Nigg Compulsory Purchase essential to national renewable strategy, say Solidarity.
The Solidarity party in the Highlands and Islands has welcomed the news that Highland Council will actively discuss pursuing a Compulsory Purchase Order for the so called ‘ransom strip’ holding back the sale of the Nigg Yard in the Cromarty Firth. The council will vote on a motion to pursue the CPO this Thursday, in case it is necessary to break the deadlock over the purchase of the yard, where there is wide agreement that the yard needs to be regenerated and used to its full potential.
Solidarity say that the UK government announcement this week of a major shift to renewable offshore energy, following a major U-turn on climate change and renewable energy by government ministers, and the environmental necessity of constructing thousands of offshore wind turbines between now and 2020 means that it now becomes urgent that Highland Council and the Scottish Government act in council to develop a national renewables strategy and that areas like the Highlands, and in particular, the Cromarty Firth, do not lose out on a potential economic bonanza.
“We have always argued that it is patent common sense to marry the facility at Nigg with the modular engineering skills of ex-oil fabrication workers to make Nigg a centre for renewable turbine production, and both combat climate change and regenerate the local economy at the same time,” said Steve Arnott, Solidarity’s Highland Spokesperson. “This would sit well with the Cromarty Firth Port Authority’s vision of Nigg as a multi-use facility employing up to 1100 people.Unfortunately, the row over the so-called ‘ransom strip’ has held back progress on this for far too long, and Highland Council are now absolutely right to consider a Compulsory Purchase Order to move the situation on. We hope that this week’s government announcement on increased renewables concentrates minds at both local and national government level on the future possibilities for this yard.
”Local campaigner and Secretary of Solidarity’s North Highlands branch, Liz Walker, from Alness said “As democratic green socialists our preference would be for a national publicly owned and controlled renewable energy company with a long term national renewables production strategy of which Nigg was a component part. However, what is important right now is that all supporters of Nigg and renewables production on the site come together to ensure that the potential here is not lost. By supporting a Compulsory Purchase Order for the so-called ‘ransom strip’ Highland council can break the deadlock and ensure the public sector has a key stake in what could be a huge potential development.”
SOLIDARITY NEWS RELEASE
Affordable Homes campaign welcomes end in sight of right-to-buy as new figures show housing crisis worsening in Highlands
Solidarity Highlands and Islands have welcomed the news released this week that the Scottish Government is to include a possible end to the right-to-buy for new build social housing in its housing review.Such a move, if approved, would encourage councils to build more council homes for rent in substantial numbers, one of the key aims in Solidarity’s campaign, and the move has been widely welcomed by a number of housing groups.
Solidarity, who launched their Affordable Homes for All campaign in the Highlands a few weeks ago, say, however, that this move on its own will not be enough to deal with the growing housing crisis in the region over the next few years.
Campaign Spokesperson, Steve Arnott, pointed to two sets of figures released last week that showed the housing crisis in the Highlands would get much worse before it was likely to get better. “Last week it was revealed that the average price of a new home to buy in the Inverness area had risen from around £153,000 to £172,000 in the last few years, making getting onto the so-called ‘property ladder’ for many workers and particularly young working folk with families.At the same time, research by a leading financial website had shown a 60% increase in the number of mortgage applications turned down across the UK as a result of Gordon Brown’s ‘credit crunch’.The unfortunate implication of this is that even more people in the Highlands will be finding it difficult to keep a secure and affordable roof over their heads.
“As well as a moratorium on the right to buy for new social housing builds, the Westminster government under Gordon Brown MUST write off all Scottish Council historic housing debt immediately, releasing that money for new and improved council housing, and the new SNP Scottish Government must prioritise funding to councils for new council housing in its upcoming budget.Anything else is fiddling while Rome burns.”
Mr. Arnott said the Affordable Homes campaign had no problem with people who had bought their own council houses in the past, but now was to the time to realise that the policy had been designed by Thatcherite ideologues whose prime interest had been in undermining the very concept of social housing. “There would be no problem with right to buy if it only applied to tenants of ten or twenty years standing, and if the money generated was used to build new affordable homes for rent. But the position we start from is one where there are over a dozen on the waiting list for every council property available and thousands more in unsuitable, insecure high cost private rented accommodation. It is long past time to act decisively on this issue or we face a second Highland Clearances as young people, and working families on average incomes are forced to leave the area simply to have a roof over their head.”
23.10.07
Issued by Highlands and Islands Solidarityc/o 77 Hilton CourtInverness
Further info: ring Steve on 07876 268 144
Road Equivalent Tariff for Island Ferries ?
