The Popular Front for the Liberation of the C.P.S.A

Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled , said Robert Burns and by all accounts they did but nothing like what the former Mendicants in the SP and the SSP are going to be expected to do to bail the Scottish Socialist Party out of its current predicament. They’ve all received the following begging letter signed by RICHIE VENTON, incidentally the man who ultimately decides which members of his party, like DANNY WILLIAMSON, go on the LUNITY slate.

Dear comrade

Further to yesterday's email with the letter to union organisations on the suspension of our MSPs and £30,000 fine on the party, I am now attaching a collection sheet to use at work and in your union.

Unless we conduct a ferocious campaign that forces a retreat by the parliament by 1st September, we will face both legal bills and the need to raise about £12,000 to cover the MSPs' take-home pay - which covers both their own wages and their contribution to the party's funds. Plus the loss of one-twelth of the staff allowances for the year.

So please use these collection sheets alongside the letter of appeal, to start collecting amongst friends, workmates and at any union meetings coming up.

As I hope the collection sheet and letter make clear, all cheques should be made payable to 'Scottish Socialist Appeal Fund'. And to bypass the obstacles in union rule books, you should propose collections when and where union officials object to an official donation - although you should also weigh up whether a stewards committee with any autonomous funds can give a donation as such.

Please act as soon as you can on this - and to repeat myself, keep us posted on progress.

 All the best,

 Richie Venton

SSP national trade uniion organiser

26.7.05

It relates to the saga of the four Scottish Socialist MSPs who were thrown out of the Scottish Parliament on 30th June after one of their stunts badly misfired. They had their parliamentary passes revoked and were stripped of a months salary after staging a G8 protest sit-in in the chamber and bringing proceedings to a halt for almost an hour.

The G8 protest by CAROLYN LECKIE, ROSIE KANE, FRANCES CURRAN and COLIN FOX provoked fury from MSPs from all the other parties who immediately demanded the toughest possible punishment open to them.

In an unprecedented move, all four were suspended from the Scottish parliament for the month of September and had their wages and allowances stopped for that same period as a punishment. This means they will have to rely on the generosity of the colleagues to help pay not only their bills, but the wages of their staff who are paid out of the MSPs' allowances.

The SSP MSPs were protesting against the First Minister JACK McCONNELL'S refusal to intervene and allow a march to take place next to the Gleneagles Hotel during the G8 summit.

GEORGE REID, the Presiding Officer, called a halt to First Minister's Questions when the four came down from their seats at the back of the chamber and occupied the areas behind the First Minister’s chair.

The condemnation was unremitting from Scottish Labour and the other parties, particularly from the Scottish National Party (SNP) which lost a narrow vote later in the day which would have extended compensation payments to the families of hundreds of Hepatitis C sufferers who are currently denied it. An angry JOHN SWINNEY, for the SNP, said the SSP absence had denied compensation payments to hundreds of Scottish families. "I hope people learn a lesson from that stupidity," he said.

Scottish Tory leader DAVID McLETCHIE, described the SSP MSP antics as "infantile, undemocratic and an abuse of their privileged status as MSPs" but he would say that, wouldn’t he?

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Perhaps more intriguing will be the filling of the vacancy for the PCS Scotland Chairperson. Current incumbent, JOY DUNN from Scottish Executive has been elected to the NEC and must step down leaving the position up for grabs. The favourite is SAM HALL, a VP from General Constituency and IAN MCNEILL from the Private sector is also well fancied. RICHARD McCLEAN is also in the running but he is out of favour with DANNY and the other Scottish LUNITY grandees whose views may ultimately decide the race.

Further to the right of the political spectrum lies STEVE CARDOWNIE, who doesn’t wish to recall his early days as a TROT firebrand in CPSA now that he’s the chief Blairite enforcer on Edinburgh council and Deputy Lord Provost (deputy mayor) no less! But what has never left STEVE has been his desire for the limelight. He denounced BOB GELDOF for being irresponsible in calling for a million strong “Make Poverty History” protest in Edinburgh against the July G8 summit at nearby Gleneagles amid dire threats from the council of the collapse of civilization if the pop concerts and rally went ahead. GELDOF, who until then was doubtless unaware of CARDOWNIE’S existence, ignored the deputy lord provost’s warnings and the show went on. Nothing remarkable happened on the day apart from the police chasing some anarchists up and down the streets of the Scottish capital.

