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Around 50% of traffic has shifted from Aberdeen city onto the new Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route since it fully opened in February – easing congestion and improving air quality in the north east. Initial monitoring by Transport Scotland also found key journey times have been reduced by half, even during rush hour, through the 36-mile AWPR route between Stonehaven and south of Ellon. In a speech to north-east business leaders First Minister Nicola Sturgeon highlighted the economic benefits of the £745 million project. She said: “The AWPR has brought huge benefits to the north-east with these initial findings showing both journey times and congestion haveRead More →

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This year people have been subjected to many smaller community services being withdrawn from their Council budget. This ranges from libraries and town halls to weeding and grass cutting. After the initial outrage things have settled down. Some people just ignore that these things are no longer done. Others have been more pro-active. Earlier this year our Community Council held a meeting and invited all local groups along to network and discuss ways forward for the local community. A couple of our craft group committee managed to attend and their feedback was positive. Top of the list was their surprise at how many groups areRead More →

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In: Margaret Hamilton, Uncategorized

So. Another big Brexit vote. Another embarassing defeat. Just how much can one woman take. If this was happening in civvy street I am sure the men in white coats would be called in and act on such delusional behaviour. Heard a man on today’s (Wednesday) radio phone in who travels widely in Europe and says that the ordinary European is just laughing at us. Well, we knew that didn’t we? Thought he summed up the Brexit attitude very well though. ‘The English think they are the new Aryan race’. This is the really worrying aspect of Brexit for me. Common courtesy and decency haveRead More →

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In: Margaret Hamilton

I was asked by former blogger, Clare Adamson, if we could get information of a celebration of an historic SNP moment to a wider audience. Motherwell & Wishaw has a special place in SNP history, as the site of the first ever Parliamentary victory in the by-election of 1945. In April of that year, Motherwell-born physician Dr Robert McIntyre secured 11,417 votes to triumph over the Labour incumbent. The man who was often known as the ‘Father of the SNP’, or more affectionately as ‘Doc Mac’, packed many speeches into his short time in Westminster despite having initially faced a problem in finding the requiredRead More →

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January is a dreary enough month without everyone commenting on the farce that is being played out in Westminster. Many enlightened people are aware that the UK Government are the laughing stock of the world at the moment. BBC happy to to keep reporting on it. Not giving a toss about the blatant lies they spin. So enough! Let’s look at the positive things happening in Scotland, being driven by that Scottish Government that they hate to report about because those nasty SNP non persons are running the show. So, positive story number one. More than 3,000 new homes are to be built in WestRead More →

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In: Margaret Hamilton

Well those damn pesky Scots (polite version) appear to be getting somewhere. Nicola has been down in Westminster chatting to Theresa about a third way. Ian Blackford has been leading his team in constantly chipping away in the debate about how things will affect Scotland.Talks have been held with other opposition parties. Meanwhile a cross party group have been taking the possibility of just being able to say ‘no, we want to reverse the Brexit decision’ (the simplified one sentence version) to the European Court of Justice. ‘In a written statement, the ECJ said Mr Campos Sanchez-Bordona’s opinion was that if a country decided toRead More →

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In: Margaret Hamilton

The trade unions are a breeding ground for politicians. Traditionally these have been Labour politicians. We do find a few have made their way through to the SNP, most often by switching when they become disillusioned by Labour, but I do know a few who have been SNP from early on without going through the motions of being Labour. This weeks strike has been manipulated by the Labour party. People have said they didn’t want to strike. Here we have the statement from Glasgow City Council leader. You may or may not see it in other media. Delivering pay justice for the women of GlasgowRead More →

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In: Margaret Hamilton

As we were in Glasgow with the Scots Independent newspaper for SNP conference, we decided to stay an extra day and do some culture. I had heard a review of this exhibition on the radio. While not a fan of traipsing around art galleries I felt this would be worth taking a look at. A lot of effort had been put into pulling the artwork together from artists from all sides and sections of the war. Once over these works would all go back where they had come from, possibly even back in storage. I started by saying that I would be doing a writeRead More →

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In: Margaret Hamilton

Apparently all last weekend the headlines in the main media were all about a civil war breaking out in the SNP. Personally I missed this. I was out in Aviemore promoting the Scots Independent newspaper at the SNP National Assembly. Once we had done so we then took time out to enjoy what that part of Scotland has to offer. We chilled in the campsite and spoke to many people about all sorts. Our SNP and Yes stickers were clear to be seen on the campervan. Did not seem to put people off speaking to us. Went shopping Monday morning and the headlines were eerilyRead More →

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In: Margaret Hamilton

The end of an era has arrived. I have never been a slavish fan of anyone or anything. I mix things up depending on my mood. But even I have to acknowledge that the band Runrig were one of a kind. At the Last Dance the story of the band was told in song and film that played on the screens. The young Macdonald brothers started in music, like so many, doing traditional dance nights in local halls. I remember there was a cringe factor to this type of event. Wasn’t helped by the BBC’s presenting of shows like the yearly Hogmanay event. I rememberRead More →