Happy Halloween

Happy birthday to my wee cousin as well, enjoy yourself people.

SYLVESTER

And the fish

SNP IN TROUBLE

LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY

The SNP both nationally and locally have been up to their eyes in it this week, between the SNP locally cutting £2 Million off the budget without being able to tell the Council members where the cuts would be made, and from what I hear they were also unwilling to give a long term commitment to continuing the Labour Party policy of no compulsary Redundancies, and the SNP nationally being voted down in the Parliament over their plans for their Skills initiative.

On the second case it doesn't look as though they will be paying much attention to the defeat in terms of policy, as they seem to be suggesting they will go ahead with it anyway.

Interestingly enough on the Local front according to press reports the SNP/Liberal Democrat Administration will be cutting £1.1 Million from the Education budget in Renfrewshire and over half a Million from the Social Work budget, what the PDE didn't cover was that despite being very specific about the amounts being cut, the SNP were not so forthcoming in terms of what this would mean to front line services and staff, we shall wait and see.

PEDAL FOR SCOTLAND

LEUKEMIA RESEARCH

This Sunday starting from Glasgow Green there is a massive cycle race, starting from Glasgow and heading to Edinburgh click on the link above to find out more information but it is in aid of Leukemia Research one of my FAVOURITE charities!!

Alastair Campbell is opening the event, he has been a major supporter of the charity for sometime, if you are interested visit the website get involved!

WALK OF HOPE

CHOOSE LIFE

When I was the Local Councillor and the Deputy Convenor for Community and Family Care, last year and the year before I had the privilege of being invited along to the Walk for Hope in Paisley Town Centre, and even though I am no longer in that role I was intending in joining the walkers through the town centre on Saturday. Unfortunately due to work commitments I was unable to attend but I was delighted to see the article in the paper today, over 100 people took part according to the coverage and I am delighted by the response.

Recently the issue of suicide prevention has taken a more personal theme for me as one of my friends recently lost a brother to suicide, no one can understand the grief and confusion that comes unless you have been through it yourself, last year I spoke to many mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of people who had committed suicide and saw first hand the excellent work carried out by all of the agencies but in particular Rosemary Mullan and the team at Choose Life, I was delighted they got such a good response this year and fully intend on being with them next year.

Anyone interested should visit the Wynd Centre in Paisley tomorrow between 10am and 1pm for the excellent information morning co-ordinated by ChooseLife Renfrewshire and involving Breathing Space, First Crisis and ChooseLife, remember you are not alone and don't be afraid to ask for help.

The girls enjoy some time out!

The photo is of the dogs enjoying a day out in Erskine. There are some fantastic walks in this part of Renfrewshire so if you are looking for something to do today keep it in mind.

PR THE RESULTS

NOT QUITE THIS WEEKS POLL

OK so it lastest quite a while more than one week, a couple of months to be more precise but I have noticed an interesting trend in the results of late. When I first posed the question regarding the nature of proportional representation and whether or not it gives a disproportionate amount of power to smaller parties the results were vastly different from those I am about to announce. At the beginning it was almost equal, and the no's even had it by a slight margin, but you will see now that the results are pretty conclusive...

The Question: Proportional Representation gives a disproportionate amount of power to smaller parties

The Answers ...

Totally Agree: 72% (144 votes)

Agree: 0% (0 Votes)

Don't Know: 0% (0 Votes)

Disagree: 6% (12 Votes)

Totally Disagree: 22% (43 Votes)

Now before anyone starts on about me doctoring the figures by voting loads of times myself, I set up the poll so that you (including me) can only vote once in a year! This stopped the usual suspects (you know who you are) from trying to skew the results to the response that suited their agenda.

It happens that this was my opinion, that proportional representation is disproportionately favourable to the smaller 'King Maker' parties like the Greens in Holyrood or the Liberals in Renfrewshire Council, their agenda is foisted onto a public that didn't vote for it, and in some cases the parties didn't even stand enough candidates to win the election (Greens nationally and the Liberals on Renfrewshire Council) and so were always intending on being the King Makers so to speak. I can't help but wonder if the reason the voting patterns for this poll changed so dramatically over time, was that those getting involved noticed something either nationally or locally which drew them to this conclusion? It would be interesting to know.

For now thanks for dropping by,and thanks for voting, I will get another poll up and running pretty soon.

MY NEW DOO

EVENTUALLY GOT ROUND TO IT

Got my hair cut and coloured last Saturday for a gorgeous wedding. Loving it, doubt if I could get it to look like this again though! Eventually got round to getting it cut, again another of those things that I never got time for during the campaign so delighted I had time to sit down for two hours and get it cut and coloured, also delighted that there is a fantastic hairdressers down the road from my flat!

