West Lothian SSP confirm election '10 candidate

West Lothian Scottish Socialist Party

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate use – Date 31st January 2010


Ally Hendry Selected To Contest The Livingston Constituency At The 2010 Westminster Election

Following a branch selection meeting held in Whitburn Community Centre on Monday 25-1-2010 Ally was selected as the West Lothian Scottish Socialist Party candidate. Having previously stood in the 2005 Westminster election Ally said he felt proud and honoured that the branch nominated him.

Ally is a local lad from a socialist background who has lived in West Lothian all his life and has campaigned in the constituency on many issues since joining the party in 2003. He looks forward to raising pertinent issues in the forthcoming election campaign with members of the public who are being ignored and betrayed by the incumbent New Labour government.

Our country has been led into immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and like everybody else “I listen to daily reports of our troops being killed in a war opposed by 70% of the British population”.

Domestically the banking crisis has brought about the near collapse of the capitalist system and it has only survived due to the government pumping in billion of pounds of tax payer’s money. This at a time when hundred of thousands of people are losing their jobs, homes, savings and pensions and yet the banks still see fit to payout unwarranted and obscene bonuses. Ally says the task of the Scottish Socialist Party is to bring these bankers to account and to reverse the damaging effects their actions have had on the British working people.

He would also remind people that the scandal of the MP’s expenses is still ongoing despite the politician’s efforts to play the matter down and have it removed from the front page of the daily press.

Over the past few years we have witnessed the services at Saint Johns hospital being cut and slashed to the point where lives are being put at risk. Ally was personally involved in the campaign to save S.t Johns at all levels from street demonstrations public meetings, letters to the local press, raising petitions and was a member of the initial steering group. He says “I was totally disgusted at the way the whole issue was handled because the consultation process was a sham and the Labour government via the mouthpiece of the Lothian health board had already taken the irreversible decision to downgrade the hospital and were only paying lip service to public opinion”.

The above issues are only a sample of the problems facing the ordinary British man and women. The Scottish Socialist Party along with Ally Hendry will be on the streets of West Lothian from now until the general election putting forward the Socialist alternative to the capitalist policies of the current government. As part of the campaign a public meeting will be held on the 23rd of February in the St James Young high school at 7pm with Ally Hendry and Colin Fox speaking on a wide range of issues.

Colin fox msp to Face off in election contest with chancellor Alistair Darling MP

SSP joint national spokesman Colin Fox will challenge Chancellor Alistair Darling in the General Election and the party will look to target 10 key seats across Scotland in the poll.

Colin Fox said :
"The SSP will fight the General Election on two key battlegrounds, the economy and Afghanistan.
"We will take the fight to Alastair Darling in his own constituency on his stewardship of the economy, the fact that he took this country into the deepest and worst recession in 80 years and because he now intends to slaughter the jobs and services of working people to pay for his incompetence and his banker’s greed.
"Equally, we will be the only party in this election opposed to the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan and calling for an immediete withdrawal of British troops.

“Despite the undemocratic voting system and exorbitant cost of standing candidates the Scottish Socialist Party will offer a bright alternative to the 4 neo-liberal, warmongering parties in Scotland—Labour, Lib Dem, Tories and SNP—who are shamefully trying to outdo one another to see who can make the most savage cuts in jobs and essential services.

“Our message is clear therefore—those who caused the banking crisis should pay for it. That means higher taxes and sacrifices by those enjoying their luxury lifestyles. Working people like nurses, teachers, firefighters and postalworkers didn’t cause the crisis and they shouldn’t be expected to pick up the bill for it with pay cuts and sackings. That's the social justice we believe millions of Scots expect to see.

“In what will be an unsavoury 'doom and gloom' election contest about which party can best satisfy the City of London's demands for slashed public services and cuts jobs the SSP will stand out as a bright alternative, a welcome light of optimism, with our message that there is no way we will accept cuts and hardship for working people. There is an alternative, the SSP say another way is possible.”

“I particularly relish the prospect of challenging Alastair Darling the former revolutionary socialist and now arch conservative neo-liberal Chancellor justifying his plans for feather bedding the rich and assaulting the pay and conditions of those who used to be Labour’s key supporters in Edinburgh South West.”


To see original atricle please visit;

http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/new_stories/election2010/fox-takes-on-darling.html