X Factor laughs

I know I SHOULD be a fan of the MacDonald Bros "because they're Scottish" but I just can't do it. And today I laughed out loud when I read that they're going for the world record for the band that's played the most in store gigs. That's something to be proud of is it? To have played more Asdas than the Killers and more HMV stores than Travis? Hmmmm. It's like a political party claiming they've saved more deposits than anyone else.

No resting on our laurels

Not been blogging much this week and now I'm off to Glenrothes for a well earned holiday - ha ha ha - sorry, I meant to say, for a weekend of campaigning! Looks like we have a date, 6 November. I have to say, if the Labour Party spin doctors thought their "oh so transparent" attempts to derail our campaign by putting out all these "poor us, we've already lost it", "oh look we're the underdogs now - it's safe to vote for us please please please" lines to the press, would succeed (you know, let us think we've won and we'll all become complacent) .... they were wrong! Bear in mind the Glaswegian contingent is nearly two hours away from the scene of the latest battle. PLUS we've been in constant by election mode since the end of June what with the Glasgow East Campaign (big smiles) and then the subsequent Glasgow Baillieston council campaign (more big smiles) and we're all absolutely exhausted. Then you factor in the fact that a bus load of us went up last Saturday just two days after collapsing in heaps when we won the Baillieston by election.

And still ... there are 10 of us heading up now to spend the whole weekend there (whose idea was this?) and ANOTHER FULL BUS LOAD on SATURDAY. I'd say there are no nationalists left who understand the meaning of the word complacency. Nope we're on a roll and we're on fire and determined to earn every single vote we can from the good folk of Fife. So, with that in mind I better go or I'll miss the bus.

Glasgow to Glenrothes

Here are the intrepid Glasgow SNP team first thing on Saturday morning about to leave for Glenrothes. Having won our second by-election in Glasgow this year we are now free to travel the land we are planning to free :-) So, a day trip to Markinch was in order and that's exactly what we did. And boy did they work us hard but it was worth it and we're all looking forward to going back next week.

Another SNP win

We won!!! Fantastic news, the SNP has won the Baillieston council by-election. Congratulations to Councillor David Turner!

2 down, 1 to go .... roll on Glenrothes.

Appearances can be so deceptive

Had the dubious experience of meeting some folk from the BNP tonight. When I say "meeting" I didn't actually speak to them, they were in the playground of the polling place I was standing outside. What struck me about them, as they were ejected from the building for breaking the rules, was that they appeared to be almost "normal". And they said goodbye to each of us. I felt a bit rude not replying. I don't like to "shun" any human being and it makes it harder when they clearly don't think they're doing anything wrong. The fact that they politely acknowledged us as if we were all "in the same game" said to me that they think they are as legitimate as any mainstream political party.

As I said I don't like to shun anyone but everything they stand for repulses me and I cannot recognise them as anything other than a racist organisation. Acknowledging them politely in the school playground as if their views don't matter, or are somehow part-time and / or irrelevant would have made me feel like a coward. Hopefully THEIR cowardly policies will be roundly rejected by the people of Baillieston tonight.

The waiting game

I'm home now. It's been a long day. A stressful day. A wet day. And now all we can do is wait. Wait to discover if we've won the Baillieston by-election that is. It will be close, it was always going to be a near thing and I have no feeling for how it will turn out. Scary. Will update later ...

This Charming Woman

I was out in Baillieston tonight delivering letters up to the 11th hour - or 9pm to be precise. Anyway I was with the child who is trying to adopt me and when we came across some Tory leafletters he asked them for a copy of their leaflet. When I read what the Tory candidate had to say, I'm afraid I felt compelled to go back and question him.

Apparently this Conservative council candidate pledges, if elected, to:

"cut council tax for everyone by £150 a year".

So I asked him how he was going to do that by getting elected to Glasgow City Council. "It's our party policy" he replied. "Yes but how exactly is electing YOU going to bring about that policy?" I continued. "It's party policy" he repeats - imaginatively I thought! "It's misleading" I tell him "seeing as you'd have to be in power to do it and it's the kind of thing that stops people trusting politicians". "Well if you don't like it complain" is his helpful response.

I might just do that. I had to laugh when, as I walked away, I heard him say "usual charming SNP". It's not my job to be charming to people I believe to be disingenuous, in fact it's my (self appointed) role to give them a good telling off about it as he discovered tonight :-)

To be serious, I could have done without speaking to this guy tonight but I hate people trying to con the voters and seeing as politics is not a hobby to me but something far more important, I'm not going to be polite and tut tut quietly to myself when I can tell the main culprit what I think of him!