The trip to Glenrothes yesterday was a washout - not in a political sense, but literally! My trainers and jeans got completely sodden walking from the flat to the train station - although opting to do campaign in a shopping centre meant that I got the opportunity to buy a pair of wellies and some dry socks.
Weather aside, the campaigning was fun. We were stationed at the Kingdom Centre, where Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were doing walkabouts and talking to normal, non-hand-selected people who were in doing their shopping - and, from what we saw on the way past, getting a really good response. Of course, not everyone who goes up and shakes their hands is going to be instantly converted into a die hard SNP supporter. But I think people generally respect nationally recognised politicians who are willing to make themselves available to the public in a way that isn't stage managed for the cameras.
Less glamourously, Craig and I were handing out wee saltires and fliers outside. The flags are always popular, but we got a particularly good response, with loads of people asking us questions about SNP policies.
It's going to be a close result all the same - we got the impression that older people made up the core Labour vote, and they're more likely to vote than most other age groups. Getting the voters out on polling day will be really important; fingers crossed the weather dries up before then!
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Monday, 6 October 2008
Back in the habit
I've evidently been not very good at blogging these past few weeks - I've been giving it a bit of a break to concentrate on other things. Mainly this has been casework and other council stuff. I've also managed to pass my driving test (hurray!), been campaigning and at conference, and doing a bit of housework (ok, that last one is a lie!).
I've also started back at Uni part time - this semester, it's been easy to pick classes that don't clash with council commitments. While I've had a couple of long evenings in the library and it's only Week 4 of term, I've always been enthusiastic about learning new stuff and I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully I'll be able to use some of the ideas I'm finding out about when we put together our next local manifesto.
I've also started back at Uni part time - this semester, it's been easy to pick classes that don't clash with council commitments. While I've had a couple of long evenings in the library and it's only Week 4 of term, I've always been enthusiastic about learning new stuff and I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully I'll be able to use some of the ideas I'm finding out about when we put together our next local manifesto.
Friday, 25 July 2008
Victory!
Just back from the Fort, where the First Minister and John Mason were doing a press conference. It's been a rollercoaster 24 hours, and I'm still staggered by the enormity of what the SNP team have achieved in winning Glasgow East. A huge congratulations to John Mason for getting elected as an MP - he really deserves it and is tremendously hard working, as well as being a genuinely nice guy. The only downside of the win is that we'll miss him in the council.
But it's not about us winning a by election, or the media circus, it's about working to make the East End a better place. The SNP councillors already begun to talk to John about how we're going to work together as a team, and will hammer this out in more detail early next week. I'm really looking forward to working with John. A large part of the reason we won is that he's done so much for the people of his council ward and has a huge personal vote there, and I'm enthusiastic the people in the wider Glasgow East constituency will be equally well served and impressed.
But it's not about us winning a by election, or the media circus, it's about working to make the East End a better place. The SNP councillors already begun to talk to John about how we're going to work together as a team, and will hammer this out in more detail early next week. I'm really looking forward to working with John. A large part of the reason we won is that he's done so much for the people of his council ward and has a huge personal vote there, and I'm enthusiastic the people in the wider Glasgow East constituency will be equally well served and impressed.
Friday, 18 July 2008
Actions and words
A couple of days ago Davena Rankin had a photo op with Annabel Goldie at a fitness class. The accompanying press release states that "Taking small steps such as this can make a huge difference to your quality of life and can even prolong it."
Maybe they need to share the "exercise is good" philosophy with their activists too though. Yesterday I kept coming across piles of Tory leaflets dumped at the bottom of stairwells. If the Tory candidate and leader are doing bendy exercises on TV cameras to encourage east end folk to get down the gym, they could at least back up their rhetoric by walking up a few flights of stairs!
Maybe they need to share the "exercise is good" philosophy with their activists too though. Yesterday I kept coming across piles of Tory leaflets dumped at the bottom of stairwells. If the Tory candidate and leader are doing bendy exercises on TV cameras to encourage east end folk to get down the gym, they could at least back up their rhetoric by walking up a few flights of stairs!
