Rosie Kane Backs McAllion in Bridge Battle

Rosie Kane MSP today joined Dunfermline and West Fife SSP candidate John McAllion in local campaigning against plans for toll price rises and a new £500 million road bridge.
Rosie worked with John during her lunch break as a member of the Scottish Parliament's Petitions Committee which met in Dunfermline today.

Rosie, a committed anti motorway campaigner, backed the SSP view that current tolls should be abolished and the capital cost of a new bridge invested in public transport.
John McAllion slammed the way New Labour has turned the discussion on the bridge into a power struggle between London and Edinburgh with the toll paying public reduced to spectators.

Said McAllion:
“I am not sure what the Blairite New Labour candidate thinks about tolls since we can’t hear her for the noise of Gordon Brown and Alisdair Darling trampling all over Jack McConnell as they instruct the Scottish Executive and Scottish Parliament on what they can and cannot do.

“However two things are clear. Firstly the existing bridge was paid for years ago and rather than hiking tolls they ought to be abolished altogether as they have been on the Skye Bridge.

“Secondly there needs to be serious investment in high quality cheap public transport as the way to cut bridge use and road congestion.

“The public should also beware of New Labour ministers talk of a new bridge.
This would be certain to be provided by private moneylenders on the Skye bridge PFI model.

“That bridge was half the length of the Forth and cost a motorist £11.40 to cross.”

Backing this view Rosie said:
“Bridge users are forced to commute by job cuts in Fife and the location of work across the Forth. They should not be penalised by high tolls as a result.

“What is clear is that the only way to cut bridge use and traffic congestion is to provide quality, low cost environmentally friendly alternatives through a massive investment in public transport.

“The supposed cost of £500 million for a second congestion generating road bridge would be much better spent on new park and ride schemes and a large scale expansion of rail services”

SSP Press Release

Chancellor accused of bridge tolls "lie"

Chancellor Gordon Brown was today accused of "lying" over the question of Forth road bridge tolls. The charge was made by SNP depute leader Nicola Sturgeon in heated exchanges with First Minister Jack McConnell.

Referring to different statements made by Mr Brown and Mr McConnell, Ms Sturgeon told MSPs: "It seems Labour politicians leave any notion of truth behind when they cross the Forth bridge into Fife. Isn't it the case that we have a First Minister saying a proposal is still on the table, yet Gordon Brown insists on the pretence that that proposal has been dropped? Isn't it the case that most people would describe that quite simply as a lie? The question for the First Minister is, does he condemn it or does he condone it?"

The SNP is campaigning for a freeze in the level of tolls on the Forth road bridge at £1.

The row began with Ms Sturgeon challenging the First Minister to explain why Gordon Brown had "misled the public" by saying on Monday that any toll increases were dead in the water, days after Mr McConnell had said tolls were "very firmly on the agenda".

Ms Sturgeon said the position of Labour and the Liberal Democrats now was many things - but "clear" was not one of them.

She said that, on Monday, Gordon Brown had said: "The whole proposal is dropped." This, she said, referred to the proposal for having tolls at varying levels at different points in the day. "If Gordon Brown is telling the truth, the First Minister should
be able to stand up right now and rule out any increase in tolls," she told MSPs.

"If the First Minister cannot do that, then Gordon Brown is clearly not telling the truth - which is it?"

Ms Sturgeon demanded that the First Minister tell the Chancellor to stop trying to mislead the people of Fife.

"In a week when 700 of them have lost their jobs, they deserve a lot more honesty from the Labour Party," she said.

Commenting on the exchanges at Holyrood, SNP candidate in the Dunfermline & West Fife by-election, Douglas Chapman added:

"Clearly the Labour and LibDem proposal to increase tolls is very much alive and kicking.

"We will continue to campaign hard to stop the increases.

"Every vote for the SNP on February 9 is a vote against an increase in the tolls. Every vote for Labour and the LibDems is a green light to hike up the tolls after the election."

Dunfermline SNP

Future of Fife rescue service

Liberal Democrat by-election candidate Willie Rennie is pressing Chancellor Gordon Brown for a guarantee of funding to ensure the long-term future of a Fife-based emergency rescue service.

Scotland's Mines Rescue Service, located in Crossgates, is in a period of transition as it moves away from depending on subsidies from pit operators to become fully self-funding within a matter of years.

However, the service has warned its future may be in doubt if short term bridging support from the UK government to help ease this transition is not provided.

