13th June 2022: A Week in Parliament

Vote of No Confidence

So Boris Johnson has now recorded the worst ever result, in a vote of confidence of any Tory Prime Minister. Rees Mogg demanded Theresa May stepped down when she did far better, so why are they still backing Johnson? When you take out Ministers and others “on the payroll”, it is estimated that 75% of backbenchers voted against Johnson. It is a sorry state of affairs when we are stuck with a Prime Minister, that so many of his parliamentary colleagues do not think is fit for office. In Scotland, he has never been rated and the majority of the people saw him for the charlatan he is. It is only a small consolation that the Tories are starting to recognise this. He should so some humility but that is not in his nature. Just like Trump, it is all about personal power and nothing else matters.

Gala Season

Weather-wise, I have now established that strong winds are far worse than the rain when there are tents, marquees and gazebos to put up for gala days. On a very windy Saturday, I managed to visit Galston, Fenwick and Darvel galas. Both Galston and Fenwick moved their stalls indoors so well done to the organisers for such flexibility to save the day.

Darvel, on the other hand, managed to keep theirs fully outdoors. A hardy lot indeed! It was impressive to see their big marquees survive the winds. Well done to the organisers, and a highlight was squeezing into the beer tent to shelter from torrential rain, while the band, The Aboriginals, were singing “why does it always rain on me”. Great to see so many people stick with it.

Roon The Toon

With my broken foot not yet healed, I was unable to run the Roon The Toon 10km race. I was fortunate the committee had me helping out give out t-shirts after the finishing line. It was really enjoyable seeing just how happy people were when they had finished. There is always a great atmosphere at the event and an astonishing 1800 people entered the race. A great effort from all involved at Kilmarnock Harriers, and there is no doubt they are helping promote the town with this. I was also able to hear, first-hand, just how complimentary runners from outwith the area were about the race which was excellent to hear.

Passport Chaos

I feel for all those constituents caught up in the passport processing delays. My staff have spent hours upon hours on the phone with casework and I have personally dropped into a help centre at Westminster too. I fear for when this will be resolved because they are doing so much firefighting and trying to sort out those with impending departure dates, then they are spending so many manhours doing this, that it will be months before any sort of “business as normal” can resume. Meanwhile, the Tories want to sack 91,000 civil servants. You cannot make this kind of stuff up and it is more Tory incompetence.