Week
beginning Monday 7th November 2005
What a
week! Running in circles, barely time to catch up with myself. I’m
sitting here at my desk, evening of Monday 14th, and
looking over last week’s diary – some of the events I can barely
remember what happened at them; I think I’m in danger of losing it
here. Tuesday particularly is a bit of a blur, but then I had to head
home early on Tuesday because I felt really peculiar; seems there’s a
lot of strange bugs and viruses around – well one of them definitely
got me last Tuesday. Only lasted the day and night though, by
Wednesday morning (late’ish) I was returning to normal (for all that's
worth!) and raring to go again (the 15 hours solid sleep maybe
helped).
Anyway,
enough of my medical condition. Daytime Monday was an Edinburgh day, a
'being the Convener of the Europe Committee' day. Started with taking
part in a panel (presentation, then questions) at the Scottish
European Resources Network. The panel was chaired by Michael Crow (STV’s
answer to Jeremy Paxman, but not nearly so scary, and probably
better-looking) and most of the contributions centred round how to
make Europe and its institutions relevant to people in Scotland. It is
a difficult question this, and I don’t begin to know the answer, but I
do believe that one of the things that we could do to promote greater
understanding of our European counterparts is to stop being so lazy,
as a nation, about learning other languages (I count myself as lazy
here too). Native English speakers generally tend to be complacent
because English is such a universal language, and I am often in awe of
young Germans, Russians, Spaniards, Poles and Czechs who not only
speak English in addition to their native tongue but very often a
third language too. Studies carried out amongst pupils of
Gaelic-medium education show quite clearly that where children learn
to use two languages from an early age, the third and beyond come
easier. And, from the use of their language, from watching their films
and reading their literature, flows understanding of other cultures.
It would be a start – the UK strikes me as a fairly insular society,
yet when you read Scotland’s history we were outward looking, at ease
with our European neighbours, both south and north. I think Scotland
probably still is outward looking to a certain extent, certainly more
so than England, but I would like to see us looking as much to Europe
as we do to across the Atlantic.
Story
of my working life – I left SERN as the buffet was being served, and
arrived at my next engagement as their buffet was being cleared away!
This was the Hansard Society Annual conference and I was chairing a
really interesting session which covered presentations from a
Norwegian academic and the Icelandic Ambassador about their respective
nations’ perspectives on not being full members of the European Union:
Norway, Switzerland and Iceland are Associate Members – members of the
European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association. It was
interesting – the Ambassador from Iceland basically said that his
country had the best of both worlds and it suited them very well,
whilst the Norwegian chap’s study suggested that Norway in fact had
all the dependencies but none of the influence. Both presentations
were highly detailed – I am merely giving a potted personal view of
what I picked up, but it was a really interesting theme about which I
want to learn more.
Then to
the British Council Reception to meet the new Scottish Director – we
discussed how the British Council really must work to promote Scotland
more overseas, and to be fair to the Council this is something they
have been looking at for some time now. Mr. Cross will be appearing
before the Committee at some point in the future, so we can explore
his plans further then. After a quick chicken-on-a-stick and a gulped
orange juice, it was back on the road again; to Strathaven where the
Strathaven Academy Action Group had called a public meeting to discuss
the Council’s plans for the replacing of Strathaven Academy.
What a
night it was – torrential rain/driving wind – but even so the venue
was mobbed, with folk sitting on the floor and even standing outside
having information relayed from the hall. The strength of feeling in
Avondale is immense, but whilst there are many against the Council’s
plan to demolish and rebuild on the same site (resulting in 2 years of
bussing all the pupils to East Kilbride for their education), the main
frustration is South Lanarkshire Council’s refusal to even consider
alternative proposals. The petition currently circulating round the
town and surrounding rural areas asks the Council to meet with parents
and discuss potential options; I’ve written backing up this request,
confirming that the meeting clearly endorsed the Action Group as their
representatives. So we’ll see – I had a big wrangle with South
Lanarkshire Council when they refused to meet with me, even though I
was representing more than a dozen families in East Kilbride (the
Elderly Carers’ issue), but surely they won’t refuse to meet the
representatives of the pupils and parents of Avondale? If they do,
then they ought to have a good old think to themselves about the
democratic principle underlying the election of local councillors to
run local services.
