East End Ward

Spent an interesting day with SNP colleague's at our National Council meeting today. For those of you not up on politics, it's a mini conference where we meet, discuss and vote on issues which have arisen between our main Spring and Autumn conferences.

It was a meeting which was different to those in the past. The hall in the Dewar's Centre at standing room only, smiles on all of the faces and unusually a guest speaker. One of the debates was on the Scottish Independence Convention and we were addressed by Elaine C Smith.

Now many of you will know that Elaine is an SNP supporter (not member) and for those of us old enough Rab C's long suffering wife, but many of you will not be aware that she is chair of the Scottish Independence Convention.

This is a body which encompasses those who believe in Independence for Scotland and they welcome everyone, regardless of party political affiliation, who shares the vision of Scotland being a free and democratic independent state.

Elaine's message was quite simple. It was about the fact that we, the Scottish People are being denied a say in our future by a group of parties because they dinnae believe in it! This organisation is quite simply about bringing the debate back to the people. She mentioned various things about how this will be carried out and what they have in mind. Too much to put in this blog so I have included a link to the website http://www.scottishindependenceconvention.com/index.asp

Interestingly enough, the blog on the home page at the moment is from a lib dem peer
Jamie, Earl of Mar and Kellie. Just in case the introduction has gone from the page when you get there, here is his introduction on the website;

This weeks blog comes from Lib Dem peer Jamie, Earl of Mar and Kellie. Jamie is a staunch supporter of Scottish independence, and is a card carrying member of the Independence Convention. His views are at odds with the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, but we suspect his views are shared by many others in his party.