Clean Glasgow

Fun filled day today, meeting constituents, gathering myself some more casework, and trying to snap suitable pictures of John Mason and Alex Salmond.

The last task was made slightly trickier by the hoardes of professional media types who came to capture the 'fishel opening of our campaign office in Glasgow East.

In a big election campaign, there needs to be some kind of stunt every day to capture the flighty interest of the media. If you're lucky, it'll make it onto the news, and a few people might find it thought provoking and/or amusing. A lot of effort goes into thinking up these events, so I hope that you do get something from them!

Today's was pretty good - John and Alex cleaning up Glasgow. This took some window cleaner, a nifty SNP branded label, and the cooperation of our neighbouring shopkeeper (well, who wouldn't want the First Minister round to do a spot of cleaning?!).

It's an appropriate metaphor for the difference between SNP and Labour in Glasgow - us trying our hardest to shine light into those cobweb strewn corners, Labour mired in the grime of generations of one-party domination in the city.

After the press had finished their lengthy interviews, we took to the streets with Alex, chapping doors, and discussing among other things, the intricate tactics of how to get the birds to eat the slugs off your strawberries but not the actual fruit. It's not the first time I've seen Alex surprise a voter with his bafflingly wide knowledge, but it never fails to be impressive.

Working for Glasgow East - come rain or shine!

Utterly glorious weekend, with a lot of time spent campaigning for John Mason in Glasgow East. It's always nice to work on a sunny day, chatting to people in their gardens and out on the street. Not that the rain stops us, as you can see from the photos from last Monday! There's always plenty of work to be done.



SNP Housing Minister, Alex Neil joined us on Saturday, and visited just a few of the areas currently balloting for housing stock transfer from the GHA to local housing associations. Nearly 2000 homes in six areas have already transferred under the SNP Government so far, with more set to transfer and more tenants to vote soon.

The five LHOs which will go to ballot next month are among 29 local communities in a timetable for SST which could see up to 16,500 homes transfer in 2010 and 2011.

So far, Six Second Stage Transfers – involving 1929 homes - have gone ahead.

These involved Ardenglen (285 homes); Cassiltoun (Castle Stuart) (526); Parkhead (Crossview) (68); Shettleston (728); Glasgow West (Hyndland) (127) and Provanhall (195).

At the end of last year a majority of tenants who voted did so in favour of transfer to Queens Cross HA (Hamiltonhill) (604 homes) and Cernach HA (420 homes). The transfers will happen in March.

This is a significant achievement - SST stalled under Labour, and the GHA empire grew. Local control is important, and I have seen first-hand the positive benefits it can bring for tenants and whole local areas.

If you would like to help John's campaign, the office is now open at 891 Shettleston Road, Glasgow, G32 7DB. Contact dlinden@glasgowsnp.org or call 07807214394

Campaign Saturday

I'm just about to head for bed, absolutely knackered after a satisfying day's campaigning.

Before heading out canvassing for Chris Stephens in Glasgow South West this morning, I baked two dozen fairy cakes. I canvassed from 11 'til 1.30, grabbed some lunch, and joined the Glasgow East team leafleting for John Mason. We worked through until nearly 5pm, then I came back home, made some Easter nests and iced the fairy cakes (with suitably elegant yellow icing and wee SNP symbols), had a shower and took the cakes to Billy McAllister's Glasgow North East adoption meeting in Sighthill.

I feel I should commend the One Stop Shop on a wonderful spread of food - delicious curry as well as pizza slices and salad. Perfect after such a long day! I did manage a Canadian barndance at the ceilidh; sadly, the dashing white sergeant is a bit much for me in this condition!

In the SNP, we all work incredibly hard to get our message out, and support all our candidates. Most people there tonight were also out campaigning during the day, and will be out again tomorrow.

I'm telling you all this because I want to let you know how hard we're all working - right across the city and across Scotland - because we're a party that takes nothing for granted.

The sad thing is, Labour still do, and have clearly learnt nothing from their defeats in Crewe and Glasgow East. Between all my various tasks today I read that, speaking at the Labour Conference in Glasgow today, John Prescott said:

"I was in Crewe the other week, we're going to win that back, it's a Labour seat. We let it go and we shouldn't because we didn't fight hard enough.

"And that's the same as I want that fight in Glasgow East, getting those seats back for Labour because they belong to us and we've got to convince the electorate a bit more."

The arrogance of Prescott, saying that they 'own' these seats, and presumably the voters within them, is just breathtaking.

In this General Election, moreso perhaps than previous elections, this kind of arrogance just won't do. Why should people continue to slavishly, unquestioningly, vote for a party who has been in power for so long? People I speak to on the doorsteps certainly don't see why they should. The majority of people I spoke to today used to vote Labour, but were giving serious thought to switching. I hear from colleagues that this is happening all round Scotland.


John Mason, the SNP MP for Glasgow East, said:

"It is this arrogance that loses Labour elections. No seat in Glasgow 'belongs' to any party.

"Seats are not Labour seats or Lib Dem seats. They are not even SNP seats. They are the people's seats.

"The SNP will never forget that and we will make sure that the people of Glasgow East know how Labour still take their votes for granted with this arrogant blunder."

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!

In case you missed it....

In case any of you missed it earlier, here's a link to the C4 political slot video featuring John Mason MP... enjoy!

Political Slot

Channel 4 are running their 'political slot' feature all this week after the news at 19:55.

Tonight's features John Mason MP, and I hear it's well worth watching.

Work and play

I was out campaigning with John Mason this morning in Carntyne. We've all been working hard to get John re-elected, and weekends are no exception!

