Day 18

The day begins at 8:30am with a series of meetings mostly about new leaflets and other events happening next week. We are running at full stretch here and there's some debate about focusing on doing what we can well rather than doing too much and not doing anything effectively. A couple of us do an hours lunchtime leafleting on Princes Street at the West End. The idea was as much to get a sense of the temperature as it was to get leaflets out although we shift loads of them. It would be true to say that probably as many folk refused a leaflet as took one but them the guy giving out restaurant menus had a similar hit rate but we experience very little outward hostility. A couple of snide remarks about Tony Blair and a couple of others about Iraq, (which given my own views on that subject I was almost relieved to hear). Yet we also got plenty of “I’m with you and I’ll be voting Labour”. But indifference probably won the day. We had a gathering of group members and our support staff late afternoon. These folk are the saving grace for our work as councillors. Unsung hero(ine)s who work very hard for little recognition and who will also be effected by the election result in that they many well be redeployed depending on the results. So it was good to be able to celebrate their work and to say thank you. In the evening I attend a superb event held at the Annandale Street Mosque to mark the departure of the Chief Constable Paddy Tompkins. Community relations has been a big priority for him and it shows with the warmth of the reception he gets. Amongst other initiatives we now have two seconded police officers from Pakistan here in Edinburgh and some of our officers have been over there. Suddenly I have to make a speech, about which I had no warning. I comment that the event is a sign of very good police community relationships, but also that it is without comment that I, as a presbyterian minister as well as a politician could be there to break bread and join in the celebrations.