Good news for Scotland:

The bank has told staff that up to 12 offices could close in England, with some jobs added in Greenock and Edinburgh.

The centres set for closure or downsizing in 2011 are Leeds, Bolton, Enfield and Harrogate.

The following year, Norwich, Bradford, Telford, Plymouth, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Bristol and Borehamwood have been earmarked.

The Leicester, Southampton and Nottingham centres are under review.

The English taxpayer owns the majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland.

Last month going to my first live gig in what seems likes far too long I decided to do a new monthly feature. I thought I'd do a new feature at the end of each month let you share the song of my month. It may be the song that means something to me, the one I couldn't stop singing (out loud or in my head), the one I kept presses play and repeat on various formats, the one that sums up my month, its moods, its events etc.

Therefore I was going to post this one before a minor hiccup made me reconsider the whole scheme. But I say what the heck. A plan is worth doing if you stick to it warts and all, mixed emotions, feelings the lot.

This was my song for August and it actually ticks all the the boxes above. Enjoy.

Over at Harry's Place Edmund Standing has collated some quotes from EDL members that shed some light on what motivates the EDL.

I recommend that you read that piece in conjunction with BritologyWatch's excellent 'Racist' English nationalism: an alibi for Britain's anglophobia and Islamophobia.

It's all too easy for the commentariat to describe the EDL as 'English nationalists', and looking at the English Defence League, with their profusion of English flags, they could possibly be forgiven for using that label. But it's an incorrect label. It is labelling to compartmentalise and isolate. It's a label, as BritologyWatch argues, that is conveniently used to distance the views held by the EDL from those of mainstream British society. In this way English nationalism can be objectified as 'the other' in a simillar way to how the EDL objectify Islam as 'the other'. But the English Defence League are not really English nationalists (they're not advocates of popular sovereignty, and they're not demonstrating for an English parliament or English independence). No, they're actually very pro-British with a strong sense of Britishness. It will be an inconvenient truth for some but the EDL are as much a British disease as they are an English disease.

Today I announce the mothballing of one blog (this one) and the beginning of another (Better Nation).

First, the obligatory but still utterly unnecessary preamble, (mostly just included because I wrote this months ago and then bottled the imminent retirement, can't put those words to waste now):

The Green Party has returned its first MP to the House of Commons which is a tremendous effort given the First Past the Post system it has been fighting against for all of these years. With the 1% of the vote it received it should have returned 6 MPs, the same haul as the SNP, and that's before taking into account all the tactical voting that's been going on, obscuring the Greens' true popularity.

However, despite this good news, we are stuck with the return of a Tory Government, replete with a Cabinet which worryingly somehow contains Climate Change sceptics even in this post-Copenhagen, post-Kyoto, post-Al-Gore and soon to be post-Maldives era. This has effectively scuppered any realistic chance of stabilising global emissions by 2015. Saving the world was a daunting task before the challenge of reversing the increase in carbon emissions in 5 short years, failing is surely a foregone conclusion now unless something remarkable happens.

I noted the weary resignation of the Green candidate in my own constituency during the last election campaign, destined for fourth place but making all the right arguments at the hustings and receiving the strongest and warmest applause. I couldn't help but wonder at the time if Al Gore being robbed of the US Presidency by George Bush was the moment the planet missed its greatest opportunity to alter its tragic direction. That said, despite Ms Lucas' presence on those ironically green benches, GE2010 will have to go down as yet another moment where the greatest threat to life as we know it barely got a word in edgeways.

So what can the Green party do? Circumvent Westminster and seek to educate and mobilise the public to take direct action? It's worth a go I suppose.

For me, after much deliberating, most of it publicly stated on this blog, I've decided that I can't avoid the inconvenient truth of not being able to realistically maintain an SNP blog (as this would always be perceived) when I'm not a member of the party, don't particularly believe in independence, feel my political sympathies being pulled, yanked even, in a different direction and am unlikely to return to Scotland in the near to medium future.

Dear all,

This morning's Today programme on Radio 4 has just said that the Foreign Secretary being in a room with another man was a 'lapse of judgement' for a straight politician. Therefore and henceforth I shall have to make some adjustments to the way I live to avoid making a similar 'lapse' seeing as I am an openly gay politician this will affect my female friends and acquaintances.

