Rolled-up Trousers

SNP conference thoughts

It's about time that I got round to doing a write up of last week's SNP conference in Aviemore.

As has been widely noted, it was the first one to be held under an SNP government. Accordingly, there were a lot more people there, and not just the 1000 or so delegates. The place was teaming with various lobbyists who have suddenly noticed we exist. I remember just two years ago at the same venue I organised a fringe meeting and I was the only person leafleting delegates that afternoon. Times have changed very quickly, and there were even some protesters standing outside.

Garry Smith FKA Curious Hamster has more on this week's Policy Exchange report, including some interesting titbits on its author Denis MacEoin. Also worth checking out Gabriele Marranci's thoughts.

Quick mention too for Ed Hussain's appearance this week on Newsnight regarding the Saudi state visit. He pinned all the evils of the world on Wahabism, for which he was corrected by Khalid Mahmood MP - not all Wahabis are automatically wrong. Ed posited the "not all Wahabis are terrorists, but all terrorists are Wahabis" response. Think he may be off message with his neocon chums agitating for war on Iran and defending war on Hizbullah.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

Stop and Search reintroduced in Glasgow

It's been announced today that police have been engaging in stop and search under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act today on Glasgow's underground and train stations.

I was surprised to first read about it on BBC Online this morning. The first time Section 44 powers were introduced in Scotland was after the Glasgow Airport attack for a limited period of 30 days. Given the circumstances, it wasn't widely questioned at the time, despite there being a less than overwhelming case for the measure.

During that month there were said to have been only a handful of stops carried out. I actually believe that the figure was a fair bit higher - I know of a number of young Muslims that were stopped and searched without the proper documentation being carried out.

Osama Saeed for Glasgow Central

It's about time I got round to telling my blog readers the news that I have been selected as the SNP's candidate for Glasgow Central at the next Westminster elections.

I look forward to expending my campaigning energies to get elected, and thereafter to represent the interests of my constituents.

The next general election will in my opinion be the last ever election to Westminster held in Scotland. 60% of Scots believe that we'll be independent within a decade. So much has changed in the last two years - remember people laughing at  Alex Salmond's claim in 2005 that the SNP would win 20 Holyrood seats to take power? How many seats did we win in May this year? That's right. This is why the unionist parties in Holyrood oppose a referendum on our constitutional future. They know that if it's set, the SNP will win the argument.