A couple of weeks later CARDOWNIE did make the Scottish Daily Star on 25th July with a story about how the “bungling council boss’s” managed to fuck up a presentation to Olympic Gold medal winning sprinter Allan Wells by misspelling his name, and the word “achievement” on the plaque. No one notice it until the Olympian turned up to officially unveil his plaque but Cardownie & Co decided to go ahead with the unveiling only to take down it once Wells had left so that they could send it back to the engraver, all of this at the local taxpayers’ expense.

DAILY STAR

 Mistakes mar Scots Olympic Hero's honour

"You can call me Allan - Not Alan"

Dozy council chiefs unveiled a plaque to honour Scots running legend Allan Wells yesterday - and managed to spell his name wrong.

The 53 year old was back in his home town of Edinburgh to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his famous gold medal win at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

But bungling council bosses had to admit beforehand that the shiny new plaque to honour his feat had two spelling errors.

The first was a reference to "Alan Wells" and the second was a misspelling of achievement.

However the ceremony still went ahead but the plaque will now be sent off to the engravers to be amended.

The sprinter laughed off the blunders and admitted he was just happy that his famous victory still means something to the Scottish people.

He said "This is still a great honour for Edinburgh City Council to go ahead with this and it is a fantastic thing for them to do. They obviously still think a lot of the gold medal win and I really appreciate it. I still remember that night really clearly but people forget that if it wasn't for Meadowbank Stadium and the inspiration it gave me there would never have been a gold medal."

Councillor Steve Cardownie, the deputy Lord Provost of Edinburgh , apologised for the error before unveiling the plaque yesterday.

He said "We have two spelling mistakes on the plaque, including Allan's name. I am told this is a common mistake and it is something that has plagued him all his life. We have phoned the engraver but decided to go ahead with the ceremony - it is only right it should be unveiled when he is here in person."

Allan is the only living Scottish track and field gold medallist and his win in Moscow was the last glory night for this country's athletics.

Fallaces sunt rerum species

The appearances of things are deceptive

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BC - 65 AD )

sshh.....THE STORY HIDDEN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE
by BARRABAS

The Clive Bryant rule 10 verdict is out, but only to the chosen few: the IR & Customs GECs and the NEC have been informed, but sworn to secrecy.

Dave Bean's braincell and self confessed thug Bryant was found guilty as charged and sentenced to 6 months disqualification from all union offices 15/07/05 to 14/01/06. Gordon Eastwood is reported as being satisfied (in the legal sense) with the findings.

Apparently, this is not to be publicised to you our reader, because the powers that be have deemed that the humiliation of being disqualified from office is punishment enough. Surely humiliation as a punishment is only effective if widely publicised.

It gets worse: not only will nobody know about his disqualification (although I understand a concerned member rather than PCS HQ has pointed out to his managers that he should now be driving a desk), but the "vacancy" on the GEC won't be filled because it doesn't exist. Bryant will return again in January as if nothing had happened. The American television show "DALLAS" has a lot to answer for with its ancient plotlines being lifted wholesale.

So, noting that he is currently disqualified from all union positions, who will cover his GEC work while in exile? The other rep for his constituency is Mrs "LEGS" Priestley, Linda, who won't relish the additional work and will likely pass the buck back to HQ. This will mean that the members will have to pick up the tab for using full timers rather than lay officials to do lay work (remind me who is supposed to be being punished - B).

It should not be forgotten that Bryant occupies Branch positions and is also vice-chair of the London & SE Region HMRC (Taxation) committee. I'm sure his partner FAY WESTBROOK would never dream of trying to deputise for him in positions which cannot exist whilst he is otherwise engaged in pushing a pen for the Department.

Next year's election address promises to be a corker!

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And you thought my Janice In Wonderland posting was weird. Barrabas.