Transport House and Keir Hardie House. Can we expect a clear position of no bans or proscriptions inside the SLP?
I would hope that there will be no bans or proscriptions. As'I said, there are no block affiliations; everyone joins as an individual member, and every individual is capable of deciding whether he or she accepts the policies and principles of the SLP - which of course are not shared, I would imagine, by the IMG or IS or others. These are matters for individuals.
But I certainly would not hope to repeat bans and proscriptions and all that sort of restriction. We want to encourage free thinking and debate, and any socialist who feels that his home is in the SLP would be made very welcome. Q The "Aims of Membership' of the SLP include a Parliament in Scotland with a socialist majority committed to socialist policies. Such an aim will obviously attract very broad support, and a wide divergence of socialist viewpoints were expressed at the foundation meeting. Do you hope that this will continue?
Sea oil cussion merely a formality? A No, it's not a formality. The NEC has prevaricated up to now and, knowing the NEC, will continue to do so. It's better to wait for their decision and then comment on it.
What is the position of the Organising Committee on dual membership? A Dual membership of the Labour Party is perfectly allowable as far as we are concerned. We certainly don't encourage or allow dual membership with other organisations which compete with the Labour Party dual membership is a particular case, because a lot of people have still to cross the mental barrier of leaving the Labour Party as well as joining us, and we should help them to get over that mental barrier as far as possible. Q Do you concede the right of Westminster to determine the question of the Scottish Assembly, or do you see any alternative which expresses the wishes of the Scottish working class - for instance, immediate elections to the Assembly with no restriction of its powers?
Well, the fact is that the decision on the first Assembly is going to be made in Westminster. That's just a fact of life, and will probably be the result of a few cabals and deals and so on.
My prediction, after listening to the debate in Parliament on devolution, would be that Westminster is going to make a mess of it. They are going to do with us what they have done with some of the colonies, waited too long and given too little too late. The position may, unfortunately, be that a contingent of people will have to go down after the next election, from the SP and the SLP, to effectively negotiate the kind of Assembly that we are going to have.
Before that I would expect a referendum, which I am totally opposed to. What would be the purpose of a referendum? To reject separation? - the Scottish people have made it clear time and time again that they reject the extreme of separation. To confirm devolution? - again, that has already been done.
There is a consensus in Scotland that we need a very, very strong Parliament with economic powers and a share of the oil revenues: everyone in Scotland knows that.
----- pull-quotes -----
y of the Scottish ks to Red Weekly.