Silly Season?

It's July - the school holidays are here and of course it's tipping down with rain. Politics normally winds down for the summer recesses now, and it's traditionally the 'silly season' for newspapers with not much news but lots of column inches to fill.
That's all change this year though. First we had wee Wendy's departure and this week the Lib-Dem's Scottish leader decided to relinquish those onerous duties and return to the back benches. Nicol Stephen does have four young children, and trekking back and forth from Edinburgh to Aberdeen can't be a lot of fun (if quite lucrative) but Nicol's decision does some to have been made with undue haste.
Some have suggested that there are some murky secrets to come out (in particular about the Aberdeen by-pass), and that the Lib-Dem leader chose to leave at a time when the spotlight was on Labour's current travails. Time will tell, but I do hope that he really is leaving to spend more time with his family - he's always come across as a decent, inoffensive chap if a less than convincing leader. Even if there is less pressure on his time now he has given up the leadership, though, he is still an MSP and the same old grind of commuting will continue. Life must have been so much easier when he had the ministerial Mondeo on tap ... and some evil ne'er-do-wells are suggesting that the loss of status, salary and all the other trappings of power are the real reasons for his departure. Surely not?
Politics can be a very selfish business, and whether you're just a humble toon cooncillor or a lofty Euro MEP it's tough to balance the demands of the job and family life. Glasgow councillor George Ryan apparently took counsel from his wife - 'Yer no' stonnin'!' when he belatedly decided not to stand for Labour in the by-election caused by the resignation of Glasgow East MP David Marshall. According to some newspaper reports Mr Marshall is also very much a man steeped in family values and keen to see as much of his family as he could - even to the extent of employing them to work from home for him at a cost to the public purse of around half a million quid! Anyhow, Mr Marshall's decision to retire - officially on health grounds - has caused Labour a bit of a headache.
On the face of it it should have been quite straightforward. Glasgow East is one of Labour's safest seats, with a majority of 13,500. It's one of those seats beloved of the Labour Party - 'ma granda aye voted Labour, ma ma and da voted Labour an ah'm votin' Labour' - where in days gone by there was no need to count the votes, just weigh them. Times change, though, even in the West of Scotland, and there is real fear in the ranks that the seat could fall - in a year of disasters for Labour, this really would be the disaster of disasters.
Local MSP Margaret Curran has now thrown her hat into the ring so she'll be a 'shoo in' for selection. Until this weekend she had been actively considering standing for the leadership of the Labour Group at Holyrood, but it seems she's now willing to come to the party's aid to fight the Westminster seat. Malcontents (yes, the cynics are everywhere) have suggested that she would never have won the leadership election anyway - she is blamed by some as being the insider responsible for leaking details of Wendy's expenses - and that her Holyrood seat will disappear (and her career with it) through imminent boundary changes.
Whatever her reason for standing, there's no doubt that she faces a real battle to hold on to the seat. The bookies - who usually get these things right - have now installed the SNP as favourites to take Glasgow East. I think they may be wrong this time though.
While a swing of that magnitude is not unheard of, I can't see the SNP enthusing the electorate enough to overturn a majority of that size during the traditional Glasgow Fair fortnight. Also, like her or loathe her Margaret Curran is at least a nationally known politician - a 'big hitter' in a world where there are currently few around. I think she'll just scrape home, and any majority at all will be hailed as a momentous victory by Labour given recent circumstances. An opportunity to draw a line under all that's gone before and a chance to say: we're over the worst, it's bottomed out and the fightback starts here.
Should Labour lose, expect the usual 'mid-term one-off','electorate taking the opportunity to give the government a kicking but we're listening to them and we fully expect to take this seat back in the General Election' stuff, but everyone knows it's rather more serious than that. Losing Glasgow East will see what's left of Labour's fair weather funders abandon ship, taking their wallets with them and with the General Election just two years away that could really be the final nail in the coffin. Labour is basically skint, and you can't fight elections without funds.
There's a hell of a lot riding on the 21 July result - the stakes just don't get any higher.

Last week, our esteemed Westminster parliamentarians showed their solidarity with us poor, down-trodden taxpayers and decided to eschew an above inflation pay increase. Very noble, but sadly their good intentions were rather over-shadowed by their decision to hang on to their 'John Lewis list' expenses gravy train. Unsurprisingly, the public appear to be less than overwhelmed by their elected representatives actions. The words 'snouts' 'troughs' and 'greedy bastards' have been very much in evidence!

Sport

Sadly but predictably, 'our' Andy was put in his place by the awesome Spaniard Nadal at Wimbledon, and overnight became 'sullen Scot' as opposed to 'true Brit'! There's a huge gulf between Federer and Nadal and the rest - a bit like the Old Firm in our Premier League - and as there is just one year's difference in age between Murray and Nadal it's hard to see the Scot ever being able to narrow that gap and become a champion. The match was man against boy; the Spaniard was just too strong and powerful and there is no shame in losing to one of the world's two true greats.

More Spanish success at in the Euro final last Sunday too, and it was truly a case of 'the best team won'. Sure, others had their moments throughout the tournament - the Croatians briefly shone, the Dutch looked unbeatable for a while and even the Russians looked likely winners at one stage - but ultimately it was the Spaniards who lifted the trophy with some sublime football (watching them, it was sometimes like being back at Easter Road under Mowbray!)
Sadly, I was unable to focus on most of the Final action on Sunday night, having imbibed too freely at Ken Harrold's birthday party earlier that evening - but I think I enjoyed it.

Finally a note of sympathy to Spartans, who lost out on a League place to Annan Athletic. The local club recently picked up a much-merited Community Award and it was disappointing that they didn't get the place. Given the parlous state of some clubs' finances, though, (who mentioned Hearts?) it may not be too long before they are elevated to the Football League.

Work

The diary was relatively free this week (as is usual when the schools go off) and a lot of time was spent discussing Fairer Scotland Funding (sorry, this will keep coming up!) A meeting of all the projects affected, along with the local community councils) has now been set up for later this month.

Home Sweet Home

Other than a sodden but fun barbecue at my brother's yesterday, cars dominated the domestic agenda this week. The Picasso's exhaust blew on Monday and also needed two new tyres, and this was followed by a full service and MoT test on Thursday. Around £700 poorer, I have come to the conclusion that cars can be an expensive commodity!
Also Knutt finally relented and took her car in to get a flat tyre checked when other motorists kept flashing her and pointing down at her wheel - she had cunningly got round the problem of the noise caused by running a nearly flat tyre by turning up her radio. Sadly, that, in itself, did not really resolve the problem and Knutt has just found out that it actually costs money to run a car. You learn something new every day!

£700 poorer I shall have to tighten the belt a bit (and not because of a shrinking waistline - despite my best efforts I have PUT ON three pounds this week!)and no social activities are planned in the near future. At least I can sit at the window and watch the young foxes frolicking in the garden (pictured above) - that's free!