Full Council meeting today

Full Council meeting today - agenda here - wonder if it will be as interesting as last night's hustings??

... unfortunately, I've got very severe doubts :-((

Leadership Hustings - Edinburgh

Attended the Scottish Labour Leadership Hustings in the Grassmarket earlier this evening ... pretty big crowd in attendance and I thoroughly enjoyed the event.

Personally, I thought all three main contenders spoke very well in their opening 4-minute speeches ... Andy Kerr and Cathy Jamieson were confident and clear in their message, as was Iain Gray whose contribution definitely had the most heartfelt passion behind it.

All three also dealt pretty well with a fairly wide range of questions - although, it has to be said, that during the Q&A's I felt they were all overly conscious of the presence of the press-pack at the back of the room :-(

That aside, on the evidence of tonight, I don't doubt for a second that any one of the three of them could successfully lead the Scottish Parliamentary Party - a very heartening conclusion to the evening.

For Leader, Iain will be getting my first preference - he's got the breadth of experience from both within, and outwith, politics to bring real 'added-value' to the job; he's passionate, sincere and has the skills to work across the myriad levels of today's Scottish Politics.

And, crucially for me, he's not overtly tribalist or unnecessarily partisan.

Talking of which, next up were the Deputy Leadership candidates who were somewhat ... what can I say? ... more 'entertaining' ;-)

... but, for me, there is no doubt that Johann Lamont came across the much stronger and I'll be casting my 'Deputy Leader vote' for her.

Whatever the outcome on September 13th, this whole leadership selection process will definitely have strengthened the Party for the challenges ahead in the run-up to May 2011 ... no bad thing in itself!

Home-day

Enforced day at home today ... Juniors' entry into P7 delayed by one day :-(

Not entirely certain if Craiglockhart Primary School is closed due to the one-day strike action (I think not actually?), but believe it may be down to ongoing window-repair works that haven't been completed before the start of term ... frankly - someone, somewhere, hasn't planned the timing of the works effectively if that's the case?

Anyhow - that new graphics card, which was very recently fitted to the home computer, is currently being tested to near-destruction ;-))

Computing Support

My main computer, at home, came to a crashing halt recently ... despite owning a computer, of one-sort or another, since the early 1990's I've never had one completely stop working on me whilst still in active daily use ... very lucky I know!

But, I'm pleased to report that in my never-ending quest to use local businesses as much as possible, I've located a very local outfit in Craiglockhart who repaired and upgraded my old computer in rapid time, and levied a pretty reasonable charge for their services ;-)

... and no, I wasn't given a reduction on promise of advertising their services!

Group Leaders meeting

Attended my first 'Group Leaders meeting' this afternoon ...

... a scurrilous rumour is doing the rounds at the City Chambers that 'lunch was provided' by the Leader's Office in an attempt to induce agreement on a whole range of difficult topics for the Lib/Nat Administration ... well, the bit about the lunch being provided is true ;-))

Joking aside, personally I very much welcome any efforts (from all political sides!) to reach consensus on some issues before the hot-house of the main Council Chamber is reached. That doesn't mean that heated political disagreement will always be avoidable - it won't be, and neither should it be ...

... but, its a simple truth that on some 80% of Council decisions there is absolutely no political division - yet, you would be right to doubt this statistic from the way that the remaining 20% of decisions are dealt with :-(

Labour Group re-shuffle

Minor Labour Group re-shuffle confirmed at our Group Meeting earlier this afternoon ... been a bit delayed since my appointment as Group Leader due to holidays etc.

... but for those 'political anoraks' out there who are interested in such things, the complete list of posts follows below.

Needless to say, our focus will now be renewed on:

• promoting Edinburgh's wider interests at every possible opportunity
• speaking up (loudly!) in defence of essential front-line public services here in the city
• professionally scrutinising every action of the current Council Administration

... I sense the next 4-years will be busy!


LABOUR GROUP EXECUTIVE MEMBERS

Andrew Burns - Group Leader
Ricky Henderson - Deputy Leader

Ian Murray - Chair
Lesley Hinds - Vice Chair

Ian Perry - Secretary
Paul Godzik - Assistant Secretary

Elizabeth Maginnis - Whip
Angela Blacklock - Vice Whip


LABOUR GROUP SPOKESPERSONS

Lesley Hinds - Health and Social Care
Ewan Aitken - Community Safety

Ricky Henderson - Children and Families
Angela Blacklock - Children’s Support Services & Equalities

Elizabeth Maginnis - Economic Development
Ian Perry - Transport and Infrastructure

Gordon Munro - Housing
Maureen Child - Environment and Sustainability
Norma Hart - Communities and Social Justice

Ian Murray - Finance
Paul Godzik - Culture, Sport and Leisure
Donald Wilson - Smart City

Eric Milligan - Planning/Police
Eric Barry - Fire/Licensing

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'Traffic Lights' to the rescue?

