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In: Jim Lynch, Uncategorized

A week or two back I had occasion to go to St John’s Hospital in Livingston; as they had warned about problems with parking I opted for the bus.  As such I had ample time to note all the towns and villages along the route, many of which had become familiar during the Livingston by election a few years back. That by election was caused by the death of Robin Cook, and Labour put up Jim Devine who had been Robin Cook’s election agent; he was not prominent in the campaign as I recall as Labour tried to hide him from view, and we wereRead More →

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In: Uncategorized

Due to the large numbers of delegates to campaign conference this year we were decamped to the barn that is the S.E.C.C. in Glasgow. It certainly had space for the delegates but the very big downside was the layout. The stalls were separated from the speaking hall by a curtain. The delegates in the arena complained of noise from the stall space and then they complained about not being able to speak easily in the stall space because of the noise from the arena. I know I used a lot of paracetamol. The purpose of a campaign conference is to rally the troops and sendRead More →

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In: Uncategorized

Car all packed with shop stock ready to travel to Glasgow tomorrow for the SNP conference over the weekend. You will find us in the exhibitor area. We hope our regulars will stop by for the usual banter. For new delegates, you really won’t get a better class of ‘abuse’ at any other stallRead More →

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In: Uncategorized

Is politics a complicated business? I was listening with my usual scepticism to the revamped Call Kaye/Morning Call/phone-in-your-rant show on Radio Scotland. Kaye Adams was doing her utmost to sound the very model of the “patronising Better Together lady”, confused by all this talk of coalitions and back room deals. Oh, but it’s so difficult for the ordinary voter to get their head around. Really? Not for the vast majority of the voters I’ve been speaking to on the doorsteps. The referendum’s gift has been the most well informed electorate Scotland has ever had. People know there’s an election on. They want to make sureRead More →

On:
In: Uncategorized

The journalist Kevin McKenna wrote recently about his take on Jim Murphy’s pitch to regain the votes of “Glasgow Man”. I’ve been thinking about that a wee bit this past week as I’ve been chapping doors in various neighbourhoods in Glasgow. I always enjoy having conversations with the voters I meet, finding out what’s led them to their political views. Often, it’s through their own experiences as much as what’s featured in the media. I’ve spoken to both men and women in the past week who have shifted in their views, some over a short period of time, some over the past ten years. The vastRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton, Uncategorized

The pre election silly season is upon us. The main parties are too scared to offer policies that you might want them to actually keep if they get elected, so let’s aim for the lowest common denominator………………DRINK. Are they really being serious? Our government is being bombarded by campaign groups to somehow make the people look after themselves. Over indulgence in all food groups, “healthy drinks”, snacks and alcohol are all having a detrimental effect on the public purse via increased use of A&E facilities, social care in the communities, mobility allowances and other payments made to people who struggle with normal day to dayRead More →

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In: Uncategorized

As selection boxes from Christmas are finished off, the selection of SNP candidates for the Westminster Elections is well underway. The polls look good, we have a flock of enthusiastic candidates and an astonishing membership nearing 100,000 strong. As exciting as this is, there’s a long way to go before the 7th of May, and I’m determined that we should use this time to ready ourselves for a campaign that won’t be easy to win. My experience of the three previous Westminster elections – 2001 and 2005 in Aberdeen and 2010 in Glasgow – was that regardless of the very hard work we put in,Read More →

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In: Uncategorized

This week’s column comes ahead of SNP conference in Perth. I’m not sure how to feel about the normal business of party conference; resolutions, fringe events and the inevitable socialising, because everything prior to this conference had been leading up to the 18th of September. I knew when leaving Spring conference that however we came back together this November, we would be forever changed by our experiences. I didn’t imagine that we would be such a large party, and I hope to see plenty of new faces among the familiar ones. We have a great job to do as a party to initiate new members,Read More →

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In: Uncategorized

To win in every single constituency in Glasgow, but lose the referendum was quite a surreal feeling; we’d given it our all in Shettleston, the culmination of everything we’d learned. Volunteers worked incredibly hard; we surpassed all canvassing and leafleting targets. Ballot box sampling giving encouraging results. Standing in Emirates Arena with my baby daughter in my arms, hearing the returning officer confirm that Glasgow had voted Yes, when we all knew Scotland had, with a few notable exceptions, voted No was bittersweet. But yet, the strangest thing was yet to come; out of Friday and Saturday’s despair, people began joining the SNP in droves.Read More →

On:
In: Uncategorized

The campaign for Scottish independence has been on the go now in some shape or form for over three hundred years. Having lunch with branch organiser David Linden yesterday, we started to feel the finish line in sight – now in terms of weeks and days rather than long months and longer years. Our branch has been working hard, leafleting and canvassing constantly for years now. It feels odd to be scheduling in the final deliveries, the target areas for canvassing, the strategy for the most crucial polling day Scotland has ever seen. Yet these final weeks are indeed the most important. Our canvassing tellsRead More →