To Caron, you had better not get ill again. I know during your recent illness I spent many hours coming to see you and sometimes turning up while you were still in your pyjamas. But if the press were to get hold of such information it would be dynamite and a serious lapse of judgement in their opinion. Therefore in future this will have to stop, even if you are on death's bed all meeting you will he have to be clothed in outdoor wear and you will have to wheeled or trolleyed, if necessary, to a public venue. If other's catch the pubonic plague as a result that is a price that will have to be paid.

Also Caron and Elspeth Finlay I know that you have often driven me into the back and beyonds to dump me on some strange street with loads of leaflets. However, in future I may have to insist on a male driver as the exit of a campaign headquarters in the sole company of a woman and not returning for hours, with the same driver, and then looking exhausted might be similarly misconstrued.

Dear Helen Duffett and Meg and others I do love the direct message conversations that we have on Twitter. But I think we are going to have to stop them which means the juicy stuff like planning the BOTY's, or bloggers at conference or just talking about hot men on TV will just have to be done in the open.

As for my dear cousin Rachel, we are going to have to keep using the Lab/Lib Dem supporting cousin epithet on all our tweets to each other using up some of the valuable 140 characters. If only your mother had been born male and we shared the same surname, that would have made things easier.

So sadly I shall have to make the required changes I cannot afford to have my character besmirched by keeping too close attention and proximity to members of the opposite sex. Guido and the MSM may well think I am slipping or defecting to a heterosexual lifestyle and that can never do.

Yours with regret,

Stephen Glenn

This post has taken me a good few hours to finish. I've actually toned it down a lot on re-reading, all of which wasn't doing my blood-pressure any good I guess. Trying to be as objective as possible when I'm this close to the subject has been hard. So I decided to screw on my journalistic head (just like Wurzel Gummage if he had one) as much as I could.

I may have only been back in Northern Ireland for only 10 days but I've already learnt a lot in my few short days back here.

First a personal observation, I'm a lot more confident with myself and my sexuality now than when I last lived here. The other day I boldly lifted Attitude off the shelf in Asda between two blokes and strode confidently to the checkout to pay. It was only later that I remembered the looks they both gave me, not hateful, just shock that I was so bold.

The other is that here in Northern Ireland the gay community or at least that which takes part in Pride in more 'christian' and forgiving of the religious bigots than their counterparts over the water. As I read with great joy the attitude that Belfast Pride took to the protest against them, I saw it in action on Saturday at Foyle Pride. The many Christians in the parade shouting back their forgiveness and love at those who were protesting. I know there have been individual incidents down the years, but I like the approach that the Pride committees take here, it's show tolerance to everyone whether they want to be involved or protest. Indeed the approach led to the Parades Commissions saying it had no issues with either the parade or counter protest in Belfast.

Earlier today I was directed towards this comment thread I'll warn you now it does make for pleasant reading. For those of you who don't want to read it and I suggest you don't bother I'll give you a potted version of some of the lowlights. Highlights they are not and the whole threat gets sickening in too many different ways, many based on falsehoods, untruths and narrow mindedness.

Too bad this "Pride Parade" didn't end in the same way as that "Love Parade" did in Germany a few weeks ago.

That was in the death of 19 young music lovers.

It would be lewd if this was a hetrosexual event, it's "family fun" because homosexual militancy fits in with some peculiar liberation narrative fabricated by some deranged quacks a couple of decades ago.

escalating to this:

When I see pork [police] acting the hardmen against peaceful protesters like this I often wonder what it would be like if someone suddenly produced an assault rifle and dropped about ten of them. They'd piss themselves.

or this

[This parade] is just a way of portraying gays as normal, you are not normal. As a matter of fact, many gay people regard themselves as having an alternative lifestyle.

Which ignores the fact that alternative lifestyle is the moniker put on people by narrow minded people not those living the 'alternative' lifestyle themselves often, and it applies to heterosexuals as much as homosexuals.

Or this one which shocked me in a whole new way:

I interpret the homosexual question in the same way as the multiple sclerosis question or someone with permanent or semi-permanent difficulties in walking...et al They shouldn't be subject to abuse, harrassment et al. I'd mandate programs to educate people in that spirit. Additionally they should have optional treatment. Either way they should, if their character is up to scratch, have no barriers to lead full and rich lives and have no doors closed to them.

or this

Very true. These parents [who brought their children to the parade], who probably have more brain fluid then brain matter in their heads, have to be serious deranged to bring their children to something like this. Think about it, a parade is a form of celebration. These parents brought their children to an event that celebrates the idea of two people of the same sex sodomizing, molesting, and urinating on each other and engaging in all kinds of other deprived sex acts. The idea that such things are worthy of being celebrated only shows how criminally deprived and insane the world we live in has become. Everything good and noble is mocked and savagely attacked while all that is sick, deranged, and deprived is upheld as good and normal.