I’m
afraid as I said earlier, Tuesday’s a bit of a blur, with Wednesday
not too much better, so please excuse this short paragraph! However, I
did manage to drive to Edinburgh on Tuesday morning, meet with the
Committee Clerks, have lunch with a delegation from the European
Parliament and then convene the Europe Committee! I’ve since read the
Official Report of the Committee meeting and it seems to have gone
well enough. I do remember saying ‘meeting closed’ around 4 pm, Jim
Wallace MSP patting me on the head and saying “well done – you got
there”, one of the Security staff taking me back to my office and
Morag taking me home. In on Wednesday for a quick round of meetings
with amongst others the Fisherman's Federation, Association of
Publishers, Committee Clerks. Finalised the Environmental Assessment
Bill in Chamber on Wednesday afternoon. That’s it folks! Least words
I’ve ever used to cover two days of this job I think. I hope this
particular lurgy doesn’t work its way round to you. It was a belter.
All
back to normal on Thursday, and just as well; it was a South
Lanarkshire day, with the ‘ladies who lunch’ from East Kilbride,
Strathaven and Hamilton, my local paper ‘Echoes’ visiting with two
work-experience pupils from Larkhall, and of course all well served by
John Stirrat, the Parliament’s Hospitality Manager who hails from
Sandford. Great fun.
Ladies who lunch
I
promise that amongst all this enjoyment I did work! We debated energy
policy in the morning and of course there was First Minister’s
Question Time at noon as always. The main item under discussion there
was the Prime Minister’s defeat over the 90-day hold-without-charge
aspect of the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill. It appears that even
though Scotland has our own justice system, we’re not to have any
input into such issues – some things never change! Spent Thursday
afternoon arranging constituency house visits for the weekend and
dashed off to East Kilbride Arts Centre in the evening for the launch
of East Kilbride’s Fair Trade Initiative. Members of the Strathaven
Fair Trade Group were guest speakers and the turn-out was great. A
really well organised event – well done Kirstin Robb – and I’m sure
that East Kilbride, with its newly formed steering group and the
support of South Lanarkshire Council will follow Strathaven’s lead and
become a Fair Trade town. It’s an ambitious plan for such a large
town, but we’ll get there. That reminds me, the Executive made a big
fanfare some time ago about promoting Scotland as a Fair Trade
Country; as so often with big Executive announcements, there seems to
be no follow-up. Must check this out.
Had to
drive back to Edinburgh on Friday morning to cover a few different
commitments. The first was an interview with Metropolis Magazine, a US
Publication which covers the arts and architecture I understand. Mr.
Nathan Silver (I love American names! His wife was with him and she
was called Roxy) was doing a full piece about the Parliament
building/contract and asked to interview me as a building user. That
was followed by a meeting with the new Irish Consul to Scotland –
Cliona Manahan – one of only three women Consuls in Edinburgh. A
pleasure to meet her and I hope I’ll see a lot more of her during the
study our committee is carrying out about the potential of European
Funding for joint projects between Ireland and Scotland.
Friday
lunchtime and afternoon was spent in a ‘think-tank’ discussion with
academics researching Parliaments’ use of Commissioners and how these
Commissioners relate to elected members (eg the Children’s
Commissioner, the Public Services Ombudsman, the Information
Commissioner etc.). Our Parliament’s Procedures Committee is currently
considering the practice of reappointment/replacement of Commissioners
once their initial term of appointment comes to an end. It was an
interesting discussion and I hope that the views expressed by my
colleague Alex Neil and myself were helpful.
A
welcome clear run on Friday afternoon and evening in trying to catch
up on some paperwork before heading home to Strathaven for a weekend
of case-work and meeting various constituents who wanted advice or
action. As always, I obviously can’t give much detail here on
specifics but there are currently issues around for me to try to deal
with covering the police, disability policy, funding of the voluntary
sector, concessionary fares, and institutional child abuse.
Two
particularly enjoyable events Saturday and Sunday though. On Saturday
evening I went to visit Alexander and his parents. Alexander is coming
to work with me next week on work experience from Duncanrig Secondary
School in East Kilbride. He’s a smart laddie and I’m looking forward
to having him around – I think Calum better watch out, this kid is
pretty switched on and might just show him up!
Sunday
and an interview (generally about life, the universe and everything)
on Radio Cuillins FM with my old pal Andy Mitchell. I haven’t seen
Andy for ages and it was great to talk with him on the phone for so
long – problem is though when it’s someone you know so well, you
forget you’re actually live on radio! Goodness knows what I said, but
I do remember giggling a lot – Andy has that effect. Andy’s a great
songwriter, from the beautiful, haunting ‘Indiana’ which has been
recorded by many artists, to ‘The Buffalo Farm in Achiltibuie (run by
big Neil and wee Hughie)’. A real home-grown talent. It did make me
think afterwards though about making an effort to see more of people
who I really care for and enjoy – too often we let time pass, and
sometimes its just too late.
Linda Fabiani: 14.11.05
Email Linda at
Linda.fabiani.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
