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• £10-An-Hour Living Wage • Tax the Rich • Scrap Trident • Fight the Cuts
Radical voices: Jonathon Shafi, Alan Bissett, Colin Fox, Isobel Lindsay, John McAllion, Paul Holleran & more • see inside £1 • issue 448 • 21st November – 4th December 2014 scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com SCOTLAND DEMANDS CHANGE • £10-an-hour living wage • Tax the rich • Scrap Trident • Fight the cuts • Protect benefits • Axe the Council Tax • Dump anti-union laws ScottishSocialistVoice.wordpress.com /ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson AT THE heart of the broad vibrant Yes campaign, which A people before profit Scotland culminated with a massive 45 per cent vote in September’s independence referendum, is the spearhead of change PHOTO: John Lanigan was the clear belief that independence could open the road to a socially just and sustainable Scotland, putting people before profit. Astonished unionists have looked on aghast as the Yes campaign, fuelled by this key vision, not only failed to melt away but—in all its aspects— mushroomed in size and activity. Now the supposed victors of Better Together particularly the sham socialists of the once all conquering Labour Party are staring down the barrel of a political defeat of immense proportions as the reality of the No vote is revealed. SOCIALISTS SAY NO TO NATO: pro-Yes parties differ on issues such as corporation tax, monarchy and NATO Chilling reality The polls predicting a The key question facing the live issue with the proposal For example, it has been Labour meltdown underline left in this situation is how to for a Yes alliance targeting Scottish Socialist -
West Dunbartonshire Council Assurance and Improvement Plan 2014–17
WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL At the Meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council held in the Council Chambers, Council Offices, Garshake Road, Dumbarton on Wednesday, 18 December 2013 at 2.05 p.m. Present: Provost Douglas McAllister and Councillors Denis Agnew, George Black, Gail Casey, Jim Finn, David McBride, Jonathan McColl, Michelle McGinty, Patrick McGlinchey, Marie McNair, John Millar, John Mooney, Ian Murray, Lawrence O’Neill, Tommy Rainey, Gail Robertson, Martin Rooney, Kath Ryall and Hazel Sorrell. Attending: Joyce White, Chief Executive; Angela Wilson, Executive Director of Corporate Services; Richard Cairns, Executive Director of Infrastructure and Regeneration, Terry Lanagan, Executive Director of Educational Services; Keith Redpath, Director – West Dunbartonshire Community Health & Care Partnership; Peter Hessett, Head of Legal, Democratic & Regulatory Services; Jackie Irvine, Chief Social Work Officer; Stephen West, Head of Finance & Resources; Gillian McNeilly, Finance Manager; Joe Reilly, Finance Business Partner and Christine McCaffary, Senior Democratic Services Officer. Also Attending: Elaine Boyd, Senior Audit Manager, Audit Scotland. Apologies: Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Councillors Jim Bollan, Jim Brown and William Hendrie. Provost Douglas McAllister in the Chair MINUTE OF SILENCE Having heard Provost McAllister, Chair, the Council observed a minute of silence as a mark of respect for those killed in the helicopter crash at The Clutha bar in Glasgow on 29 November 2013; the passing of a great world statesman, Nelson Mandela on 7 December 2013 and also to mark the 6th anniversary on 19 December of the sinking of the Flying Phantom tug boat on the River Clyde and the loss of 3 of her crew. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST It was noted that there were no declarations of interest in any of the items of business on the agenda at this point in the meeting. -
Scottish Socialist Voice
