast.

The Council have a fantastic opportunity to build affordable housing and good facilities for children and teenagers on the huge space left vacant by St Andrews College - but seem to have gone down the path of minimal facilities for Bearsden Academy and more land for developers.

If elected, I will fight for facilities for children and teenagers in the Castlehill and Courthill area - and for affordable housing for our children when they leave home- built on freed up land instead of giving community owned land away for a song for more expensive flats and cheaply built, but expensive to buy housing for the gain of no-one only the developers.

BETTER PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR BEARSDEN NORTH

Public Transport in Bearsden is horrendous. For example, if you want to go to Clydebank (10 min away by car) you have to change bus -either getting a bus from a different company (negating the cheap tickets the journey can cost £4.50) -or waiting for the bus from the same company which can make the journey last over an hour if you don't time it right (one bus an hour). If you want to go to Milngavie then you have to walk to Baljaffray - not ideal if you are from Castlehill or Courthill and you've got a disability or have children.

Those of us commuting into Glasgow find tickets by train are £12.50 a week—there is no incentive to leave the car at home.

I recently had this letter published in the Evening Times:

I notice the Times photographer was outside the school I work in as a teacher today to take photographs of parents parking on the zig-zag lines.

Could I suggest that the newly announced SSP policy of FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT would help combat the congestion and dangerous parking in the mornings outside most schools?

In my opinion this will take people out of their cars and give our cities - and in turn our children- the pollution free breathing space they need.
I noticed this article in the Herald about this policy -
http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/news/display.var.1149157.0.0.php

I promise to fight for a national free public transport system to turn Scotland into the clean, green capital of the world. With congestion and pollution choking our towns and cities and scientists ringing the alarm bells over global warming, we need radical action. By scrapping the £4 billion of prestige transport projects such as M74 and the Edinburgh airport rail-link, we could fund the infrastructure for an expanded, publicly-owned transport network. And by imposing a modest payroll tax on big business, we could run our buses, trains, ferries and underground free of charge. A vote for the SSP is vote for fare-free transport.

For more details on joining the S.S.P. and your local branch please contact our national offices below. Make sure to leave your name, address and phone number. Or you can email ssp.membership@btconnect.com

eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk

East Dunbartonshire SSP,

70 Stanley Street
Glasgow G41 1JB

tel: 0141-429-8200

fax: 0141-429-8040

http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/

www.scottishsocialistvoice.net