What does New Labour do when faced with a barrage of criticism about the Dungavel Asylum Centre? Incredibly, with cross party opposition, and mass public revulsion amongst the Scottish public against the centre, David Blunkett today announced the expansion of the Lanarkshire centre, not its closure.

With the government yesterday forced to ditch its controversial plans to deny asylum seekers the option of a judicial review of the rejection of their claim,(after it was rubbished by the top legal authorities), and with Fariborz Gravindi, Mokhtar Haydary, and Faroq Haidari still on hunger strike in their Glasgow bedsit, this is how the British state reacts.

But the whole case just highlights Scotland’s political impotence, unable to act when the three stooges McConnell, McLetchie and Wallace all support the current bizarre state of affairs. Scotland has a declining population but can’t decide how people are treated within its own borders. Even the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Professor Iain Torrance, has urged the first minister, Jack McConnell, to do everything in his power to avert a "political disgrace and a personal tragedy".


PROTEST - Thursday 18 March 11.30 a.m.
Lawnmarket, Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Solidarity with the Iranian Kurdish Hunger Strikers
Lobby Jack McConnell at the Scottish Parliament
The protest is scheduled just before First Minister's Question Time - Blunket Shame - End McConnell's Silence

The men have sewn their lips up because they'd rather die of hunger in Glasgow than be sent back to be executed in Iran. Demand that Blunkett withdraws the deportation order. Demand that McConnell speaks out for human decency.