It's amazing how the summer holidays from the school fills up with other things to the extent you wonder how you ever managed to fit it in! In my case of course the school holidays are just an opportunity to concentrate on the council and constituency stuff. Also the opportunity affordes itself to do major renovations on the house. I feel a growing sense of urgency to get it all fitted in before the 20th of August when the school starts back all be it I am only part time.
Renovations took an ugly turn when on my way to bed I heard a rustling and saw a dark mouse sized object shooting along the exposed under floor pipes. Sigh - why do these things always happen just as you are off to bed?
I have just done a couple of updates to the Labour Groups new vision statement 'Labour's Priorities for Edinburgh'. It was poorly received at the Council (as you might expect) from the other parties but we had hoped they would see past the old adversarial politics and take it for what it was - a completely positive look at what we would like to see for the city. This is us being serious about the new politics. I have always believed that citizens are not interested in politicians just contradicting each other for the sake of it but want us to work together to find solutions to the problems we all face. I know this is naive given that we work within a party political system but I also believe that there is an opportunity here with the new system to be less adversarial and more positive.
Speaking of communications the Labour group will be producing a Labour Group leaders report roughly every month (to coinside with full Council). Jenny Dawe is reviewing the official 'Leaders Report' which we brought in and has made it plain she is not really in favour of it. I think anything that lets the people know what we are doing is a good idea. If you would like to be emailed a copy of the Labour Group report let me know on donaldwilson@edinburghlabour.com .