MEET KEVIN McVEY - FOR GLASGOW NORTH EAST
The Scottish Socialist Party has selected Kevin McVey as candidate for the Glasgow North East by-election.
A civil service trade union representative for 20 years, Kevin was brought up in the constituency, in Ruchazie. Kevin joined the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1984 and was expelled from the Labour party 5 years later for being a socialist. Kevin has a long track record of fighting the poll tax, against school closures, and for taxation of the rich to improve public services.
Kevin McVey said this evening:
“At a time of daily news bulletins on the stench of corruption arising from Westminster, I am proud to publicly pledge that I will reject the £64,000
MP’s salary and live instead on the average skilled worker’s wage – not a penny more.
“After the mainstream parties have been caught fiddling expenses for food, furniture, second homes, and Michael Martin was booted out for trying to cover up these crimes against people struggling to pay the bills, Labour now wants him promoted to the unelected, undemocratic House of Lords.
“That’s an insult to ordinary hardworking people. Where I have worked you would be sacked for doctoring expenses or for failing to act against fiddles if you were in a manager’s post!
“The people of Glasgow North East deserve a socialist MP who will fight for them, not another chancer who pockets the obscene salary and then grabs even more in expenses.”
SSP Glasgow Regional Secretary Richie Venton said today:
“We are proud to put up a candidate with such a long and principled history of fighting for the working class.
“The SSP has been at the heart of fighting to save several local schools and nurseries from Labour’s butchery. We have helped stop the ambitious
councillor Gordon Matheson becoming the Labour candidate, because even the out-of-touch Labour hierarchy knew he would be a complete liability in an area blitzed by school closures, which he was at the heart of. The SSP will make Save Our Schools a major issue in the by-election, demanding class sizes of 20 or less for all kids, to give them a decent start in life and to hire more teachers and nursery staff.”
Good to see the presence of the SSP in this election and thanks Andy for posting this. Met a number of comrades from the SSP at the Convention of the Left in Manchester last year and was very impressed by their wealth of experience, patient listening, and above all, comradeship.
Good luck to Kevin in this election. The SSP deserves to reclaim its rightful position in the Scottish Parliament and beyond.
Comment by Dem O'Cracy — 3 July, 2009 @ 12:53 am
Scottish voting intention taken from UK Polling Report
Holyrood Constituency vote: CON 12%(-7), LAB 32%(-4), LDEM 11%(+2), SNP 39%(+7)
Holyrood Regional vote: CON 10%(-3), LAB 29%(-1), LDEM 12%(+2), SNP 39%(-1), Green 5%
Comment by Luke — 3 July, 2009 @ 6:27 am
Well that’s certainly clarified who’s in favour of left unity and who isn’t. Thanks SSP.
Comment by Neil — 3 July, 2009 @ 9:07 am
Ditto to Neils comment. The Solidarity position is vastly better.
Comment by swp member — 3 July, 2009 @ 9:18 am
We will publish Solidarity’s statement later.
Comment by Andy Newman — 3 July, 2009 @ 9:27 am
Being lectured on left unity by the SWP is a bit like having Bluebeard lecturing you on the benefits of marriage. Having wrecked two left unity projects (Respect, SSP - it’s three if you count the Socialist Alliance) in the last 7 years through their sectarian opportunism they now have the temerity to continue to continue to tell the rest of us what we must do in order to achieve left unity. Well as Tony Cliff wouldn’t have said - any left unity that seeks to involve the SWP is likely to be the unity of the graveyard.
Comment by Bill Scott — 3 July, 2009 @ 10:37 am
The Solidarity statement is confusing. It says they have picked Tommy as their candidate but would withdraw him if they can negotiate a unity candidate with the unions.
I thought the left unity call came FROM independent left trade unionists though??? Shouldn’t they be organising/calling the candidate??
Comment by Andrew — 3 July, 2009 @ 10:44 am
Don’t mention Sheridan, for God’s sake. You’ll have SSP’ers twitching madly like Chief inspector Dreyfus at the mention of Clouseau.
Comment by Doug — 3 July, 2009 @ 11:34 am
“Kevin joined the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1984 and was expelled from the Labour party 5 years later for being a socialist.”
Urgh, will people please stop talking like this! If this is code for “was expelled for being a member of Militant” can’t we just be blunt about it?
Comment by Chris Baldwin — 3 July, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
‘Urgh, will people please stop talking like this! If this is code for “was expelled for being a member of Militant” can’t we just be blunt about it?’ Well if you want to be blunt expelled for being a member of RSL surely?
Comment by Christy — 3 July, 2009 @ 1:51 pm
lets hope we can have a better dialogue over “left” candidate in Norwich North,
Including with Green’s and Left Labour comrades
Comment by sean — 3 July, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
the biography claims he was a trade union rep for 20 years !! how long ago was this? would be my question as I understand it he was a paid official of the ssp for years and is now a student. and he might have been brought up in ruchazie but left there and glasgow a long long time ago and lived in cumbernauld for years(maybe he still does)
Comment by Helen Ross — 3 July, 2009 @ 8:13 pm
Some left unity comrades! If you want to gripe about the SWP, or Solidarity, or the SSP, do it elsewhere.
I agree with the queries on ‘thrown out for being a socialist’. Blah, blah, blah. If you’re reading the SSP’s statement on this candidate, you probably have a problem with the Labour Party anyway. There’s no need to lament it, or get all indignant about it. Focus on the game in hand, not the bad stuff of the past.
So, does anyone actually know about this guy?
Comment by David Hanneman — 19 July, 2009 @ 2:14 am
Bill Scott is correct and what a mess this Solidarity/SWP disunity reflects on the whole of the Scottish left.
It will be an even bigger disaster if the bound over for trial, Mr Sheridan stands. His small sect will be judged the maverick crackpots they really are. Most people beleive the SSP are a lot more creditable.
Comment by larry — 19 July, 2009 @ 10:30 am
Kevin lived in Ruchazie during is formative years seeing the hardship of the ordinary people.Not a big deal he moved to Cumbernauld,if memory serves me correctly he moved along with the rest of the family.Good luck your doing us proud.
Comment by Paul Docherty — 11 November, 2009 @ 9:31 pm