Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Branch meetings - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants



Some things in life change.   Some things in life don’t change.   Some things in life come around again & you feel like they never changed at all.  I’m sitting typing in my room while listening to Steve Lamacq on the radio & thinking about the SNP branch meeting this evening.   I could’ve typed that last sentence 20 years ago.  The branch meeting will be in a local authority owned building.  Same as before.   We’ll be discussing plans for the forthcoming election.  Same again.  We’re living under a Tory government that attacks the poor & the vulnerable.   Aye, you guessed it, same as 20 years ago.  
Luckily, ach scrap that.  It’s nothing to do with luck.  It’s been about bloody hard work by a lot of people.   Start that again. …
Thankfully some things are different.   Back then you would turn up for a branch meeting & hope that enough people would turn up to make the meeting quorate.  Now I’m hoping I’ll get a seat.   Following on from the referendum people are still engaged in politics to a degree that they never were before, not in this country anyway.  When my political life was in its infancy I really believed we would win every election.   In 1997 I was genuinely disappointed that Ewan Dow didn’t win Stirling.  I was gutted that the SNP didn’t win more seats.  Right… stop laughing.  I hadn’t even left school yet.  We were fighting a campaign against Michael Forsyth, the Tory Scottish Secretary.   In hindsight an awful lot of natural SNP supporters would have voted Labour just to get him out.  This time we are the favourites in pretty much every constituency. 
Anyway, I had intended on typing more just now.   There’s more I need to say.   But I’ve just found out while I’ve been writing that the very first SNP member I ever knew passed away a few days ago.  The party & the country owe him a huge thank you.  We are standing on the shoulders of giants.   Rest in Peace Robert.

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