The Dundee Timex strike - 20 years on: Sam Lee: singer mostly female workforce’s heroic fight challenges folk electrified workers across the globe preconceptions • see pages 6&7 • see page 8 £1 • issue 410 • 25th January - 7th February 2013 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net IAN DAVIDSON JOHANN LAMONT ANAS SARWAR A PARCEL by Alan Bissett Scotland what Shakespeare Scots Labour politicians brand is to England and Dylan is to Holyrood ‘undemocratic’, oppose IF there is a single figure America: a bard whose who could symbolise complexity, linguistic genius Bannockburn commemoration, Scotland it is Robert Burns. and poetic sensitivity can but support Tories’ cuts and £50m Regarded around the world articulate the soul of an entire O’ ROGas one of the gUreatest poets Enation. S marking of WW1 slaughter... who ever lived, he is to • Continued on page 9 facebook.com/ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice INDEPENDENCE Challenges facing SSP P H O T Many in this movement be - by Colin Fox O : and Yes camp in 2C liev0e it is on1ly by 3 persuading our r a i THE 600 people who crammed g fellow Scots of the material ad - M into the Yes Glasgow launch a vantages they can expect from c l e meeting last week took the final a independence that we can win tally attending these inaugural n the vote in 2014. events to around 4000 - that’s Not everyone in favour of in - 4000 activists eager to play their dependence is a socialist of part in maximising the Yes vote course. But it is also true there in their area in the 2014 Inde - are hundreds of pro-indepen - pendence Referendum. -
West Dunbartonshire Council Elections
APPENDIX WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL ELECTION - 3 MAY 2012- RESULTS WARD 1 – LOMOND NO OF COUNCILLORS TO BE ELECTED - 3 Electorate Turnout % Total Valid Votes Quota 8,958 42.13 3695 924 Candidates Party Status Total votes prior to election or exclusion Jonathan McColl Scottish National Party (SNP) Elected Stage 7 1342 Ronald McColl Scottish National Party (SNP) Excluded Stage 6 647 George Rice Independent Excluded Stage 3 238 Louise Robertson Scottish Socialist Party Excluded Stage 2 167 Martin Rooney Scottish Labour Party Elected Stage 1 1243 Hazel Sorrell Scottish Labour Party Elected Stage 5 998 Brian McKenzie Walker Scottish Conservative and Unionist Excluded Stage 4 416 Elected to serve for the Lomond Ward: Jonathan McColl, Martin Rooney and Hazel Sorrell APPENDIX WARD 2 – LEVEN NO OF COUNCILLORS TO BE ELECTED - 4 Electorate Turnout % Total Valid Votes Quota 13,186 39.44 5,101 1,021 Candidates Party Status Total votes prior to election or exclusion Jim Bollan Scottish Socialist Party Elected Stage 1 1073 David Jardine Scottish Conservative and Unionist Excluded Stage 4 248 John Millar Scottish Labour Party Elected Stage 1 1622 Gail Robertson Scottish National Party (SNP) Elected Stage 1 1036 May Smillie Scottish National Party (SNP) Excluded Stage 6 549 Michelle Stewart Scottish Labour Party Elected Stage 7 1128 Archie Thomson Independent Excluded Stage 5 459 Elected to serve for the Leven Ward: Jim Bollan, John Millar, Gail Robertson and Michelle Stewart APPENDIX WARD 3 – DUMBARTON NO OF COUNCILLORS TO BE ELECTED - 4 Electorate -
• NO EVICTIONS • VOTE YES to MAKE the TORIES HISTORY Facebook.Com/Scottishsocialistvoice @Ssv Voice NEWS Playing Party Games
BEDROOM TAX SPECIAL: As the ConDems try to make April Fools of us all, the people take to the streets to fight back • see pages 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11 £1 • issue 414 • 29th March - 11th April 2013 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net AXE THE BEDROOM As 105,000 Scots face the Bedroom Tax attacks, the ConDems award millionaires an eTxtra £A107,000X a year in tax cuts... • NO EVICTIONS • VOTE YES TO MAKE THE TORIES HISTORY facebook.com/ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice NEWS Playing party games bwy Richiei Vetnton h pdespeerately juoggling thpe bills tlo ethat inev’itasbly follo w lwhein pevo - slaeshed bacs k council meetings to survive, as they have to choose ple on rock-bottom incomes are just four a year! THE Tory onslaught on the between heating, or eating, or expected to cough up from £10 In contrast to this stance, the poorest to pay for the million - keeping a roof over their head. to £22 a week. opposition Labour councillors in aires’ tax cuts and bankers’ From the outset, the Scottish North Ayrshire proposed a Mo - bailouts has put both Labour and Socialist Party has been up-front SSP Motion tion very similar to Jim Bollan’s, the SNP to the test. in calling for abolition of the The first such motion raised including the call for no evic - And behind their headline- Bedroom Tax. anywhere by a councillor was tions by the council. The SNP grabbing statements lurks a lot But whilst helping to build a put by the Scottish Socialist delayed a decision, seeking legal of fudge, party political manoeu - movement to bring about it’s Party councillor in West Dun - advice - and their leader told me vring and outright cynicism and downfall, we have also cam - bartonshire, Jim Bollan. -
