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"...her campaigning against education cuts is good news for parents" - Rachael Ewing, Seedhill
"...her campaigning against education cuts is good news for parents" - Rachael Ewing, Seedhill
Local Support Groups
I mentioned in my last column that I was to attend the launch event in the Abbey Mill to mark Mental Health Awareness Week in Scotland. I am pleased to report the event, attended by several local help & support groups, was a great success. Thanks to organisers Bipolar Scotland and Acumen. I was impressed by how many avenues of help there currently is in Renfrewshire for vulnerable people.
Sadly however, despite the genuine enthusiasm and hard effort by the organisations, the unavoidable anxiety lurks in the background of waiting to see how they were going to survive the impending cut backs threat and the squeeze on resources. Read more »
Wendy Alexander MSP met with festival organisers and local business people in support of the 2010 Voices in Paisley Music Festival. Ms Alexander commended the Festival for attracting a diverse range of local and international talent for the seventh year running.
The Festival and Fringe programme this year boasts something for every taste – everything from jazz to opera to traditional music. And for the first time ever, Aled Jones will perform at Paisley Abbey on 24 October.
“The Paisley Festival Company should be given its due for unrolling a terrific line up of artists and musicians for the Voices in Paisley Music Festival,” said Ms Alexander. Read more »
See original article in the Daily Record , 11th October 2010.
DONALD Dewar’s statue looks down Glasgow’s Buchanan Street with the kindly yet quizzical gaze typical of the man.
It has become a much-loved tribute to Scotland’s first First Minister, dubbed Father of the Nation, since generous Record readers paid for it to be put up.
But this week passers-by will have more reason to pause at the 9ft bronze likeness and remember him.
Dewar died 10 years ago today after a fall outside his Bute House official residence in Edinburgh, as he battled to recover from heart surgery four months earlier.
His sudden, untimely death robbed Scotland of one of the leading politicians of his generation. Read more »
See Wendy’s article in the Sunday Herald, 10th October 2010.
In politics the zeitgeist matters more than politicians care to admit.
Hence the defining event of the first Scottish Parliament was September 11, and the defining event of this Parliament was the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial tsunami it triggered.
Future commentators will date the SNP’s difficulties more to Lehman’s than to Lockerbie. Back in 2007 the zeitgeist was sympathetic to small nations. Alex Salmond wanted to be part of the sleek, agile “arc of prosperity” of Ireland, Iceland and Norway. Read more »
On Friday 1st October following a number of weeks of no contact Tesco were keen to meet with me about plans for Linwood. I indicated I would be happy to meet on the understanding that a few key community representatives of Community Council/Elderly Forum/Linwood Line were also present. Tesco declined to meet with Community reps at this stage so the meeting could not take place.
However they did provide the following letter (see left). It seems they intend to go ahead on a scaled down scheme that will include a new Tweedie Hall. Library and small shop space but will not include a new Health Centre, Police facility or Linstone. Read more »
As published in The Scotsman, 7th October 2010
By Wendy Alexander
‘A GOOD man fallen amongst politicians’ so ran The Scotsman headline following the death of Michael Foot earlier this year. It could equally well have applied to Donald Dewar.
Donald was remarkably learned. His passions were antiquarian books, Scottish art and football. Always a political moderate, he was still a New Labour non-conformist. He was frequently pessimistic and deliberative when the mood was for optimism and decisiveness. And whilst history has judged him right on the big decision, and he was held in affection by many, in 2000 he was routinely pilloried for a style unbecoming to his office.
Read – Herald article today ‘Millions written off as ousted GARL firms move back’
The decision of the Scottish Government to attempt to resell land acquired to facilitate the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) is a desperate act by an administration determined to cover its own inadequacies in handling this vital transport intervention. The cancellation cost Paisley Town Centre an estimated 700 much needed new jobs. The cancellation of GARL was a political decision of the most petty and spiteful kind. It was never fully thought through. After making the decision the Scottish Government has had to employ a raft of misinformation to justify its decision and one by one these mistruths have been exposed as fallacy. Read more »
Time for a Living Wage
Labour, if elected in Scotland next May, will introduce a Scottish Living Wage, of over £7 per hour.
The idea is simple. In a 21st century Scotland no one who does a fair days work should receive less than a fair days pay.
A “living wage” is the level of income needed to provide an acceptable standard of living. It is different from the minimum wage, which is the legal minimum an employer can pay its workers.
The Scottish Living Wage Campaign has set a figure of £7.15 per hour as the living wage for Scotland for 2010/11. Labour believes this should be the guaranteed minimum for all public sector employees – in devolved areas including the health service and local government. Read more »
RENFREWSHIRE TOP THE LEAGUE IN TEACHER REDUCTION
Wendy Alexander MSP described the First Minister’s bluster over the huge drop in teacher numbers as a fall in teacher numbers of almost 3000 since this government came to power as yet another pathetic attempt to say – ‘it wisnae me.’
It was put to the First Minister in question time last week that the biggest drop in teacher numbers in Scotland was in SNP controlled Renfrewshire.
Wendy Alexander said:
“Not only is Renfrewshire pushed to bottom of class by this administration between 2007 & 2009 – further cuts in teacher numbers have taken place since. Read more »
Wendy Alexander MSP is one of many Scottish parliamentarians who have signed the global Parkinson’s pledge this week, alongside celebrities such as Graham Norton, Gary Lineker and Twiggy. The pledge will be the lasting legacy of the second ever World Parkinson Congress (WPC) being held in Glasgow this week (28 September – 1 October).
There are around 7.4 million people in the world with Parkinson’s, a degenerative condition for which there is no cure. About 10,000 of them live in Scotland. People signing up to the pledge will be joining a global Parkinson’s movement to help make Parkinson’s a health, social and economic priority around the world and to work together to find a cure for Parkinson’s.
Wendy Alexander MSP said: “I am happy to be able to show my support for this worthwhile cause and I believe the World Parkinson’s Congress is instrumental in bringing people together to discuss the disease, in the hope that a cure may ultimately be found.” Read more »