April 20, 2003
Sunday Mail
Hollywood Star Dougray: Why I'm backing Scots Socialists
by Lindsay Mcgarvie, Exclusive

HOLLYWOOD star Dougray Scott has pledged his support for Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party.

The Mission Impossible actor has spoken for the first time about his socialist credentials and becoming an associate member of the SSP. The star, who commutes between London and Hollywood, said: "If I lived in Scotland, I would vote and campaign for the Scottish Socialists.

"I absolutely agree with all of the SSP manifesto. It's full of good, sound socialist policies. I would pay more money in taxes to give nurses and fire- fighters a decent wage.

"It's incredible the government will spend billions on the war then say we don't have money to pay workers."

Scott revealed his father's family were communists and he himself was a member of militant. He also spent time on picket lines when he was at college in Wales during the miners' strike of 1984- 85.

He said he would go along with SSP plans for the rich to pay more tax to redistribute wealth and backed Sheridan's manifesto for the Scottish Parliament election, giving particular praise to plans for a national film studio.

He said: "We don't have the infrastructure at the moment, but I would certainly support such a venture."

The devoted Hibs fan also praised the idea of free entry to football matches for pensioners and the unemployed.

He said: "I think it's a very good idea. Apart from Old Firm games, you look at football matches all over the country - the terraces are never full.

"I don't see why there shouldn't be an area for pensioners. It's not as if once you reach 65 you lose all interest - but how could a pensioner ever afford a season ticket?"

Scott's socialist beliefs grew out of his family and the experience of watching his native Glenrothes in Fife becoming an unemployment blackspot.

He said: "I grew up in the 1970s when there was a lot of industry like the mines and the Haig's whisky factory.

"When they closed down, it became less and less an industrial area and more and more an unemployment blackspot. My sister Delphine is a drugs worker out of Perth prison and the things she tells me. When I was growing up in Glenrothes, there was no drugs problem.

"Now the area's got a huge heroin problem due to unemployment and all the things that go with it. It's tragic."