On:
In: Stephen Bird

I suspect that the two groups who will suffer most from the shambles of Westminster’s economic “plan” are our Senior Citizens and the organisation on which many of them depend; local Councils. In the Autumn Statement, Phillip Hammond made it perfectly clear that the much vaunted triple lock on pensions was going to be “reviewed”. As an aside, why is it that so many tories are so mealy mouthed? There will be no “review”, the triple lock, like so many other solemn commitments, is dead. The history of the last few months tells us all we need to know about tory consistency. On 31 JulyRead More →

On:
In: Grant Thoms

Last week’s first and last Autumn Statement by Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had a silver lining in the grey clouds of austerity for the City of Stirling and Clackmannanshire (and a host of other places), when the keenly-awaited confirmation that a City Deal had been struck between the Treasury, Scottish Government, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils. The City Deal is predominantly a capital infrastructure plan funded equally by the UK and Scottish Governments, with the two local authorities chipping a bit too. So, you can expect more buildings, better transport links and the opportunity to grow the local economy. The original City Deal inRead More →

On:
In: Jim Lynch, Uncategorized

This week the Scots Independent newspaper had its 90th Birthday;  there was a well attended lunch in the Salutation Hotel on Saturday 5th November.   There were stunning displays of the SI through the years in one part of the room, and a brilliant slide show of various events and characters past and present, in the SNP and the SI – I found it overwhelming.   Our guest of honour, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, PC, MSP, presented commemorative plaques to long term SI supporters, Denholm Christie, current SI Chairman, Ken Fee, SI editor for almost 20 years, myself, Editor for three months which stretched toRead 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: Kay Ullrich

A Nation is ultimately judged on how it cares for its most vulnerable citizens.  For most of my adult life, as a Social Worker and as a Politician, I have worked with, and campaigned for, the vulnerable in our Society. People with disability, the elderly, those living in poverty, have all been important challenges which I have addressed as best I could.  Sadly, I often felt that I was armed with a sticking plaster to cure a cancer!   My bottom line, however, has always been to save the children.  If that sounds trite or corny, I make no apology!  Not only is it ourRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes

Sunday morning saw the clocks go back an hour as British Summer Time came to an end. Most of the day was spent trying to work out whether clocks had changed automatically or not and ending up thoroughly confused as to what time it was. We had been away for the weekend so when the kids woke at their usual time, we had to stop them from awakening the rest of the guest house at 6am; we also ended up leaving Perth an hour earlier than we had intended to because of clocks displaying the wrong time. It always takes me a while to feelRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

  Although I was not at Annual Conference this year, I did enjoy watching much of it from home and I am delighted in one way to see the back of it.   Away back in the Spring of this year when we thought there was some political certainty, SNP Government, place in Europe etc we were looking forward to building our Local Government campaigns from the Autumn with candidates selected before Conference and campaign strategies in place. Such fond memories.   Then came what Macmillan called “events dear boy, events”.   First an unexpected contest for Deputy Leader and although it turned into aRead More →

On:
In: Jim Lynch

I was at the SNP Conference in Glasgow on Friday and Saturday last week and met many old friends and made some new ones.  As happened before, I feel the venue is too big, too many offshoots, but then again it is a pleasure to see so many people I do not recognise – once upon a time you would know most, but now we’re getting somewhere we have thousands of members.  It’s great.   Happily, we had no major rows, but then again, we do not wish them, the days when we could have a public dispute are largely gone, our enemies, particularly thoseRead More →