Scottish Socialist Party

Scottish Socialist Party

The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrtaidh Sòisealach na h-Alba; Scots: Scots Socialist Pairtie) is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence.

It operates through a branch-based structure with additional networks for identity or campaigning groups, as well as accepting open platforms who are allowed to organise within the party.

Following the 2003 elections to the Scottish Parliament, it had six Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and two local councillors, the SSP lost all its seats in the Scottish Parliament in the 2007 election and retained only one local councillor. In the 2011 Holyrood elections, the SSP stood in all regional lists, however failed to gain any MSPs.

Its primary campaigns at the moment are centred around the cuts to public services being introduced by the UK government, demands for the establishment of an independent Scottish republic as well as the provision of free school meals.

Read more about Scottish Socialist Party:  History, Platforms, SSP's Role in The Sheridan Trials, Criticism, Other Information

Famous quotes containing the words scottish, socialist and/or party:

    “I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground, carried Scottish ground in his boots, I carry Concord ground in my boots and in my hat,—and am I not made of Concord dust? I cannot realize that it is the roar of the sea I hear now, and not the wind in Walden woods. I find more of Concord, after all, in the prospect of the sea, beyond Sandy Hook, than in the fields and woods.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Men conceive themselves as morally superior to those with whom they differ in opinion. A Socialist who thinks that the opinions of Mr. Gladstone on Socialism are unsound and his own sound, is within his rights; but a Socialist who thinks that his opinions are virtuous and Mr. Gladstone’s vicious, violates the first rule of morals and manners in a Democratic country; namely, that you must not treat your political opponent as a moral delinquent.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    “Though the Jazz Age continued it became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders.”
    —F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)