It almost looks like people who store up wrath are looking for a target, any target and the LGBT community in the province will do all too handily.

In the middle of it all is this:

Very disturbing information has emerged of the homosexualist infiltration in Catholic circles.

Before linking to another Catholic Website that has information off Facebook and pictures of an individual who happens to be on the Belfast Pride committee amongst other things. Followed up by this.

man seeks relationship

? this dangerous pervert needs to be stopped.

What person doesn't deserve to find a relationship, the fact that he is looking for one is surely not a sign of perversion but quite the opposite!

This is where I do get really angry, as I know the individual concerned. It lists his occupation, it lists a lot of personal information about him. Just like Chris Myers the individual works for a politician, but Chris gave up under the pressure he was under from falsehoods, the language used here is hateful and grotesque. The attitude of some of those posting is vindictive. The information is extremely personal. It is also on a discussion board that is lacking a complaint button that I can find. There is almost an incitement to hate going on in many of the comments in both locations.

The individual concerned is my good friend Mícheál, so no doubt when some other nutter decides to raid his publicly available pictures in future I'll likely end up in there somewhere too. That will be one that is hard for some of the hardcore to explain a Catholic Scout and a Presbyterian Boys Brigade man walking side by side carrying a rainbow flag or the pink jack.

I know it had an impact on him, but like me I feel that he doesn't care a pair of fetid dingoes kidneys what is going on. If he or anyone else does there are people who are going to be there for them. I'm still going to be the person I've learnt to be over the recent years. That man who proudly picks up the gay mag in public. Is not scared of offering other men hugs, consoling or otherwise, in public places.

I may have returned as a brave new, more confident, out, Northern Irish man. But while one gay campaigner is saying that homophobic sentiment is on the decrease, some of the sentiment that some of the homophobes display here is far once than anything I have witnessed in England or Scotland. There is still some way to go and Foyle Pride's first parade on Saturday is only going some way toward that. I guess I'm part of that work going forward, for however long that is, it's the attitude I've come back here with, I'm not gong to avoid any questions that are asked, see the start of Operation Evacuate.

There is an anger for the things and way that people posted the things on that thread boiling up inside me. However, the good politician within me is going to use that to make things better. I don't want Northern Ireland's young gay men to have to spend 17 of the first 22 years of their adult lives outside the province to gain the confidence I have. I want them to be able to do that right here.

I guess that is the third lesson that I've learnt since coming back here. Has it really only been ten days?

It is indeed that time of year again. Total politics are currently in the middle of announcing the list of the Top Political Blogs for 2010.

Today it was the turn of one of the categories for which I am eligible that of the Top Scottish blog. For the past two years I have actually finished in eleventh place in Scotland on both occasions. This year however I am into the top ten at number 7, the spot held last year by my dear friend Caron, she has climbed to number 4. My spot for the last 2 years was so nearly taken by another Lib Dem Andrew Reeves is however only at number 12, journalist Alex Massie assumes the Stephen Glenn position.

Other Lib Dems in the list include Cllr Fraser Macpherson climbing 10 to 18 and Liberal Youth Scotland a new entry at 34. Another blog from Linlithgow and East Falkirk is that of Love & Garbage in at number 44.

Here is the top 10 political blogs in Scotland for 2010 (last year's position in brackets):

1 (1) Tom Harris MP
2 (3) Underdogs Bite Upwards
3 (2) SNP Tactical Voting
4 (7) Caron's Musings
5 (4) Mr Eugenides
6 Bright Green Scotland
7 (11) Stephen's Liberal Journal
8 (5) Two Doctors
9 Subrosa
10 (6) Malc in the Burgh

You can view the top 50 at the Total Politics site.

Originally posted at 04:18. Now updated with new information which in my humble opinion makes this vitally important and potentially a coalition deal breaker.

Yesterday on my way to Liberal Drinks in Belfast I read a story that really got me seething, sadly I couldn't get signal on the train or it would already have been written up.