Willie Rennie has now written to Chancellor Gordon Brown seeking a pledge of support for the Fife based team.

Speaking following a visit to the Mines Rescue Service, Willie Rennie said:

"Despite the decline of the coal mining industry, there is ongoing - and growing - demand for the services provided by the mines rescue team.

"It is clear that their knowledge and expertise is unique and the team's skills are every bit as specialised as those of the other emergency services.

"Across the country mines rescue teams have played a vital role in emergency search and rescue operations including those following the Stockline Plastics tragedy in Glasgow and the terrorist bombings in London last July.

"The loss of this service and these lifesaving skills is unthinkable, particularly since a relatively small level of one-off support is all that is needed to ensure its future.

"Chancellor Gordon Brown could easily remove the doubt with a pledge of funding to help ease the way to self-sufficiency.

"The Mines Rescue Service has a special place in the history and heritage of Fife and I think local people will be appalled if Tony Blair's Labour government do not take action to secure this service."

Dunfermline Lib Dems

Minogue ejected from toll meeting

A by-election candidate has been thrown out of a meeting where MSPs were discussing the Forth Road Bridge tolls.

Tom Minogue, who is campaigning to have the tolls abolished, was told to leave a meeting of the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee after staging a protest. The Dunfermline and West Fife candidate accused Labour MSP Helen Eadie of abusing her position on the committee, which was meeting in Dunfermline, and claimed she turned the event into a Labour Party husting.

The committee was discussing a petition put forward by a Fife minister calling for tolls on the crossing to be frozen at the current level of £1. Ms Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, told the meeting how politicians at all levels from her party had been campaigning on the issue.

She described the bridge as being "an absolute lifeline" for people in central and east Scotland, adding: "Every politician north of the River Forth has been campaigning on this, every Labour MEP, MP, MSP and councillors in Fife."

But as she was suggesting ways in which the committee could take the issue forward, she was interrupted by Mr Minogue's protest form the public benches.

He stood up and shouted: "Helen Eadie is using this as a platform, she is using this as a political stunt. It's disgraceful."

Mr Minogue, who has asked Holyrood standards chief Jim Dyer to investigate Ms Eadie's comments, was immediately told to leave and was ushered out of the Glen Pavilion, where the meeting was being held, by security staff.

Press Association / Scotsman

"No Tolls" Leaflet

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SNP Campaign News

Computer printer firm Lexmark is to close its manufacturing plant in Fife, with the loss of 700 jobs.

Workers at the firm's plant in Admiralty Park, Rosyth, were told that 500 jobs would be cut by April with the last 200 going by the end of the year.

The American-owned company, which makes printers and cartridges, has been in Scotland for 10 years. It is shedding 1,400 jobs globally in response to a worldwide decline in demand for the cartridges.

The SNP has called for an action plan to be implemented in the area to offset the jobs lost following the announcement. Dunfermline & West Fife candidate Douglas Chapman earlier today took time out of the by-election campaign to meet with a group of local employers.

SNP News Items from the Dunfermline & West Fife By-Election

Liberal Democrats campaign

Dunfermline Liberal Democrats website.

Labour's botched fight for 'safe' seat

THE campaign for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election is less than a week old, but already the wheels appear to have fallen off the Labour machine.

Party managers have somehow managed to do what everybody thought was impossible - start to lose the campaign.

This is a seat which should have been won by Labour without breaking sweat. It has a majority of more than 11,000, the well-liked sitting MP, Rachel Squire, died in office and the party's proposed successor is her close and experienced colleague, Catherine Stihler.

The Labour candidate should have been able to say the right things, kiss the right babies and walk off with victory on 9 February, with hardly a ripple on the electoral map of Scotland.

But something has gone very badly wrong and now the opposition parties sniff an upset.

The closure of the Lexmark factory was not something that could have been stopped or avoided, and that will be a problem for Labour. The loss of so many jobs during the campaign will impact on the Labour vote, but it is unlikely to favour any one of the opposition parties to any great extent.

However, of more concern for Labour must be the performance of the Chancellor and neighbouring MP. Gordon Brown has been astonishingly inept and has proved himself to be a liability for his own party.

The Chancellor may be the "King of Fife" and he may like to think of Scotland as his fiefdom, but he has made a tremendous hash of the by-election since he first got involved last week. His first move was to try to bounce the Scottish Executive into coming out against proposals for a £4 toll on the Forth Road Bridge. He issued a statement attacking the proposal and announcing that it had been abandoned, although he was treading all over Jack McConnell's sphere of influence and putting the First Minister in an impossible position.

