"Jim Sillars, then the MP for South Ayrshire came to prominence in the 1976 when he split from the Labour Party and set up the Scottish Labour Party. Following the demise of his party in the early eighties, he joined the Scottish National Party and was instrumental in shifting the SNP to the left.
In the nineties he became a political activist outside the parties, contributing ideas to the debate about devolution and then independence. He has now written a manifesto for an independent socialist Scotland; free from political jargon and ideological posturing, he provides the pragmatic case for a different kind of Scotland that could be an example to other nations in United Kingdom.
The title, In Place of Fear II, revives the title for Nye Bevan's book, published in 1952 and considered 'the most widely read socialist book' of the period.
Jim Sillars, born in 1937, followed his father into work on the railways before joining the Royal Navy. When he later joined the Fire Brigade, he started his political career, active in the Fire Brigades Union and the Scottish Trade Union Congress. He became the Labour MP for South Ayrshire in 1970 and worked tirelessly for the establishment of a Scottish Assembly. He was married to the independent MSP Margo MacDonald and is an articulate spokesman for the cause of socialism and independence."
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