A Week in Parliament

Kiltwalk

With my wife Cyndi I did the Edinburgh Kiltwalk to raise money for Ayrshire Cancer Support. It was a great day, and the route was very scenic, heading out to Musselburgh and Portobello on the Firth of Forth before following the water of Leith. I am just shy of £400 of fundraising so if anyone wishes to give it a wee boost, you can donate via https:/edinburghkiltwalk2019.everydayhero.com/uk/alan-8. As all donations are further topped up by 40% from the Hunter foundation, then a number of small donations make a huge difference.

The walk also makes use of a number of old railway routes and I found it fascinating to see how extensive the rail network was in and around Edinburgh and how many small rail stations had been in place. I also had a thought – there were many campaigns in Scotland against the Beeching rail cuts, which mostly fell on deaf ears. In itself, this was a simple illustration of decisions massively impacting the daily lives of people in Scotland being made remotely in Westminster. Things have moved on, and we now have a Scottish Parliament funding the re-opening of some of the former rail lines. However, these former rail lines do perfectly illustrate that Westminster decisions are made for the sake of central UK finances rather than local communities.

Newmilns Food Festival

Yet again, the Newmilns Food Festival was a roaring success. Well done to all those involved. On the day, it is fantastic to see so many volunteers in their “Love Newmilns” tee-shirts. A lot of folk liked to joke that I was on a five-week holiday due to Parliament being suspended. However, when I had a pint in my hand and enjoying the company of friends it was much harder that day to state I am still working hard!

Surgeries

I am continuing to do street surgeries as well as my regular outreach and office surgeries. With my office staff we have door-knocked about 4000 households. An example of the positivity of this approach is one constituent who engaged with us, raised a matter about benefits which had been stopped. Following our intervention, £4000 of back dated money was re-instated! 

As part of our engagement process we sometimes send out letters notifying people of relevant surgeries or that we will be door knocking. While some may question the cost of such an approach, I do have a postage budget for constituent communications. If I didn’t utilise my postage money, then this would serve no financial benefits to local taxpayers as the money saved needs to be divided across the entire UK and would save something in the region of 0.01p. Therefore, the positive outcomes easily outweigh this value.

Debate

I took part in a debate at Glasgow University, speaking to the motion “This House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government”. I outlined how Boris Johnson isn’t fit for office and issues with other Government personnel and policies. While the audience may have had their own bias, not one student in the audience disagreed with the motion. A damning indictment indeed.