Monday morning blues

Bad bout of the Monday morning blues today ... had such a enjoyable weekend, not only the 79th birthday celebrations, but also went to see an Arthur Miller play - All My Sons - on Friday night, which was really, really superb.

Miller's autobiography - Timebends - is a book I'd strongly recommend to anyone ... after Alan Bold's biography of the Scots Poet, Hugh Macdiarmid, probably the second best biography I've ever read.

Various discussions about a whole host of work issues, throughout today, just didn't seem as crucial ... I know they really are, and hopefully will seem so when I get to Tuesday ;-((

Children and Families electronic newsletter

When I was rambling about what I do a few days ago; I've realised I really should have included one further link to the work I do as Executive Member for Children and Families ... to the Department's periodic, electronic newsletter. I've got a column in this austere publication - the absolute highlight of the newsletter, of course - which gives a further flavour of things I've been up to ...

There is an Archive of previous issues easily accessible if you're really interested /(sad!) ;-)

Current issue (No.37) includes a copy of the Xmas Card competition winner - Eve from Fox Covert RC Primary - who provided this fantastic picture for my festive communications this year!

Birthday celebrations

My dad is 79 years old today - went over to the west coast to celebrate a bit with him; thoroughly enjoyable day all round.

He really is in great shape, with all the statistical averages indicating he should have been dead well over a decade ago ... working class manual background, long-term heavy smoker (gave up when he was about 55 thankfully!), west coast Scottish diet (spent 22-years away in the Army thankfully!) ... but probably most important of all, he's living happily with the same partner he married nearly 54 years ago.

Poor woman ;-))

Why be a Councillor??

Several long-standing (come on, this blog has been running for MONTHS now) readers have asked if I can expand on just why I was mad/inspired enough to become a Councillor??

Well, it's another one of those "what do you do" questions, that is not very easy to answer.

Best to start with my Council "register of interests" I reckon ... do have a look, and you'll see that I'm a member of lots (and lots!) of campaigning groups. Most of these I have actually been a member of longer than I've been a member of the Labour Party - which I joined in 1992 after complete moral apoplexy at John Major defeating Neil Kinnock ... if only things had turned out differently back in April 1992??

Anyhow, I did spend most of the late 1980's and early 1990's rallying against a whole host of reactionary (as I saw them) forces. I was living down in middle-England at the time and watched what was happening to Scotland from a distance. Back then, I did spend an inordinate amount of time at a huge variety of 'pressure-group meetings' moaning and whingeing with the best of them.

After Kinnock lost, I'd simply had enough (from the outside) and decided the only way to assuage my moaning and whingeing tendencies was to get involved with politics from the inside. A couple of nano-seconds later, after deep philosophical thought, I joined the Labour Party ... and a few months later, got the chance to move up to Edinburgh in mid-1993.

The rest, as they say, is history - I got totally absorbed in the devolution movement and went completely native. The whole of 1997, in particular, is a blur of change that I'm certain the history books will pick out as pretty memorable - general election victory in May 1997, referendum victory in September 1997, and my son born in December 1997 ;-))

This ongoing, political involvement led to me becoming a local government candidate in May 1999, from whence I was successfully elected onto the City of Edinburgh Council. And from then, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time on the Council - still privately have the tendency to 'moan and whinge'; but publicly do try my utmost to convert that into positive, long-term change.

That's not the half of it obviously ... but hopefully gives you a flavour of why I was mad/inspired enough to become a Councillor ...

Back from cyberspace oblivion ;-)

Back from a few days away ... with no access to cyberspace at all !

Was remarkably relaxing actually, being able to concentrate on other matters, with no intrusion from e-mail and/or the internet whatsoever.

It is quite incredible how dependant we've all become on the internet - and in such a relatively short period of time ... I had a spell back at University in the early 1990's and although e-mail was well-used, the internet didn't really exist in the way we know it today. A mere 10-years later and it seems indispensable (I know it's not!), and it does make you wonder where the internet - and all that goes with it - will be in another 10 years time?

Delay in transmission

Unbelievably - won't have access to a computer for a couple of days ;-((

How will I/you survive??

Normal transmission will resume very shortly ...

Wellington School and Moredun Young People's Centre

Two 'establishment visits' today - off to Wellington School this morning, and then Moredun Young People's Centre (YPC) this afternoon.

Oh; and in-between all that, back up before the Budget Review Group (BRG) ... as mentioned a few posts ago. Probably our last formal pitch for the Departmental 2007/08 Budget settlement, before the actual Council Meeting on 8th February which will set the overall Corporate Budget for the local authority.

