On the campaign trail

Apologies for the lack of posting - I've been alternating between being too busy and too tired to blog.

Things are going well in Glasgow East, with volunteers coming from a wide variety of places to help John Mason get re-elected. We've had new members, volunteers, younger people, and friends coming to campaign.

There's a genuine warmth for John from members of the public that I've met in shopping centres and on the doorstep. People know him, say hi as they pass him on the street. Groups of young people we've met out campaigning have called - "look, it's John Mason!" - and either waved or come over to chat to John.

The steadfast, dedicated work he has done in the area, not just as an MP over the previous two years, but as a Councillor for ten years, has brought many to our cause.

I'm working hard to see John re-elected so that he can continue this work. He doesn't seek power for power's sake; he wants to help and do his best for the area.

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."

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!

Campaigning

Great turnout of people on Sunday afternoon to do campaigning work in my ward. The weather may be freezing, but we're still keen to chap doors and speak to the voters! Massive thanks to all who turned out.

If they scrape that barrel much more, they'll go through it...

Hat tip to Chris at Leaves on the Line, who has found this gem of a press release on Willie Bain’s website.

“Nationalist blunder as campaign admits it rents a "tiny" office”

Not only is this scraping the barrel for petty attacks on the SNP, this also demonstrates Labour’s misconception of what a campaign office is actually for. It’s not for activists to sit about in, chat and drink tea – it’s for the organisation and distribution of campaign materials. On my visits so far to our rooms, I’ve seen our enthusiastic activists turn up, ready to work, and head out with bundles of materials. We’re not hanging around!

There is a kitchen in our campaign office of course, for distribution of tea, coffee, soup, sandwiches and biccies, but this is to cater mainly for the many activists coming from further afield to lend their support.

In other related guff – why are Labour activists so afraid to show their faces?!

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!

Glasgow North East Campaign Launch

Back home after today's Glasgow North East campaign launch for David Kerr. It was a super turnout today - well over fifty activists came out from constituencies across Glasgow to support David, as well as members from Renfrewshire, East Ren, Dundee, and Cumbernauld and Kilsyth (if I've missed you, let me know!). The student and youth wings were also well represented. Since I couldn't be in two places at once, I've taken the pic below as part of the crowd - I'm sure there'll be better ones in tomorrow's papers.

David was out and about meeting voters, shopkeepers and businesspeople, and was very well received.

The people he stopped and spoke to were impressed with his warmth, enthusiasm and professionalism, and there were a fair few won over for the cause. Many were enthusiastically embracing the SNP as a vibrant alternative to the old, tired, shadow that the Labour party has become. One woman on Duke Street, who wasn't even registered to vote, will now be taking up her democratic right for the first time in many years after realising that she can vote to move her country forward to independence.

I intend to keep blogging on the progress of the campaign in addition to the usual political and ward news. If you'd like to help, information is available on the blog http://snpforglasgownortheast.blogspot.com/ or join the facebook group.

Incidentally, Calum has a good post on Labour Party's fear of elections.

Glasgow East By Election

Apologies for the lack of updates - I've been incredibly busy juggling work and the by election, as well as trying to throw together a wedding!

As Indygal so nicely reported, I also spent two nights in hospital after a dog bite went nasty. It was a disruption I could have been doing without! After a lot of IV antibiotics, the infection stopped tracking back along my hand and my finger returned to it's normal size. The staff at the Royal Infirmary were great, and made sure I was fighting fit before they let me go.

I'm not the only one who's been bitten during the campaign - four of us were swapping stories yesterday afternoon - so you could surmise it's a risky business delivering leaflets! I've had a lot of narrow misses during the campaign so far, so I'm certainly wary when I'm out working.

I wish more dog owners would think of the risks posties and activists take just a wee bit more and install an external letter box. We don't get our fingers chewed, people get their mail in one piece. I could put a picture of my finger up to make my point, but I don't want to put you off your dinner...

Super Saturday

It was great to take to the streets en masse on Saturday. I've been doing this plenty with the YSI of late, so seeing some older faces was a nice change. ;-)

I don't know if other people in other parties would say the same of their colleague, but I love this happy, confident group of people. Sorry for being so soppy...

Campaigning on the move

An unexpected thing happened on the way to work (for Joe) and campaigning (me!) this morning...

I was stuck in the queue of traffic coming off the Clydeside Expressway this morning, when I became aware of someone in the lane to the left of me honking their horn. I looked across, so see a woman very excitedly waving and motioning me to wind down my window. Curious, I obliged.

Excitable lady: "Have you got any stickers?!"
Me (not long out of bed, confused by being harassed in a traffic jam for reasons unrelated to my driving): "Stickers?"
Lady: "Yes, SNP stickers!!!" (points in the general direction of my rear window)
Me: "Ummm, yes I do! Hang on!" (cue rummaging among the mass of leaflets, SNP poly bags, maps, rubber bands and general detritus in my back seat. Inside the glorious SNP super-clipboard I come up with the goods. Then, some Speed-like manoeuvring to bring our cars together; I gave the sticker to Joe, straining out of his seat, he stretched out the window and passed it to her.)
Lady (clearly chuffed to the gutties): Thanks! It's really time this time!!!

And off she drove. Not sure what the other drivers waiting for the traffic lights at the end of the Expressway made of all of this, but it made my day! Anyone else looking for a sticker, feel free to flag me down...

Closer and Closer

I've been having a bit of a stress the past few days - it seems like hours are slipping away as if they were minutes! I've been printing and delivering leaflets, campaigning at locations around the East End of Glasgow and in the City Centre, and trying to get some food in between times - I didn't have dinner til about 11pm last night!

Work on covering "my" ward is progressing well - I was very grateful last night to have a hand leafleting from a friend from Aberdeen. With his help, we got a nice chunk of the ward done, and I completed some more on my own this morning. With all this running up and down tenement stairs, I should be thin as a rake by the 4th of May! Gyms? Who needs them?!

With all the campaigning, it's even been hard to keep up with the news - I'm getting most of my information over the radio these days as I zoom about. It seems as though everything is really kicking off election-wise in Glasgow. Posters are going up, the SNP are opening rooms around the city, Labour appear to be camping out in a shop below my flat (as anonymously as possible, with shutters down!), and I was even accosted by an SSP member on my way out this morning! Right, back to the printing...

Returned from the North East

Blogging was temporarily suspended due to my participation in the SNP's Youth and Student wings' campaign trip to the North East. I hope now to be able to direct all my attentions to working in Glasgow for the next four weeks, so normal service should be resumed!

Our whistlestop tour of Aberdeen North, Aberdeen Central, Gordon, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Dundee East and Dundee West has given a boost to all those SNP campaigns. It's nice to be able to help, and our assistance seemed to be appreciated. My very huge and grateful thanks go out to those who lavished hospitality on us - you know who you are and we will love you forever!

Some of our number have a well earned drink after a long day campaigning!