Margaret Hamilton (Page 13)

If you are reading this on the day it goes out, you will either have voted or are about to go. If not, get your shoes on and get yourself to the polling station. It’s been a weird experience this election. Most of the political commentators say this too. Possibly one of the most striking reasons is that women have been to the fore, and youngish women at that. It gladdens the heart to see so many younger people taking on the powers that be and agreeing with Nicola and her team that things can be done differently in this new (ish) century. I heardRead More →

Ian and I have been out of the campaign loop the past few weeks. We have done what we can but many other things have been happening to take up our time. Changed days from when we were at the centre of everything! We are literally, as I write this, just back from a few days in Dublin. We planned this visit a year ago as we were alerted to the celebrations that were taking part to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. We naturally assumed that the real celebrations were to be on the exact date as this fell on the same Sunday asRead More →

So, this past week has seen all the parties state what they would do about local tax if they are in government after May 5th, or did they? Ruth Davidson’s Tories don’t seem to have said anything except that it would be bad not to give those in the 40p tax bracket the added £2000 to limit where starting to pay the 40p begins. From what I can see the SNP are only going to raise that threshold by £387, the rate of inflation. By sticking with what the Tory chancellor has announced, Ruth would lose Scotland an income of £120 million in the nextRead More →

As I have not been riled by anything this past week I have decided to do a wee list of positive things. Things have been happening politically in Scotland that are either ignored by the press or reported in wee dark corners. Seem that only David Cameron has been worth reporting on this week as he sneaks around Europe trying to get support so he can call a referendum on Europe and wipe out any coverage on the Scottish elections. These are just bites of what is happening. Full information links at end of each topic. Funding for Macmillan advice services. Cancer patients and theirRead More →

I have finally had enough. In the paper today it is announced that yet another SNP MP is being investigated because someone has made a complaint to the Westminster standards commissioner. Does nobody mention that there are many people being looked at by the standards commissioner from all parties? Might have something to do with the archaic system they have. If the paper work is written in the same ancient language as their practises then is it any wonder they need someone to guide those filling up the forms. It seems the left hand side of the first page of the Herald is kept solelyRead More →

Today in The Herald I see that some of the unelected Labour and Lib Dem M.P.s from the last parliament are upset at not finding employment easily. Anne Begg is 60 and disabled and says that she has no plans to return to full time work. Many disabled, much younger, have difficulty finding even part time work so don’t think she will find many tears flowing there. “She said the sheer number of livelihoods lost in May, not just among MPs but also members of their staff, had been quite traumatic” I believe she is right. She didn’t seem to worry about this until nowRead More →

I seem to remember the word ‘respect’ being thrown around by the unionists in the past couple of years, whenever they wanted to win. RESPECT :-  consideration; deference or esteem (esteem – high regard) How much of the definition of respect have we seen in the past six months? We have had E.V.E.L. (English votes for English laws). Were they too impatient to follow procedure to create a devolved English parliament or did they know they would not succeed? Instead they took the UK parliament, a treaty of the unions of the parliaments of Scotland and England (and later Ireland), and decided that the electedRead More →

In the past week or so communities in Scotland have been having local services and unveilings of memorials to local lads who served their king and country in World War 1 and received honours for their bravery. Thanks to my father-in-law’s hard work with the family tree we knew Ian was related to Robert Anderson Dunsire, VC, of Buckhaven, through both their mothers. We learned through friends that the Methil Heritage Centre (http://www.methilheritage.org.uk/content/) were putting on an exhibition based around his life. We went along and spent some considerable time there. Although the volunteers in this group had designed the exhibition around a central character, thereRead More →

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi Although I don’t consider Great Britain to be a nation, this quote surely does apply to it. How can Britain continue to call itself great when it allows its government to treat the weakest members of our society the way it does. The current situation is merely the tip of the mountain the Tories wish to push our people down. “…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; thoseRead More →