BESSIE THE SIDE KICK

ANOTHER MOBILE POST

This is another mobile post so Bessie does not feel left out, she may look cute but she is fierce!

MOLLY THE WONDER DOG

MY FIRST MOBILE BLOG

This is the first blog entry I have made in a while and it is also the first blog entry I have made via my mobile phone. I must admit I wanted to get the mobile blogging up and running during the recent elections but the service was only available in the US at that time so had to wait.

The above photo is of Molly (of course) taken with my new camera phone extrodinaire blogging, photos, video messages and calling the lot very impressed with it so far.

TV LICENSE

NO TV LICENSE? I'LL STOP THE DIRECT DEBIT THEN!!

Due to my work I don't usually get home till after 7pm so imagine my surprise when I got home tonight and saw the letter from the TV Licensing people telling me that they were planning to take further action because according to their records I don't have a TV license.

I might not be the best organiser in the world but the TV license was the first thing that I did when I moved into my flat, actually didn't even have a TV yet when I did it!! This is the second time that I have received a letter like this the first time I called and advised the girl at the end of the phone of my TV license number and she advised she would put a note on the system, this time I tried to visit the website (tried calling first but they were closed) and it is under construction!!! So if you are out there TV people I HAVE A LICENSE and a DIRECT DEBIT to prove it.

SNP EDUCATION POLICY

WHAT A JOKE

I am not long back from work and I have been checking out the news on the BBC website and happened to notice the SNP's new education announcement, what struck me the most -apart from it falling short of their election promises- was that they have said that the Scottish Executive will absorb the £9 Million cost involved without telling you where they are getting it from?

As my gran used to say 'It was worth a try' but how long did they think they would get away with doing this?

In other not so new news, the SNP's transport policy is going down the drain after their previous announcements that they would scrap the trams and rail link in Edinburgh (no they would look at them, no they would scrap them, fiasco) the Auditor has come back pretty much saying that the only problem with the Rail link is that key decisions have yet to be made, pretty much down to the SNP floundering then! They were desperate to have the Edinburgh trams stopped saying we could spend the money better (before the auditor had actually come to any decisions that is), now what will be the tune?

CUSTOMER SERVICE?

MOBILE PHONES

I am sure there are mobile phone networks that are really good at customer services but the one I am with (who for the moment shall remain nameless) is absolutely awful!! I have spent a total of two hours on hold over the last two months trying to get a decent upgrade for my phone (once for half an hour on the option I am THINKING of cancelling my contract), I have been with them for sometime and spend a significant amount of money with them (I rarely use my home phone) and they are still moaning about it, they even went as far as to give me the code I need to transfer my number over to someone else.

It got me thinking though, I spend a fair amount on my mobile and I have been looking around for a better deal always keeping in mind that I have to check the signal for the areas that I am most likely to be in first, and there are some great deals out there, from unlimited texts and calls at the weekends to free mobile Internet for two months, yet something is missing. Is it just me or have the UK mobile phone companies yet to convince the UK population that the service is about more than the phone? I want a Nokia N95 (Highly unlikely that I will end up getting one) and have been looking around as to who will give me one Free of Charge, then looking at the deals they offer, for me it is the functionality of the handset then the network deal.

You can see they are trying to move away from this towards the service they provide you only have to look at the most recent adverts by T-Mobile and Orange concentrating on the web and walk and pay as you go reserve tank respectively, did you hear a phone make or model mentioned? I understand why they do it, but I must admit I think they are on a losing battle at least one of the networks has been doing this for about three years and as yet they have been largely unsuccessful because when your contract is up all you want to know is.... What kind of new phone can I get and is it free?

BREAST FEEDING IN PUBLIC

EQUALITY LAW

I was delighted to see the new Equality Law includes legislation to allow women the legal right to breast feed in public, a right that Scottish women already have thanks to the previous Labour led Scottish Executive. As a Councillor one of the things that I developed an interest in was the rates of breast feeding throughout Renfrewshire and the correlation that this had between poverty and ill health, it was appalling, however, with the Breast Feeding awareness information and groups that have been planned by the promotion service the rate has increased significantly in some areas. The Scottish Neighbour Statistics and the Scottish Health profiles record this data and anyone interested can visit the website of the Office of National Statistics or the Scottish Executive.

The right to breast feed without getting asked to leave a cafe or restaurant is important, it is not just the babies that need socialisation but the mothers as well and sometimes getting out for a coffee (decaf of course) is a major release, sometimes going shopping is a major release and you cannot tell the baby to wait till it gets home. I for one am 100% behind this and hope that all parties can agree with at least this section of the legislation.