Home from Home

Obama, despite remaining refreshingly ambitious and new, has matured as a politician over the duration of the campaign.

I am currently at my mother's house. trying to capitalise on the free food, dish washing, laundry and internet services which are on offer.

It has all been a bit strange leaving work and becoming a student again. Trekking around Tesco and having to buy really dull stuff like Fairy Liquid is I suppose one of the truly hash realities of life, which I once tried to embrace in Dundee studying Social Work but which made me deeply unhappy. I do however feel that this is slightly different. The air of my flat and even that of Tesco's graces me with a slightly warmer prescence. A sense of freedom from the restraints of the narrow corridors of Holyrood and into the ocean of opportunity that is Edinburgh University.

Last night I stayed up until 5 am watching the Presidential debate live from "the best political team on television", through the semi-legal median of my friend Emma's internet.

My fellow viewers and I (one of which was a political researcher to an ex- Minister in the UK Cabinet) failed to come to a definitive agreement on who came off better last night.

I was delighted to hear this morning that Obama polled (just) slightly better than his Republican rival McCain. This was fantastic news for one very good reason: the economy and foreign affairs were at the beginning of this campaign McCain's home turf. He should have owned Obama, but he didn't. Obama presided over questions with an exciting presidential quality, and showed depth of knowledge and presence unseen before.

After the last couple of wins, Scottish football fans may be disappointed with only a draw from a game with France, but we shouldn't be. In this case, as with football, a draw is a fantastic result for Obama.

McCain's insular 'Americanised' answers were lifted out of the debate by Obama's openness and sense of humanity, not just as an American veteran, but as a human being.

Yes we can.

Yes he did.

I think he will.

I HATE TISCALI

Gordilocks back in the day

Well I should have listened and taken advice... Tiscali suck. I was impressed at the speed and efficiency with which they took all my money and account details off me. I hoped this was evidence of what more there was to come. At this rate my router should have flown through my bedroom door and set itself up before making me a cup of Earl Grey and a sandwich, but as much as it pains me to say it, nothing has happened.

Of course this has made blogging difficult, and I want to sincerely apologise to all you good people out there (and Professional...) who read it regularly and contribute to the debates views which I throw into the cockpit that is blogging chaos.

Well, well done Gordon.

I know I haven't blogged too much on Gordon Brown. If you remember I wrote an article in support of him after our Scottish Labour's Aviemore conference, and since then I haven't really been very sure what to make of him. But yesterday he reminded me why we as a party loved him so much.

He was in a difficult situation yesterday (and I'm not saying that wasn't his fault), and as a result he had to take risks. For those of us hoping for a big policy announcement, disappointment was shared, but it was never going to be an election- esque speech. Something people always loved about Brown was the way in which he never spoke negatively of others. I remember his first speech as party leader only made one reference to the Tories, in a line about opportunity being for all not just for some. But yesterday was different.

He had a few things he needed to do. He had to;

• Draw a line between Labour and the Conservatives


• Acknowledge that mistakes had been made


• Be open and transparent as a person


• Reinforce that the action the Government was taking was right


• Remind the party and the public why they loved him so much


• He achieved all of these things.
  

He achieved all of these things.

The most important of these the top one. There is a choice at the next election. A clear choice between right and wrong.

He reminded me why I joined the party, and why I am so sick of Scottish political debate. A debate so far withdrawn and disengaged with the actual issues facing society, our great country and our world.

This is about the big boys now.

Uh... Excuses excuses...

Well I've just started at Edinburgh Uni this week, and unfortunately the internet has not graced our flat yet, so blogging is a bit behind to say the least...

I have phoned the good people of Tiscali who have informed me that my router and cables are on their way, so I should be online in no time.

I was really disappointed about David Cairns resigning from the Government yesterday. I spent a fair bit of time with him in a by election a couple of years ago. Except at the time I had no idea who he was. We spent the day together leafleting and having lunch, then at the end of the day he gave me and my good friend money for fish suppers. Later on that evening people asked us if we knew who he was, and we were like, "Yeh, that's David. You'd like him, he's really cool."

Then they broke the news to me that he was Minister of State for the Scotland Office.

"Ahh... Right..."

A little embarrassing, but encouraging and refreshing too. A really good guy.

Tonsil Tennis

One of the less visually offensive tonsil tennis moments

There are often phrases used to describe things which become almost cult; usual every day language between us young people, and physical repulsion for our parents. Of course Granny doesn't get it, so it's all good. For me, the worst and most cringe-worthy of these is 'tonsil-tennis', which is used to describe the situation in which two (or I suppose more) people are engaging in an activity which involves tongues and lips and stuff... okokok.... SNOGGING. Yes, snogging.