Well, by all accounts, the much-trailed traffic lights will be in full operation at this Thursday's Council Meeting :-(

Two quick comments come to mind:

1. all seems a bit pointless, as the agenda is pretty short anyhow - as I mentioned earlier - and why the whole 'project' can't now be shelved I'm not entirely sure?

2 . much more seriously, it is all costing yet more money (some £1,600 apparently) at a time when funding is being reduced right across a whole range of City Council services.

Mind you, such a sum seems paltry when compared to:

• the £112,352 about to be spent on 'refurbishing' old desks - see paragraph 5.3 here!


• or the +£1million that could well be spent on 'ceremonial flags' for the city :-(

There may well be a time for such expenditure, but this year isn't it :-((

Allotment update

Down at the Allotment this afternoon ... no further sign of the frog I'm afraid :-(

... but, the whole family will be eating potatoes for the foreseeable future, having harvested an enormous crop from one of the vegetable beds!

One downside of all this home-grown produce is we've now had to cancel our fortnightly 'organic vegetable box' which we received from East Coast Organics, whom - I hasten to add - consistently provided great produce right to our door.

Afternoon at the beach :-)

Not at a real beach - unfortunately ...

... but spent a couple of hours helping over at Juniors' school were the Parents' Association had organised the painting of a "Beach Hut Mural" ... details at the bottom of this page!

Final product looks great - nothing to do with my painting skills I hasten to add - and I'm sure the children will love it when they return to school this coming week ... strike/s allowing :-(

August's Council Meeting

The papers for August's Council Meeting are out this morning - they can be found on CPOL, and the main agenda is here.

There are one or two contentious reports, but nothing in comparison to some that have been before the Council in the previous few months ...

... I'll regret predicting this, I just know it, but I reckon we could actually be out of the Chamber before late afternoon??

Tougher road death laws

I've mentioned before my personal disdain at how road deaths get such relatively low political attention ... so, I have to say I do agree with the main thrust of the Scottish Government's position on recent changes to UK road death laws.

I also happen to think that Scottish Ministers are correct to press for a further lowering of drink driving limits - I hope the UK Government will respond constructively in due course ...

Bus trip/s

Out of the (new!) office most of today ... last chance to escape with Junior before he returns to school next week, so we headed up to Loch Lomond this morning on a bit of a bus trip ...

... good time had by all :-)

Talking of bus trips - read this local news story on my return, and find it hard to believe that a bit more flexibility can't be applied when dealing with these issues ... David Griffiths, chief executive of ECAS, hits the nail-on-the-head with his quoted comment.

Glorious Gardens

Given my week to date, thankfully Tollcross Community Council was a relatively lighthearted affair ... all down to some local Garden Competition Awards being presented at the very start of the meeting, which was followed by a few nibbles and a glass of wine BEFORE going back to the usual monthly agenda ;-)

... unfortunately, I've missed the deadline for this month's Full Council meeting or I would have tabled a motion calling for "pre-agenda wine" to be compulsory at all Edinburgh Community Councils :-))

Office Move!

And just to top of the enjoyment of this week, I've had to move office today :-(

... those that know my previous room will appreciate just what a task moving all my filing and paperwork has been :-((

But, all now completed and off to my weekly surgery and then on to Tollcross Community Council. I hope its not a fractious meeting!

Roll on the weekend ...

Treadmill day2 :-((

'Slightly' less pressurised day ... but still wading through what seems like millions of e-mails and letters.

Full Council meeting next Thursday as well - with the deadline/s for questions and motions today and tomorrow, so no respite from the treadmill :-((

Treadmill day

Back at work.

... and it really felt like I was straight back on the treadmill today ... huge amount of stuff to catch up on and straight into a series of difficult meetings.

... such a contrast to the tranquility of the last two weeks :-((

Glen Affric and Orkney

Well, first week away (which already seems a lifetime away!) was up in Glen Affric - stayed on a farm which has a number of cabins/cottages etc. - details here. We had been there before - some 6-years ago - and thoroughly enjoyed returning. Lots of cycling, walking and fresh air - and; the weather was pretty decent too ...

... nowhere near as good weather as the second week though - up in Stromness, on Orkney (rented a pier-side cottage: details here) - and we had practically 7-days of sunshine, which I understand is in stark contrast to the weather in Edinburgh over the last week or so :-(

I simply can't speak highly enough of Orkney ... if you haven't visited, its well worth the effort. The natural beauty of the place is quite breathtaking, and its history simply fascinating.

... I'm certain we'll be returning again - hopefully in the not-too-distant future ;-)

Back in Edinburgh

Back in Edinburgh this evening.

Family have had a great two-weeks away, more to follow on all of that tomorrow ...

... going to try and catch up on 'mail/e-mail' for the rest of tonight :-((