Teddy Row

Glad to hear the news that Gillian Gibbons has been pardoned in this recent of news stories, but I am extremely saddened to hear in the press the repercussions that have happened within our City.

In case you weren't aware, several vehicles in the city were vandalised in a mindless and selfish attack on a family who has nothing to do with case.

I fully support the police in the action that they will take to catch the people responsible for this mindless act of vandalism and ultimately racist attack. This sort of racist attack has no place in our City or society.

Political Diary - Better late than never!

We have had the pleasure of introducing a new Councillor to our offices.

You may or may not know that one of our sitting Councillors, Nigel Don, was also elected as an MSP and decided to stand down from the Council (reluctantly, I hasten to add) to concentrate on the Scottish Parliament.

Alan Ross was our victorious candidate and the whole group have welcomed him to the City Council. In what was once a labour heartland Alan's victory is even more dramatic by beating the Labour candidate hands down.

It has been a steep learning curve for Alan as there is a lot to take in but with the support of the whole group he is settling in nicely. Alan will be a wonderful Councillor for the people of the Lochee Ward and we wish him all success.

Interesting reading

Surfing various other blogs this evening I came across the blog of Osama Saeed and reading the posts found this. Like many others I was astonished and very angry about the thought of a teacher being arrested and imprisoned for what seems to me to be nothing more than an minor error. I have copied the blog posting below.

http://www.osamasaeed.org/


A few sandwiches short at this teddy bear's picnic

Meet Adam the Prayer Bear. This toy is owned by hundreds of Muslims up and down the country. He happens to share the name of a Prophet. If this is a crime, then there are a lot of Muslims guilty of it.
He's called a 'prayer bear' because he recites various lines when any of his limbs are pressed. As I was putting him away after taking his photo, I accidentally pressed down on one of his paws. He said "In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Kind". Appropriate.
Crime must be low in Sudan. In our country, traffic police get a hard time for ignoring "real crimes" like muggings and rapes. Except we do know that a certain place called Darfur in Sudan has seen thousands upon thousands of murders, rapes and incidents of torture over the last few years.
There has been no justice for the victims, but the Sudanese justice system apparently has time to worry about the names of teddy bears. Many of these war criminals may even be called Muhammad. There are enough ignoble people we know sharing the name of the Prophet, peace be upon him e.g. Mssrs Siddique Khan and Atta.
Muslims in this country don't have a problem standing with Gillian Gibbons on these ridiculous charges. Predictably though, sections of the media have been quick to exploit their own agendas. Right-thinking people can easily see though that this is the usual case of Liberalism vs Authoritarianism, and clearly everyone in this country is on the side of the former in this case. It's not another chance to pit Muslim vs non-Muslim.

Big Day out - Well to Perth and Back - oh and Lib Dems Supporting Independence? - by Will

Spent an interesting day with SNP colleague's at our National Council meeting today. For those of you not up on politics, it's a mini conference where we meet, discuss and vote on issues which have arisen between our main Spring and Autumn conferences.

It was a meeting which was different to those in the past. The hall in the Dewar's Centre at standing room only, smiles on all of the faces and unusually a guest speaker. One of the debates was on the Scottish Independence Convention and we were addressed by Elaine C Smith.

Now many of you will know that Elaine is an SNP supporter (not member) and for those of us old enough Rab C's long suffering wife, but many of you will not be aware that she is chair of the Scottish Independence Convention.

This is a body which encompasses those who believe in Independence for Scotland and they welcome everyone, regardless of party political affiliation, who shares the vision of Scotland being a free and democratic independent state.

Elaine's message was quite simple. It was about the fact that we, the Scottish People are being denied a say in our future by a group of parties because they dinnae believe in it! This organisation is quite simply about bringing the debate back to the people. She mentioned various things about how this will be carried out and what they have in mind. Too much to put in this blog so I have included a link to the website http://www.scottishindependenceconvention.com/index.asp

Interestingly enough, the blog on the home page at the moment is from a lib dem peer
Jamie, Earl of Mar and Kellie. Just in case the introduction has gone from the page when you get there, here is his introduction on the website;

This weeks blog comes from Lib Dem peer Jamie, Earl of Mar and Kellie. Jamie is a staunch supporter of Scottish independence, and is a card carrying member of the Independence Convention. His views are at odds with the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, but we suspect his views are shared by many others in his party.
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