IndyGal

One of the best moments for me came last night. I was in the Royston rooms having a little celebration with the branch when a local guy popped his head round the door. You can’t make judgements about people by looking at them alone but we all gather impressions. It’s obvious he has very little money and as he seems to be out and about walking his little dog all day every day (we’ve crossed paths a few times), it doesn’t look like he’s working. If I’m honest, it looked to me like he’d more or less given up. But last night he waved in to congratulate us. He told us it was the first time he’d voted for something he really believed in. And as he left he jumped up in the air proclaiming “my vote really counted this time”! We gave him a huge cheer and I was nearly in tears (again) because I realised that we’d given him hope.

I’ve always said that one of my primary reasons for being politically active is to show people that there is always hope, that we can always make a difference to our lives, our communities, our country, the world.

We have given people hope. And we won’t let them down.

Last night I was sitting in our new campaign rooms on Royston Road, trying to write our final leaflet when I saw some faces peering in. I went to the front door to say hello and see who our visitors were and it was a group of young guys who live in the area. When I say young, I mean 16 ish although one of them told me he was voting for the first time. Once they had established why I was there and what politics is (supposed to be) about, it was great.

They sat down and told me quite clearly why there was sometimes trouble in Royston. They said there just wasn’t enough to do in the area so people got bored and out of boredom fights sometimes break out. “Give us more to do” they said. They weren’t being demanding, or threatening or even justifying anything. They were just being honest.

Their youth club was good but only on a few nights a week. They want something to do every night. They asked how much we paid for our campaign rooms and immediately started trying to work out if they could afford to club together for something similar. 

I asked what they would do with the rooms and they said “just sit and chat with our mates, maybe play pool”. I think so many of us think young people are looking for trouble when really they’re just looking for somewhere to enjoy each other’s company. They were good fun, interesting to listen to and promised to come back and say hello.

And, by telling me what mattered to them, without realising it,  they had started their involvement in the political process.

Update

Quick update on what’s been happening in the Springburn campaign. Sunday morning myself and Jennifer delivered letters to tenements in Dennistoun. Then some more of us did the same in the Garngad /Royston area (see pic). That was interesting because there were loads of people around. It was a warm morning and some folk were out on their balconies, while others stood in small groups chatting outside the row of shops on Royston Road.

Gallus

You have to be quite gallus in this life so I just introduced myself to anyone who made the mistake of not walking fast enough Got a really good response. I was asking them how they were feeling about the election. Anecdotal evidence can never be relied on but I’m now hearing more of the positive reasons for voting SNP than the negative reasons for not voting Labour. Good news.

Scrap council tax

Not that everyone felt the same but there’s a much warmer attitude toward the SNP than there’s ever been. We carried on miles up Royston Road and I met a woman who was overjoyed to hear that we will scrap the council tax. She and her husband are nearing retirement, on low wages and yet paying £40 a month each! That’s not fair.

The thing that struck me about this woman was not so much her joy at the news I brought with me - more her surprise. How could she not know that the SNP will scrap council tax? Could it be that not everyone is as excited by this election as I???

Onwards

So, to last night. I think we had ten activists out which was amazing. They included two new recruits - my cousins A and L - I’ve not to “advertise them on a website” so I’ll keep their names under wraps Anyway they were great and we got tonnes done. We were in Riddrie and we walked for miles delivering these letters. We finished at 9 and I dropped L off whilst A drove to Prestwick to pick up her sister. I  headed home, phoned a few people to sort out some stuff for tomorrow, watched Scotland on Film (if you’ve not seen it, look out for it - fascinating) and just as I was settling down to watch Alex Salmond on Newsnight Scotland, the buzzer went and it was the Tartan Hero himself with letters for me to deliver this morning before the buzzers go off. Right better get on with it! Tally ho!