It’s the Saturday before payday. It’s about a month till Christmas. That’s exactly what most folk are thinking
about just now. Given events over the
last week in France, Syria, Lebanon, Mali to name just a few, some of the more
empathetic of you may well be thinking about what a tragic state the world
seems to be in just now. I’ll not be
touching on those in today’s post. It’s not that I haven’t given much though to
those things this week. Indeed, if you
are as much of a news addict as I am then you can’t avoid it. My own Great Granddad was a refugee to this
country just over a century ago. So the whole debate about ethical foreign
policy and treatment of migrants is something very close to my heart. I do intend to write a piece regarding these issues,
but I need a wee bit more time before I do.
It certainly is not a blog piece I want to rush.
As much as I’ll use this blog to talk about some of the big
issues like immigration, Scottish Independence (of course), Scottish politics,
Westminster Politics and the rest of it, I also want to use it as a rough
election diary. Some of these entries
might be relatively small, some might have a photo or two. I’m pretty sure that every time I’m out that
something will catch my eye or spark a thought.
Before I begin I should make clear that I am not an office bearer within
the SNP, nor do I have any official role or responsibility within the local
campaign. I am simply a fairly hard
working activist (or so I tell myself).
Having said that, I have been an activist in the SNP for near enough 20
years. So if you do have any questions
or points to make then feel free to use the comments section below & I’ll
do my best to respond. Remember folks,
I am NOT a neutral. I will not always
be completely objective. I do not make
any apologies for that…. Wait a minute, I’m missing something here. That’s right, I need to shout out two things. Firstly, the election date is May 5th
2016. Don’t forget! Thursday the 5th of May
2016! Polls are open from 0700hrs to
2200hrs. Then the whisky gets opened,
unless you’re lucky enough to be going to the Count. Secondly, Vote SNP on that day. If you happen to be lucky enough to live in
the Edinburgh North & Leith Constituency then the man to vote for is Ben Macpherson. You’ll be hearing that name a lot over the
coming months in this blog. But that’s
because I intend to work bloody hard for Ben.
This is a campaign I’m particularly enthused about. It’s not just that the polls are looking
great. It’s not just because we have
such a good candidate here. The biggest
factors are my love of this constituency & the primary goal of this campaign. Edinburgh North & Leith is the only
constituency seat that the SNP did not win last time round. This is the only seat that Labour managed to
hold onto. I accept that Malcolm
Chisholm is a competent constituency parliamentarian. But at the end of the day he still
represents Labour. As a party they do not
deserve to hold this seat. Their candidate,
Cllr Hinds certainly does not deserve to hold this seat for her party. I desperately want to play my part in the
team that wins the constituency for the SNP & gives Leith the
representation in Holyrood that it deserves.
WE are the only party that can deliver that. As I said before, I really love Leith. I have never felt more part of a community
than since I moved down here. I’ll not
bombard you with stats & facts about Leith at the moment. I’ll bring the relevant ones to your
attention over the coming months when appropriate. This is not meant to be an election address,
that’s Ben’s job. It’s not my job to
tell you why he’s such a good candidate, he is more than capable of doing so
himself. That’s why we chose him, go
& have a look at his website.
Given this is supposed to be a diary entry I really should tell
you what I did today. I stood at the
Kirkgate from 11am till just after 12:30.
As per usual we had the stall & a decent number of activists. Indeed we had about double what Labour
managed, who were just round the corner.
After about 15 minutes I couldn’t feel my toes. There was a bit of chat amongst fellow
activists & I spoke to a couple of people about the forthcoming
election. Let’s face it, for most folk
the election is a long way off. The last
election was only in May & we had the referendum just a few months before
that. Most normal people have had their
fill of politics for a wee while. They
just want to get on & enjoy the festive period. It’s for that reason that we were fairly un-intrusive
today. We pretty much stood back &
let people approach us as opposed to forcing leaflets into hands. Today was about showing that we are here as
a branch week in, week out. It was
about showing that presence in the heart of the community. Given that we had double the activists that
Labour did & that none of the other parties had a presence in Leith I’d say
we achieved what we set out to. We also
had our photos taken at the stall. Have
a look at the Leith Walk & Leith
branches Facebook pages for those photos.
I realise I’m maybe not selling this whole activism thing too well. It might not be the most exciting activity
in the world. But it is important &
it does make a difference. Political
parties win elections this way, through
lots of minor activities. In the
democratic system we have a party wins by engaging with the community. That’s what we’re doing in Leith. That’s what Nicola Sturgeon does on a
national level. That’s how we are the
major success that we are.
Coming later this week… Targeted letter delivery! Ben wants me to knock them in, so nae doubt
get something good for the blog. In the
meantime away & have a look at Ben’s page…
http://benmacpherson.com/
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