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Pump action
An unexpected - and very good - result of the by election is that it's the next best thing to an intensive driving course! I've been doing the Baillieston test routes with my instructor, so I'm now getting loads of practise driving to and from leaflet and canvass runs.
Car ownership is also becoming an issue in the by election. The Labour government have imposed high fuel duties, and are now hitting owners of some older cars with higher road tax.
Our car isn't affected by the higher road tax as it is ancient, but I have noticed fuel prices are higher than they used to be.
Of course, we all need to take better care of the environment, and reducing petrol emissions is part of that. But it's also true that some families would find it very difficult to manage without a car. For example, it's relatively easy to get from most places in the East End to town on public transport.
But not everyone works in town, and getting from one part of the east end to another on a bus or train can be difficult or impossible - for example, from the bit of Dennistoun we stay in to Bridgeton. Getting around for work and campaign purposes is the main reason that I'm learning.
There are other circumstances that might make car ownership really difficult to do without. Depending on family circumstances, people might have an elderly relative who needs lifts to get out and about, or might have young children, or might live or regularly have to travel to a rural area with few public transport links.
The point about the high fuel duty and road tax increases is that they disproportianally hit less well off households with older cars. For some of these households, the idea of giving up their car journeys will either be impossible, meaning less money to spend on other essentials, or could mean spending far more time on journeys on public transport (for example, a journey to Baillieston in the car takes me ten minutes. The same journey without a car means the low level from Ally Parade to Bellgrove, a walk, and then a number 62 bus, which takes much more time!).
The road tax is particularly unfair as it punishes people for a choice they may have made several years ago. The idea seems to be that older, less efficient cars will gradually be taken off the road and replaced by new cars - but then, producing new cars also has an environmental impact.
The Labour government is using too much stick and very little carrot to reduce emissions. Being more environmentally friendly shouldn't be all about higher taxes.
Car ownership is also becoming an issue in the by election. The Labour government have imposed high fuel duties, and are now hitting owners of some older cars with higher road tax.
Our car isn't affected by the higher road tax as it is ancient, but I have noticed fuel prices are higher than they used to be.
Of course, we all need to take better care of the environment, and reducing petrol emissions is part of that. But it's also true that some families would find it very difficult to manage without a car. For example, it's relatively easy to get from most places in the East End to town on public transport.
But not everyone works in town, and getting from one part of the east end to another on a bus or train can be difficult or impossible - for example, from the bit of Dennistoun we stay in to Bridgeton. Getting around for work and campaign purposes is the main reason that I'm learning.
There are other circumstances that might make car ownership really difficult to do without. Depending on family circumstances, people might have an elderly relative who needs lifts to get out and about, or might have young children, or might live or regularly have to travel to a rural area with few public transport links.
The point about the high fuel duty and road tax increases is that they disproportianally hit less well off households with older cars. For some of these households, the idea of giving up their car journeys will either be impossible, meaning less money to spend on other essentials, or could mean spending far more time on journeys on public transport (for example, a journey to Baillieston in the car takes me ten minutes. The same journey without a car means the low level from Ally Parade to Bellgrove, a walk, and then a number 62 bus, which takes much more time!).
The road tax is particularly unfair as it punishes people for a choice they may have made several years ago. The idea seems to be that older, less efficient cars will gradually be taken off the road and replaced by new cars - but then, producing new cars also has an environmental impact.
The Labour government is using too much stick and very little carrot to reduce emissions. Being more environmentally friendly shouldn't be all about higher taxes.
Friday, 11 July 2008
I'm back!
You'd think the first week and a half of July would be a relatively safe time to book a holiday. But not this year! Craig and I were away to Croatia - more on this later. The downside was that we were both wishing we were out campaigning, and were desparate for news of the by-election. I was desparately jealous of all the activists knocking doors all the time, especially when we were sitting by the sea having a post-swim drink and some Dalmatian smoked ham :)
Anyway, we made a resolution to make up for lost time as being out as much as possible between now and polling day. This started today, with both of us out canvassing. The response we got - and this has been shared by loads of the many, many SNP activists on the campaign trail - was really good. There were so many people who have voted Labour all their lives who are switching to us. People that the Labour Party have taken for granted are sick of them. There's been a whole litany of problems - the 10p tax rate, high fuel prices, the economy - so it's difficult to just pick out one issue that's doing the most to erode core Labour votes.