Apparently the coalition government has used its European opt-out not to sign up to a directive that includes a common definition of trafficking which makes it easier to convict people across the 27 member states. Dennis McShane is up in arms about the Government failing to sign up to this directive.

In the European campaign before it got scuppered by the expenses scandal the Lib Dems were quite correction pointing out some of the errors in the EU and some of its strengths including cross-border policing. We especially aimed our attack at the Conservatives who were wanting to scrap many of the protections that the EU gave our citizens under co-operative policing. Therefore if a directive was being ignored, or opted out on by the new Government Lib Dems would rightly be pointing that Dennis McShane has a right to be angry.

However, when I googled to find said directive the only result that came back that matched the remit of the story is this one. It has been open to signature since the 16th of May, so you suggest a new government would be keen to act on it. Unfortunately that particular 16th May is in 2005. Therefore does that mean that the directive has been around for five years? Does that mean the Labour Government, under which Dennis McShane was Europe Minister, failed to sign the directive in a full term of parliament?

Now of course there may well be another directive in 2010 that I have been unable to find. If there is and someone would like to post a link to it in my comments please do and I'll amend the post accordingly. However, it does on the surface, after my initial anger, to be yet another case of the Labour opposition trying to punch holes in the Government ship and ending up merely exposing their own shortcomings.

Update As I asked above any update on a new directive would be welcomed. Well Olga Ivannikova has provided just that. There was a new directive on 29 March 2010.

Therefore I would echo Olga's that we as Liberal Democrats should stand up so that nobody is enslaved in this or any other way. Not kowtow to Eurosceptic Tories who want nothing to do with Europe even when it is for the betterment of humanity.

This for me is a line in the sand which the Lib Dems should not step over. We should sign up to this EU directive. If not we as Liberal Democrats should walk away from the coalition.

"The EDP places considerable distance between itself and the EFP, emphasising that it has links with the SNP and none with the EFP or BNP." - Dr Colin Copus, English national parties in post-devolution UK, British Politics (2009) 4, 363-385. doi:10.1057/bp.2009.12

Quite. And my old man's a dustman, he wears a dustman's hat, he wears cor-blimey trousers and he lives in a council flat.

The EFP's Les Andrews and Mark Cotterill at the EDP launch party.

The EFP's Peter Rushton addresses the EDP

Following on from the last blog post it isn't just women and children who are the victims of sex-trafficking. In Spain they have broken a male sex prostitution ring.

Apparently 60 - 80 Brazilian men were given a travel bag and airline ticket to Europe (often flying into Schengen, Luxembourg before being moved to Spain. Once there they were under threat to pay back their flight expenses and kept in brothels and given cocaine, poppers and viagra and put to work as male prostitutes. To pay back their fees of over €4000 on top of daily expenses of up to €200 the men were paying back half of what they earned.

A total of 14 people have been arrested eight in Palma de Mallorca, three in Leon, and one each in Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante.

Yesterday on my way to Liberal Drinks in Belfast I read a story that really got me seething, sadly I couldn't get signal on the train or it would already have been written up.

Apparently the coalition government has used its European opt-out not to sign up to a directive that includes a common definition of trafficking which makes it easier to convict people across the 27 member states. Dennis McShane is up in arms about the Government failing to sign up to this directive.

In the European campaign before it got scuppered by the expenses scandal the Lib Dems were quite correction pointing out some of the errors in the EU and some of its strengths including cross-border policing. We especially aimed our attack at the Conservatives who were wanting to scrap many of the protections that the EU gave our citizens under co-operative policing. Therefore if a directive was being ignored, or opted out on by the new Government Lib Dems would rightly be pointing that Dennis McShane has a right to be angry.

However, when I googled to find said directive the only result that came back that matched the remit of the story is this one. It has been open to signature since the 16th of May, so you suggest a new government would be keen to act on it. Unfortunately that particular 16th May is in 2005. Therefore does that mean that the directive has been around for five years? Does that mean the Labour Government, under which Dennis McShane was Europe Minister, failed to sign the directive in a full term of parliament?

Now of course there may well be another directive in 2010 that I have been unable to find. If there is and someone would like to post a link to it in my comments please do and I'll amend the post accordingly. However, it does on the surface, after my initial anger, to be yet another case of the Labour opposition trying to punch holes in the Government ship and ending up merely exposing their own shortcomings.

