Polling Day...

After what seems like a very, very long time election finally about to arrive!

Started in what little sunshine we had in June and its ending in the cold and dark of November.

No idea how we'll do but do know we've worked relentlessly since mid summer. In the face of celebrity bull, an indifferent media and our tiny financial resources we have tried to take a clear and compelling message on the need to challenge the greed of the system and the complacency of politicians who too often abuse the trust that people put in them.

Thousands of bulletins delivered, face to face contact with too many to count, public meetings and a demonstration to boot. The SSP regardless of the result remains a vibrant and living alternative to the cynicism and hopelessness that surrounds so much about politics these days.Proud as punch to be part of it and to have my name next to it on the ballot paper.

MARCH for jobs - secure a future for our young people.

Proud to lead the SSP/SSY March for Jobs in Springburn today. Whilst the other parties talk about jobs being at the centre stage of the campaign, whilst promoting cuts in public spending that will increase unemployment, the SSP got on with the job of beginning the fight back against another generation being sacrificed to mass unemployment.

It now falls on the Trade Union movement to take up the challenge that we have thrown down. I grew up in the 80's and watched as Thatcher stripped away at our chances of employment and ripped out the heart of communities across Scotland. I remember demonstrations of hundreds of thousands as people refused to accept her brutal logic that the free market is best. Such resistance must be built again.

Our march today, organised at short notice, with tiny resources, marks the beginning of people saying that they will not sit back and see Labour, Tories and the rest of them condemn young people to a future of no jobs or casual, short term, low paid employment.

Homes need built, public transport is crying out for improvement and our communities need investment. Spend billions on these priorities, rather than give it to the bankers to spend on their bonuses, and create employment whilst improving our quality of life.


The mood on our march was upbeat but determined. The SSP will do all we can to save every job and defend our public services. The fight goes on because we have no other option but to resist and actively fight for a future for our next generation of young people.

Get Scotland Working! (...and the Tories won't do it)

It seems like the eighties are back. If it's not Crockett and Tubbs in the remake of Miami Vice or bands ditching their guitars for synths the eighties revival is in full swing. As a child of the eighties, if nothing else, it may allow me to look at my old photos without being completely embarrassed.


Another more depressing side of the eighties is reappearing however, with growing levels of unemployment, particularly amongst the young. When I left school in 1982 I remember feeling lucky that I was doing so to start a job as amongst my school pals not too many of them were as fortunate. This was the time when the question you asked people was not so much,'what do you do?', but 'do you have a job?'. Too many lives were blighted by unemployment as the Tories, followed by New Labour, re-shaped the economy to one based on low pay and job insecurity.

Not another wasted generation will be the slogan of the March for Jobs that is being organised in the Glasgow North East constituency later this month. We can't sit back and allow the future of thousands to be crushed under the juggernaut of corporate profit and capitalism as the price once again to be paid for the failure of the system. Resistance has to start now and our march for jobs can be part of the process of rejecting a future of unemployment and low pay for our young.

On the campaign trail...

"Just back from campaigning at Springburn shopping centre and again a real willingness for people to talk and to listen about what the SSP has to offer. A week that's been dominated by the cuts agenda now being pursued by every one of the main parties, with the Tories and Labour falling over themselves to compete over just how savage their cuts are going to be. The SNP has just got on with it by announcing their cuts budget this week.

Enjoying the campaign trail in Springburn

The equivalent of £31 000 for every family has already has been paid to bail out the bankers greed and now they're telling us that we have to pay for it again with unemployment, wage freezes and job cuts. Communities in Glasgow North East have already seen their schools stripped out of them and now their community facilities will be under threat because free market politicians are terrified to make the rich pay for the economic mess they have made.

Springburn Residents were, like us, confused why the rich who caused the economic crisis were being given our tax money, and we are paying again with loss of jobs and cuts in our services...

Its no surprise that people are cynical about politics but its a cynicism that doesn't prevent people from thinking about alternatives. That's why my pledge to take only the average wage and not the inflated MP's wage is going down extremely well. Its time for politicians to put their money where their mouths are, but somehow other than the SSP, I suspect none of them will."

SSP ex-MSP Frances Curran, with me and other activists at Springburn Shopping Centre