Rolled-up Trousers

High Speed Rail leaflet

Go here for leaflet and petition launch info

Sky news interview while campaigning #photo

Nicola Sturgeon, SNP depute leader

 

Pothole - St Andrews Drive

The price of fuel #photo

Read about the SNP's fuel price stabiliser proposal here

Pothole - Cuthbertson Street #picture

Campaign room #photo

Our campaign hub is pictured below. Please get in touch if you are interested in getting involved. All sorts of work available for both newcomers and veterans - blog[AT]osamasaeed.org

Sarwar fails to thank voters

So last week Mohammad Sarwar retired as an MP. You may have missed this since he neglected to make the customary valedictory speech in the House of Commons. This is the one where retiring MPs reflect on their time as an MP, say some words of farewell and thank their constituents.

It's unusual he didn't make one. It may just be indicative of his poor 57% attendance rate in Parliament that he didn't get round to it. He was busy doing whatever it is he was doing.

Maybe he's hoping that some voters don't take notice there is a different Sarwar on their ballot paper this time around, as he doesn't look too dissimilar in the leaflets.

Or perhaps it's something to do with the attitude expressed in this video that has emerged.

The people of Glasgow Central deserve better than this. It won't be difficult being more active than him, but I intend to be positively hyperactive in comparison.

No sign of Gordon Brown on Labour's Glasgow Central election communication.

I thought they were saying this election was about whether you wanted him or David Cameron as prime minister?

Utter nonsense of course - people are voting for their MP, and only the SNP will champion Glasgow and refuse to toe the line on Labour's cuts that they say will be deeper and tougher than Thatcher's.

Labour's horse offer you can't refuse

Ask me the climate question #photo

More info

Pothole of the Day

Three craters on Paisley Road West next to the M8 entry.

I'll be happy to feature your local favourites. Send your pics to me at blog[AT]osamasaeed.org

Pothole of the Day - filled

This is interesting. The day after I took a picture of the patch of road below on St Andrew's Drive, some men from the council arrived and according to a nice lady who lives next to it 'stuck some grit in there and rolled over it' before heading off after a minute.

The slapdash papering over the cracks could serve as a metaphor for Labour governance. It is definitely better than it was a few days ago though - for now.

It may or may not be linked to my photo taking - the road was a state for ages - but feel free to email me any of your own pictures of choice potholes for featuring on the website - blog[AT]osamasaeed.org.

Posters

Putting up a poster is a great way you can help the campaign. Whether it's for home or work, please drop me a line at blog[AT]osamasaeed.org with your address and quantity and we'll get them over to you.

Pothole of the Day - did this one cause the bash in the railings?

Pothole of the day

Bored of the Islamism debates and witchhunts? You're not alone

I was surprised to find that my blog had been listed by the UK government as the 8th most influential “pro-Islamic blog”. The Telegraph pointed out that this research was compiled in 2008 and my blog is now mainstream and concentrates on wind farms, high speed rail and Trident.

I think this says it all really about where I am. At the turn of the decade a few months ago I had cause to reflect on the last ten years. I’m coming to the end of my twenties, a period I have spent more in the public eye than most my age.

I attended one of the British Council’s Our Shared Europe debates in Brussels last November. On the journey there and back I managed to read Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It tells the story of a Pakistani lawyer in New York, seemingly secular and irreligious, but who after 9/11 and the Afghanistan war finds conflict within himself which eventually leads him back to Pakistan where he organises anti-US protests.

It gave me cause to reflect what would have become of my life if 9/11 hadn’t happened. I did my first media interviews back then in 2001, providing Muslim condemnation for Al-Qaeda atrocities. At each terrorist outrage since – Madrid, 7/7, Glasgow Airport – I was wheeled into studios to do the same, and building bridges of understanding between Muslims and others became vital and ongoing work.

I cut my campaigning teeth in the lead up to the Iraq war. This wasn’t of course a “Muslim issue” and united people from all walks of life. When faith enters the public sphere, arguments and issues should be dealt with on their merits rather than with some form of faith exceptionalism or favouritism. If the invasion of Iraq was wrong, it wasn’t because it was a Muslim country. If there needs to be an end to the occupation of Palestine, it isn’t because there are Muslims there, it’s because it is the right thing to do. If faiths want more family friendly policies, how does this benefit society?

When it comes to Islam and Muslims most people occupy the centreground and here’s what people, both Muslim and not, agree on. Muslims are like any other faith group. They have a right to practice their faith, and to propagate it if they wish. Others have a right to disagree with Muslims about their faith, in the same way that Christians and all other faiths receive criticism. In the same way as other faiths, Muslims can organise. This is not an Islamist threat to the country, any more that the churches pose an existential threat of something called ‘Christianism’.

Despite this, you’ll get the neocon right still gnashing their teeth about it. Having been a disinterested observer for a while though, watching the same old people get het up about it, you quickly see this is an obsession of a strange bunch.

At that debate on “Europe and Islam: Whose Identity Crisis?” in Brussels, Douglas Murray from the rightwing Centre for Social Cohesion was on the panel. It was fascinating watching him get so animated while others on the panel with whom he disagreed with were speaking. I listened attentively to the discussion, and even agreed with much of Murray’s utterances. But even the bits I disagreed with, I was struggling to get worked up about it. I just found I wasn’t bothered, in a way perhaps a few years ago I would have been.