I was sent this link yesterday and really have to share it with fellow Dundonians. Some of the photographs brought back happy childhood memories but there are far too many (and videos) to view in one day, so I'll be a regular visitor for some weeks to come.
Ok, I know it's childish, but it made me laugh.

There are very few top class sportsmen who wear their glasses while participating in their sport. But the bespectacled face and flowing mane of blond hair tied back in a ponytail were what earned Laurent Fignon his nickname as the Professor on the professional cycling circuit.

We and he knew this day was coming when we would bid farewell to a two-time winner of the Tour de France and the man last man to ride unto the Champs-Élysées in the maillot jaune to lose it by the narrowest margin ever, only 8 seconds to American Greg Lamond. Last year he had announced to the world that he was undergoing chemotherapy for metastatic cancer. He had in his retirement become a commentator on the sport, something he was doing again this July and there was an interview with him during the ITV converage when his familar voice was struggling but he current one was determined to carry on.

He was brought into the Renault-Elf-Gitane team in 1982 to support the four time winner of le Tour Bernard Hinault. But the team leader failed to make the start line in 1983, Pascal Simon assumed that role, but midway through the race had effectively lost that position to Fignon losing 3 minutes over a 15.6km on the individual time trial up the Puy-de-Dôme. A couple of days later on Alpe d'Huez Simon also lost the lead of the race to the young pretender to the crown France's next big thing. However, at just 22 he became the youngest winner of the tour since 1933 when they rolled into Paris.

He repeated the feat the following year, after winning the King of the Mountains in the Giro d'Italia while coming 2nd. In 1989 having won the Giro for his only time the order was reversed by that new aerodynamic bike and riding position adopted by Lemond on the Champs-Élysées.

His best finish in the third Grand Tour the Vuelta a España which is currently in progress was third in 1987.

Here is the day in 1989 that he attacked Lemond and keeps tabs on Pedro Delgado to take the maillot jaune, in honour of the Professor



Laurent Fignon 1960-2010

From Kenny MacAskill, circa Aug 2009:

"In Scotland, we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity.
"It is viewed as a defining characteristic of Scotland and the Scottish people.
"The perpetration of an atrocity and outrage cannot and should not be a basis for losing sight of who we are, the values we seek to uphold, and the faith and beliefs by which we seek to live.


From William Hague in a Conservative press release today:

"We must harness Britain's generosity and compassion to help the rest of the world"


Kenny was vilified by many, including Tories, for the former and his supposed claim that Scotland has a monopoly on compassion.

I look forward to William receiving the same derision.

This morning I had a debate with John Prescott on Twitter regarding NHS Direct. I reckon we both fought our respective corners and fought them hard. Figurative punches were being thrown much to my relief. Me pointing out the lack of money to do everything and the rational for looking at what was essential and therefore needed to keep being funded was what was important.

The fact that nurses currently on the NHS Direct lines will be returned to front line duties and actually treating people. At one point John seemed to suggest that NHS Direct nurses in their current number were essential as "It's about the quality of service - the reassurance and knowledge that saves lives." But NHS Direct isn't where lives are saved that is through the diagnosis and treatment by Doctors and Nurse Practitioners in our surgeries and hospital.

Anyway we got to a point where the entrenchment was shifting, John said, "In case you hadn't noticed, YOU'RE the Government now. Enjoy!"

To which I replied "Sadly John I didn't get elected. But yeah I know that. At least this Government has realised there is a fiscal hole unlike you"

That led to this:

While I'd obviously welcome such a ringing endorsement for my debating skills from an ex-Deputy Prime Minister from a former Government. I'm sure I can could on the endorsement of the current Deputy Prime Minister in the current Government and leader of my party Nick Clegg.

You can read through the Wikipedia edits of Steve Uncles here. I particularly enjoyed this one (Steve's contribution in red):

But this effort to type "We win by the way" must surely take the prize.

The same IP address was also responsible for a malicious posting against an opposing English nationalist party, in which Richard Aitkins is accused of being a white nationalist (the irony being that Steve Uncles himself cooperated with the England First Party).

The same IP address was also responsible for foul comments posted to Steve Shark's blog.

And for this slanderous and untrue comment about me on the Socialist Unity blog (the slur about my marriage repeated here recently by Steve Uncles).

Good work English Democrats. Are you proud of yourselves?

