International Women’s Day 2013

It is International Women’s Day on Friday.

Last year, I marked it on my blog with a post about Save the Children’s campaign to give women around the world access to reproductive health care.

This year, my thoughts have stayed a little closer to home, and I’ve decided to acknowledge some of the many incredible women who have had a direct impact on my life.

I started the post thinking I would just mention one or two, but as I started writing I found myself overwhelmed – in a good way – and I couldn’t even begin to narrow it down like that.

Women get a lot of stick sometimes, for their cattiness or for being seen as too competitive. True enough, there are some rotten ones out there… but there are also some incredible communities of women who support and nurture each other, and they are far more worthy of our attention. I count myself very lucky that in my life so far the good eggs have outweighed the stinkers by far.

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Weans’ World

What would make Scotland the best place in the world to bring up children?

The Scottish Government will soon be launching their National Parenting Strategy. You can read more about it here. This is a brilliant opportunity to use our voices as parents and let the Government know what they’re doing well… but more importantly what they could be doing better.

I’ve been asked by the charity Parenting Across Scotland to do a quick post with my own thoughts, but also to help gather your thoughts. Please do feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments below, or if you’re on Twitter you can tweet using the #PAS12 hashtag.

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Wee Eck the Big Numpty

I am nae chuffed.

Let me put that another way. I’m crabbit. Awfy crabbit. So I’ve come on here to have a wee blether about it.

I don’t know if you’ve been paying any attention to the stramash around the Scottish Independence referendum? In my corner of the world, it has been hard not to. There has been a lot going on. David Cameron has been sticking his big old neb in, the Scottish Government have released a draft consultation document, and the tartan blogosphere is talking itself round in circles.
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My Edinburgh Guide: H – J

So this thing is going to take longer than I thought. The Best of Edinburgh A-C was 473 words. The entry for D-G grew to 765 words. H-J has been on my mind all day and is, so far, over 900 words. Sorry! It seems that I’ve created a monster, but I do love that town…
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The Morning After the Scottish Parliamentary Elections 2011

Picture of people voting in an election

Given my post yesterday, confessing to taking a backseat in this election, I am not going to feel too guilty about my lack of insightful comment into the results. Especially given that the numbers seem to be shocking everyone, even the most experienced of pundits. But with that major proviso, and knowing that some results aren’t in yet, here are some of my initial thoughts.

Despite the stunning victory by the SNP, my instinct – and it really is just instinct – is that if a referendum were held tomorrow, it would still be a No Vote to Independence. The SNP have not yet made the case for independence. All they have done, along with the Greens, is treat voters like grownups and repeatedly make the point that the country should decide its own future. Continue reading