99's in Saltcoats, Benny Hill and the Red Flag in Milngavie...
it is a holiday, isn't it...?
Follow Pamela the length and breadth of the West of Scotland...
Saturday 24th March
Giffnock Question and Answer session with West of Scotland community councillors.
This was attended by about 60 community councillors from all over the region. The parties represented were Tory, SNP, Labour and ourselves.
Questions were wide ranging and local in focus, however
the thread was obvious and that was people's concerns with how their communities are being privatised. Whether it be schools, hospital services, losing public land to developers protected by confidentiality agreements and the lack of democratic accountability/ transparency in decision making.
There was real anger directed at the labour MSP in attendance.The first question asked was what we thought was the
most important issue facing humanity today. The poor wee disorientated Tory thought it was political correctness?! Perhaps more people than I had thought are worried about the repeats of
Benny Hill on telly...
I said
Climate change and explained how the
SSP's radical Free Public transport policy would help
tackle poverty and global warming. This was very well received and the man who asked the question spoke to me at the end to say that he had been given our leaflet by activists in
Milngavie (hotbed of radical socialism, let me tell you!) on this issue and was very impressed with the policy.
Sunday 25thAllan, Wullie and I leafleted
Twechar with West of Scotland Bulletins. Much to the delight of my students the next day at school!
Monday 26thI was interviewed by Strathclyde University's paper '
Strathclyde Telegraph'.
They were particularly interested in the
SSP's policies on Education, namely
scrapping tuition fees, reintroducing the
student grant and truly making higher/ further education accessible. We also discussed
wealth redistribution in terms of our
Scottish service tax policy and
national minimum wage of
eight pounds an hour.
Housing is a major issue for students and we discussed our policy commitment to providing
quality social housing as a solution to the housing crisis. I was really impressed by their questioning and thought their questioning was much better than some of the mainstream press I have been in contact with recently.
Saturday 31stSunny Saltcoats for a stall on
'Axing the Tax'. People were very supportive and it wasn't lost on them that we have been consistent on this issue of sharing out the wealth. Other parties had the chance to vote for our proposal of a progressive scottish service tax in parliament but refused to do so whatever they may claim now. But hey - I guess they are going to copy innovative,progressive ideas when they huvnae a scooby themselves.
We had a 99 and managed to avoid the puggy machines in “Nonsuch…”
Monday 2ndClydebank to campaign on
free school meals. the support we got from the bankies was brilliant. We were very warmly received both on the stall and when we were bulletening in the afternoon.
The lack of support we received at the Parliament for this was appalling. I sometimes wonder do the other parties think by supporting our policy on feeding we'ans does it mean we are one step further to the gulag or something? Or are things ok to go ahead only when the billionaires have said so (when they are sure their accountant has made sure they don't have to pay any tax....)?
It's time that lot of self serving bananas were shook up and stopped handing our money to the billionaires and the money was used for the good of Scotland's people.
The
free school meals campaign was wholeheartedly supported by parents with children off on school holidays as well as a
dinner lady who agreed that
nutritious free school meals would have a huge positive impact on our children's health. There might not have been enough support in the parliament for this bill to be passed but it'll be back because people overwhelmingly support it.
Tuesday 3rdIn
Greenock we were swamped by locals angry at the council for a multitude of reasons. People were literally queuing up to sign our
axe the tax petition. We had a lot of positive feedback.
Wednesday 4thWe took our campaign to
Paisley High Street where we did a stall on the council tax and getting sunburnt in the process! Who needs Benidorm?
Later I attended a European hustings with Frances at the Caledonian university. Frances was well received and it was obvious that
we are the only party campaigning on People Not Profit.Thursday 5thHome Territory! We campaigned in
Kirkintilloch on
free School meals and took advantage of our resident photographer Moira to get some photies taken at various locations with the
Free public transport ticket.In the late afternoon we set off to leaflet the village of
Campsie.
Saturday 7thWe set off to join the
Renfrewshire branch on their stall on free school meals. We were very well received with Frances and Iain Hogg (our council candidate) on the P.A. and selling out of papers very quickly.
Sunday 8thWe bulletined in
Balloch and leafleted hundreds of car windscreens on free public transport.