Teachers in Scotland already work an average of 10 hours unpaid overtime and have borne the brunt of cuts that have meant class sizes on the rise and fewer adults in the class. Glasgow has already cut support workers and assistants jobs that help with children needing extra educational input.

Glasgow has also quietly shed 500 teachers in the past two years, and the Labour council also presided over closures of 22 schools last year under the previous scandal riven Labour provost, Steven Purcell.  All of this has impacted on teaching and learning.  Children are being made to suffer because of the neo-liberalist ideology of the combined forces of the Tories, Liberal Democrats and Labour and the apparent capitulation of the SNP.

Locally, this has been a complete capitulation to the Tories and Liberal Democrats by a so called Labour Glasgow Council. Not only have they quietly cut education provision through staffing, but now they are essentially asking teachers to take a pay cut.

Labour along with the Tories and Liberal Democrats are peddling the lie that cuts are necessary. The SNP are keeping a cynical silence and after Salmond and Cameron met shortly after the election of the most reactionary Government since Thatcher (and actually becoming more reactionary by the hour), the SNP seem powerless to criticise the ideological cuts they are telling us are necessary. This is not true. There are huge amounts of money around - but in the hands of the bankers and billionaires who caused this crisis (including the RBS who recently have launched an incredible campaign saying they are giving thousands of pounds to Scottish Education, when in fact they were one of the major factors that have led to the crisis in Education  over the past two years!)

SSP members in EIS wish to unite with other trade unionists in decisive campaigns - including coordinated industrial action - to defend jobs, pay, educational expenditure, and national action to enforce maximum class sizes of 20 across the board, as a pre-requisite to improved education and better conditions of work.

How will this be paid for?

The SSP have long been campaigning for a Scottish Service Tax in place of the Council Tax. This would mean the poorest families would pay nothing, but the highest earners would pay more - a fair tax in other words. The richest would pay a modest extra 10% in tax - which when you realise their income grew by 30% last year alone - is a drop in the ocean. The revenue generated by this tax alone would save our Scottish Education System, save jobs in the Public Sector and ensure the Tories and Liberal Democrats do not return us to the eighties when Thatcher and Major had public education on it's knees.  See also our alternative budget

The SSP support the ballot for strike action the EIS are calling in March - but urge the union to unite with other unions and stand together in solidarity against these attacks on the working class.

Upcoming events at which teachers and the EIS can unite with others against the Tory and Liberal Democrat cuts:

Sat 4th Sept UNISON-convened anti-cuts strategy conference - aimed at all public sector unions and community groups. More HERE

Weds 29th Sept European TUC anti-cuts day of action.

Sat 2nd October Street Rally against cuts… as a Scottish contribution to the European TUC action, AND as a stepping up of efforts to bring members from across different unions and community groups together - as a means of building towards the STUC demo (see below), AND to begin to crank up unity in action BEFORE either the Tories and Liberal Democrats OR SNP govts set their spending cuts in concrete.

Sat 23rd Oct STUC Scottish Demo (more details soon)

I came across a very interesting article by Iain MacWhirter today. The drift of his article, that Edinburgh is living in something of a fool's paradise, because its dependence on public sector employment means that although the city appears to have been relatively unscarred by the recession so far, when the threatened 'savage cuts' do materialise, Edinburgh will be particularly badly hit, is very persuasive and for that reason very worrying.

My own impression is that the impact of the recession in Edinburgh has already been much more serious in some sectors than his article suggests. Being at home in Edinburgh during the Parliamentary recess allows me to meet many more local people on a casual as well as an organised basis, and this summer I have been making a particular point of asking people how they have been affected by the recession. The picture is certainly mixed. Builders, joiners, architects, property lawyers - anyone involved in construction has certainly been hit very seriously. Financial services, though, do not seem to have been as badly affected as most people feared. The tourism and leisure sector seems to be more varied - and some businesses find unexpected benefit from the recession. And although I know many IT workers have been hit, one freelance IT worker I met said it was a very busy August - but that's because people weren't away on holiday so were using his services at a time when they normally don't.

And I've certainly noticed many more people coming to my surgeries who have become recently unemployed, with benefits and other problems as a result, even though unemployment in Edinburgh is still much lower than in many other cities. But if Iain McWhirter is right, then that could certainly change if we do end up with a 'double-dip' recession as many predict, and which I fear will happen as a result of the Europe-wide rush to cut budgets quickly.

