30 January 2010

Mike Crockart

After an early morning meeting it was out and about meeting people and delivering literature. Still getting really good feedback and many people wishing me well for the future and wanting to meet Mike, our new candidate. Am glad that more and more people know who he is and are aware that he is the best man to represent the seat. Later in the day the word was that Nigel Griffiths was standing down in Edinburgh South. No great surprise, but it does leave it really late to find someone to fight the seat for Labour. Nigel’s comment that he was standing down now to give plenty of time for a new candidate to fight the seat was met with incredulity by those who heard it. Am confident Fred McIntosh will win this one for the Liberal Democrats.

29 January 2010

Nicotine Free Cigarettes

Met up with an interesting lobby group campaigning to remove nicotine from cigarettes. They had some good points, but had no idea how the system worked, how Private Members’ Bills progressed or many other aspects of campaigning for change. Moving towards a society where personal responsibility increases in areas of health, education and law and order is something I have raised many times before. Looks like those campaigning on this could do with some advice about how Westminster works.

24 January 2010

Parliamentary Reform

This evening it was interesting to be at my first Federal Executive, not as a substitute and in my own right. One side issue I mentioned, that we should look at after the election, was our approach to not standing in the seat which elects the Speaker. There is clearly a head of steam building within the Conservative MPs to replace the current Speaker after the election. If this happens, the replacement will have fought for his or her seat and it might be that this will be the norm in the future. My own view is that after the election of the Speaker, he should continue to sit in the Commons for one term, but his own seat should be contested again, so that the constituents get an effective MP to represent them. Along with PR, fixed term Parliaments and House of Lords reform there will still be much to work on after I step down.

23 January 2010

More Paperwork

As a member of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Party Executive, today we had our first meeting since our colleague Roy Thomson had passed away. There was a vote at the meeting to select a replacement for Roy to serve on the Federal Executive and I was sad about the circumstances but also glad to be unanimously elected to serve at the UK level on this committee. The first meeting was the following week and part of Sunday would be spent going through the papers – what have I done?

20 January 2010

PMQs

Questioned the Prime Minister today about airport security at Edinburgh Airport. He had made a statement about counter terrorism measures and the need to increase security at airports. At the same time there had been press coverage about Edinburgh Airport scrapping the dedicated post in charge of security. He clearly had no idea what I was talking about and said he would look into it and get back to me – will see how long it takes to get one. Went to support the Every Vote Counts campaign to encourage people to vote, especially those who have a range of disabilities. The sad fact id that well under 20% of those people do not vote, even though most are registered to vote. Government decisions play a large part in much of the life of those with disabilities but for a variety of reasons few actually cast a vote in elections. With some minor changes it should be easy to change this. The target is to double the numbers of those voting to 40% as a start.

19 January 2010

The RNIB

Total Politics interviewed me this morning about standing down. This is becoming a habit as I have now given a number of similar interviews, but I have kept one copy of each interview for the years to come, when the grand-children are old enough to be able to look back and ask me what it was all about. In the afternoon I attended an event run by the RNIB and Mencap about the problems of people with mental health problems getting their eyesight properly looked after. I met one woman who had lost her sight at 18 because of her mental health problems; nobody would listen to her about her eye problems which could have been cured. She had been blind ever since.

18 January 2010

The Pyramids

In the morning there was some time before the flight back to the UK left Cairo, so I went to see the Pyramids. They are right on the edge of the city and depending on the direction you look, it can either be an unspoilt desert scene with Pyramids and a Sphinx or if you turn round, you see a filthy run down Cairo suburb. For one of the worlds most iconic sights, the surrounding setting and lack of information on the site are a disgrace. Voted in Westminster at the end of the day as the time difference meant that I was back in time, almost as quick as getting down from Edinburgh.

17 January 2010

The Gaza Strip

Having visited Israel and the West Bank, but not the Gaza Strip, I was delighted to join a delegation from a number of Parliaments to see at first hand what is going on. One year ago I helped lead the march through Edinburgh to stop the bombing of Gaza. Now I am pushing to end the siege of this god-forsaken part of the world where the children are growing up hating their Israeli neighbours. To meet young children who have lost their sight and their legs left me lost for words and wondering how this could still happen in this day and age and nearly on our doorstep. It reminded me of when I was in Auschwitz, when people asked, “How could anyone let this happen?”

13 January 2010

High Speed Rail Link

At Scottish Questions today it was another chance to press the Secretary of State for Scotland on High Speed Rail. This time he agreed with me that it was vitally important for Glasgow and Edinburgh to work together to make sure that all of central Scotland is served by this link. It would be a disaster if cities fought each other for the link, only to find that neither one got it. The population of central Scotland is high enough and its distance far enough from London to make a great case for the link to serve both cities – hopefully it will. Told that Nigel Griffiths the Edinburgh South MP is possibly standing down.