On 13 Aug 2007, the SNP Executive announced a pilot study into RET. Welcome news for island residents and indeed for Solidarity. Socialists in the Western Isles have been pushing this policy to the top of the agenda since the millenium, when an organised socialist presence was first established in Stornoway. We linked up with the northern isles, took this idea to Region and then made it party policy. The clearest expression of RET emerged in the Solidarity manifesto of 2007. We were the first and only local organisation to make this a national policy.
Road Equivalent tariff is about integrating island communities into the Scottish economy and addressing the obstacle presented by sea crossings. As the name suggests, it is about creating an economic bridge. It is not a new idea, and has been around for decades but is is an idea that requires a vision which places people before profit and does not fit comfortably with contemporary ideas about deference to the market.
No matter who thought up the idea in the first place, it is very much a socialist concept. The proposed pilot scheme should be welcomed as a big step in the right direction but we have always argued that the case has already been proved in the Scandinavian model. Socialists in the Western Isles and Northern Isles took this issue to the streets on a regular basis whilst other parties have jumped on board only at election times. If the current initiative succeeds then socialists deserve the credit but if it fails then we have a duty to examine the credentials of the SNP.
SOLIDARITY – NEWS RELEASE
Time for decisive action on Nigg, say Solidarity.14.08.07
The Solidarity party has called for decisive action over the future of the mothballed Nigg yard facility on the eve of Highland Council’s latest Planning, Environment and Development Committee (meets Wednesday 15th August).Solidarity has called on Highland council and the new Scottish Executive to come together to carry out a compulsory purchase of the so called ‘ransom strip’ owned by the Wakelyn Trust which has held up the sale of the yard, and to throw their weight unequivocally behind Cromarty Firth Port Authority’s bid to take over the yard as a multi-use facility.
Solidarity co-convenor Tommy Sheridan said “On the day that Alex Salmond launches a welcome national conversation on our constitutional future it is nothing less than a national disgrace that two years after CFPA registered a plan to take over this yard and create a thousand new and much needed skilled jobs in the Highlands, it still lies largely unused – all because the pecuniary interest of a private landowner and KBR are allowed to take precedence over jobs and the strategic national interest.”
Solidarity revealed that a Freedom of Information request by its North Highlands branch to Highland Council revealed a lamentable lack of urgency on the issue, and showed that no correspondence or meetings with any Ministers had taken place on the issue since May.
Solidarity also revealed that correspondence between its North Highlands branch and CFPA chairman, Jimmy Gray, showed CFPA still keen to take over the yard, despite the yards current owners KBR, a subsidiary of American multi-national giant Halliburton, switching its preferred bidder status to English based demolition company DSM in May of this year.
Highlands Solidarity spokesperson Steve Arnott said “we are suspicious of this sudden switch in preferred bidder status and do not believe the future of a thousand skilled jobs and this key facility should be left to the vagaries of market forces. CFPA are a public sector, no shareholder, organisation who would be able to plough all profits from the yard back into new investment. Their commitment to develop Nigg as a multi-use facility, including the building of renewable turbines, could be of great assistance in the national strategic aim of reducing carbon emissions.
“Solidarity calls upon Highland Council and the Scottish Executive to build a creative partnership with the CFPA to ensure the Nigg facility is reopened for business as soon as possible on a not-for-profit basis and as a key part of the national renewables drive.This should include the compulsory purchase of the so-called ‘ransom strip’ as soon as possible.”
Issued by Solidarity, Highlands and Islandsc/o 77 Hilton Court
for further info ring Steve Arnott on 07876 268 144
People power wins again in North - fourth victory for public services in Highlands in three years.
The new SNP/Independent led Highland council have announced that, following a massive public campaign, they are abandoning plans to sell-off six public sector care homes to private investors. Instead, five new state of the art council owned and run care homes paid for through public sector borrowing are to be built to replace the existing aging provision.
Although some of the fine detail remains unclear, this appears to be at major victory for acampaign for public ownership of public services that involved community campaigners, senior citizens, left councillors from across party groups, and in which organised socialists, first in the form of the SSP (before the split), and then Solidarity were critically involved.
The previous council almost sneaked through the measure with very little publicity or opposition, but exposure by a sympathetic journalist, allied to a series of demos and stunts organised by socialists helped quickly build up massive public opposition to the plan. We were key - very much as in the anti-war campaign - to supplying the ideological opposition and arguments which were then taken up by wider layers.
The issue was ubiquitous in the council election campaign - and post-election the council suddenly 'discovered' £1.9 million in its social work budget that had been missing from the original figures presented to the council. Solidarity have called for a public investigation.
