Week beginning 7th March 2005
Off to Strathaven Academy first thing Monday
for the ‘Fit for Life’ day. This day has been set up for the 7 Avondale
feeder primaries to send their pupils who will be joining the Academy
after the summer holidays to meet with the 1st Year academy
pupils in a day of sport and activity. Walking across the playground to
the school I could hear how much fun everyone was having – volleyball,
aerobics, martial arts, salsa dancing, swimming. I was exhausted just
watching – the youngsters I spoke to were concerned about what they were
going to have for lunch because they’d been told it would be healthy!
Some of the first years were also saying to me that the best bit about
secondary school was being able to go ‘down the street’ at lunchtime to
the chip shop. I have given a lot of thought to the campaign for
universal school lunches. It may work for young pupils, but when it
comes to older pupils, I’m not convinced that unless we made the lunches
compulsory and stopped pupils leaving the school playground at
lunchtime, there would be maximum take-up. Some Councils have already
introduced innovative schemes for pupils – breakfast clubs, free fruit
etc., perhaps we should be looking at the good examples and expanding
them.
Fit for Life at Strathaven Academy
From Strathaven to the Motherwell Office to
catch up with David and constituency cases – NHS, Public Pensions,
Housing, Asylum Seekers being handcuffed when taken to hospital for
medical treatment (yup, I’m afraid it’s true that we handcuff sick
people who are innocent of any crime).
Called in to see the Access Group. I wrote
about this Group before – Access is a special initiative in the North
Lanarkshire area to assist young people into being able to sustain their
own house and give them skills for future employment. It’s been running
for five years, very successfully, but sadly their future is now under
threat because of changes in funding. Why is it that we have initiative
over initiative, with the emphasis on innovation, yet we can’t continue
to core-fund projects that are shown to be successful? When you’re
dealing with young people who have had disadvantage in life compared to
most of us, then you cannot expect overnight solutions, it has to be a
long-term strategy. I often think that too much these days is ‘target’
and ‘positive outcome’ driven. Yes, you probably can give 30 young
people in Motherwell a house, for example, but how many of them will
still have it a year later? A quote from an Access client “they gave me
a house, but they didn’t show me how to work it”. The same goes for
employment – if you’ve never had role models or a sense of how
employment works, how can you be expected to hold down a job? Again –
you can tick the boxes and say so many clients have been put in
employment, but are there figures showing how many lose that job? The
problems are complex, inter-related and cannot be always be addressed so
simply. I hope that the Access project can be saved – every so often you
come across something that seems to work, and that you care strongly
about – Access is one of these for me.
From one extreme to the other – Monday night
and off to Hamilton College, a private school in Hamilton. I’m not being
flippant here, or having a go at private education, and yes, I know that
just because you have money and resources does not mean necessarily that
you have a good life, but of course generally speaking the pupils of
Hamilton College have more opportunities in life than the average client
of Access in Motherwell. I often ponder the randomness of where you are
born – country, neighbourhood, family, and how that affects your life.
Some of us are lucky but muck it up, some of us overcome adversity, some
of us have no chance at all.
The fourth year Modern Studies pupils at
Hamilton College have been successful in obtaining a place in the heats
of the BBC Question Time Schools Competition, and last night held a
‘Question Time’ to be judged by the BBC and joint sponsors BT. I hope
they get through to the next round. The panel consisted of yours truly,
a Labour MSP, a Conservative MSP, a Lib-Dem Westminster candidate and
Joan Burnie, renowned journalist and social commentator – all women
because of International Women’s Day. It was a good event, the audience
being pupils, parents and teachers, with varied questions, topical and
women-related. The pupils ran it well, so fingers crossed for them!
A day in the office and the chance to plod
through the deskwork, prepare for tomorrow’s Communities Committee and
the Stage 1 debate on Charity Law tomorrow afternoon. My only desk
breaks today – apart from the usual wandering the corridor in case I
miss anything – were a really interesting session with a Stirling
University student carrying out research for his dissertation on voting
patterns and Party whipping, and a housing interview with the BBC. So,
here I am, back of 9 o’clock, and considering a Chinese carry-out and
glass of white wine. When I left East Timor in 1999 after their
independence ballot, I went to Bali for a couple of days and I’ve just
received an email from pals there about their celebrations this week –
Nyepe, New Year, the Day of Silence is celebrated every 420 days, and
another festival, Galungan when the ancestor spirits come down to earth,
every 210 days. Both fall this week with only one day in-between, so
celebrations for all. Wish I was there!
