Week Beginning
Monday 5th June 2006
Okay – so I’m
cracking up! Just realised that my dates were wrong last diary piece
and it should have been weeks 22nd and 29th May
– sorry, sorry, sorry. You know, I’ve been so worried about Amorin
that beyond normal work my brain is addled. So, back on track with
week beginning Monday 5th June.
It is Monday evening –
5TH JUNE –
and I’m back in Strathaven after a relaxing couple of days in glorious
Galloway. Every time I go to Galloway I marvel at the beauty of this
forgotten county; The Machars, Kirkcudbright, Port William, Whithorn,
Garlieston, and of course Scotland’s National Book Town, Wigtown; we
stayed in Wigtown for two nights and, same as last time, filled bags
with books from the variety of specialist shops which line the town’s
streets:
http://www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk/
Anyway, back in front
of my computer checking emails received since Saturday – one of the
joys of Wigtown was that my Blackberry (crackberry) wouldn’t receive –
Yahoo! No need to feel guilty as absolutely nothing I could do about
it. Also tonight just checked my diary for the coming week and that’s
why I’m writing now – busy week coming up so trying to get ahead of
myself.
Tuesday now – late, and
yes after my break I’m determined to write up my diary every night:
We’ll see how long this lasts – ‘best laid plans’ etc.
Today started with an
extremely bizarre meeting when a small group of we Tibet activists met
with the Chinese Consul, Madame Guo. She was quite a lady. We had been
told we had to submit our questions weeks in advance and just a couple
of weeks ago, we found we had all had delivered to us individually, a
bag of books about how wonderful China treated Tibet, and how grateful
the Tibetan people were about China’s having liberated them. Mme Guo
began by saying that she couldn’t address all of our questions – the
ones we submitted were generally in respect of China’s actions in
Tibet (reports of arrests, torture, repression), the Chinese
Government’s refusal to allow an independent UN observer to check on
the safety and whereabouts of the 17 year old Panchen Lama (second
most important Lama to Tibetans - he was removed from Tibet by the
Chinese authorities), and potential constitutional discussions between
that Government and the Dalai Lama as representative of the Tibetan
people.
No surprises: To
paraphrase Madame Guo:
·
The channel of dialogue was always open but the Dalai Lama closed
the door – he must now state that Tibet and Taiwan are part of China
·
In Tibet people enjoy full freedom of religious beliefs
·
It’s the Panchen Lama and his family who don’t want visitors
·
Why is Scotland and Quebec’s devolution something that China should
consider – perhaps Scotland and Quebec should take advice from
China!
Oh well – not a lot of
progress there then! Still, respect to Madame Guo for agreeing to
meet. I rather liked her actually; I’m sure we’d get on fine if we
avoided politics.
Europe and External
Relations Committee was today too – 5 hours worth, mainly covering the
Structural Funds Inquiry. Still taking evidence for our report about
future implementation. Should wrap up that report next meeting though.
Busy Wednesday –
rushing around from meeting to meeting. The first with one of the
Parliament Clerks who is helping put together the ‘Festival of
Politics’ which runs alongside the Edinburgh Festival in August. I’ve
been asked to do a couple of events at this – one on Europe and one on
Youth Participation in Politics so Murray was interviewing me to
compile my ‘panellist’ CV for the programme.
The next meeting was my
hosting an event for the Commission for Racial Equality. Around five
years ago the Race Relations Act was amended to place a duty on a wide
range of public authorities to promote race equality, so there is a
legal duty to eliminate racial discrimination and to promote equality
of opportunity and good race relations between persons of different
racial groups. CRE Scotland is concerned at lack of progress. They
gave a really thought-provoking presentation about how racism operates
in a society (applies to other ‘isms’ too I guess), and the different
levels of it. The ‘knowledge Gap’ analogy was used in demonstration of
how racism is sometimes applied:
One translation of this
could be that some know they’re being racist, some recognise that they
might be without realising, and some have no idea at all that what
they are saying/doing can cause offence or difficulty. The Government
in Scotland of course has many initiatives to combat racism – working
groups, task forces, focus groups, ad-campaigns, awareness-raising
sessions etc., but it may in fact be that by trying to deal with so
many different aspects (all well-intentioned) the bigger picture is
being missed. Perhaps time to all sit down and rethink the strategy –
I certainly wouldn’t pretend to have all the answers, but maybe we’re
just trying to address too many questions all at once.
I’ve just come back to
my desk after attending a session of the Cross-Party Group on
Palestine – where race relations really are at rock-bottom between the
Palestinians and the Israelis. Dr. Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian
General Delegate to the United Kingdom addressed us about the current
political situation and its effects. Dr. Hassassian arrived as the
Ambassador for the Palestinian people at the end of last year. It was
a fascinating discussion, but heart-breaking. The strife seems
endless.
I’m off home to do some
constituency work now – housing and health, as ever.
Lots of Chamber duty
earlier today, Thursday; Members’ Interest Bill final stage, and the
big debate on Climate Change. I wasn’t taking part in either and tried
hard to do some writing whilst there. Some of my colleagues seem to
achieve that ‘double tracking’ in the chamber, but I never can – I
think I’m just too bloomin’ nosey and feart I miss something! Anyway,
did get to read some constituency work reports from Davie – Child Tax
Credit problems again, and problems with Benefits payments.
Westminster reserved issues actually, but when folk specifically ask
you to help out, then I would contend that we must if we can – at
least by pointing them in the right direction for assistance.
After Chamber off to
address a meeting, organised by the Bertelsmann Foundation, which is a
Foundation, based in Germany, which is dedicated to developing ideas
and solutions for societal problems and promoting societal reform.
This particular group comprised European scholars, deemed to be
‘Experts’ within their particular countries/regions and working on a
'Regions and EU' project. Interesting people – I thoroughly enjoyed
the discourse. Morag and I also enjoyed showing them round the
Parliament; or perhaps I should say Morag showed them around – I just
hung on at the back and took some pictures.
And then home late to
Strathaven. Today (Friday) started badly, with my feeling all stuffed
up and rotten (sorry to share this with you but I really do feel sorry
for myself and there’s the Gala tomorrow). Anyway I soon cheered up
when I met with the Health Issues in the Community training course
participants in Cumbernauld. Well grilled I was about current
Government initiatives for child-care, why there are geographical
disparities in nursery-place provision, why public transport is so bad
in terms of practical use for those with certain disabilities, and
indeed even for parents with push-chairs. The session was in the form
of my (and a chap from the YMCA) being interviewed as part of the
project. Grand strong women, now further armed with information to
take on the authorities!
So, here I am, Friday
evening, taking a break from emails, sipping a Lem-sip and deciding to
open next week’s piece with tomorrow’s Strathaven Gala . It’s always
such great fun that I know I won’t be home on time to write anything
up, and then I’ve got a full day’s work on Sunday – Motherwell,
Gilmourton and the Basque Country (no, I’m not really going there,
just meeting up with their President and delegation on Sunday night.).
Until Monday … … …
Linda Fabiani
9.6.06
Email Linda at
Linda.fabiani.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