Now, sad to say, I have not been participating in any such activities, but I have however managed to contract tonsillitis. And it sucks.

It does however beautifully compliment the fact that I got chucked at the weekend, which was hardly surprising considering the fact that she disclosed to me that she was a Tory to me on Friday night. Well, ok, that wasn't the reason, but I guess it's better than none, which was the reason given to me...

I don't think I have any political rants for the day, other than the fact that every time I got a comment on my Salmond's Carbon Footprint story, I felt more right than I did when I wrote it.

Although I would like to thank President Salmond, because my antibiotics only cost £5 rather than the usual £6.75. Cheers, penicillin never tasted so good.

STOP THE PRESS!!! More Gas Comes Out of Salmond Than I Thought!

Salmond's carbon footprint is almost 6 times the national average

I have always found the First Minister to be a bit of a hypocrite. He speaks of social justice, then slashes taxes and cuts services. He speaks of ability to pay, but his career is based upon a cause which would put all of Scotland's fantastic jobs at risk. And, and arguably most importantly, he speaks of the need to address climate change, but actually has one of the biggest carbon footprints in Scotland.

It didn't take long to go through a few PQs and find some intersting facts...

- From May 2007, to January 2008, the FM took 542 trips in Ministerial car and 0 by train

- One of the only two times the FM has taken the train since being FM was in the USA.

- From just May to November 2007, he racked up 0.93 tonnes of CO2 emissions in his ministerial car alone

- On 24th May 2007, Salmond took a ministerial car from the Parliament to Holyrood Palace

His 98 flying hours which was disclosed was worth, I thought, banging into a wonderous carbon calculator, and it made me a pretty graph...

It told me that even excluding all of Salmond's household or other personal energy, he managed to rack up over 32 tonnes of CO2 emissions, coming in at almost 6 times the national average of 5.5 tonnes, and over 7 times the UK government target of 4.2 tonnes by 2020.

Salmond continues to lead from the top, without his toes ever touching the ground, carrying the message to the people across our great nation, "Do as I say, not as I do".

Glenrothes- a Definition of Attitude

"Zanna, Don't", is a musical set in a society where being gay is the norm, and heterosexuals are a persecuted minority. It climaxes into a fantastic moment where a boy and girl fall in love and kiss, and the audience feels awkward because they desperately want something gay to happen again. It struck me that if our attitude can be changed in 40 mins, surely it can change in the next 6 weeks.

You know those summer jobs that you hate? You get paid terribly and have to work your arse off day after day, whether hungover or not. I also feel that the Edinburgh festival is slightly responsible as the clubs don't shut until 5 and that as a result some days involved me coming home, having a bath, getting changed and watching tv until work without so much as a wink.

Anyway... my point is... in order to motivate myself and the other dedicated students of Aitken and Niven, the private school uniform shop in Morningside, a poster existed in the staff room which attempted to serve the purpose of motivating us in times of woes and sorrow...

It read something along the lines of...

"For many years athletes had tried to run the four minute mile. Many came close, but none succeeded. John Landy, an Australian runner had come so close, but never made it within that magic four minute mark. He tried and he tried, but lost by tiny seconds which in his heart felt like hours.

But on an Oxford morning in 1954, a young medical student at Oxford University called Roger Bannister, cheered on by thousands, ran the four minute mile.

Just two months later, John Landy succeeded and broke the magic mark.

What changed? His trainers? His track? His running technique? His fitness?

No. His attitude."

Now I don't think my attitude made much of a difference to pricing shorts, or trying to communicate to an Edinburgh Academy mother that if she's had a blazer for a year, broken the zip and kept biscuits in the pockets then it couldn't get replaced, but nevertheless I always remembered what that poster said.

It is our attitude which this upcoming by election is pinned upon.

I don't think the candidate was too much of an issue. The Labour candidate has been of much greater interest and scrutiny than any candidate the SNP have put up, but I don't think that's too important. All 3 candidates in the short list were perfectly qualified, but I fear that whichever one is chosen is being forced to walk a set path in this election. Not a path set by London, but a path created by London. A path created by the attitude which our government has allowed to happen, without making enough of a stand to justify why it was or was not doing what it did.

The attitude we hold of ourselves is what is killing us. It happened in Glasgow and it will happen here unless we change. We need to believe in ourselves again. We need to know that we can do it.

I believe we can, and I think we will.

But then again I'm a little bias... Maybe it's my attitude, right...?