This is the fourth victory enjoyed by broad based people power style campaigns in the region for defence of public services in three years. Belford hospital in Lochaber was saved from rundown and potential closure by a massive united campaign in that area. Wick maternity services likewise. And of course, last year the sell-off of the council's housing stock was stopped in its tracks.
The care homes victory, and previous victories over the testing of GM crops and environmentally friendly use of the Nigg Oil fabrication yard in Ross-shire mean that there is now almost an established tradition of winning campaigns in the area. With the exception of the Belford campaign, where the role of socialists was more peripheral - and even then we held a public meeting around the issue and Tommy Sheridan visited the beleaguered hospital - we have played an honourable, active and often strategic role in these campaigns and victories. The input of Solidarity members and supporters may well have been critical to the eventual successful outcomes.
Buoyed by these successes, organised socialism, in the form of Solidarity, will continue to be the leading standard bearer for public ownership of public services and for progressive thought and action in the Highlands and Islands.
If you would like to join the fastest growing socialist party in the Highlands and Islands why not e-mail us at
It is hard to see what the local Labour Party were thinking when the approached local right-winger David Shaw to be candidate in the Ballochmyle by-election. Apart from him being known to be a ferrari-driving millionaire, the last thing Labour need to portray in a deprived area, he famously welcomed farmers going out of business last year, during talks over milk prices. The Scotsman reported " Shaw, in a phrase that he might now regret, said it would help his business if more farmers quit: "It would be music to my ears if more dairy farmers went out of business and I don't care who that annoys."
The view we are getting through canvassing on the street in the villages of the ward is that the anger over his selection comes from Labour members rather than supporters.
To Solidarity, it gives us a clear choice to put to voters, do you stand with a man who celebrated pit closures and toasted Maggie Thatcher with every job lost in the pits? Or do you stand with Danny Masterton, a former miner who took part in the miners strikes of 1973, 1974 and 1984/85?
But Labour are obviously not alone in their connections to business. They have become the tories in most peoples eyes and the public will not be surprised to hear of Peter Mandelson and George Osborne being togetheer on a billionaire's yacht, both brown-nosing the same oligarch for funds and influence.
But this week we see the Lib Dems biggest donor found guilty of stealing 30 million from clients, over two million of which made it's way to funding the Lib Dems. The SNP's 'transport policy for sale' signs drooped this week too when the man they appointed head of the Transport Scotland Qango was forced to resign after it emerged that he owned shares in the company the was awarded the rail franchise by the very body. We, the taxpaye,r were paying this guy ninety grand a year, John Swinney appointed him.
Solidarity is the only party in this by-election whose principles and policies are not for sale, the only party who are talking about people and not profit. Ballochmyle does not need another councillor with 'business contacts' or 'backed by business', we dont need more councillors for parties who put the interests of business before the interests of pensioners and families.
Only a vote for Solidarity and for Danny Masterton will give ordinary people a voice in the council. Vote Danny Masterton on December 11th to start the fight back against our councils and government deciding policy on the basis of the highest bider.
Solidarity's candidate in the Ballochmyle By-election, Danny Masterton, has vowed to fight for better and cheaper public transport links if elected to the Council. He said:
"People who cannot afford to run a car have their life limited by the lack of affordable transport. Children and families in outlying villages are excluded from a lot of activities and opportunities by the cost and poor service provided by public transport. The last train from Glasgow is too early to let people enjoy a show, concert or football match, when it arrives in this area many people then need to pay for expensive taxis to get them home. It costs over four pounds to get a bus from Muirkirk to Cumnock and back. This has to end."
Solidarity, if elected, will campaign for a train station at Mauchline, for a later train service from Glasgow, for lower bus fares, and for a connecting bus service meeting the trains, providing low cost links to and from Mauchline, Muirkirk, Catrine and Sorn.
Solidarity Co-Convenor Rosemary Byrne joined candidate Danny Masterton and Solidarity members on the streets of Muirkirk this weekend. Rosemary, the former Regional MSP for South Scotland, returned to the area where she built strong links during her time in parliament, especially with workers in the open cast coal industry. She said:
"It was uplifting to see the positive attitude the people of Muirkirk have towards Danny as a candidate and Solidarity as a party. I had forgotten how cold it could be up here but I was warmed by the response we had and the friendliness of the local people."
Tommy Sheridan and Jim Walls will join the campaign in Muirkirk this week at a public meeting in support of Danny at the Muirkirk IFE win on Thu 27 Nov, 7.30pm.
The nominations are closed for the East Ayrshire Council by-election with five candidates declared. In the coming week Coalfields Solidarity will be canvassing in Muirkirk and Mauchline, comrades from other branches who want to join us contact Jim Monaghan on 07944 217938
Public Meeting, Thursday 27 November, Muirkirk PS IFE Wing, 7.30pm. Speakers Tommy Sheridan, Jim Walls, Danny Masterton.
