In the Pink……well sometimes.

Last week was a tough old week I had to finally give in to the illness that I had been fighting with for a whole week and go home. Horrible food poisoning had me in the green rather than in the pink! Its times like this when you realise just how unrelenting this job can be but when you actually take time out to recover and reflect then you realise what an amazing job it is to be a member of the Scottish Parliament. We are just a few weeks into this new session and things are indeed hotting up. You just have to tune into First Ministers questions to realise there is a charge in the air. Every debate and every question will have an added meaning to it because we are on the roller coaster trip to the election next May. Oh yes and I am proud to be the SNP candidate for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse it is a real honour for me to be selected as the candidate. I was reflecting on the achievements of the Scottish SNP Government over the last three years and thinking we have done some awesome things. Frozen council tax, reduced prescriptions, lowered class sizes, abolished graduate endowment, built new schools, building new hospitals, introduced the small business bonus and maintained free bus passes for our disabled and elderly. That is just a few of the many things we have brought about to make Scotland better.

This week I had equal opportunities committee where we continued our inquiry into migration and trafficking, next week we will hear from two ministers and then we will start to pull all the evidence together and come up with some recommendations. It has been a very interesting and worthwhile inquiry and maybe we will just dispel some of the right wing myths that are pedalled by some people in our nation.

Education committee continued with stage two of the Children’s hearings bill. There has been a huge number of amendments and it has been fraught with some difficulties with opposition MSPs pushing amendments that they do not understand or realise the consequences. But then that’s what oppositions do unless they have the best interests of children at heart.

Thursday morning was a debate on the future of forensic services in Scotland with a labour motion calling on the cabinet secretary to make a decision on the future of the labs at a time when he has not been presented with the findings of the consultation or any recommendations. It was another example of labour playing clairvoyant politics expecting decisions to be made before all the facts are presented. It’s like when they asked for a draft budget from the Finance secretary before he has had the details of the block grant to Scotland. Silly little boy politics from people who really should know better.

But tonight I hosted a very special event in parliament with a group of very special women.

I was hosting a Rape Crisis Scotland when they came along to the parliament to talk about the fears they have for the service they offer and the very positive impact the intervention of their service has on women mostly but also men of sexual violence. The DVD they have produced is very powerful and rather than being a downbeat film it is actually very powerful and uplifting. It’s all about survivors and hope and it is certainly something I will be supporting as long as I am able.

Here are the ladies from centres across Scotland in the chamber after the event...

And just so you know that I am indeed on the mend and back in the pink; you can see this picture of me promoting "wear it pink for breast cancer". Again another fantastically worthwhile cause.

So this is me very much in the pink……

I’m off home now so see you all next week and have a wonderful weekend.

Christina McKelvie MSP
Central Scotland