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First week of
the October recess, so no Chamber sitting this week or next. I like recess
because it means you can catch up on things that you’ve been meaning to
clear up for ages. I am heading off to Arran later this week though for a
few days’ break.
Monday’s
constituency cases again are largely about the Health Service – waiting
time of 25 months for a fairly routine operation in one case. A chap who
has been suffering for four years in another case. So much for all these
targets that were set back in 1999 when we were going to have ‘Scottish
Solutions for Scottish Problems’.
Monday
afternoon brought a meeting with the British Council who have asked me to
go to Tanzania for a week in mid-February to shadow a Tanzanian MP for a
week in her constituency. A bunch of women Tanzanian parliamentarians
visited the UK a couple of years ago and came to Edinburgh to see how
devolution was working in Scotland – Zanzibar is an autonomous region of
Tanzania – and this ‘twinning’ idea is one of the projects that have
arisen from that. So, yes, the Whip has granted me permission and I’ll be
heading off on 13th November. Looking forward to seeing the
kind of issues that Esterina Kalasi has to face in her largely rural
constituency.
It was
disturbing late on Monday to discover that my local TV station intended to
run a series of interviews with the leader of the British National Party
over the coming week. There is always this argument with groups like the
National Front and the BNP that freedom of speech shouldn’t be stifled,
but as far as I’m concerned freedom of speech that impinges on other
people’s freedom to live without fear is not valid, so I joined in the
campaign to try to have these interviews stopped. Thankfully, we were
successful and Thistle TV cancelled the programmes. I feel particularly
strongly about this subject at the moment because I recently ended up in
conversation with a BNP member, unbeknownst to me until he decided to air
his views, and although I bowed out of the company pretty sharpish I was
completely sickened and saddened by the violence inherent in his comments
– such views are so hard to understand. The BNP has been trying hard to
make inroads in Lanarkshire because that is where Dungavel Detention
Centre is sited; we must counter these moves in every way possible.
East Kilbride
SNP meeting on Monday night and we selected our Westminster candidate –
Douglas Edwards, local, extremely hard-working activist. Billy Wolfe did
us the honour of taking the Chair for the occasion; it’s always such a
pleasure to listen to Billy and I love learning from him.
Tuesday
morning in Strathaven – the Fair Trade Group is organising a ‘One World
Day’ for next weekend. Strathaven has really embraced its status as
Scotland’s First Fair Trade Town and the Committee work really hard. One
of the members has recently returned from Nicaragua where she visited and
worked on one of the fair trade plantations, so we’re all looking forward
to hearing about her adventures. Pat had originally come along to one of
our initial meetings about fair-trade to hear what it was all about, and
now she’s running all over the country encouraging other towns to commit –
she says that she didn’t realise early retirement would be so busy!
I’m now
deputy to Christine Grahame MSP, the Party’s Social Justice Shadow
Minister, and I have particular responsibility for housing, so on Tuesday
afternoon I met with one of our Party members who is extremely
knowledgeable about housing’s owner-occupied sector. The talent in our
Party is immense and for those of us who have been fortunate enough to end
up in positions where we can mouth off publicly and perhaps be listened
to, it’s great to have this well of knowledge to draw on. I really did
learn a lot from Graeme – most of my own housing experience has been in
the social-rented sector, and it’s important to understand all aspects.
So, Wednesday
and off to Arran for a few days with family. It’s years since I’ve been in
Arran and I had quite forgotten just what a magical island it can be. It’s
often said that Arran is Scotland in miniature and yes, that seems to be
the case for more than just the beautiful scenery. I had suspected that
Arran suffered a level of hidden deprivation but I hadn’t realised just
how marked that could be for those living there until I chatted when
friends who moved there some ten years ago, and with local activists.
Availability
of housing is a big issue – both for the social rented sector, the private
rented sector and for ownership. Some examples – in Lochranza more than
40% of the houses on the island being holiday-homes; a room-and-kitchen
selling for around £100,000; a plot of land sold by the Council, suitable
for the building of one house, £81,000; local people living in caravans
with no running water; potential incoming workers having to turn down jobs
because they can’t get accommodation; new houses being built, without an
affordable housing deal being part of the scheme, which will sell for
around £200-250,000. If you consider that the average wage on Arran is
around £15,000, then decent housing is hard to come by. This of course has
a knock-on effect on so many other things – local shops closing, worry
about schools being sustainable, hospital services. So, yes, Scotland in
miniature right enough – highly-populated areas of deprivation get
coverage in the press, targeted assistance etc., but because rural poverty
is deemed to affect so few people, small communities get forgotten. Yet,
all communities, large or small, are part of our nation and should be
sustained.
I mentioned
health service targets earlier. Well, I arrived back home at the weekend
to discover that the Scottish Government had decided to abandon most of
its own targets! Back to the grind! |