12 January 2010

Dennis Healy

Spoke in a debate today in Westminster about exportable benefits. This is the problem that many older or disabled people suffer from when they decide, often for health reasons to go and live abroad. In its wisdom, the government has decided that certain payments will not be made, even though the individuals have worked all their lives and paid their taxes here in the UK. The really stupid thing about this Government decision is that by not paying relatively small amounts to people abroad, those same people might then return home, where they would not only receive the benefit, but would also qualify for treatment under the NHS which in total could cost much more. The Government’s sums just don’t add up. Then went to a lunch where Dennis Healy, the former Chancellor was the guest speaker. Looking old and frail he struggled to get on to the stage, but mentally he was as sharp as ever.

10 January 2010

The Snowman

For the first time in three weeks it was great to see the family back from sunny Greece. They have had three weeks of very mild weather, so the sub-zero temperatures were a bit of a shock. This gave me the perfect excuse to build a snowman for the first time in a decade. I used all my creative skill and included eyes, nose, ears and hands, as well as a hat and scarf. It was a welcome break from working on the computer, which kept me up until after midnight – once again. At least I will not be doing this next weekend. If all goes to plan I will be in the sunshine for a couple of days myself – more details later.

9 January 2010

Three New MPs for Edinburgh

Spent today at a General Election planning event and was particularly impressed by how wide our strength is throughout a number of seats in Edinburgh. There is every possibility that on a good day we will see three Liberal Democrat MPs returned from Edinburgh at the next election. As well as Mike Crockart in Edinburgh West, I am looking forward to Fred McIntosh defeating Nigel Griffiths in Edinburgh South and Kevin Lang taking Edinburgh North and Leith from Labour’s Mark Lazarowicz. This would make Edinburgh the first city in the UK where the majority of MPs were Liberal Democrats. I could not have dreamed that this would have been possible 30 years ago this year, when I first joined the party. It has taken a while, but if it happens - it will have been worth the work and the wait.

7 January 2010

The Big Freeze

This week the freezing weather in Scotland has now spread to London and the south. It is now as cold in some parts of the country (-17C) as it is at the South Pole. My flight north today should have been an early one and I left before 8am for Heathrow. Nine hours later I arrived in Edinburgh. Fortunately, with the mobile phone and a full briefcase of paperwork to keep me busy, it ended up being quite productive - working at the airport. Once on board the flight, the ice-covered plane was towed out on to the runway, where it was sprayed for 15 minutes with de-icer from giant hoses. It reminded me of the tragic case I had to deal with some years ago when ice brought down a mail plane from Edinburgh, killing the pilot and co-pilot in the Firth of Forth just north of Edinburgh. The son of the pilot came to see me about the following investigation into why ice in the engines had caused the crash. It turned out the night engine covers had not been put in place and overnight snow and ice got into the engine, which later worked loose and stalled both engines at the same time. I was happy to wait, as the ice was removed.

6 January 2010

The Punch and Judy Show

The first Prime Minister’s Question Time of the year was the usual Punch and Judy show, with Gordon Brown and David Cameron trading insults and second rate jokes at each other. In any other setting the audience would boo such poor performers off the stage, but in the House of Commons each has their own fan club, no matter how badly they perform. The entire episode was embarrassing – no wonder the public has lost faith in the Commons. At least Nick Clegg asked a serious question about the relatively higher rates of tax paid by the poor, compared to the rich. No answer from Gordon, as he tried to answer a question with a question as usual. He does not do answers at PMQ and has never given a straight answer to a question yet. Following PMQ there was an attempted coup by Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, the former Cabinet Ministers, calling for a leadership ballot. After their minute of fame on the box, it all fell apart, they are now history. There are few jobs available for failed back-stabbers, even in the Labour Party.

4 January 2010

Back to work

With the snow still lying six inches deep outside, it was back to work today and good to be able to link into the Parliamentary email system from home. Fortunately, as today is a public holiday, I did not need to go into the office. Clearing the backlog of paperwork and emails has been able to be done without going out in the sub-zero temperatures or driving on snow covered roads. Tonight’s Evening News also included a really nice two page spread on my decision to stand down and looking at some options for the future. Fortunately it did also make it clear that the snow covered Dovecot in the garden, was not a “duck-house.”

To read the Evening News article in full visit http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/politics/Barrett-thrives-outside-of-.5953184.jp