Finnish Independence celebrated in Glasgow

As most folk will know, the City Chambers in Glasgow has a flagpole sitting proud on the top of the building. Usually, it flies the saltire (as seen in this picture from the summer), but on special occasions other flags are flow; for example, the European flag flies on Europe Day, the Glasgow coat of arms flies when full Council meets and, on Thursday this week, the Finnish flag was flying. Why? Because the 6th of December is Finnish independence day.

It's nice to see that the powers that be in the City Chambers like to celebrate the independence and success of other nations, although it's a shame that they don't seem to share the SNP's passion for Scottish independence, and consider such petty things as national self-determination something of a distraction. Just a thought!

Congratulations to the Bambury!

I had the pleasure of being invited along to the SURF awards on Thursday by the Bambury Regeneration Centre in my ward. The Bambury had won the top prize in the Partnership category, and many of the staff and Directors went along to the awards ceremony for their Christmas night out.

It was a lovely occasion and real validation for everyone connected to the centre. They've done a tremendous amount of good work over the years, and they really deserve this accolade. I felt very privileged to have been invited along; the folk at the Bambury have made me feel incredibly welcome and I was glad to be there with them.

It was also nice to see Stewart Stevenson presenting the awards - it's tragic, but I still get a wee shiver of excitement at seeing our MSPs as Ministers!

On Friday, I went along to the visit of people from other award winning, highly commended and short listed organisations to the Bambury. Standing back objectively, I could see that these visitors also shared the view that the Bambury was a great project doing well. The people of Camlachie already know that they're doing great things, but I'm sure it will mean a lot that people on the outside think so too.

What I've been up to...

Since I've not been blogging, I have been:
at surgeries and carrying out ongoing ward work;
helping at the Lochee by election (which we won);
taking in the Radiance event;
at an SNP St Andrew's Night fundraiser;
at the two-day extravaganza which was the YSI Conference;
at a CHCP meeting;
at the Calton Area Association;
visiting schools and nurseries;
learning more about asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow;
finding out what PEEK have been up to recently;
at an Executive Committee meeting;
at the Victim Support Glasgow open day;
at SNP National Council;
finding out about financial inclusion in Glasgow;
and attending a meeting in the Calton.

Blogging restricted from the Council

Apologies for the lack of updates recently - I used to be able to blog from the Council, but this has been blocked in recent weeks. It has now been partially reinstated, but I can't access other people's blogs or log in to this one to edit and update. I often get home pretty late, when I've lost the will to blog and just want to have a nap.

I'm sure some will say that updating my blog isn't part of my work (I would argue that it is, as a rolling newsletter to my constituents), but it's more the principle of the thing that concerns me. The internet is huge and diverse, but this attempt to restrict it is impossible. While things with "blog" in the url are blocked, those which are not hosted through blogger or wordpress can still be accessed. So it's not a blanket ban, it's more like a colander.

Most concerning of all is that when I raised the problem with the IT helpdesk, they said "what's a blog?".

Unhappy household

Both halves of the Thewliss - Wright household are united tonight in our individual grumpiness and gutted-ness.

Since neither Scotland nor England are going to Austria and Switzerland next summer, perhaps some alternative tournament might be worth having? It would be a useful warm up for the World Cup Qualifiers, and Scotland are now good enough to stand a chance of winning such a tourney... ;-)

A poisoned chalice?

I had it drawn to my attention by the wonderful Mediawatch that Kezia Dugdale was having a go at the YSI.

I'd considered whether to respond to this on her blog, but as Ms Dugdale moderates comments, I didn't think it would be worth it.

For her, and anyone elses's benefit, the YSI wouldn't be having info on policies like student debt on it's website because it's the youth, not the student wing of the party. Student issues are not our bag. We draw our membership from young people aged 14 - 26, and campaign for things like votes at 16, rights for the children of asylum seekers, and, of course, we take the independence message to Scotland's youth.

Student interests are particularly narrow and selfish interests - which I respect, having been a student - but these interests are much better served by the FSN acting on it's own than a joint organisation trying to meet the needs of very different groups. Not all young people are students, and not all students are young people.

Anyhoo, perhaps Ms Dugdale will have less time to spend slagging off other parties on her blog now she's taken on such an elevated position. Wonder whether she'll manage to do any better in the job than her predecessors...

Scotland - Italy

Gutted about the result today - I was at the game, and the boys played like heroes. I was crying after Italy scored that last minute goal that should never have been. I really believed and hoped there was a chance that we could qualify, so I'm drowning my sorrows tonight.

I suppose the best thing for the team to do now is regroup and work towards the World Cup, but it's still hard to take after such a fabulous campaign. Almost every minute was nail biting, but it's been phenomenal.