Our Scotland - www.our-scotland.org

macnumpty · Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:37 am Post subject: Brother, can you spare £27,000?

As well as reporting on the possible defection of a Labour MP, the Sunday Herald also has an article on a £27,000 loan to the SSP by the Party's former deputy Treasurer, Gordon Morgan. Morgan wants the money back in full, and is taking the Party to court to get it.

Morgan apparently started the action when he discovered that the SSP had sold their HQ again to keep themselves afloat. Oh, and did I mention that he has defected to Solidarity?

This is the latest (and perhaps most destructive) skirmish between the parties: Solidarity leaders Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne withdrew from an agreement to pool the cost of hiring researchers; a Solidarity activist has called on the SSP to disband; the SSP have called on the Standards Commissioner to investigate whether or not Sheridan should have declared a stay in a hotel paid for by a tabloid newspaper. This one, however, is the big one, and could damage the SSP heavily, leaving them with little or no resources to fight the campaign. The SSP simply say that they are 'prepared', claiming that, 'Solidarity think they can ruin us but it won't happen'.

I would say that Solidarity are about to win the battle for the Scottish Left, but I suspect that with the vitriol that's going into this row, there will be no winners, only a lot of disenchanted voters who threw their lot in with the SSP in 2003, but either won't bother voting or will support someone else entirely this time around. And they will be the biggest losers in this affair.

_________________
(\_/)
(О.о)
(> < )
^ ^ This is Bunny. Bunny wishes that he was on the electoral roll in Glasgow East, so he could vote for John Mason. He also reminds you to read the Our Scotland Blog.

Rinty · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:25 pm Post subject: h

You could be right numpty but I think we will do alright in Glasgow and the South at least.

This isnt an attempt to bankrupt the SSP, it is merely a guy who is owed money and wants it back before the SSP go belly-up and cant pay him.

He had offered a very reasonable deal whereby he was prepared to wait for his cash as long as he was given a guarantee against the sale of the building. If he was given "first dibs" after the mortgage company, he was prepared not to chase them for the money. The SSP refused this compromise and went ahead and sold the building. At that stage he realised that he might never get his money back and had to act. £27k is a lot of money and I would think most people would do the same in his position.

The report of tommy failing to declare money is just mischief. He fully consulted on this and was advised that he didnt need to declare this as it was his wife's income. In light of this complaint Tommy has asked for further advice and will happily go along with the parliaments advice. He has stated the amounts involved in public and has nothing to hide.

Tommy and Rosemary didnt exactly withdraw money from the pool to pay researchers. The parliaments corporate body insisted on this. The allowances MSPs get from we taxpayers is to pay case workers, researchers, PAs etc to assist the MSPs in serving their constituents. The SSP wanted to keep the allowances for two MSPs no longer in the party and leave the two Solidarity MSPs short staffed.

Both Solidarity MSPs donate £1,300 each from their wages to pay off loans that bought the SSP HQ. They have sold this building at a profit and Tommy and Rosemary are still paying the loans. For electoral Commission purposes on party donations this is, in effect, a donation of £2,600 per month to the SSP from the two Solidarity MSPs.

The SSP are determined to turn this into a scrap but they are knocking back very reasonable offers. I cant undertsand it personally, as you say, it could lead to putting people off both parties and accusations of "judean peoples front" politics.

Perhaps the SSP election strategy is to take Solidarity down with them.

I suspect that when it is all said and done, Solidarity will have one MSP in Glasgow and neither party will have any other MSP elsewhere. There is an chance for Rosemary Byrne in the South and Carolyn Leckie in Central, but they are outsiders at the moment.