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.

Ravenscraig

As regular readers will know, my family are from Lanarkshire. My Gran and Papa Thewliss live in Motherwell, my Gran White in Wishaw.

Growing up, I saw the decline of these towns from busy, bustling hubs, to ghost towns.

The single biggest contributory factor to this was the closure of Ravenscraig Steel Works at the start of the 1990s. According to the Evening Times, Labour are launching their Scottish campaign from the site of the steel works today.

Jim Murphy is to visit the former Ravenscraig site in Motherwell alongside Labour’s leader in Holyrood, Iain Gray.

In a visit to the new Motherwell College building on the site, the Scottish Secretary will say it symbolises the difference between Labour and Tory policies to the area.

He will say: “The difference between Labour and the Tories’ approach to Scotland is symbolised here in Ravenscraig.

“The Tories left people to fend for themselves as the area was abandoned to decline.

“Labour invested in this area, built the new college and is still rebuilding in Ravenscraig.

“Labour’s plans will rebuild Scotland’s economy and renew Scotland’s public services and political landscape.”

The new College building at Ravenscraig is impressive (and construction work started under the SNP Government); other than that, there's precious little to show on the site for 13 years of Labour in Westminster, 8 years of Labour in Holyrood, and generations of Labour control in Lanarkshire local government.

Furthermore, plans for a shopping hub has drawn criticism from other shopping centres in the area. Since nearby Wishaw was described by it's Labour MSP as a 'pigsty', I'm fairly sure that local residents might prefer money (such as the town centre regeneration fund) to be invested in their areas first, before something shiny and new draws even more people away from their local shops.

My grandparents have fewer and fewer quality local shops to get their messages - my Gran White can't buy things like fresh fish or wool in Wishaw any more, yet there are plenty of bookies and off-sales.

I can see what Labour are trying to do with the whole harking back to the Tories line - but there's responsibility to be taken there too. Labour MPs in the '80s and '90s failed to stop the closure, and their inaction over the years has done little to repair the damage inflicted on Lanarkshire.

Labour need to think more carefully before they fall back on simply blaming the Tories for the woes of our communities.

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

A two horse race? Not in Scotland!

Labour Councillors award themselves another trip at your expense

I enjoyed today's Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Board meeting - lots of interesting papers, and I had plenty of questions to ask. I got the distinct impression that by the end of the meeting, the Chair was getting a bit fed up with me! I think it's only right that when officers put work into the papers before us, that they are properly scrutinised.

I was particularly concerned by the lack of detail in a proposal to move from three areas in Glasgow to two, not least as the papers had no detail on the cost or full personnel implications of the proposal. Oddly, Calton and Parkhead will move to the South of Glasgow! I'm still kicking myself for not moving that the paper be brought back with more detail to a future meeting, but given the composition of the board, the vote would have been unlikely to pass in any event.

There was also a proposal to send the Convener and one Vice Convener (both Labour, as it happens) to the INTERSCHUTZ conference in Leipzig. Sounds fairly innocuous until you look in the papers and realise that the cost of their attendance at this four-day conference was a rather extravagant £5,900. The cost of actually attending is free, so this sum was to meet the travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for two people. Quite rightly, a few of my colleagues on the board questioned the wisdom of this expense in the current financial climate, and moved rejection of the trip. Labour Councillors rallied round their Convener and Vice Convener's right to attend, and one even accused the SNP of bigotry for daring to suggest it was a waste of money. We were outvoted by fifteen votes to eight. It's frustrating to witness that even in these times of scandals and belt tightening, there's still an appetite in Labour-dominated institutions to splurge on foreign trips.

Alcohol campaign launch

Oh, so quiet!

Apologies for the lack of posting - Joe's computer had to be carted off for emergency recussitation, and my laptop at work went of for encryption on Monday and I only got it back on Thursday. I have tons of things to blog about, and hope to get some of these written and up in the next few days.