Thursday July 30th 2015
Christine Grahame MSP, Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale
First of all I’ll need to review that title. Every year when Parliament is not sitting I do a surgery tour around the constituency which is half Borders, half Midlothian. To do this my brother Tony volunteers (?) to drive me around in a caravanette so we can have a mobile surgery in smaller communities such as Auchendinny, Howgate, Leadburn, Silverburn and so on.
It was busy as usual with individual issues but also I took the opportunity to revisit community projects like the Glencorse centre. It has come on leaps and bounds and was well worth the effort of the community and give credit to the Council it had their backing and support when they needed it.
I’m Not Singing in the Rain
But the weather! You have heard of fifty shades of grey and that pretty well describes those days on the road. If Scotland should be famous for something it is the vast variety of rain it provides. Even my window boxes, always a bit of a success succumbed and plants soaked to their oxters rotted and had to be turfed out. One thing though, it lets me see how rarely Mr Smokey (rescue cat) ventures out. He’s always bone dry so he must have found a devious route to exit when nature demands without a droplet of rain on his coat or indeed his paws. I must see if I can monitor these movements some way.
Anyway, I have picked up quite a few matters and I have explained that it will take some time to deal with them all but dealt with they will be.
Recess
I am manning (womanning?) the office because my staff, all one and a half of them is having a deserved break, and I shall try to take one when they are back.
In between, apart from cat watching, couping out withered plants, trying to get a washing dry in between downpours, and vowing that one day verily I shall clean the oven, I have the odd day or two in full charge of one of my grandchildren (4 going on 14). You know what I mean. She doesn’t see me much when Parliament is sitting and has turned out to be very fond of her Grannie Scotland (She has a Grannie Canada). It proves the adage “absence makes etc” true. Anyway, we get up to minor mischief together and at the end of the day she is still bouncing like Tigger and I am completely whacked. That’s why these jaunts we have are restricted to recess.
Of Foodbanks
Let me say, I have watched the stuchie over David Mundell wir only Tory celebrating the opening of a Foodbank and of course it was blatant brass neck of him.
What’s to celebrate? I congratulate the volunteers and the shops which contribute, I congratulated the volunteers who distribute, but how can one say that equates to cutting the ribbon on the Foodbank? Add to that it is Tory cuts-regrettably supported by Labour (whatever happened to Labour values?) which is driving folk into desperate straits and the sheer crassness of his actions beggars belief. Or maybe not.
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