The truth is that it isn’t just Muslims whose lives were affected by 9/11 and the ensuing ‘war on terror’. There has been an entire industry of self-styled experts and pundits whose lives and notorieties depend on it. If I thought Murray was lively, this video of obsessive neocon Harry’s Place blogger David Toube is just astounding. Myself, I’m not interested in being about these issues and most sane people aren't either.

There are big things happening in the world today. We’re still on the precipice of major economic collapse. Jobs and services have to be protected. Financial architecture has to be restructured. Climate catastrophe has to be averted. Poverty and home and abroad has to be eliminated. These are the issues that drive me.

As the years go on, Muslims will get more involved in the mainstream of society, not because they are Muslims, but in a process of normalisation. I am not standing for election as a Muslim MP, just simply as an MP. I may happen to be Muslim, but we do not speak of Christian MPs and Jewish MPs. Similarly, while identities such as ‘Scottish Muslim’ and ‘British Muslim’ are seen as positive, other faith groups do not mix their nationality in this way. When talking about nationality, they are Scottish, while in the context of faith, they are Christian, Jewish or whatever else.

I am Scottish. My faith is a private devotional matter. That doesn’t stop me practising it though. There is an ease with faith issues in this country that perhaps doesn’t exist in large parts of the European continent. This is despite the wailing of some on the right in this country for many years. Long may sanity prevail.

Going back to Mohsin Hamid’s book, I was involved and interested in mainstream politics before 9/11 and would have been active if it hadn’t happened. I have gone through much during these 'war on terror' years, but they don't define me.

The Sarwar Dynasty

The campaign starting pistol has finally been fired, and we are off and running with huge issues at stake and clear dividing lines as I've noted in this press release.

Much is also made in Glasgow Central about the dynastic spectacle of Mohammad Sarwar trying to pass the seat down to his son. I don't often defend them, but this isn’t the issue. Sarwar Jr may well just have happened to be the best person Glasgow Labour had to offer.

What is at stake though is whether Labour best is good enough and what kind of MP he would be. On this, there are problems. It’s not clear what Anas Sarwar has done in life or politics. Gordon Brown isn’t helping him by his repeated “No time for a novice refrain” and I’d imagine there is consternation in the Sarwar household every time Brown plays the toff card and engages in class warfare. There are huge questions on how the millionnaire heir can relate to ordinary people and families, especially during these tough times.

Sarwar Sr himself has an atrocious campaigning record and has no tangible legacy to show for 13 years in office. Before even being elected I’ve had to be holding surgeries for people let down by their MP. He was the UK’s most costly in terms of expenses, but only attended Parliament 57% of the time. It’s not clear what he was doing instead.

I've heard the Sarwars being compared to the royal family. They turn up to some events, say a few pleasantries and shake a few hands. They don’t talk about issues, they certainly don’t do anything about them.

Jim Murphy says Labour represents the Facebook generation. However, their Glasgow Central candidate in his mid-20s hasn’t updated his website since 2007 (he has now taken his news page down and replaced it with “news archive to be updated”).

This is despite Sarwar Jr last summer giving up his job to campaign fulltime. That panic move came after the SNP finishing just 136 votes behind Labour in Glasgow Central awoke them from their slumber. I was incharge of that campaign here. We go into this one promising to work hard for the people, and not be part of the London banking consensus which would wreak havoc in Glasgow’s communities. For that, we will have to be charging 100% inheritance tax on the Sarwars.

Vince Cable on the Labservative Democrats

Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire questioning the Lid Dem's Vince Cable on the economy:

VC: The position is so serious it would be helpful if all the major parties agree on the basic framework within which we deal with this crisis. In other words, what's the deficit, how fast you deal with it, how do you coordinate this with interest rates, how do you coordinate it with bank lending. Getting the framework right for getting the British economy back to normal and we're happy to work with both of the major parties on that kind of agenda.

VD: But as you know, there wouldn't be agreement because you and Labour believe you shouldn’t start cutting till next year and the Conservatives believe you need to start cutting this year.

VC: As it turns out, over the last week or so that argument has narrowed to the point of being I think largely meaningless. The government are already making cuts and the Tories are talking about “making a start” of purely token things so actually the differences around that are not fundamental.

VD: So you could work with either of those parties?

VC: Both. We're suggesting a national approach to that set of issues ... given that there is a national crisis we think that major parties should work together on that kind of agenda.

30th March 2010, 11.28am

The inactivity of Glasgow’s Labour MPs

Last week I issued a press release condemning the inactivity of Glasgow’s Labour MPs on high speed rail.

This was especially so when compared to how Yorkshire MPs campaigned vigorously and successfuly for the network to include Leeds and Sheffield. This was from a starting position where until even recently it was assumed that Manchester to Glasgow would be favoured ahead of them, and an environmental view that domestic flights would only be cut if the network came to Scotland.

Here in more detail is what each of the Labour Glasgow MPs who have been elected since 2005 have done on the issue for the city in Parliament:

Mohammad Sarwar – Glasgow Central
Nothing

Ann McKechin – Glasgow North
Question “answered” as Scotland Office minister
Another question in her capacity at the Scotland Office showing no concern about Glasgow

John Robertson – Glasgow North West
Nothing

Tom Harris – Glasgow South
Nothing. He has though questioned the environmental benefits of high speed rail. Was also at the ministry of transport.

Ian Davidson – Glasgow South West
Nothing

All is not lost and Glasgow can be put back on the map. This tired lot will clearly have to be replaced for that campaign to have the energy that it needs though.