Joanne Telfer, Western Isles, Scottish Socialist Party

Link / contact details for potential supporters joanne@ssp-hebrides.org.uk

www.ssp-hebrides.org.uk

  i.
  what do you think is the most important issue in this election?

  Challenging the dictatorship of  market principles which has now reached obscene proportions.

  ii.
  why did you make the decision to stand in this constituency and for this party (as an independent)?

  I was selected by my branch.

  iii.
  what kind of vote are you expecting on May 5th?

  A few hundred hopefully. Saving our deposit would be cause for big cellibration !

  iv.
  aside from the vote what are you hoping to get out of this campaign?

  new members, team spirit and promoting socialist solutions. Demonstrating that we are becoming a green as well as a socialist movement.

  v.
  in your view what is the greatest threat to our civil liberties at the moment?

  New Labour and Blair's "war on terror".

  vi.
  Blair has taken us to war three times since coming to power (not including the occasional ad hoc bombing raid) in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Can war ever be justified?

  Certainly not these sorts of "big bully"  wars. Throughout history, wars have hardly been a successful way of settling disputes. The conflict has
usually reappeared at another time or in a different place. In the twenty first century, the sort of destructive power available to the mightiest
warmongers, carries such a threat of massive death toll and environmental catastrophe, that the priority should be disarmement, an end to the arms trade and the closing of munitions factories.   

vii.
  There is very little left to privatise in this country, if you had your way what would be brought into public hands?

  Transport, fuel, water, energy, pharmaceuticals, dentistry, opthalmy, land, heavy industry, fish farms, large private corporations and a few more
! Small and medium size businesses are usually service or product orientated. Large corporations are focussed on money and the persuit of
money as an end in itself, only helps to widen the gap between haves and havenots.

  viii.
  Some environmental campaigners have started talking about nuclear power as a way to bring down CO2 emissions - what do you think of
  this?

  Unacceptable. No safe means of waste disposal and unacceptable risk of catastrophic incidents. Off-shore wind and wave power is now much cheaper when decommissioning costs of nuclear power stations are included. Requires imports of Uranium of which there are limited earth resources.

  ix.
  Asylum and immigration will be central issues in this election. What action on this issue would you like to see the next government push through?

  An end to immigration and asylum controls. Dispersal, housing and employment assistance (with full trade union rights). This should help to
elliminate people trafficing and immigrant exploitation. In Scotland, it would help to reverse population decline and solve some of the NHS
recruitment problems. The concerns about "opening the flood gates" are myths and political rhetoric on this subject, is a lazy way of dealing with
voter's fears. Unfortunately, this populist rhetoric, also panders to the agenda of racists.

  x.
  What question do you wish was on this list but doesn't appear?

  What are your views on taxation ?

  There must be a return to progressive taxation, to reverse the huge wealth and income gap between rich and poor, which is currently increasing. This should be accompanied by a robust challenge to current values which promote such things as the economic engrandisement of the individual and wasteful consumerism (retail therapy!) which threatens the environment. When people feel economically secure and can easily find their own routes to enjoyment without hurting others, the lust for spending power and accumulation of wealth, would subside. In the long term, people could find greater satisfaction from their creative acheivements and the respect of others, than they now measure in money!
 
 

April 2005