INDEPENDENT SOCIALISTS AFTER the DECEMBER 12TH GENERAL ELECTION from Illusions in a Lexit Brexit to a Disillusioned Lexit from Brexit Politics
INDEPENDENT SOCIALISTS AFTER THE DECEMBER 12TH GENERAL ELECTION From Illusions in a Lexit Brexit to a Disillusioned Lexit from Brexit PolitiCs ______________________ Sunday Telegraph backs Lexit with ‘revolution’ and a ‘people’s Brexit ’ Contents a) The 2015 general election provided a warning b) After 2015 - an increasingly floundering Left c) Northern Ireland – a different pattern d) Reactionary unionism and Europhobic opposition to the EU e) The largest independent Socialist parties walk into the Brexit trap f) The official Remain and Leave campaigns – two wings of the British ruling class g) The Lexiters’ false arguments h) The political options open in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum i) From 23rd May 2016 to 8th June 2017 – A victory for the Left or the Right? j) ‘Independent’ Socialists and ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’! 1 k) Corbyn and the ‘independent’ Socialists unwittingly help Boris Johnson to victory l) Independent socialists after the December 12th general election m) Independent socialists in Scotland and Northern Ireland/Ireland n) Conclusion a) The 2015 general election provided a warning The centrality of constitutional issues in the current political situation has wrong-footed Socialist organisations both in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Ireland (the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). Far happier addressing ‘bread and butter’ issues, the largest independent Socialist organisations, particularly the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) of Great Britain and the Socialist Workers Party (Ireland) - SWP(I), and the Socialist Party of England and Wales – SP(E&W) (with its autonomous section, the Socialist Party of Scotland – SPS) and the Socialist Party (Ireland) - SP(I), have largely left the constitutional nature of the states they operate in to the ruling class, or political representatives of would-be ruling classes. -
Scottish Local Election
Local authority elections in Scotland Report 3 May 2007 and Analysis The illustration on the cover of this report represents the town hall in Lerwick, Shetland, a building whose imposing features reflect the important role of local councils and local democracy. Its foundations were laid in 1884, the year that the Electoral Reform Society was established. Local authority elections in Scotland Report and 3 May 2007 Analysis Local authority elections in Scotland 3 May 2007 5 Contents Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 Summary 11 17 Part 1: What happened in the elections? Chapter 1: The results of 3 May 2007 17 Chapter 2: The political parties and the local elections 29 Chapter 3: Candidate strategy in multi-member wards 51 Chapter 4: Representation of women, young people and minorities 57 65 Part 2: The voters’ experience Chapter 5: More choice for voters 65 Chapter 6: Transferable voting 69 Chapter 7: Did people record valid votes? 83 91 Part 3: Election issues Chapter 8: Ballot design 91 Chapter 9: Multi-member wards 97 107 Part 4: Looking ahead Chapter 10: Looking forward 107 111 Appendix Scotland’s 32 new councils 111 Local authority elections in Scotland 3 May 2007 7 Acknowledgements and Dedication A project of this size is never a one-person job and I would like to thank Ken Ritchie, Amy Rodger and Martin Steven in particular for their constant help, guidance and support. Alasdair Stuart contributed magnificently to the sections on the results council-by-council and equalities. Other colleagues have assisted with the text and gathering data, including Christine McCartney, Gertrud Malmersjo and Hywel Nelson. -
West Dunbartonshire Council: the Audit of Best Value and Community