This Friday, I will be having one of my regular meetings with Jobcentreplus where I will be able to get a detailed picture of the current unemployment picture in Edinburgh. I'd be very interested in any views or information of how the recession is affecting particular businesses or sectors of the local economy to inform me for that meeting. You can post your views here, or send me an email or write to me if you prefer.

Too many leadership contests of late have involved picking the least worst candidate so it is to Labour's credit that they have a decision before them which will end with 'the most best' individual winning through.

I would say, with all due respect to the man, that it is only Ed Balls who has made a less than substantive contribution to the contest, with the other four candidates helping to widen the debate and ensure the next chapter in the party's future is as cathartic as possible. Perhaps it should have been the other MP in the Balls household putting their name forward.

Anyway, the debate seems to be moving towards where Labour needs to be in relation to other parties rather than where it wants to plant its feet. For a party that is supposedly searching for its soul, this is a strange way to go about achieving that objective.

Peter Mandelson warns against 'lurching to the left' and David Miliband talks of 'pivoting forwards', presumably both against Ed Miliband's recklessly liberal anti-war, anti-nuclear stance, (despite these being historically Labour ideals of course). To be fair to Mandelson, New Labour must have emanated from Old Labour for a reason so to go back from New to Old deserves strong consideration of the risks involved.

David Miliband is the current frontrunner but he represents a timid choice with his current strategy seemingly being to clamp down on rival challengers rather than clearly communicate his own vision. Indeed, the main reason I can see for voting for the older Miliband is that he is rightwing enough to win Middle England but left enough of Cameron to hold onto the base. It seems to be the classic New Labour error of power for power's sake all over again. The Greens certainly want David to win to ensure they can make the resultant mouthwateringly massive gap to the left their own. Cameron wants David to lose as the Prime Minister doesn't want another 'heir to Blair' on his patch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very impressed with both Milibands, they seem bright, articulate, personable, fair and, most crucially, genuine. Either name would get my vote ahead of Clegg or Cameron as things currently stand.

However, Ed Miliband has that extra level of enthusiasm, that extra edge of radicalism, those extra green credentials and that extra bag of policies against his name. This adds up to momentum and a lightning rod for a liberal, progressive, lefty coalition that between the SNP, the Greens and the disenchanted Lib Dems, can ensure that the coalition will, somewhat belatedly, be held to account adequately.

Last night Channel 4 showed a really great programme called Inside Incredible Athletes. As regular readers will know I've sometimes mentioned the 'differently enabled' athletes* I've come across in the fields of athletics and bowling.

The show, which if you missed it is on 4OD here, is well worth a viewing and does show how differently enabled many of these athletes actually are. Highlighted brilliantly by England blind football captain David Clarke taking part in a five-a-side game between his current and former work places. Or dressage rider Lee Pearson who can control his horse without his hands due to his muscle difficulties. Or the fact that single amputees running with a blade compensate for the balance and weight distribution issues over time to make it look effortless when it is not.

It shows the athletes in all their attributes, jealousy of Lee's boyfriends getting a free car wash, the passion and aggression from the wheelchair Rugby guys, the wit again rugby player Steve Brown saying:

"Injuries can happen in any sport, or live. Believe us we broke our necks."

The passion and commitment for their chosen field in evident 2 years out from the London 2012 Paralympics. The event that Channel 4 will be covering in more detail and hours than ever before. This show not only brings the athletes to live a normal people with normal attitudes to getting on with things, it also explains some of the difficulties they have had to overcome to be at the top of their game. To be enabled in that different way. Some of them can compete alongside anyone, some need a slight equipment change, but all are able to compete and survive in the world on their own terms and that is what is so joyous to see.

* This was a phrase used by one of them to me saying, "I'm not a disabled athlete, I'm differently enabled."

Bill Newman on the Crocodile Tears shed for Jimmy Reid HERE

Guest Blogger: LEFTBANKER Raphie de Santos - Will the Euro Survive?  HERE

Towards a socialist Health Service (pamphlet circa 1978/79) HERE

More posts HERE

The next series or Doctor Who is going to have a mid-season split after seven episodes, which what Steven Moffat calls a "game-changing cliffhanger" at Easter "an earth-shattering climax". It will return in the autumn with a run of six episodes.

