Alex Miller
The Scottish Socialist Party is contesting two parliamentary by-elections to be held on September 29. Its candidates — long-time local activist Ronnie Stevenson, standing in the Scottish Parliament seat of Glasgow Cathcart, and trade union activist Steven Nimmo, standing in the Westminster seat of Livingston — have, like other SSP candidates, pledged to live on the average skilled workers' wage if they are elected.
Cathcart became vacant when Labour MSP Mike Watson resigned after pleading guilty to charges of deliberate fire-raising at an Edinburgh hotel.
Thousands of jobs in Cathcart stand to be lost with the take-over of Scottish Power by a German-owned company. In 1991 Scottish Power was privatised, and has since made billions of pounds of profit while each winter many Scottish old-age pensioners freeze to death because they cannot afford the electricity to heat their homes.
In an SSP election broadsheet, Stevenson commented: "Like our railways, Scottish Power was plundered from the public sector by the Tories. I'm calling for all Glasgow MPs and MSPs to back a campaign to safeguard jobs by returning the company to public ownership. Instead of massive profits for international shareholders, we should be slashing fuel bills for pensioners and other low-income households."
The September 16 Scottish Socialist Voice quoted Stevenson as saying: "There has been a big response from the party to the opportunity presented by the by-election to get across our key policies on jobs, poverty and stopping the imperialist war in Iraq."
The UK parliamentary seat of Livingston was left vacant by the death of former Labour cabinet minister Robin Cook. The SSP's Steven Nimmo has been campaigning against service cuts at local hospitals and in support of striking transport union workers at local bus company FirstBus Edinburgh and Midland.
On the SSP by-election weblog, Nimmo wrote: "The SSP is the only party that has consistently opposed the war in Iraq and calls for the troops to be brought home now. A vote for the SSP in this election is a vote against the Iraq war and is a vote against the lies of Tony Blair. Our campaign will also centre around our proposals that will affect the people of Livingston's lives on a day-to-day basis.
"Throughout the campaign I aim to bring into focus our flagship policies of scrapping the council tax, abolishing prescription charges and for the introduction of free nutritious school meals. With these things in mind I'm asking the people of Livingston, not just to vote against Blair and his lies but to vote for the kind of society they want to live in."
From Green Left Weekly, September 28, 2005.
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