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Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Sun Aug 10, 2025 00:01 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Starmer?s ?Deterrent? Fails as 400 Cross Channel in First Two Days of Migrant Returns Deal with Fran... Sat Aug 09, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
More than 400 small boat migrants have arrived in the first two days of Labour's returns deal with France, making a mockery of claims it would be a "new deterrent".
The post Starmer’s “Deterrent” Fails as 400 Cross Channel in First Two Days of Migrant Returns Deal with France appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Reclaiming the Beauty of the Spheres Sat Aug 09, 2025 13:00 | Dr David Bell
AI is a distraction from what it means to be truly human, says Dr David Bell. We should aim for far greater things, find again the vastness of the jewelled sky and the light that only shines in another's eye.
The post Reclaiming the Beauty of the Spheres appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Three Top Hotels Yards From Bournemouth Beach Being Used as Migrant Accommodation Sparking Fury From... Sat Aug 09, 2025 11:00 | Will Jones
Three top hotels yards from one of Britain's favourite beaches are being used as accommodation for asylum seekers during the peak ?summer season, sparking fury from tourists and locals.
The post Three Top Hotels Yards From Bournemouth Beach Being Used as Migrant Accommodation Sparking Fury From Tourists and Locals appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why Are the Irish Media Ignoring an Apparent Islamist Knife Attack? Sat Aug 09, 2025 09:00 | Andrew Devine
When a man in Dublin stabs a police officer while shouting "Allahu Akbar" you can be pretty sure it's not the work of an indigenous Irishman. So why are the media at pains to pretend it is, asks Andrew Devine.
The post Why Are the Irish Media Ignoring an Apparent Islamist Knife Attack? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Scottish Socialist Party appeal for solidarity

category international | summit mobilisations | press release author Thursday August 11, 2005 12:12author by dave - swp Report this post to the editors

Scottish Socialist Party appeal for solidarity

URGENT APPEAL FOR SOLIDARITY

Dear Friends and comrades,

The Scottish Socialist Party is under attack. Four SSP Members of Parliament and their staff have been issued with a month long ban without wages for defending the right to protest against the meeting of the G8 leaders. (see below for details)

We are attempting to generate as much international opposition as possible to this draconian attack. Therefore we request your solidarity in the following ways:

circulate this letter among your own members, affiliates and contacts.

Sign the online petition
Write to George Reid, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, to register your support for the SSP: Presiding Officer Queensberry House, the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh EH99 1SP Email: presiding.officer@scottish.parliament.uk
Contribute to the SSP’s fighting fund, to pay the cost of legal action to overturn the suspension of our representatives, and to cover the wages of our staff: Scottish Socialist Party, 70 Stanley Street, Glasgow, G41 1JB, Scotland TEl: +44 870 752 2505 email: scottishsocialistparty@btconnect.com
Full details

On the 30 June 2005 four Scottish Socialist Party parliamentary representatives were summarily suspended and stripped of their pay and parliamentary allowances for the month of September. The financial suspensions will also mean 28 members of staff, not involved in the protest, will also not be paid.

Their crime? Mounting a peaceful, silent protest, lasting five minutes, at First Minister’s question time. SSP members Colin Fox, Frances Curran, Rosie Kane, and Caroline Leckie held up placards demanding that First Minister Jack McConnell carry out the will of the parliament by defending the right to protest peacefully against the G8 leaders at Gleneagles on the 6 July.

Five months earlier the Scottish Parliament had passed a motion supporting the right of people to protest at the G8 summit. Yet, just six days prior to the planned protest, official permission had still not been granted for the protest to go ahead. We believe that this was deliberately done by the authorities, in order to cause confusion and undermine the planned demonstration.

This unprecedented and draconian penalty was imposed through a process which makes a mockery of natural justice. The SSP MSPs were tried in their absence, without any kind of due process, right of appeal or any of the basic human rights that are enshrined in law.

This attack is not only targeted at the SSP representatives. By banning them for the month of Spetember, 130,000 voters will be denied a voice in the Scottish Parliament.

In the last six years the SSP has established itself as a tireless defender of working class interests at home and around the world. It has a proud record of supporting workers in struggle and has been at the forefront of opposition to imperialist aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2003 we received a 130,000 votes and six Scottish Socialist Party MSPs were elected to the Scottish Parliament. The SSP, as the only party in Scotland consistently opposing the neo-liberal agenda, has earned the enmity of the mainstream political parties and the political establishment.

Therefore we cannot let these attacks on democracy, freedom of speech and the right to protest succeed.

We are campaigning internationally to bring pressure on the Scottish Parliament to overturn the ban and the financial penalties imposed on the SSP MSPs. Already messages of support have been pouring in from all over Europe and the world, from members of the European Parliament, from trades unions and from individual workers.

Please add your voice to the growing campaign by helping in any or all the above ways.

Yours in solidarity,

Colin Fox MSP, SSP convener, on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Party

author by jack - CRUpublication date Tue Aug 16, 2005 23:55author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Workers of all countries unite should be the new foreign policy of all countries, and those trying to force the workers to fight each other in distant countries for oil or other resources, need to be taken out of power. Never has the need for a workers state been more obvious than in the present times. We need to set priorties of ending polution, doubling democracy by electing woman equally, and finally dismantling the war machine in each and every countrie so wars of Imperial aggression cannot ever occur again.

 
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