Best wishes from Bali for health,
peace, happiness and light from the island of the gods
And so to Wednesday morning again,
Communities Committee and open-cast coal. The Deputy Minister was there
to answer questions about their plans to change planning guidance to be
more in favour of communities rather than the industry. The Committee
don’t have the right to change any of the proposals, just to comment on
them. Whilst there was no real committee opposition to the proposals
because it’s recognised that there have been instances where a company
has taken advantage and enforcement by the Local Authority has been
lacking, there was concern about the industry and the workers involved
which I hope was taken on board.
Wednesday afternoon’s debate focussed on the
Communities Committee Report on the proposed Charities legislation. Good
debate with some good ideas for improving the Bill, but a bit hijacked
by the issue of whether all private schools would meet the ‘public
benefit’ test. Next stage will be when it comes back to our Committee
for potential amendment.
Fair Trade fortnight ongoing so off to
Council HQ in Hamilton this evening to see Hamilton receiving Fair Trade
Town status. So glad to see that once again so many school-children are
involved. The Hamilton Fair Trade Group worked really hard, and South
Lanarkshire Council have been supportive.
SNP Debates in Chamber this Thursday morning
– Dentistry first, followed by Early Years Education. All debates can be
read on the Scottish Parliament website; in fact if you could bear it
some of them are on webcam! I nipped out half way through to meet up
with the Commission for Racial Equality. They had asked for a meeting
because during the last Anti-Racism debate in the Chamber I had raised
the question of public authorities’ obligations through the Race
Relations (Amendment) Act 2000., quoting a CRE report in 2003 that noted
that 89% or public authorities said they had difficulty meeting their
duties. I asked the Executive for an update, but this has not been
forthcoming, so I must get back onto this. You know, there are so many
things needing done!
I did have a really interesting lunchtime
when my colleague Michael Matheson and I met with Mr. Robinson Githie,
Assistant Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs in Kenya. He
was visiting our Parliament to research the Scottish experience of
devolution, as he is an ardent reformer in his own country where power
is very much centralised in Nairobi. He was also interested in our
reporting mechanisms, transparency and accountability etc. as there is
of course a big problem with corruption in his country. Robinson was
telling us that he wants to come back to Scotland because he loves to
walk and climb and is fascinated by our scenery, and said that he hoped
Michael and I would show him around a bit when he returns. I told him
that when he comes back to bring his wife – she and I can go shopping
and Michael can take him mountain climbing! Sounds good to me.
Lots of African folks around our Parliament
today – I also bumped into a Tanzanian delegation of politicians,
architects etc. here to look at our new complex as they plan to build a
new parliament themselves. Amongst the delegation was the Tanzanian
Government’s Chief Whip, the Honourable William Lukuvi, who passed on
Esterina’s regards – his constituency is Iringa, next to Esterina’s
where I spent such a marvellous week last November.
Well, I’m heading home to Strathaven now to
make sure I’m on time to watch the first episode of The Gathering Place,
the documentary about the Holyrood project. I’m really dreading this you
know!
Friday morning and I’m waiting at home in
Strathaven for Morag to arrive. We’ve got a big day in Strathaven and
Sandford today. We have Mr. Tadesse Mescele visiting us on behalf of
Fair Trade Coffee producers in Ethiopia. We’re having lunch with the
Fair Trade Group in Strathaven and then heading for Sandford School
where the school will be presented with a special certificate of
initiative from the Fair Trade Foundation.
I watched The Gathering Place and I’m
dreading next week’s even more now. The format for the four programmes
seems to be chronological and generally having a go at MSPs, so next
Tuesday it’s likely to be the Holyrood Progress Group slot. There was an
awful clip of me at the end of the first episode – still, when you’re
asked to do something, all you can do is give it your best shot, and
that’s what I did.
Well, I’m back from Sandford, Morag’s off
home and I feel as happy as Larry – to heck with Tuesday night’s
programme, this afternoon was what’s really important in life!
Tadesse was really interesting over lunch
and told us so much about his country and the way of life of his people.
Before we headed off to Sandford school we were told that it was an
‘in-service’ day so might not be that busy. Well, when we got there the
turnout was marvellous – over half of the school-roll of around 60
pupils had turned out, along with mums and dads, grandmas and friends.
The children were so knowledgeable and well prepared, delighted to be
meeting someone from Ethiopia and hearing how Fair Trade benefited
Tadesse’s family and community. Tadesse himself was stunned by the
reception and the obvious commitment of Sandford, the village as well as
the school. They really have embraced Fair Trade and well deserve the
accolade of Scotland’s first Fair Trade School. Well done Sandford!
Some of Sandord School’s
posters/Tadesse meets Nessie