An interesting day!

Promotion for Sarah Boyack MSP

I was really pleased to hear that Sarah Boyack MSP was promoted yesterday, back into the Scottish Executive after 4-years on the backbenches, to the post of Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development. Now I'm biased, as I was Sarah's election agent in 1999 and 2003, but I can think of no one better qualified at Holyrood to hold this post and I wish her all the best over the coming months.

I'll always remember going to see Sarah sworn in on 12th May 1999 - just after the first elections to the Scottish Parliament - along with all the other first-time MSP's. It was one of those events were it's just impossible to convey the emotion of the moment on paper; but as someone who had campaigned long and hard for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament it was just tremendous (and a real privilege) to see Sarah amongst the first round of Scotland's MSP's.

A very good day yesterday as well ;-))

SportScotland 'Active Schools' event

Speaking very briefly at a SportsScotland Active Schools event later this morning ... more details about the event can be found at this Scottish Executive news link.

Patricia Ferguson MSP (Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport) was the principal guest and speaker and I'm pretty amazed by the increase in primary school participation, as she announced and you can read via the news link above.

My prompt notes were relatively brief, and follow below, but do also indicate a hugely successful couple of years for Active Schools in Edinburgh:

• I should start by thanking the Minister, and Scottish Executive, and Stewart, and SportScotland, for their funding and partnership support for the Active Schools programme. It is very much a partnership and the success in Edinburgh simply would not have happened without the support of the Executive and SportScotland
• And very briefly, it’s that success of the ActiveSchool programme in Edinburgh that I want to touch on – just to try and make ‘real’ the very significant impact and benefits of the programme for one part of Scotland – I’m certain what I’m about to illustrate has been replicated all over the country
• The ActiveSchools programme has been running for some 2-years now in Edinburgh
• I cannot stress enough, that although entitled ActiveSchools, the programme has had a much wider community impact through links that have ensured participation in a wide variety of activities has continued into the after-school hours and weekends
• In this way the 'changes in choices' that young people are making about their activities are indeed being embedded into their wider community lives and not just being given up at the school gate
• The funding for the programme has enabled Edinburgh to have an ActiveSchool team of some 16 full-time primary co-ordinators, 23 part-time secondary coordinators and 2 Additional Support Needs coordinators
• This has led to a very wide range of activities being on offer, not just the traditional football and hockey but climbing, sailing, dancing and many, many more alternatives
• The programme, in just the one year of 2006, has led directly to the participation of literally tens of thousands (over 40,000) of Edinburgh’s young people in a variety of some 33 different activities
• 55% of the participants have been male and 45% female
• and over 1,200 people have helped physically deliver the programme, with over half of that number being volunteers
• there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that the vast majority of these tens of thousands of young people simply would not have had access to such a variety of opportunities had the ActiveSchools programme not been running
• it is relatively straightforward, as I’ve briefly done, to quantify actual participant numbers in the programme in Edinburgh – it’s much more difficult to quantify the benefits, both physical and emotional, of the scale of participation that the ActiveSchools programme has allowed in Edinburgh. It will be of vast, long-term benefit … of that there can be little doubt
• So, I very much welcome the ongoing support of the Executive and SportsScotland in the ActiveSchools programme and do hope that it will continue over the coming years so that Edinburgh – and the rest of Scotland – can build on the undoubted success of our first two years.

... not sure about putting this much text in an entry, but it is an interesting success story ;-)

"Just what is it you do??"

Several 'far flung' readers of the blog have recently e-mailed me to ask if I can give a bit more background to exactly what it is I do - answering that simple question could prove interesting!

Here's the last Council meeting I attended ... no, seriously ...

... no easy place to start, but the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) web-site is as good as any; have a look at this link first. This site gives you a full explanation of how the Council works politically ... if you follow the link to "the Executive" and scroll down a bit, you'll see I'm listed there as Executive Member for Children and Families. In essence, the politician responsible for that area of Council business. Further information at the EGFL site ...

At a wider level, have a look at one of the links on the left of the first CEC page marked "elections" and you'll get a huge amount of general information about the political elections in Edinburgh, including those for the local authority (CEC) of which I am an elected Member (currently Ward 28 Moat). Thus, as well as the 'Children and Families' city-wide responsibilities I have strong local Ward (area) responsibilities as well. You can read a bit more about all of this on my own website here.

This is all about to change in May - thus my recent ramblings - when Scottish local government (including Edinburgh of course!) moves to STV-PR ... a form of proportional voting. Much more information on this topic at the Electoral Commission Scotland's new site - here!