It is not as The Grand Moff says splitting the series in two but making it two distinct series on the same budget with same number of shows. It means there will not be the long wait from the end of the series until the Christmas special. It also means that it is closer to the story arcing of the original series which had a story over a number of weeks before moving on. With the Moff in charge of that arc which will add to his other punctuations in the series even under Russell T. Davies.

It gives the Moff two premieres, and two climaxes. No doubt a return of his other vehicle Sherlock will also fill the schedules after its success this summer.

Regardless what you think about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, it's always worth hearing Pat Condell's straight-forward opinions.


Thanks to Counting Cats

From this week's main story in Newsweek:

"the list tells us some important things about the world. For starters, smaller is often better. While there's no denying the vitality of emerging-market giants like China or Brazil or Turkey, they are often bested by tiny nations like Slovenia or Estonia, according to the data, simply because it takes less effort for these countries to improve their overall wellbeing.

In a Sunday Express interview, First Minister Alex Salmond has vowed that "the people can take the decision to force the issue (of an independence referendum)" as the SNP continues its bid to join the ranks of successful small countries across Europe.

The Newsweek overall rankings had Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands and Norway in the top ten and the supposedly stronger together and weaker apart United States, Germany, United Kingdom and France in the 11-20 spots. Superpowers, clearly, ain't what they used to be.

With the news of more oil than expected in the North Sea, Cairn Energy leading the exploration charge in the Arctic, Joseph Stiglitz surmising that UK wasted prior oil reserves and the banking crisis now settling down thanks to strong growth figures, now may be the right time for the Nationalists to up the stakes in the game of referendum brinksmanship.

Certainly Tavish Scott continues to sound distinctly flaky on this issue, no more so than in today's Scotland on Sunday article when he says the "the country has moved on" from considering independence and the "modern" Scottish Lib Dems don't give "two hoots" about a referendum. Tavish is entitled to state the latter opinion categorically as he leads the party, regardless of how incorrect the assertion may be. The former opinion, surely, can only be stated categorically after a referendum so it will be interesting to see whether, and how much, Tavish's views change as the election campaign progresses.
Either way, this is a welcome shot in the arm for Holyrood '11. It's heartening to see Alex Salmond intent on leaving it all out on the field for something he strongly believes in, and it's nice to see that Newsweek, indirectly at least, has the First Minister's back.

I thought I would give a mention to a local organisation which is helping at the heart of the areas hit by the recent flooding. Newhaven based Edinburgh Direct Aid happen to have a direct involvement in some of in one the most affected areas, in Kashmir. They've launched an emergency appeal, and you can find details here

Please give generously to this and the other appeals - the public in this country have already done so, but much more is clearly going to be needed.

It's not everyday that you can say you took part in a little bit of history but setting off from Bangor on the 9:57 train this morning heading to my father's home city I did just that.

Meeting up with members of Belfast Pride at Great Victoria Street Station (a task I had to do in my own gregarious way as we weren't meeting Mícheál Carchrie Campbell until Yorkgate) it was off to Northern Ireland's second city for their inaugural Pride Parade. Starting from Duke Street railway station it followed the route of the 1968 Civil Rights March.

As a result it followed a lot of my families history, there are various members living on or near Duke Street in the 1901 or 1911 census. We crossed the Craigavon Bridge, around the 'Hands Across the Divide Statue' which was the closest point to the Fountain area where my father grew up and where my Grandmother lived most of her live. Also up past Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church where my grandparents were married. Eventually arriving having entered the city walls and exited them again at Guildhall Square.

Those of us who had travelled up by train had been a bit worried as the train pulled past the assembly point as there didn't seem to be a great turnout, but that soon changed, as this picture goes some way to show .



As seems to be the way with these things there was a little shower or two, but that didn't spoil the atmosphere as ever. Plus of course all those who marched were making that little bit of history.

One really great thing about how this first Foyle Pride was received was the way the car drivers on the Craigavon Bridge and the bus passengers, plus those along the pavement as we paraded through the City streets past the shops, bars and cafes were really supportive of the parade. Of course there were the dour church folk at the roundabout as we started, whose protested doesn't appear to have been registered on the Parade Commission's website (oops!). But the majority of the people of Derry were not listening to them but accepted the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transexual/gender and Questioning) community to their hearts.

I'm proud to be a son of Derry descent for (at least) four generations on today's reaction.

See more pictures on my Flickr account.

Well, wasn't Mary Byrne rather superb!