I was out speaking to people on the doorsteps, and I got a pretty warm response. Lots of people knew who John was, and several had already been helped by him. One woman, who John had helped to get new windows, was absolutely delighted by the service she had received from him and I could see John has got a fan for life!

It's really nice to get to listen to people, find out what makes them tick and what they want to see in their area. I'm not sure yet what John can do about the number of cats roaming about the area (I got followed by one around several doors!), but he's on the case!


After campaigning, I headed out to Fir Park to catch the Lanarkshire derby. The snowy conditions over the new year have played havoc with the surface of the pitch, so there was little scope for a stylish passing game. Nevertheless, Motherwell ground out a win, and I'm pleased to see we're up to a decent 5th.


Tonight, I'm off to the 30th birthday party of a good friend. I'm looking forward to it!


Tomorrow... more campaigning I think!

Glasgow East in the snow

Working hard in Glasgow North East

I thought I'd share a couple of snaps from the weekend - on Saturday we had around forty activists out working hard to get David elected. Not bad considering the sun was splitting the sky and the Glasgow River Festival was on! You can never get people in the SNP to stand in the one place for very long, so the photo here shows a few of the activists who were there at 3.30.

People came again from various parts of the country, keen to work and bring about change in Glasgow, and we certainly made the most of the good weather.

David visited the Springburn Gala Day and spent a long time meeting local people and organisations. There were great performances from the Maryhill Integration Network, showing off the diversity of the North East of Glasgow.

I notice from Wardog's blog that Labour are setting a new record in anti-democratic behaviour by leaving the people of Glasgow North East unrepresented for 114 days.

This past weekend also marked the first anniversary of John Mason's epic win in Glasgow East. The best way to celebrate is with cake - and although I arrived back too late to get a chunk, I hear it was very tasty!

Labour smears on my doorstep

Daft wee article in the Herald today with mock outrage from assorted Labour people after an unconfirmed number of John Mason's Parliamentary leaflets strayed into Dennistoun.

"One of the newsletters was received by Labour councillor Elaine MacDougall, who said: "I couldn't believe it. My whole street had this leaflet delivered."

I stay in the same street at Elaine McDougall, just across the road. I often see her emptying her dogs on the grass outside my flat, ensuring no one can actually use that area without risk of Toxocariasis. Anyway, it seems unlikely that she would get one of John's leaflets and I didn't. And I didn't.

I know of other people who live in Dennistoun who also didn't receive a leaflet, all of which suggests that Labour are (of course!) blowing this whole thing out of proportion. If some leaflets did get get delivered it's simply a mistake on the part of the distribution company, who should have had details on the Parliamentary boundaries. Some boundaries are a bit weird, and the Glasgow East ones are odd in places; they don't work strictly to logic or postcodes and G31 does cover a wide area. It's hardly a big deal, and certainly not the conspiricy Labour's fevered imaginations are leading them to believe.

As mistakes go, it's not even in the same league as Margaret Curran's, which actually did hit her constituents directly in the pocket - her unstamped unsolicited mail cost each constituent who recieved it £1.30. People turning up at the sorting office to pick up this mail were rightly angry that they were having to pay to collect something they never asked for in the first place. At the time, a Labour spokesperson said: "This is a typical SNP smear story." And it's not as if they would ever do the same...

This article did make me think though how jealous residents of Glasgow North East must be to recieve a newsletter from a hard working MP. I have lived here for two years, and have never had a newsletter from Michael Martin. Which leads me on to the real scandal.

It has been reported that the people of Glasgow North East are to be left unrepresented until November. People who vitally need assistance on tax, benefits, asylum and passports, or wish to influence Westminster on issues like Trident renewal, ID cards, welfare reform or the future of the Post Office will have no representative and no voice.

I am disgusted that Labour see fit to use smear tactics to distract from the reality that John is a hardworking MP doing his best for his constituents, while in a neighbouring constituency Labour are too feart to go to the people and ask for their vote. I don't wonder why.

A tale of two Johns

I was out with a group of activists at Central Station today to cheer Scotland's newest MP off to Westminster. Although the Glasgow East by election seems so long ago now, Westminster has been in summer recess all this time. The break hasn't meant John has had time to twiddle his thumbs, but it's about time he got sworn in and made his maiden speech!

There was a good turnout of supporters at the station to wave him off - a fair number of slightly bemused passengers too! One woman, who turned out to be a constituent of John's, was delighted to meet him and have a chat. Another passenger, however, wasn't quite so polite.

I'm not sure what brought former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to Glasgow for the weekend, but he certainly didn't seem to be happy to see us. Perhaps he didn't see the BBC camera, or perhaps being on his way out means he doesn't care. With the wave of two fingers, he managed to upgraded our wee photo call to a high billing on the BBC Scottish news!

Reflection following an absence

Blogging has been non-existent of late for two reasons - catching up with case work after the stunning Glasgow East By Election and the relentless whirl of satin, net and glitter involved in preparing for my wedding day tomorrow.

The 24th of July was phenomenally exciting - I couldn't quite believe what was unfolding before my eyes, and my stomach was doing flips. I didn't want to take my eyes off the ballot papers, even when John Mason arrived at the count! I found myself fixated by the boxes where the ballots were stacking up, trying to discern exactly how many bundles were in the Curran, M and Mason piles. When the result came, I couldn't have been happier and more relieved (as many people saw from my reaction on various news programmes!).

The pub afterwards was sweatier than... I can't describe how sweaty it was actually, but bear hugs for those returning victorious from the count were still mandatory. You could've lit up the city from the energy in the Barrachnie. So many deliriously happy people, basking in the knowledge that all their hard work had been worth it.