A busy and varied Friday

One of the things I love about being a Councillor is the wide variation in the things I get to do. Today was a great example of this.

This morning, I was asked by Station Commander Eddie Renfrew to come along to the first day of a new initiative in Kilbirnie House, the community resource based at Calton Fire Station. Kilbirnie House is kitted out with great facilities for young people to get them interested in fire safety, as well as having a conference room and computer suite.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue were keen to get local people in to use the resources, and got in touch with John Wheatley College about hosting a computer skills course. Today saw the first group of women from the Calton come along to get started. They're all looking forward to surfing the net, sending some emails, and improving their typing skills, and I'm glad to see their enthusiasm being met by the local Fire and Rescue service. It's a great opportunity, and a very practical way to get the most out of their resources.

I hope the ladies will forgive me for posting up this picture of them as the lesson got underway!

Following this, I rushed back to the City Chambers for the Executive Committee. Today's agenda included a huge paper on Council funding for a range of organisations, details of the polling stations at the upcoming General Election (no confirmation of date, sadly!), a submission to the private members Bill on Autism Strategy, and proposals to allow groups to bid to run the Community Centres Culture and Sport Glasgow are proposing to close.

After lunch, I met with a constituent in Barrowfield, who is concerned by the behaviour of Celtic fans arriving by buses. Some drink, leave rubbish, and urinate close to his home. No one should have to put up with that, so I'll be doing what I can to help.

I attended the World Day of Prayer service at St Michael's in Parkhead. This was a great event, where all the local churches had come together to present a service composed by women in Cameroon. John Mason MP also attended, along with Frank McAveety MSP, and the congregations were pleased to see so many politicians giving their time and support. I had a good chat with some of those involved afterwards, and sampled some of the lovely home baking. I hope my singing didn't annoy too many people - I'm more used to Hampden!

After that finished, I popped back into the office to clear a few things off my desk. It's great to be out and about, but the paperwork tends to build up the second I leave!

Glasgow's Health

At today's Executive Committee we discussed (among other items) the Director of Public Health's report An Unequal Struggle for Health. There are a number of important observations and recommendations in the report for the health of our city. One of the most challenging is, of course, our relationship with alcohol.

For Labour, that relationship is even more uncomfortable. Back in December, at the last full meeting of Council of the year, Labour, for reasons best known to themselves, decided to reject the sensible, non partisan motion submitted by the SNP group:

"Council notes with concern the high and disproportionate impact the misuse of alcohol has on Glasgow's citizens and welcomes the commitment of national and local Governments to tackle this.

Whilst Council notes there is no one answer to tackle this problem it welcomes the principle of minimum pricing which has an important role to play in tackling the misuse of alcohol in Glasgow."

They decided to replace our motion with their own version:

“Council is concerned at the problems faced by many in this city as a result of alcohol misuse, recognises that there is no single solution to this problem and welcomes the commitment of local and national governments to tackle this issue.

Council is aware of the Scottish Government’s preferred option of minimum pricing but is concerned that these proposals are flawed and untested.”

Interestingly, the Director of Public Health's report states quite clearly and unequivocally:

"NHSGGC and its partners must support the government proposals on taking action to restrict promotions of alcohol beverages and introducing a minimum retail price for a UK unit of alcohol"

Whoops! Labour looked distinctly uncomfortable when we challenged them on this today, asking them to retract their previous position - a position most likely forced on them by Iain Gray. They would have known in December that this report was imminent, and that the views of health professionals supported the policy. It just goes to show how petty Labour are - they won't support a policy just because the SNP proposed it. Contrast this with the mature, cross-party support for the banning of smoking in indoor public places.

Sadly for Labour, and tragically for the cause of public health in our city, Council standing orders dictate that decisions taken by the Council can't be overturned for a period of six months, so Labour really have painted themselves into a corner on this one. I'm not certain that it's logical for Labour to back a report contrary to Council policy, but there's really not much else they could do!

The report was accepted unanimously by the Committee, and the work of the Director, Dr Linda De Caestecker, and her team roundly welcomed. I would encourage folk to have a peek at the report - it really is well-written and interesting.

Busy busy Friday

If the rest of the week was busy, Friday was manic.

At 10am, I attended the latest announcement of money in the CashBack for Communities at the East End Healthy Living Centre in my ward.

This scheme takes money from the proceeds of crime and returns it, in this case through rugby, to keep young people out of trouble.

This latest phase of the scheme will:

"..use over £1.4 million seized from serious organised criminals to provide free rugby coaching and playing activities for over 32,000 young people throughout the country by 2011.

The Scottish Government has brokered agreement with Scottish Rugby (the SRU) to deliver a comprehensive three year programme across Scotland to encourage participation by young people in rugby."

I'll be asking the SRU what money is heading to Glasgow, and I hope it will be possible for some to come to my ward.

The unexpected surprise from the announcement for me was the presence of several rugby players, and the very beautiful Calcutta Cup. Not sure if it was the real one or the replica, but I felt lucky to get to stand near it - I say stand near, because there was no way I would have been allowed to touch it! The Cup is pretty fragile partly due to age and some shenanigans on Princes Street.

After the brief brush with sporting glamour, it was back to the reality of Council with the fortnightly Executive Committee. My mum and my cousin had come to sit in, and there was certainly plenty to hear, including A response to the Scottish Government consultation on elected health boards and the Scottish Climate Change bill, papers on the future of LES trading operations and Direct and Care Services, and a paper on the funding of Area Committees.

After lunch, we went to finally put down a deposit on the wedding venue and to look at shoes and tiaras. It's been tricky to get a date when we could all get together, so it was nice to finally start looking at putting the wedding together. It's pretty weird to have it going from a far-off concept to realising that (according to my bebo countdown clock) we get married in a hundred and eight days!

I couldn't look round the shops for long, as I had to rush off to Edinburgh to catch the end of the SNP Councillors conference. It seems to have been a very useful event, with lots of workshops. We're all so busy getting on with being Councillors, it's not really been possible to catch up with what's been going on in other groups across the country. It was also good to geek out with a different set of people purely about our different experiences and swap stories and tips. It was a good kick-off for Spring Conference too, more of which later.

The end of a long week

It seems as though this week has been going on for ever, so I'm glad to be enjoying a wee drink and a chance to watch First Minister's questions.

I finally moved into the new office I'll be sharing with Bailie McDonald, Cllr. Mackay, and Cllr. Dunn today. In shifting the piles of bumpf I've acquired from the north side of the west building to the south side of the east building, I discovered that gallantry is dead among certain members of the Labour group. It took a couple of trips, and on my first and second trips, I was clearly struggling to open a security door; they stopped, looked, and walked on. I always hold doors open for people, and help when people look as though they need a hand. On my last trip, Councillor McAllister was kind enough to hold open the door for me, so at least I know the SNP guys aren't lacking in manners!

The first of the culprits was nice enough to compliment me on my letter in today's Scotsman in the Executive Committee later in the day, but I would rather have had a hand with the door! Also, does that mean he knows who I am and didn't help me as a result, or he only knew who I was in Committee because my name was on a card in front of me?

Incidentally, the Executive Committee meeting this fortnight was a bit of a marathon - more than thirty points on the agenda, some pretty contentious issues which required debate and others which went through on a mere nod. It lasted for three and a half hours, and Labour's majority meant they never got close to losing a vote. It's frustrating that no matter how convincingly we put a point, however correct, logical and passionate we might be, we're unlikely to change the decision. Perhaps as time goes on, things will change - I gotta hope.