West Dunbartonshire Council The Audit of Best Value and Community Planning Prepared for the Accounts Commission February 2007 Audit Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000 under the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. It provides services to the Auditor General for Scotland and the Accounts Commission. Together they ensure that the Scottish Executive and public sector bodies in Scotland are held to account for the proper, efficient and effective use of public funds. Managing information and Contents communication technology 43 Procuring goods and services 44 Commission findings 2 Competitiveness and continuous The Audit of Best Value 7 improvement 45 Overall conclusions 9 Efficient Government 46 Performance management 47 Part 1: Does the council have clear strategic Customer focus and direction? 14 responsiveness 50 Introduction 14 Sustainable development 52 Context 15 Equal opportunities 52 Vision 19 Part 3: How are services performing? 54 Culture 22 Statutory performance indicators 54 Responding to the needs of the community 24 Council services 56 Community planning and joint Education and cultural services 57 working 26 Social work services 60 Corporate and service planning 32 Housing and technical services 63 Scrutiny 33 Development and environmental Accountability and openness 33 services 67 Part 2: Is the council Part 4: What needs to organised to deliver better improve? 70 services? 37 Developing an improvement culture 70 Making good use of resources 37 Improvement agenda for West Managing people 39 Dunbartonshire Council 72 Managing assets 42 Managing risk 42 1 Commission findings Introduction 1. The Controller of Audit made a report on the audit of Best Value and Community Planning in West Dunbartonshire on 3 October 2006. -
Manifesto Part One About the Scottish Socialist Party “Work As If You Live in the Early Days of a Better Nation” Alasdair Gray
manifesto part one About the Scottish Socialist Party “Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation” Alasdair Gray e are the Scottish Socialists of life’, across the world people are and we fight in hope. We cut already dying as a result of climate against the grain of the politi- change caused by that same way of life. W cal consensus, refusing to We have only a very short time left to accept that ‘in the real world’, millions stop the Earth from burning because of must live in poverty for a few to live in the destructive waste of capitalism. unimaginable wealth, that weapons of Since the last Scottish Parliamentary mass destruction must be moored in the election in 2003, a brutal war has been Clyde to keep us safe from weapons of raging in Iraq, courtesy of the British mass destruction, that wars mean peace, and American governments. and that a diminishing democracy deliv- Hundreds of thousands of civilians ers us greater security. have lost their lives, and their society has We believe we can make a better been pounded to dust. nation, where every state school child FIGHTING FOR A eats a nutritious, free lunch every day of FUTURE: for a the working week; where pensioners world without receive a decent income with access to poverty, war and well-funded, free public services; where environmental families are housed in warm, secure destruction, for a homes near green spaces and schools world of peace, equality and justice and shops; where refugees are welcomed and given the right to work and make a new life here, to the benefit of us all; PHOTO: where war is an ugly memory; where Craig Maclean energy is sustainable and nationalised; BACK PAGE where we protect instead of destroy our PHOTO: Eddie Truman environment; and where expanded, fare- free and publicly-owned train, bus and ferry services link every community in Scotland, from the heart of Glasgow to the shores of the Outer Hebrides. -
Ssv Voice EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson
Election 2015: meet the International Women’s Day: SSP candidates who we look at the daily struggles are fighting for workers of women across the globe • see pages 8, 9 & 10 • see page 12 £1 • issue 453 • 27th February – 12th March 2015 scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com SIR MALCOLM RIFKIND JACK STRAW LOW PAID WORKER £1,619/hour £5,000/day £6.50/hour AUSTERITY HYPOCRITES ALL Rifkind: ‘unrealistic’ Low paid workers forI MNPs toI liTve ‘sTimpOly GErecTeivHe 20Ep ‘Rboost’ on £60,000 a year’ to minimum wage ScottishSocialistVoice.wordpress.com /ScottishSocialistVoice @ssv_voice EDITORIAL by Ken Ferguson ONCE AGAIN the harsh spotlight of publicity has lit up the two faced money grasping hypocrisy behind Westminster’s pro-austerity politicians. Two of the supposed Mother of Parliament’s “honourable