On a daily basis - this can mean a range of meetings, discussions and decisions ranging from helping to get a constituent's blocked drain fixed on a Sunday afternoon through to strategic planning for the future provision of education for the whole of Edinburgh.

There - that's what I do. Clear as mud ;-((

Learning Hubs charity

Attended a meeting earlier today about finally establishing a 'Learning Hubs' charity ... have mentioned this briefly a couple of times before on the blog ... see here and here ... and now does seem likely that the relevant report, authorising the setting up of the charity, will go to the Council Executive (cabinet) on 23rd January.

I do think this all has huge potential for local school (and wider) communities - but I'm not a technical expert (as you can probably tell from this blog!) so do have a look at the local Learning Hubs website and associated wiki; both of which give you the background and some of the surrounding debate on these potential changes/developments to traditional educational methods.

As mentioned before, I really think that if this is going to run in Edinburgh then a pilot (of some description) is now what's needed - it's the only way that any benefits/dis-benefits can be flagged up for real. Watch this space ...

Labels

Had some further feedback that several readers would like the posts 'labelled' into categories to make reading certain subject areas easier - I'll get onto doing this, certainly from now on and will also try and retrofit 'labels' for most previous posts ...

Some photos now added!

Several readers of the blog have asked me to include more photos to liven the text up a bit - okay, I do agree it's necessary and I've now retrofitted several (not that many yet!) pictures for the last few months.

I'll include more as soon as I can and will try to continue the trend now started.

Any further, constructive feedback would be welcome.

Weekly Director's Meeting

Really feels like I'm back in the regular work pattern now, with the Friday morning weekly meeting with the Director of Children and Families taking place as normal.

Budget issues still to the fore - we're back in front of the Budget review Group (BRG) this coming Wednesday, and that will be (I guess?) our final, formal pitch for a settlement figure before the actual revenue and capital budgets for 2007/08 are set on Thursday 8th February ... all not far away now!

It's all a bit of a dilemma for officers (in particular) and politicians this year, as we'll be setting a budget that will be 'picked up' by a new Administration - for certain. All due, of course, to the implementation of Single Transferable Vote (PR) for Scottish Local Government elections on May 3rd.

Now, despite my own best interests (or in spite of them!) I've always been a long-term supporter of PR ... I'm a Director of both the Electoral Reform Society and Chair/Director of Fairshare ... and am wholly supportive of the moves to STV-PR for local government elections.

It is indeed, all going to mean a period of political flux in Edinburgh - but I'm pretty certain the local authority will cope with the change (whatever that may be politically and administratively?) which will certainly happen in May.

There is no doubt it's going to be an interesting 6-months!

Back to work

Back to work at the City Chambers and plenty awaiting me in the inbox (both e-mail and snail-mail) ... nothing too drastic it has to be said, and I've certainly not had a more restful (and quiet, work-wise) Xmas break for several years ;-)

No meetings at all today, so able to catch up quite a bit ... just as well really, as returning to the regular 8.30am Director's Meeting tomorrow - and bound to be nothing but frantic thereafter!

Suffering ever-so-slightly today after yesterday's heroic exertions in reaching the summit of Ben Lawers in what can only be described as "Alpine conditions" ;-((

Ben Lawers today

Up Ben Lawers today!

First big walking expedition for quite some time and both of us really looking forward to the day - was a bit of a challenge though given our lack of big walks in recent years.

Eventually made it to the top and did try jumping the 16 or 17 required feet to reach 4,000ft but the wind was just too strong to allow it ;-(

Posting a couple of photos here (thought it about time I gave this a try given the blog has been going for some time now!) which show how tricky the conditions were, but didn't stop a smile once we got to the top and the well-deserved coffee came out ;-))

Can't deny my legs weren't a little bit sore upon our eventual return home!

Fantastic day.

Cycle-ride this afternoon

Cycle-ride this afternoon ... an extremely vain attempt to try and clear our heads a bit!

Just look at those hats ;-((

Joking aside, really enjoyable ride along the canal out to Wester Hailes and beyond to The Calders before heading over to The Gyle and back along the Busway (well, the cycle-way parallel to it to be precise!) to Stenhouse and then home via Slateford Green.

Good to limber up for tomorrow's epic expedition!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day and suffering a little in true Scottish-style ;-(

Spent last night with some family and friends ... didn't go too over-the-top, but clearly now being 43 is restricting my stamina ;-((

Happy New Year to one and all.