A Week in Parliament
/Celebrate Kilmarnock
I was delighted to do the formal opening of the Celebrate Kilmarnock premises in King Street, Kilmarnock. The Celebrate Kilmarnock board consists of a group of volunteers, many running their own businesses and so dedicating precious spare time. They have a simple ethos – look on the positive sides of the community and working at the regeneration of the town centre while engaging with the local community.
We have already seen K-Fest; the Spooky Halloween walks; owning the fact that Halloween in this area falls on the last Friday of October; the Halloween Extravaganza at the Howard Park, and a Family Fun day. Having a hub/premises is the obvious next step- if you want to find out more, pop in for a chat, and if you can offer your time, then all the better. I wish them well going forward and know they will continue to grow as a successful organisation.
Theresa May Reflection
Many people have expressed sympathy for the position Theresa May found herself in prior to her resigning as Tory Leader. Much of this centred on the fact “she took a job no-one else wanted”. The reality however s she took the job as part of her own personal ambition. There were plenty of other Tories who wanted the job, so it wasn’t as if she put her hand up just because no-one else would. [And of course Jeremy Corbyn wanted that job as well, although there are doubts about how well he would have done]. May had been chair of the Tory party in the past and the longest serving Home Secretary in history, all further proof of her personal ambitions.
The reality is she was a complete failure, and also a right wing ideologist. As Home Secretary she was responsible for the creation of the Windrush scandal; she was responsible for the “Go Home” vans, feeding into racist undertones. She happily cut police funding in England which has helped cause the knife crime epidemic in England.
As Prime Minister, she set her own red lines that tied up her negotiations. She called a needless General Election and ran what was seen as the worst campaign ever. She showed no empathy or understanding of the roll out of universal credit. The UN blame her Government policies completely for the negative impact on women, the disabled, children, and the poorest in our society.
She has completely ignored how Scotland has voted from the get go. She refused to consider any of the compromise positions offered by the SNP regards the EU negotiations. She effectively refused to compromise with anyone until the last minute. Yet in the final irony she used a war hero’s quotation about compromise not being a dirty word in her final speech. The use of that quote upset Nicholas Winton’s family as her politics were so different to his. You almost couldn’t make it up!
And who was Theresa May crying for when she announced her resignation plans? Herself and herself only. I don’t want to see anyone suffer emotionally, but these self-pity tears were an apt ending.
These views were first expressed in the Kilmarnock Standard.
