Restricted from blogging

Very little blogging happening on this blog this week I'm afraid. I've moved back to Glasgow but little access to the internet and I don't like to do it in work time. Not that there's been any shortage of things to blog about. Example, the opinion polls out this week which, if replicated, would see every single one of the Labour Leadership candidates lose their seats at the next election. That put a smile on my face at least. A sad story in Port Glasgow of an 18 year old boy losing his life on a motorbike. My niece actually saw the accident and I think the boy was not wearing a helmet. Absolutely tragic, what more is there to say? I also visited an alcohol rehab unit in Greenock which is facing closure and I met some very impressive people there. If I don't have time to blog on it this week I will certainly do so in the near future because it really got me thinking. And finally I had a meeting with John Loughton from fairbridge Scotland only to discover it was ThE John Loughton of Big Brother fame. Anyway so much to say and so little time online so it will all have to wait. I'm off to Ireland in the morning, away for nearly a week. I'll try to update but I don't think there will be many wifi cafes in Gortahork :-)

Introducing ... the next leader of Glasgow City Council

Huge congratulations to my very good friend James Dornan, who yesterday was elected as the SNP Council Group Leader in Glasgow. He will make a fantastic Leader of the Opposition and I'm delighted to see him getting some recognition at last for his many skills. The post was vacated of course by John Mason, the new MP for the East End of Glasgow. We are very fortunate in the SNP in Glasgow in that we have a very talented and committed group of councillors. An observer at the hustings last week reckoned he would struggle to choose between the 4 candidates - James himself, Alex Dingwall, Alison Hunter and Cllr Tartan Hero Grant Thoms. The word was that they all gave excellent speeches and had great ideas for the future development of the group. I chaired the meeting yesterday and every one of the candidates congratulated James Dornan warmly. With a team like that and a leader like James Dornan, we can't go wrong!

Conservatives: a bad idea indeed!

Thanks to Frank from Clydebank for pointing this out to me - the Tories really ought to get their website redesigned. Click on here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find out why. Class!

Derring-do from Free Tibet protester

You can't have missed the escapades of Edinburgh man Iain Thom today as he scaled the heights of a lighting pole near to the Olympic stadium in Beijing. He then unfurled a banner calling on the Chinese to get out of Tibet before phoning the BBC from his mobile phone! Forget John whatsisname at Glasgow Airport, this is my new hero.

Despite his modesty in saying any fear he felt was nothing compared to how Tibetans living under Chinese occupation no doubt felt, he must have been scared. Not only was he hundreds of feet up in the air but he was in a country where he doesn't speak the language protesting about that country's government and in particular protesting about human rights abuses. They weren't likely to be happy with him. He was of course arrested and he'll now no doubt be kicked out but I hope he returns to a hero's welcome for showing an incredible amount of courage. In fact we should invent a new Olympic medal for what he did.

The dictionary definition of derring-do incidentally, is this: valiant deeds in desperate times. Very apt!

PS What IS that Airport guy's name again?! How fickle we are with our heroes!

The Saltire is Banned!

Good one from my friend Jamie Hepburn MSP, who somehow managed to spot that the Olympic Committee in Beijing has ruled that the saltire may not be waved in support of Scottish athletes at these Olympic games. And before anyone accuses me or him of being parochial, he also pointed out that England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be banned from flying their flags too. Ridiculous isn't it? I have to admit I was wondering why on earth Jamie was doing reading the "house rules" of the Olympic Committee. Then I remember that he and Julie have just moved house and as yet, they've no TV aerial and no internet access. If that's how bad it gets, please never let my internet access be taken away!

I wonder who the Sunday Mail wants as Labour leader

Ah the Sunday Mail. That impartial observer and reporter of all things Scottish. There to serve the people and simply report the truth. You've gotta laugh haven't you? Today they've done a "harmless" little skit on the Labour leadership contest in Scotland. They decided to test how ordinary voters react to photos of the 3 contenders - Iain Gray, Andy Kerr and Cathy Jamieson. Just to be "funny" they added in a pic of some actor. Not quite sure what that was for but maybe my sense of humour's different.