Mr McConnell reluctantly rode to the Chancellor's rescue by also coming out against the £4 toll, but leaving open the possibility of smaller increases.

Mr Brown's next move was to support proposals for a new bridge over the Forth, once again blundering into devolved policy and intervening in an area where Mr McConnell was assessing information before making an extremely sensitive and hugely expensive decision.

This time, Mr McConnell would not be bounced into a public decision and condemned those who intervened in the way Mr Brown had done as "utterly irresponsible".

In retaliation, Mr Brown authorised sources in London to make it clear that he wanted to "bounce" Mr McConnell into a decision on a new bridge because he had not moved quickly enough to influence the by-election.

The Chancellor did not stop there. He arrived in Dunfermline on Monday to announce his backing for a new £30 million business training college, again stepping across into devolved matters.

On this occasion, he did not even bother to consult Mr McConnell in advance.

It is now clear that Mr Brown knew about the impending job losses at Lexmark, and his outbursts on business colleges and the Forth bridge were designed to deflect attention from Lexmark and on to other, less important topics.

Then, when there was a real, immediate and important constituency issue to discuss yesterday - the Lexmark closure - where was Mr Brown?

He had disappeared back to London.

So where does this leave the voters of Dunfermline and West Fife and the Labour Party message?

Quite simply, they will be completely confused and could be forgiven for being more than a little brassed off.

They have been told by Mr Brown that Labour supports a new Forth bridge and opposes all toll increases, but they have also been told by Mr McConnell that the Labour-led Scottish Executive has not decided on these issues yet and they could end up with the opposite - increasing tolls on the existing bridge and no new crossing.

The only possible reason for Mr Brown's bizarre approach to this by-election is that he is worried that Labour will lose, or at least have its majority slashed, and he is determined to show the Labour Party in the rest of the UK that he can deliver election victories in his back yard.

The danger for Labour, though, is that by firing off in all directions, as he has been doing, the Chancellor has done more harm than good and drawn attention to splits within the Labour camp which were not visible before.

The Scotsman

Dunfermline & West Fife by-election

The Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, following the death of Labour MP Rachel Squire, will be held on Thursday, 9 February.

It will be Scotland's second by-election this parliamentary session.

The turnout for Dunfermline and Fife West at the last general election was 59.90%.

The results were:
Rachel Squire (Lab) 20,111 (47.44%);
David Herbert (Lib Dem) 8,549 (20.17%);
Douglas Chapman (SNP) 8,026 (18.93%);
Roger Smillie (C) 4,376 (10.32%);
Susan Archibald (Scottish Socialist Party) 689 (1.63%)
and Ian Borland (UKIP) 643 (1.52%).

Dunfermline UKIP candidate

Ian Borland was born in 1947 at Elderslie, Renfrewshire and educated Newtonhead Primary, Ayr and Broughton Secondary High School, in Edinburgh.

He was introduced to the insurance broking industry in 1965 continuing until 1992 having achieved Managing Directorship of Scottish division of national company.

Moving forward, he formed own insurance Brokerage. He is a founder member and past president of the Rotary Club of West Fife and has been involved in local service duties and chairty events for 25 years.

Dunfermline SNP candidate

Douglas Chapman fights the SNP's corner in Dunfermline and West Fife and hopes to be returned as the first ever MP for this new constituency. Previously he was the SNP candidate for Dunfermline West for the Scottish Parliament elections in 1999, winning the SNP's highest share of the vote in this constituency since the 1960s.

Douglas won the Fife Council ward of Rosyth West and Dockyard in 1997, the first by-election loss to be suffered in Scotland by Tony Blair's New Labour since the general election in the same year. He has been a member of Dunfermline West SNP since moving there in 1990 and has held several internal posts including Convener and Press Officer.

Douglas lives in Dunfermline with his wife, son and daughter and for much of his working life has worked in business with TSB Scotland, Fife Enterprise and Gleneagles Hotel. He has also worked with two small businesses locally. He is currently Parliamentary Assistant to Bruce Crawford MSP who represents Mid-Scotland and Fife.

Douglas has been active throughout the recent Queen Margaret Hospital campaign to ensure the City of Dunfermline retains its general hospital and will be the only candidate at this election to campaign for the return of consultant-led maternity services at the Queen Margaret for new mums in the Dunfermline and West Fife area.

