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In: Margaret Hamilton

As there have been a few weeks of no positive news from Scotland I have decided to share some of the things that are happening here with links to the full stories.   New hospitals and health centres due to open in 2017-18 Nearly £500 million of new healthcare facilities, including two new hospital buildings, are expected to open to patients in 2017-18. Funded through Scottish Government investment, these new NHS and local council facilities will provide patients across Scotland with treatment in purpose-built, 21st century settings. Ms Robison said: “As we enter a new year, it seems apt to reflect on the significant progress madeRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

It struck me the other day just how hard our SNP MPs are working, both at home and in that ‘mother’ of parliaments. The media have been doing their best to avoid any political news. Putting on the endless repeats over the festive period and shortening and shifting the news programmes has helped with this. I am now at the point of the festive season where I have to check with the newspaper to see what day it is.Totally feeling in limbo! Thanks to social media I managed to catch a few posts from some MPs and their staff. Right up to the end ofRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

When I posted my comment on facebook the morning after the USA presidential election a friend commented ‘cyclical, like the cicadas’. It has been going on for some time in France. Germany and Belgium experienced it after the recent terrorist attacks. The UK has watched it growing in elections, most strongly in England, and it ended up with Brexit. Now North America has experienced it. I can see that if someone attacks you or threatens you, you become wary of them. When does an odd comment become a regular saying? How often does a regular saying have to be repeated before it becomes real inRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

The United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had an advisory referendum in June on whether to leave the European Union. 51.89% of the public who bothered to vote, did so to leave. 48.11% of these voters wanted to remain. This meant that the government were going to remove us from the European Union on a vote with a majority of 3.78%. In my book that is hardly a decisive majority. I would say it was too close to call! So we all panicked. Argued over what it was going to mean to our different sections of society. Scotland’s First Minister immediately startedRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

As I continue to fill in for Jim Lynch (who is mending well) I noticed that on Monday of this week he had a rather long letter in the Herald. Told you he was mending. As it was about oil and given that today (Tuesday) the oil workers are striking, I thought I would share JIm’s letter for those who haven’t seen it. Margaret.     I have to confess that, unlike John- Paul Marney, I am not an oil production expert (Letters 19 Jul 16) so would not regard the Wood Mackenzie report on shale extraction as bedtime reading.  However I am well awareRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

What is Trident. I mean, apart from the obvious weapon of mass destruction. Everything I have read leads me to the conclusion that it is merely a way of the big boys measuring their worth. The ‘would be important’ peoples’ version of ‘mine is bigger than yours’ Why would you want to have weapons of mass destruction? Bear in mind we invaded another country our UK government felt had no right to have them. What makes us so special we should have them? Although Trident was designed as a strategic deterrent, the end of the Cold War led the British government to conclude that a sub-strategic –Read More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton, Uncategorized

I sit here some 38 hours before polls open for the referendum. You will be reading it near close of poll or after. I am singularly uninspired. Just as well I voted by post before the depths of this campaign became apparent. Things came to a crashing halt last Thursday with the despicable killing of someone who had only ever sought to make conditions better for everyone. Whether it was charity work abroad in third world or war torn countries or at home in her beloved Yorkshire. I had been preparing myself for some sort of violence erupting as we got closer to polling day.Read More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

For the first time in my adult voting life I am scared. Really, I seriously am. Terrified that the Conservative elite have dragged us into this position because they could not understand their electorate and see this as the solution to internal party battles and as a reaction to UKIP. The only people we are hearing anything from are the privileged in society. They are throwing monetary figures around without doing any of the sums and appealing to the fears of the lowest common denominator of the population. Each side are just lobbying verbal bombs at each other, appear to have no strategy and absolutelyRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

STURGEON, LUCAS AND WOOD FOCUS ON BENEFITS ON EU MEMBERSHIP   Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of Plaid Cymru Leanne Wood and Green MP Caroline Lucas have today called on those who share progressive values, believe in the protection of human and social rights and support equality to back membership of the EU in the referendum next month. Encouraging people to register to vote, in order to protect the benefits of the EU the three leading politicians met in the shadow of the statue to Emmeline Pankhurst at Westminster to issue a joint statement in support of EU membership. Scotland’s First Minister and SNP Leader NicolaRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

In the fuggy, sleep deprived day that is the day after polling it was hard to find all the facts and figures of the poll. Listening to the media was of no use. Admittedly the S.N.P. made the top headline on the B.B.C. English news which startled me. Listening to Radio Scotland however was a different game. They were in deep mourning at the reduced size of the Scottish Labour parliamentary group and ecstatic about the surge in the Scottish Conservative representation. Clever wee Willie is now the proper M.S.P. for his daddies part of Fife. No mention thought of the Greens overtaking the LiberalRead More →