It was all fake and a set up to give Cathy Jamieson a higher profile (who, of course, more people recognised than any of the others). You can tell it's fake by looking at the answers the "ordinary" folk give. One says of Andy Kerr "I'm guessing he's a politician" implying that these ordinary folks have not been told that it's Labour leadership contenders. The same person says she can't name Iain Gray but "it's a sorry state if they're all running for the leadership". Ah, so she DID know. Why did she have to guess one of them was a politican then?

And funnily enough, the comments about Cathy Jamieson are all positive - whilst the comments about the other two are just rude! One person even refers to one of the contenders as "an ugly man". I don't really care what the Labour rags do to Labour politicians but I do care about the principles involved. Newspapers are not supposed to be there to unduly influence public opinion but they do it all the time and blatantly so. I think I prefer that, however, to this sneaky kind of nonsense written with the assumption that its readership are all too thick to work out what they're trying to do.

George Foulkes - funny or not?

Sometimes ye gotta laugh at his greatness Lord George Foulkes. And other times, he is so nasty and small minded and so ANTI ALL THINGS SCOTTISH that it's not funny anymore. Today he was being interviewed about us bad Scot Nats. "They're brainwashing the Scots" he asserts. And what we doing to brainwash you all? We're sneaking in the saltire to all manner of everyday events. It's "Independence by creep" according to LGF. Evidence of this?

Why - our trains are to have a saltire design when next they are repainted. NO WAY?!!

"These Scots really are taking things a step too far don't you think?" - not an exact quote you understand, more how I imagine George to have reacted.

Secondly, we're now "allowed" to declare ourselves Scottish rather than British on the next census form. (Bet him and his fellow Lords and Ladies nearly choked on their port when they heard that outrageous concession to the wretched Scots - "why on earth did they have to discover oil? If it hadn't been for that we could have built ourselves a MUCH higher border"!)

And that pesky Alex "de Brainvasher" Salmond has had the flaming nerve to change the name of the Scottish Executive to Scottish Government - giving the commoner Scots an over inflated idea of who they are!

The foxy one claims that all of this is because the SNP can't win on the real arguments. He then devotes as much time as the interview will allow (not much, he can see the complete irrelevance of this and no doubt, of George himself) to telling us that he gets a train sometimes but Alex Salmond hasn't been on a train since becoming First Minister. "Why is he so afraid of trains?" blusters the Lord with the common touch!

Now I don't know if Alex Salmond has been on a train in the last year. I don't really care whether he has or not. Do you? Does anybody? But if George is trying to use this to say Scotland's First Minister is afraid to talk to people, perhaps he should have paid more attention to the Glasgow East by-election. (Perhaps they should have paid more attention BEFORE it and maybe they wouldn't have lost it.)

Yes, I'm still talking about it. The by election that Gordon Brown, the Leader of the Labour Party, failed to show up to. Whereas Alex Salmond didn't just show up, he was accused of being there TOO MUCH! And when he was there, shall I tell you what he was doing? He was visiting places like Carmyle, Shettleston, Tollcross, Easterhouse, Wellhouse.

It wasn't set up appointments. He turned up with John Mason and a team of leafletters. They leafletted whilst Alex and John chapped on doors and spoke to ANYONE who wanted to speak to them. That was quite a lot of people I can tell you. In many housing estates people were coming out of their houses and crowding round them keen to have a chat.

Alex Salmond has been in many a house in the East End this summer, having a cup of tea and listening to people's problems. Gordon Brown didn't set foot in the city never mind the constituency. The SNP is very unlike the Labour Party in that the SNP is not afraid to listen to ordinary people and to act on their concerns. I know because as the Campaign Co-ordinator I was in charge of ensuring we DID act on all concerns.

So, George, whether Alex takes the train or not is a complete irrelevance. The decision to rebrand the rail stock with a Saltire design was taken by Transport Scotland BEFORE the SNP were even in power. The repainting will take place when the trains are due to be repainted anyway so I can't see there being cost implications. The rise in national pride we have seen in Scotland is nothing to be feared. It is not necessarily associated with a rise in those wishing to see an Independent Scotland but even if it was, you have no right to talk down this country and the desire of the people to have a strong positive national identity. That is not funny, it's not the usual nonsense we're used to from you, it's more sinister than that and it is completely unacceptable.