Of course, what people tell canvassers is sometimes different to what they tell independent obeservers; party activists are always enthusiastic about by-elections. So I was delighted to see that a Scotland wide YouGov poll has showed most people want John Mason to win Glasgow East. Figures are as follows:
John Mason, SNP 49%
Margaret Curran, Labour 33%
Tory 9%
LibDem 6%
Others 3%
The poll also put the SNP ahead of Labour for Westminster voting intentions, at 33 and 29 per cent of the vote respectively. This is the first time ever that the SNP has been ahead of the game in a Westminster poll.
The figures are Scotland-wide, rather than figures solely gathered from Glasgow East. Glasgow East is unfortunately atypical of Scotland - a substantial percentage of people are disillusioned by politics and feel that, because the Labour Party have become complacent over the years, that all politicians are the same.
Our job over the coming days is to make sure that voters in a Labour heartland area are as enthusiastic about the SNP as the rest of the country is, and that they know John will go to Westminster and work as hard for them as an MP as he does as a councillor.
Anyway, we made a resolution to make up for lost time as being out as much as possible between now and polling day. This started today, with both of us out canvassing. The response we got - and this has been shared by loads of the many, many SNP activists on the campaign trail - was really good. There were so many people who have voted Labour all their lives who are switching to us. People that the Labour Party have taken for granted are sick of them. There's been a whole litany of problems - the 10p tax rate, high fuel prices, the economy - so it's difficult to just pick out one issue that's doing the most to erode core Labour votes.
Of course, what people tell canvassers is sometimes different to what they tell independent obeservers; party activists are always enthusiastic about by-elections. So I was delighted to see that a Scotland wide YouGov poll has showed most people want John Mason to win Glasgow East. Figures are as follows:
John Mason, SNP 49%
Margaret Curran, Labour 33%
Tory 9%
LibDem 6%
Others 3%
The poll also put the SNP ahead of Labour for Westminster voting intentions, at 33 and 29 per cent of the vote respectively. This is the first time ever that the SNP has been ahead of the game in a Westminster poll.
The figures are Scotland-wide, rather than figures solely gathered from Glasgow East. Glasgow East is unfortunately atypical of Scotland - a substantial percentage of people are disillusioned by politics and feel that, because the Labour Party have become complacent over the years, that all politicians are the same.
Our job over the coming days is to make sure that voters in a Labour heartland area are as enthusiastic about the SNP as the rest of the country is, and that they know John will go to Westminster and work as hard for them as an MP as he does as a councillor.
Saturday, 28 June 2008
By election
I got up this morning, turned on the PC, and found out that there's going to be a by-election in the East End of Glasgow. David Marshall is apparently intending to step down from Parliament on Monday.
Things have changed so much in the past couple of years that the result isn't going to be as predictable as it might be. Ok, Labour have a sizeable majority. But that majority comes from 2005, and things have changed a lot since then. Particularly in the last year, Labour's vote have collapsed and ours has improved as the Scottish Government have settled in. The constituency also includes Baillieston ward, where we're particularly strong. The SNP now has an excellent opportunity to win a by election in the East End of Glasgow - and there's a school of thought that, once we break Labour's heartlands in the West of Scotland, we're well on the way to independence.
I was looking forward to a bit of quiet over the summer and sorting out things round the flat that we haven't had a chance to do since we moved in, but I'm now looking forward to getting out an campaigning. Bring it on!
Things have changed so much in the past couple of years that the result isn't going to be as predictable as it might be. Ok, Labour have a sizeable majority. But that majority comes from 2005, and things have changed a lot since then. Particularly in the last year, Labour's vote have collapsed and ours has improved as the Scottish Government have settled in. The constituency also includes Baillieston ward, where we're particularly strong. The SNP now has an excellent opportunity to win a by election in the East End of Glasgow - and there's a school of thought that, once we break Labour's heartlands in the West of Scotland, we're well on the way to independence.
I was looking forward to a bit of quiet over the summer and sorting out things round the flat that we haven't had a chance to do since we moved in, but I'm now looking forward to getting out an campaigning. Bring it on!
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