Saturday, December 8, 2007

Lots to celebrate

I feel very fortunate to have been invited to a party at Stirling Castle tonight. Firstly because inside and out, it’s a stunning building and secondly because the party was to celebrate Glasgow winning the Commonwealth Games bid for 2014. It was thrown by the First Minister Alex Salmond and he was joined on stage by Louise Martin and Stephen Purcell, the Leader of Glasgow City Council.

Everyone who worked on the bid was there and it was great to be able to congratulate them on their tremendous success. The finale outside in the courtyard was provided by the Royal Burgh of Stirling Pipe Band. Now I’m not normally into pipe bands but they were amazing - I’m sure the kilts and the setting had something to do with it mind you! They also had a really clever way of getting rid of us. They told us the place was haunted but the ghouls only came out once the pipe band stopped playing so if we’d any sense we’d follow them out. We did!

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Friday, November 9, 2007

Glasgow did it!

I can’t believe it - Glasgow is to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. This is fantastic news. Absolutely fantastic. And what’s great about it is that it’s something we can all get excited about and be proud of - regardless of political affiliations. If we get it right (and we will) this will be the BEST games EVER and it will regenerate the East End of Glasgow (let’s face it, it’s long overdue). As the Westminster candidate for Glasgow Springburn I couldn’t be happier. I’m not even going to add my usual note of caution because I’m certain this will be a games for all of the people of Glasgow. As I just heard Nicola Sturgeon say on Radio Scotland “all we need now is for Scotland to win a week on Saturday”! Nae bother.
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Sunday, November 4, 2007

Glasgow tuning in to Sri Lanka - so am I!

I hope everyone’s as excited as I am about this Friday and the announcement of who will be hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2014. It’s between Glasgow and the Nigerian city of Abuja. Whatever the outcome it’s boosted the profile of both cities but it would mean so much to Glasgow to win. I liked what Alex Salmond said about the final few days. He’s going to be in Sri Lanka with Steven Purcell, Leader of Glasgow City Council to hear the announcement. He said something the other day about treating this last week as though we were fighting an election - not all 71 of those voting on the decision have made their minds up and he’s going to keep lobbying them. With an attitude like that we can’t lose!

Just as a footnote, I am also going to be connecting with Sri Lanka this week. On Tuesday night I’ve booked a place on an information evening to find out more about going to Sri Lanka for 6 months voluntary work as part of a project run by the Scottish Government. Anyway that’s by the by, my bit of excitement for the week.

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