Full list of candidates: Iain Fraser (Lib Dems) Janette MacAlpine (Conservatives) Danny Masterton (Solidarity) Roseanne Savage (SNP) David Shaw (Labour)
We have seen some historic events in elections in the last year or two, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness sharing power, a smile and a handshake, The SNP coming to Government in Scotland, A black president in the USA. But we are hoping to add to that tally with what people may think is unlikely, a Solidarity councillor in East Ayrshire. And, if there is a place to create history then the Ballochmyle ward of East Ayrshire council is the place to do it, there is history in every village, around every corner. So please indulge me in my pride of my local area and my family with a tour of the ward and it's social history. It is easy to forget that before we were 'deprived ex-mining communities' we were so much more.
More than 50 local people braved a freezing cold night in the Ayrshire hills to join Solidarity at a meeting to support our council candidate Danny Masterton.
Solidarity Co-Convenor Tommy Sheridan and Coalfields Solidarity Organiser Jim Monaghan (standing in Jim Walls of TGWU/Unite who was ill) joined Danny on the platform.
Danny spoke from the heart about the strength he gained from fighting back in miner's strikes in 1973,' 74 and '84. Last year his son was one of the British Marines captured by Iran just as his wife was being admitted to hospital with a brain tumour. Danny described how fighting these things makes him stronger and his desire to fight for the people of the Ballochmyle Ward.
Jim Monaghan spoke of the possibilities for change that can happen if people stand together in solidarity, citing the nationalisation of the pits and the origins of the Labour Movement in the Murikirk area.
Tommy Sheridan highlighted the difference two years make. He contrasted the rush to bail out bankers in 2008, with the collapse of Farepak two years earlier. There was no compensation or bail-out for the families who lost out because of the actions of HBOS, despite all of the major banks posting billions in profits that year. He called for nationalisation of all banks, resources and utilities saying:
"For too long we have been fighting for crumbs. But we no longer want the crumbs and we dont even want the cake - we want control of the bakery!"
New members and supporters joined Solidarity and are getting involved in a by-election campaign which has already been a success for Solidarity, whatever the final result of the poll on December 11th.
A report released yesterday (14 Nov) by watchdog Consumer Focus revealed that energy companies are making over half a billion pounds extra profit from charges on pre-payment meters to their poorer customers.
Solidarity, Scotland's Socialist Movement have announced their candidate for the forthcoming by-election for the Ballochmyle ward of East Ayrshire Council. Danny Masterton from Muirkirk was selected by local activists to carry the Solidarity banner in the ballot. Danny, 54, a former professional footballer, is a well-known local trade unionist who has worked as a miner, fitter and then 10 years in open casts. He is now a full-time carer.
Danny is a member of Coalfields Solidarity, formed by workers in Scotland's coal industry.
The latest by-election campaign for Solidarity is in the Ballochmyle ward of East Ayrshire Council. The election takes place on December 11 and the Solidarity candidate is Danny Masterton of Coalfields Solidarity.
Ballochmyle is large ward geographically stretching from just outside Galston in the Irvine Valley to Glenbuck on the border with South Lanarkshire, taking in the villages of mauchline, Catrine, Auchinleck, Sorn, Lugar, Logan, Cronberry and Muirkirk. The local council is a Conservative/SNP coalition and the local MP is Des Browne.
Solidarity has two branches in the area, Ayrshire Solidarity, which takes in the comrades who are based in the Kilmarnock end of East Ayrshire and Coalfields Solidarity taking in the former mining villages in the Cumnock area.
Regular reports and updates from the campaign will appear here on the Solidarity website.
Comrades who wish to come to East Ayrshire to help the campaign should contact Danny's election agent Jim Monaghan of Coalfields Solidarity on 07944 217938.
Events Calendar
It is hard to see what the local Labour Party were thinking when the approached local right-winger David Shaw to be candidate in the Ballochmyle by-election. Apart from him being known to be a ferrari-driving millionaire, the last thing Labour need to portray in a deprived area, he famously welcomed farmers going out of business last year, during talks over milk prices. The Scotsman reported " Shaw, in a phrase that he might now regret, said it would help his business if more farmers quit: "It would be music to my ears if more dairy farmers went out of business and I don't care who that annoys." 
Solidarity Co-Convenor Rosemary Byrne joined candidate Danny Masterton and Solidarity members on the streets of Muirkirk this weekend. Rosemary, the former Regional MSP for South Scotland, returned to the area where she built strong links during her time in parliament, especially with workers in the open cast coal industry. She said:
MUIRKIRK, THURSDAY 27 NOV
