THERE are two things that can be guaranteed about the Scottish Socialist Party – its members detest founder Tommy Sheridan and, if they ever win power, the best thing the rich could do would be emigrate.
Unlike other parties campaigning under namby-pamby slogans like Labour’s Fighting What Really Matters, the SNP’s Be Part of Better, the Tories’ Common Sense for Scotland or the LibDems’ Solutions for Scotland, the SSP lay it on the line.
As they launched their manifesto yesterday in a cafe in Glasgow’s west end, their national spokesman Colin Fox -- they’re far too egalitarian to call him leader -- was sitting under a handmade banner that proclaimed Vote SSP Tax the Rich.
But that does not mean the manifesto was simply full of left-wing rhetoric. It should not be forgotten that when they did have MSPs they achieved the abolition of poindings and warrant sales and they were the first to introduce a Bill calling for the end of prescription charges, a measure the SNP now claims as its own.
They even have their own celebrity endorsement since the manifesto’s foreword was written by film director Ken Loach.
Selective parts of the SSP programme would find a home in the main parties’ manifestos, including support for independence, laws to prevent tax avoidance and evasion by big companies, increased resources for the police, more physical education for schoolchildren, an end to PFI finance of public projects, an expansion of primary care services, lower class sizes and a basic state pension of £160 a week.
An end to the monarchy and no more money spent on funding “British Imperial aggression” are, of course, key principals.
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