Alex Miller
Following the expulsion of four of its parliamentarians from the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) has initiated legal action to challenge the ban.
The four members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs) — Colin Fox, Rosie Kane, Carolyn Leckie and Frances Curran — disrupted First Minister's Questions on June 30 to protest against the Scottish Executive's failure to uphold the right of protesters to march against the G8 summit meeting at Gleneagles.
In a July 14 press release, the SSP announced that well-known human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar had instructed two QCs on its behalf, with the intention of beginning proceedings in the Court of Session.
The July 15 London Times spelt out the draconian penalties that the Holyrood Standards Committee has imposed on the Socialist MSPs for the month of September: "They will be excluded from all proceedings of the Parliament, have their right of access to the parliamentary complex, parliamentary services and facilities withdrawn and their salaries and allowances for September will not be paid. The total sum involved is more than £30,000. Their parliamentary passes will be disabled and they will not be able to lodge questions or motions. Pension contributions and national insurance contributions for September will not be paid. They will not be able to gain any information or documents from the Parliament's information centre for MSPs and they will not be allowed to book tickets for the parliamentary visitors' gallery. Any mail for the four arriving at Holyrood will be redirected and their IT user accounts and e-mail services will be disabled, as will their telephone, fax and voicemail services."
The July 7 Scottish Socialist Voice pointed out that, in 1998, New Labour svengali Peter Mandelson "was found guilty of breaching the House of Commons code over an undeclared £370,000 home loan from Geoffrey Robinson". However, no action was taken against him.
The article continued: "A few years later, Mandelson was embroiled in a further sleaze scandal over his links to two Indian arms traders, the Hinduja brothers. Although he was forced to resign his cabinet post he was not suspended from the House of Commons. Mandelson is now a European Commissioner after being appointed to the lucrative post by his friend, Tony Blair."
In 2001, Henry McLeish was forced to resign as Scotland's first minister "after he was found to have claimed tens of thousands of pounds in office expenses to which he was not entitled. He was not suspended from the Scottish Parliament, nor did he lose a penny of his allowances. Instead he continued to receive his full MSP's pay and allowances for a further 18 months, even though he rarely stepped foot back inside the parliament. In 2003, McLeish was allowed to retire on a first minister's pension of £38,000 a year for life, despite only holding the post for one year before resigning in disgrace."
The same issue of the Voice also lambasted the seven Scottish Greens MSPs for voting in favour of imposing the penalties on the four Socialists, contrasting this with the support shown for the SSP by the English and Irish Green parties.
On the SSP website, Fox called the sanctions "utterly unacceptable and disproportionate". He said: "We have been denied any semblance of natural justice; we were tried in our absence without any kind of due process, right of appeal or any other of the basic human rights enshrined in law.
"Socialist parliamentarians from across Europe have rallied to our defence with 41 members of the European Parliament and eight members of the Portuguese Parliament writing to Presiding Officer George Reid to protest at the severity of the sanctions. We are confident that by September, the Scottish Parliament will have the full complement of six SSP MSPs sitting in their rightful place."
The MSPs have also received support from members of Ireland's Socialist Party, Italy's Rifondazione Communista, Switzerland's Solidarities, and recently elected Respect MP George Galloway.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, July 27, 2005.
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