Dunfermline Scottish Socialist candidate

The Dunfermline and West Fife by election was today set ablaze by the intervention of one of the most respected figures in Scottish politics.

Former Labour MP and MSP, John McAllion, is to stand as the Scottish Socialist candidate after being unanimously selected by the local SSP branch.

SSP national convenor Colin Fox said today; “We are delighted to have someone of John McAllion’s stature carrying the banner for the SSP.

“John McAllion is renowned for his integrity and principles. He is one of Scotland’s political giants and stands head and shoulders above any other candidate in this by election.

“The people of Dunfermline and West Fife now have a serious heavyweight contender in the fray.”

Dunfermline Liberal Democrat Candidate

THE Liberal Democrats have unveiled their candidate for the Dunfermline & West Fife by- election, declaring the contest a two-horse race with Labour.

Willie Rennie, 38, needs a 14 per cent swing to win the Commons seat left vacant following the death of Labour MP Rachel Squire.

Announcing his candidacy, Mr Rennie claimed Labour had "neglected" the area and vowed to campaign for more teachers in local schools and to oppose both proposals for Forth Road Bridge tolls and any moves to centralise hospital services in Kirkcaldy.

Education, transport and health are all issues devolved to the Scottish Parliament, where the Lib Dems share power with Labour in a coalition Executive. However, Mr Rennie blamed much of the constituency's problems on Labour politicians and their local authority, insisting also he was right to campaign on any subject of public concern.

"These are the issues that people of Dunfermline and West Fife have risen with me," he said. "For instance, it's the Labour- controlled FETA that has proposed the £4 charge [mooted for the road bridge]."

Keen runner Mr Rennie is a member of Carnegie Harriers and was a runner-up in the Scottish Coal-Carrying Championship.

Dunfermline Conservative Candidate

The Tories have selected Carrie Ruxton, a St Andrews-born single mother and qualified nutrition professional. She met members of the public in Dunfermline High Street yesterday with Scotland's only Conservative MP, David Mundell of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency.

Ms Ruxton said her pledges to the local community would include freezing the Forth Road Bridge toll at £1, improving childcare provision and campaigning for affordable housing.

She said, 'I'm delighted to have been given the chance to fight for the interests of people in Dunfermline and West Fife.

'Nobody wanted to be in this position. Rachel Squire was a strong advocate for this area and her passing is a great loss to us all. I want the chance to represent your interests and help improve your lives.'

'This is a very exciting time to be involved with the Conservatives, and I am looking forward to taking David Cameron's positive message to the people of Dunfermline and West Fife.'

Dunfermline Labour Candidate

Catherine Stihler immediately started a campaign for a second road crossing to be built across the River Forth after being selected as Labour's candidate for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election last night.

Ms. Stihler will today launch a petition in Dunfermline High Street calling for a second crossing to be built. The move comes after the proposed £4 toll on the existing bridge was dropped after pressure from Labour.

Speaking last night, she said: "Good transport links are vital to the prosperity of Dunfermline and West Fife.

"Not only must the toll increases be rejected, but I believe the long term economic prospects of Dunfermline and the whole of Fife need a new bridge.

"Under Labour £66 million has been spent in the last few years improving public transport across the Forth.

"Now we need to show even greater vision and boldness and campaign for a second bridge. This will help commuters who live in Fife to travel to work in the Edinburgh area but it will also encourage new businesses to locate in Dunfermline and West Fife."

The new bridge would have dedicated public transport lanes to minimise the environmental impact and increases in congestion.

Ms. Stihler has wasted no time in carrying on the work of her friend and colleague Rachel Squire who campaigned tirelessly for better transport links as MP for the constituency until her death earlier this month.

Ms. Stihler said: "Rachel was as dedicated and committed an MP as any constituency could have.

"I served my political apprenticeship under her, sharing her office and her concerns over the last seven years.

"I am determined to push forward the causes which Rachel campaigned for if I am elected as MP for Dunfermline and West Fife on 9 February.

"I am honoured to be given the opportunity to carry on her work for the people of the community we both lived in."

Neighbouring MP, Chancellor Gordon Brown, welcomed Ms. Stihler's selection as Labour's candidate.

The Chancellor said: "Catherine Stihler has all the qualities needed to try to fill the gap left by Rachel Squire's untimely death.

"I have known Catherine for many years and she has the dedication, talent and guts which I recognised in my colleague Rachel."