Your votes will decide their future

Alternatively, you can vote to shake things up and make things happen by voting for Scotland’s dynamic, trail-blazing, anti-establishment party.

The SSP is the party that dares to be different, the party that challenges wealth and privilege, the party that stands up for ordinary people against big business and the rich.

We do not pretend that on the morning of May 2, the people of Scotland will wake up to a Scottish Socialist government in Holyrood. We are a new party, just four years old.

Our aim in this election is to send a team of SSP MSPs to Holyrood, including Colin Fox in the Lothians, to force on to the agenda issues the big parties would rather ignore.

Issues like poverty and inequality. Poverty may not be the most fashionable topic of conversation in the dinner parties of Murrayfield and Morningside, but it is nonetheless a national disgrace.

We’re six years into a New Labour government. In Scotland, we’ve had our own parliament for the past four years, run by Labour and the Lib Dems. And, as we’re told day in and day out, we’re now producing more wealth than ever before.

So why is poverty still on the rampage? Why has the number of children in Scotland living in low-income households risen to 30 per cent between 1999 and 2001? Why are there 27,649 more Scottish children living in poverty than on the day the Scottish Parliament was elected in 1999?

The problem for our mainstream politicians is that you cannot tackle poverty without redistributing wealth, and that means taxing the rich. The powers of Holyrood are limited. It can’t impose a wealth tax, it can’t raise pensions or child benefits, and it has no power over the minimum wage.

But it does have the power to make a start in narrowing the wealth gap between rich and poor.

Scottish Socialist MSPs will fight for measures to redistribute wealth in Scotland. First, we would scrap the unfair council tax, which subsidises the rich and punishes hard-working low income households.

A GOVERNMENT minister earns 15 times more than a hospital ancillary worker. Yet he will pay a maximum of three times more in council tax. We will argue for a new Scottish Service Tax, based on income. Under our plan, 77 per cent of Scottish households will be better off. Only 16 per cent of wealthy households would pay more. Everyone on 10,000 a year and under would be exempt.

We would also raise the minimum wage in the public sector to 7.32 an hour. For some, the word poverty conjures images of homeless people on the streets. But one of the biggest scandals of our times is the rise of the working poor - people who work themselves to the bone, often in essential jobs, and are paid a pittance.

Our proposal for a 7.32 minimum wage was criticised as a "fantasy" by a cabinet minister - who himself picks up a pay packet of 2500 a week.

Far from being a fantasy, this policy has been rigorously costed. Moreover, it would boost thousands of small businesses across Scotland by giving hundreds of thousands of low paid workers more spending power.

The SSP would also generate 24,000 extra jobs by slashing the working week in the public sector to 35 hours. This too would stimulate the wider economy with a positive knock-on effect, especially for small businesses.

The Scottish Socialist Party also plans to resurrect the Free School meals Bill, which I proposed in the Scottish Parliament and which won the support of charities, churches, nutritionists, educationalists, trade unions and anti-poverty groups.

As well as tackling poverty and removing the stigma of degrading means tests for children, universal, nutritious, free school meals would be an investment in Scotland’s future. By transforming the diet of a new generation, it would save the NHS billions over the next few decades. In the short-term, it could help salvage Scottish agriculture by creating a vast daily market for healthy, home-grown produce. Another key pledge is to end PFI and clear the private profiteers out of our schools and hospitals.

It is a myth that PFI is a method of funding public services. In fact, it is a method of borrowing money - and a hugely expensive method at that.

The new Royal Infirmary illustrates the folly of the PFI swindle. Funded by private finance, the hospital is now owned by a consortium headed by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

It has 25 per cent fewer staff and 33 per cent fewer beds than the old hospital which it replaced.

It cost private investors 184 million to build - but will cost the taxpayer almost 1.5 billion in payments to the consortium over 30 years.

PFI is grossly unfair to the taxpayer. It is especially unfair to our children who will be saddled with a debt millstone totalling billions of pounds.

THE Scottish Socialist Party has one other distinctive policy. All our candidates have pledged to live on no more than the average salary of skilled and professional workers in Scotland.

As things stand, backbench MSPs are paid 48,000 while ministers are paid up to 140,000. The means that our politicians are woefully out of touch with the lives of the people they were elected to represent. All Scottish Socialist MSPs will live on just half their MSPs salary, donating the balance back to help fund the campaign for a democratic socialist Scotland.

You may not agree with all our policies. But at least the SSP is a party with integrity, prepared to put principles before perks and privileges. I hope you will consider giving us your vote on May 1. If you feel you can only give the SSP one vote, please make it the peach ballot for the party list.

Tommy Sheridan is the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party