Chairman’s Update

After the events of last weekend, I thought it was appropriate to share my view of events.

The Queen’s Jubilee celebrations were truly inspirational for all of us who call ourselves unionists. The streets were packed with people from all over the globe having a fun time and adding over £100 million to the local economy in London.

Unfortunately, the city of Glasgow failed to capitalise on what should have been a bonanza and a great lift to the city. As we all know, Glasgow council is run by left wing loonies, so no official celebration was held. The organisers in London are to be congratulated on the content of their celebrations, bringing together the future and the past.

In Bothwell, the branch club held a get together of members and guests. The evening was very well attended and included local conservative councillors along with members of the Indian Council. Neil Lal, president of the Indian Council gave a rousing speech where he declared Douglas Ross and the Scottish Conservatives had boxed themselves into an impossible position and would find it difficult to get people to vote for them.

On Friday evening I attended, at the invitation of Councillor Richard Nelson, a flute band parade to mark the Queen’s Jubilee. My lasting memory will be the vast numbers of people on the streets watching the parade. On Saturday I went to Irvine to witness another huge turnout of people on the streets. All the time I was thinking ‘if only we could get these people to vote, the SNP would be turfed out of power.’ We do have a plan in the making, more will be revealed soon.

In Bothwell we had a problem trying to persuade the community council and church to mark the Jubilee. After pressure from our members, they did agree to have a fete but stipulated that no Union Flags were to be displayed. This position was quickly reversed, and I am glad to say the event was an immense success with a huge Union Flag (paid for by the Bothwell members) being flown from the church steeple!

Lastly, the political events continue to frustrate as the actions of the conservative MPs are putting the Union in real danger. I have opened talks with Michelle Ballantyne and Jamie Blackett to see if there is an alternative way forward. More to follow on this in the coming weeks! Please steer everyone to the website as that is where they will find the all the latest news.

Keep the faith!