Westminster General Elections
Given
that all the other political parties have declared their candidates for
the next Westminster General Election in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath,
it is worth noting that Jim Parker will be standing there under our banner.I myself
will be standing in Motherwell & Wishaw, and like Jim Parker, my
campaign will be self funded because the SSCUP will be concentrating
all efforts on the Holyrood Election in 2011 when we will be standing
right across the whole of Scotland.
It is good that the Party will be in contention for Westminster as this will keep us in the public eye and all publicity is most welcome but our main efforts MUST be directed at Holyrood.
It is good that the Party will be in contention for Westminster as this will keep us in the public eye and all publicity is most welcome but our main efforts MUST be directed at Holyrood.
 | John Swinburne
was born on the 4th July 1930 near Scranton Pennsylvania. His parents
had emigrated from Hamilton, Scotland, and returned home in 1937,
initially to Hamilton, then to Motherwell, where John attended Dalziel
High School, and became a life-long member and fan of Motherwell
Football Club. After serving his apprenticeship as a marine engineer at Barclay Curle, in Scotstoun, John worked in engineering, became a freelance journalist and eventually went to work with Motherwell Football Club as one of the first Commercial Managers for any football club in Scotland. When he retired at 68, he was invited to join the Board of Directors of the club in recognition of the work he had done on their behalf. He is married with four children and lives in Stewarton. John is founder member, and party leader, of the non-political Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, a party he formed after watching a political programme on daytime television. He was incensed by the words of Andrew Smith as he leant over the dispatch box to make a statement on pensioners and pensions; arguing that if pensioners wanted to be better off when they retired, then they should either save harder while they were working, or should carry on working after they reached retrial age. John immediately contacted the Electoral Commission, convinced them and others of his serious intent , and stood against Jack McConnell in the 2003 elections to the Scottish Parliament. He won enough votes to secure a seat as list member for Central Scotland, and became a one man party raising issues concerning senior citizens at Holyrood. During his term of office, which ended in April 2007, John was responsible for the draft proposal of his own private Member’s Bill, seeking to stop the inclusion of a senior person’s home in any financial assessment made for long term care. He has proved, and is living proof that a senior citizen CAN exist in the corridors of Parliament, AND contribute to the changes that ultimately benefit ALL of Scotland’s people. |
 | Jim Parker
is in his early seventies. He is married with four grown-up children.
Educated at Freuchie Primary school and Bell-Baxter Senior Secondary
School in Cupar, he went on to study at Heriot-Watt University. He has spent fifty years working in the mining industry, 30 years with the National Coal Board as miner, surveyor and manager,and a further 20 years as Consultant Engineer providing technical and financial assistance to mining and civil engineering projects in the UK and overseas. (Australia;Philippines;Indonesia;China;Nigeria;Canada) "Although I retired a number of years ago, I am still involved in my longstanding wish to see a rejuvenated mining industry in Britain, especially Scotland. To that end I am the 'leading light' in a consortium of mineworkers and businessmen, which continues to work for the re-opening of several collieries in Fife and Lothians." |
UK Government Westminster
10 Downing Street