SCOTLAND: Socialist parliamentarian jailed for nuclear protest

Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - 11:00

Alex Miller

Carolyn Leckie, one the Scottish Socialist Party's six members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), has been sentenced to seven days in jail for refusing to pay a fine relating to her arrest at an anti-nuclear protest at Faslane Naval Base in August last year.

Leckie is a midwife, and the January 19 BBC News Online reported that the midwives' professional body, the Nursery and Midwifery Council, is in the process of deciding whether her conviction amounts to "conduct unworthy of a registered midwife". This would mean that she could be "struck off" and unable to work as a midwife in the future, although the same issue of BBC News reported that Leckie is confident that the council can be persuaded not to ban her.

The January 20 BBC News Online quoted Leckie as saying: "If the worst happened and I was struck off as a midwife, the message that sends to health professionals and public sector workers across the country is that they are not expected to express a view, protest or dissent. That effectively is a gag on public servants and an affront to democracy."

An SSP press release on January 20 reported that prior to the trial Leckie had stated, "I won't be paying the fine, to do so would be an indication that I had done something wrong. I was protesting against Britain's weapons of mass destruction, I regard that as a duty not a crime."

Frances Curran, a fellow SSP MSP, has also been arrested for protests at Faslane. In the SSP press release Curran stated, "The SSP is proud that we have representatives who are prepared to take a stand on issues of principle. Carolyn is a woman in public life with principles who is prepared to risk her livelihood in order to take a stand against nuclear weapons. I am outraged that Carolyn has been jailed for taking a stand in the best democratic traditions. Carolyn has been criminalised for dissent and that is an outrage."

From Green Left Weekly, February 2, 2005.

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