Blog

I've been asked to be the spokesperson for the Park of Keir campaign. If this massive incursion into the local green belt land is going to be resisted, it needs local people to work hard and write letters protesting about it.In particular, as well as writing generally to MSPs, letters need to be written to…

Tilly and I have guests – a friend and a friend's dog (Dana), staying with us for two nights. Things are not good between canine and feline worlds in this house. There has been much hissing and spitting. Roughly speaking, the house divides into two – cat space upstairs and dog space downstairs. The trouble…

The Community Council was a little depressing last night. Motivated people who care about the village worn down by being unlistened to.  Someone from Stirling Council was trying to get us to form a local community development plan. The claim is that this will improve citizen action and increase involvement in local democracy. We were…

At the concert o­n Sunday night, I found myself thinking about the lighting. There was smoke and shafts of light from above. Very holy. There is always a basic idea at play in liturgy – some services are band led, some choir led, some driven by involving the laity, some by the children etc. I…

Went last night to hear Kate Rusby and her band at the Macrobert Arts Centre. The band was tight, the singer was hot and the audience were up for it.It made me want to dig out the melodeon and the mandolin, neither of which I ever really learned to play as well as I wanted…

I feel sorry for the Swedes, mourning their foreign minister. She was killed in an attack in a deparment store which I shopped in when I was studying in Sweden 6 years ago. It is the kind of thing that the Swedes themselves will mull over and grieve over for many months. It is yet…

I've nearly finished getting the distribution of leaflets about broadband in Bridge of Allan out. They are going out with my “Focus o­n Bridge of Allan” Lib Dem leaflet. The organisers of the Bridge of Allan broadband campaign have set up an innovative scheme whereby the local primary school benefits if people sign up with…

The apples are nearly ready to start falling and the students are drifting back to the university. Autumn is here. The summer is over and we are not yet saved. (As the prophet says). There is a chill in the air some days too. Autumn crocuses will soon give way to frost.

How depressing – the Park of Keir hotel complex has been given the go ahead by the local authority. Ribbon development between here and Dunblane. A lovely wooded valley squandered for large sums of money.I've campaigned against this. At the moment it looks as though we have lost. There may be some kind of appeal…