Flag May First
I
have a confession to make. Last week I promised you
some photographs of the Microsoft event that I
hosted in Parliament as soon as I had downloaded
them from my camera. I haven’t yet got around to
downloading them.
On
the other hand, Microsoft had a professional
photographer there and so the photographs with this
diary entry are fairly decent and are compliments of
the Microsoft team.
Christina McKelvie MSP
The
past week has been a bit of a rough ride. I had my
first appearance on Newsnight, and, never having
been in a remote studio before, I watched the
monitor and didn’t look up at the camera – resulting
in a less than satisfactory performance. The
feeling of having let the team down was awful, but
the response of my colleagues was fantastic, though,
their support and encouragement saw me through the
week and I’m back arguing Scotland’s case again.
It’s
also been a glamorous week – I was with the local
councillor doing a walkabout at a car boot sale at
Hillhouse Church on Saturday. Actually, I found a
couple of things to buy and I quite like car boot
sales, but it’s a fair contradiction to the picture
most people appear to have of the working life of an
MSP. It turns out that we’re just the same as
everyone else and slightly boring.
We
were taking evidence in the Education, Lifelong
Learning and Culture Committee this week on Linda
Fabiani’s Culture Bill (well, she took a Bill that
the last lot had left behind and she turned it into
something worth looking at). One of the strengths
of the Scottish Parliament is the committee system,
and we’ve seen it operate on an even better level
since the SNP took power – minority government
really does focus the mind.
Onto
Chamber and on Wednesday we passed the fourth Bill
to be passed since the SNP took over the reins of
power. The other three are Acts now, pieces of
legislation to abolish tolls on the Forth and Tay
bridges, pass the budget, and get rid of the
Graduate Endowment tuition fee. This one will
become an Act when it gets Royal Assent (we still
have that ancient anachronism in spite of electing
our governments), and it is the legislation which
will pave the way for everything that needs to be
done to allow Glasgow to host the Commonwealth Games
in 2014. I was going to get into training for that
myself, but I decided that some up and coming stars
should get the opportunity – and, yes, my tongue is
firmly in my cheek.
We
also today – I’m told for the first time, which is
surprising – debated the impact of the London budget
on Scotland. I would have thought that this would
have been a debate that the other parties would have
wanted to have every year if they were arguing, as
they usually do, that the London budget is good for
Scotland. Apparently not.
Interestingly, Labour MSPs never even put up an
amendment to today’s motion. Either they can’t find
a way to support Gordon Brown’s last budget as
Chancellor or they are now just not willing to take
a proper part in the Parliamentary debates they are
likely to lose. Either way it is a bit worrying
because every Government needs a strong opposition
and Labour simply isn’t providing that in Scotland
just now.
I’m
hearing from various parts of the country that
people are starting tonight with celebrations of the
anniversary of us winning the election. I find
myself thinking “is that a whole year already?”
It’s gone flashing past – the first quarter of the
Parliamentary session, 25% of the SNP’s first term
in Government, and it seems to have gone rather well
as well as rather fast.
I
suppose I should really take a wee look back over
the year and put my thoughts down on paper, but I’m
going to be a smarty-pants and wait another two
weeks or so to match the anniversary of when the SNP
Ministers were sworn in and the SNP Government was
formed.
Christina McKelvie MSP
Central Scotland
