Local Election 2009 Press Conference

Joe Higgins’ stunning victory in the Dublin Euro Constituency, getting 12.5% of the first preference vote, out polling Sinn Fein and defeating two sitting MEPs, was the final part in a weekend of drama and great election results for the Socialist Party in Ireland.

IRELAND IS experiencing the worst recession of any industrialised country since the 1930s. This is the legacy of Fianna Fail’s 12 years in power.

Fianna Fail and the Greens have introduced two draconian budgets that have cost working class people thousands in extra levies, taxes, and lost allowances. 500,000 will be unemployed by Christmas.

The economic crisis is resulting in an unprecedented onslaught on living standards, spiralling mass unemployment and a dramatic rise in poverty. Meanwhile billions is being taken from working people and given to bankers, builders and international speculators.

Tommy Sheridan is standing in the Glasgow North East by-election on 12 November. Standing as a "Workers' MP on a Worker's Wage" for Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement - Tommy contrasts strongly with the disgraced former incumbent, Michael Martin (now Lord Martin of Springburn), whose resignation as Speaker and as an MP, triggered this by-election, in an area that has been represented by Labour since 1935.