gentlemen”— both ex-foreign secretaries Tory Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Labour’s Jack Straw—were caught offering their services for hire to what they thought was a Chinese firm but turned out to be a journalistic sting. Rifkind, a failed Edinburgh MP moved to upmarket Chelsea, explained that it was “quite unrealistic” for MPs to live “simply on £60,000 a year”. Research by the Daily Telegraph and Channel 4 WESTMINSTER GRANDEES’ GREED revealed that the going rate for Sir Malcolm’s services was £1,619 an hour. sEuppXortPer oOf waSr anEd S AUplaSyerTs inE theR deIfeTnceY of i t, HYpoPliticOs whCich Rcan IhaSrneY ss This from a man who was mayhem and a key figure in the Labour Party, is about to them to meet the needs of Secretary of State in the long running New Labour pay the price for their Better people and planet. -
Standing up for Scotland's Working Class Majority
s 2015 General Election manifesto FOR AN INDEPENDENT SOCIALIST SCOTLAND: STANDING UP FOR SCOTLAND’S WORKING CLASS MAJORITY 201 5 General Election manifesto FOR AN INDEPENDENT SOCIALIST SCOTLAND: STANDING UP F OR SC OTLAN D’S WORKI NG CL ASS M AJORITY CONTEN TS Introduction 5 Independence deferred 7 More powers for Holyrood 7 Standing up for Scotland’s working class majority 8 How is this programme to be paid for? 21 Building Scotland’s Socialist Party 21 ISBN 978-0-9571986-7-8 Design and layout by @revolbiscuit Promoted by Colin Fox, 81/5 Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH8 9JG. Printed by Events Armoury, 9 West Richmond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9EF www.ScottishSocialistParty.org INTRODUCTION ransom will continue to call the shots through the politicians they keep in their pockets. The outcome of this General Election hangs in In stark contrast to the inconclusive outcome the balance. Labour and the Tories are running expected at Westminster however May’s neck and neck in the polls. Neither has General Election in Scotland, the first test of sufficient support to form a government. public opinion since the independence Neither enjoys the confidence of a majority of referendum, looks set to produce a dramatic voters. Each may try to govern as a minority or reversal for Labour. They currently hold most more likely form a coalition with the much- Scottish seats. But the polls suggest Labour reduced and much-despised Lib Dems. could lose two thirds of them as its chronic David Cameron’s plea to be given a second political decline, a process the Scottish term rests on the premise that the Tories have Socialist Party first identified 16 years ago, steered Britain out of a recession and out of the reaches a dramatic climax. -
Meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council
Agenda Meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council Date: Monday, 5 March 2018 ___________________________________________________________________ Time: 14:00 ___________________________________________________________________ Venue: Council Chamber, Clydebank Town Hall, Dumbarton Road, Clydebank ___________________________________________________________________ Contact: Christine McCaffary Tel: 01389 737186 – [email protected] Dear Member Please attend a meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council as detailed above. The business is shown on the attached agenda. Yours faithfully JOYCE WHITE Chief Executive Page 1 Distribution:- Provost William Hendrie Bailie Denis Agnew Councillor Jim Bollan Councillor Jim Brown Councillor Gail Casey Councillor Karen Conaghan Councillor Ian Dickson Councillor Diane Docherty Councillor Jim Finn Councillor Daniel Lennie Councillor Caroline McAllister Councillor Douglas McAllister Councillor David McBride Councillor Jonathan McColl Councillor Iain McLaren Councillor Marie McNair Councillor John Millar Councillor John Mooney Councillor Lawrence O’Neill Councillor Sally Page Councillor Martin Rooney Councillor Brian Walker Chief Executive Strategic Director of Transformation & Public Service Reform Strategic Director of Regeneration, Environment & Growth Chief Officer of West Dunbartonshire Health & Social Care Partnership Date of issue: 20 February 2018 Page 2 WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL MONDAY, 5 MARCH 2018 AGENDA 1 APOLOGIES 2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Members are invited to declare if they