International Relations and other stuff

Quiet Friday night in was the plan - dinner just started - then phone call from the eldest. Longish story cut quite short meant George and I found ourselves in Artisan in Wishaw (local restaurant - even managed to impress the eldest!) with a mother and daughter from North Dakota.

The Fellows tend not to do things the normal way so when the eldest joined BUNAC and signed up for Camp America at the very tender age of 18 (ok, so I am his mammy) he landed in North Dakota a state the majority of Americans used to have difficulty finding on the map.

Jennifer also worked at the Summer Camp and when she found herself at a conference in Kilmarnock (she works with "troubled adolescents" and teaches them to work with horses) she Googled and found him. After the standard visit to Edinburgh to see the castle the eldest was going to take them to Glasgow but a phone call to his mammy meant a swift detour to Wishaw.

We had a really interesting time and and having reflected on the evening I now know:-

1. In ND small remote communities are being heavily impacted by oil drilling.
2. Norma - Jennifer's mum and I share the same family values.
3. Most settlers in ND were originally German or Scandinavian - Jennifer's great-grandparents were Norwegian.
4. Meeting ancestral Norwegians the night before a very important football does NOT bring good luck.
5. Troubled adolescents is probably the best description I have heard of lots of young people in Motherwell and Wishaw and beyond. It describes honestly the state some of our young people in Scotland find themselves in. Huge numbers of them are troubled. In my day job I meet more and more young people who fit this description.

Wonder if any of this will chime with readers of this blog?

Busy not Blogging

Ah the wonders of technology and hard work! The former is debatable and the benefits of the latter underestimated.



Speaking of hard work...... feeling withdrawal systems after a Glenrothes free weekend - I miss canvassing in Methilhill - it's almost surreal but when people identify themselves as Labour supporters it always comes out as an aplogy - I'm sorry but I vote Labour...... but the overwhelming message on the doorsteps I visited was - we've always voted for Labour but ............... not any more.


There are even more interesting moments in Motherwell and Wishaw. When you chap doors in this constituency you never know who you will meet. I recently met the engineer who built the blast furnaces at Ravenscraig, a women's libber and a returned ex-pat - all willing to talk about the SNP government and about the new feeling of can do in Scotland since May last year.




Lot's of kite flying around the subject of proposed by-election dates and candidates for M&W these days.................. if you read SNP Tactical Voting there may even be throwing things up flagpoles.

From here at the sharp end I can assure bloggers that no candidate has been selected. I've spoken to almost all local SNP members and I sincerely hope I will get their support when they chose a candidate for the forthcoming by-election.

Waterloo ............................

Today we were carrying on the fight to try to save the local Post Office which is a lifeline for many of its older residents.I was made even more aware of how big a part the local Post Office plays in village communities when I was invited in by an 86 year old former Post Mistress. She proudly informed me that she has written a two page letter to the Post Office Consultation Team as she is incensed at the thought of her local office closing as she uses it to pay rent and utility bills and for getting cash - there is no ATM nearby.

Being invited in when canvassing is an interesting new experience for me and it is happening regularly. When I first started chapping on doors for the SNP in the constituency it was quite common to be invited to leave the doorstep as quickly as I liked!

This campaign is proving totally different from other campaigns in Motherwell and Wishaw - very encouraging canvassing/survey results and the pleasure of continually meeting former Labour supporters.

Canvassing and other weekend things

Turned down an invitation to Edinburgh (visit festival, good food, great company) to go canvassing in Motherwell this weekend.

The Glasgow East result has provided everyone with extra stimulous and we are determined to take maximum advantage of this. Biggest team yet is expected to turn out on Sunday and the postive response on the doorstep buoys us all up.

We are getting slicker and more organised - George is turning into a great Campaign advisor - and he makes excellent coffee!

Now that the dust has settled...........

Campaigning in Glasgow East was amazing. In the last week you knew you were witnessing something special. The post poll party was almost an anti-climax.

Labour must have been so relieved it was all over and the posponed Leadership election in Scotland could go ahead. So what's happened so far?Certainly not a leadership contest - more a free for all bout of glorious in-fighting and mud slinging.

#1- Jim Dempsey's letter about Andy Kerr and Monklands
#2 - Briefing against Cathie by Andy's supporters
#3 - Tom McCabe MSP's Sunday Herald article
#4 - John Robertson MP's response - "This sounds like Tom is looking to position himself for a job. I am disappointed in him. I thought he was much more of a comrade than that, but he obviously isn't."Very illuminating all round.

Closing thought - why when I see a politician with his children do I think of hamburgers?

"Motherwell is a pigsty, says Jack"

More negative campaigning by Mr McConnell the local MSP in today's Sunday Herald.

If that's the present MSP for Motherwell & Wishaw's opinion of Motherwell - what on earth does he make of Wishaw?

He has finally trumped Frank Roy's well publicised faux pas in telling the Taoiseach not to visit Carfin. Frank survived making that smear on his constituency but will Jack?

The hardworking people of Motherwell & Wishaw deserve better.

It's time!

Jack's missing - again!

Listened to the news on bbc this morning .....Party leaders are all in their constituencies for the last campaigning Saturday before the election..... All except the Motherwell and Wishaw MSP - he was campaigning anywhere but here in Motherwell and Wishaw - no sign of Labour on the ground at all.

Met Richard Leat the Anti-Trident candidate and his team and the very scary Scottish Christian Party were out in Wishaw and Motherwell.

Couldn't believe that our local MSP wasn't out on the stump but was elsewhere trying to shore up the Labour vote.

Talk about taking the electorate for granted.

It's definitely time for changes in Motherwell & Wishaw.