Drink, Politics and stuff

…or am I?  I have decided over this weekend just to relax… and change my diet.  The first thing I did, was to cut the beer.  I have had no alcohol for the last couple of nights.  I bought a smoothie maker/juicer and lots of broccoli and am now cutting out fried food from my diet.

Tomorrow, I am going to walk in the hills near to Aberfoyle and will join the local gym.  On Tuesday I will be on my bike.  On Wednesday hopefully, the gym; Thursday either a walk around a loch or a cycle.

Also this week, on Wednesday a few of us are taking a trip to Irvine to do a Scottish Socialist Party stall about the cost of fuels; on Friday we are doing the same in Milngavie and on Saturday, Campsie Branch SSP (of which I am the branch organiser) will be hosting Jim Bollan, an SSP Councillor, in Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre.

Excitement.

OK, Day one.  When I started this blog, three Augusts ago, it was to record my year off the booze.  I managed to do that albeit crashing less than a fortnight before I was supposed to… because of a certain Scottish politician winning a personal case he had brought against a newspaper, and slandering and abusing a generation of socialists in the process.  I think it is fitting to restart this blog for two reasons - one, I am again doing something for a year - more on that in a wee while - and two because of the recent positive Scottish Socialist Party campaign in Glasgow East - my thoughts on the left split are produced below.  For a great article on that, please visit the main SSP website and read Rithie Ventons article - http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/new_stories/glasgoweast/result.html .

 

Yip - I would say my year off the booze was successful, and the following year, my year off meat - and last years year off sugar was probably the most successful as I have little desire to eat sugary foods and desserts even now the year is up.  So I have had three years of going off something.  This year is going to be a bit different - I am not giving something up - rather, I am going to start something and do it without stopping for a whole year - long enough to, hopefully, ensure it becomes part of my life again.  And that is… exercise.

 

Yup, this lard arse is going to become fit.  I don’t think I will be scarey and become the lycra wearing runner/cyclist I was in my 20’s… TOO scarey.  Nope - I just want to get fit, and be able to be more active and use less of the car etc.

 

So there you go.  I will try to keep anyone straying here updated in my fitness regime - and I will also post any political stuff I am involved with (along with the odd piece of writing I do).  So here we go -fitness year it is!

 

Oh - and I have given up beer until Christmas to try to aid my tummy… perhaps the most difficult part of this…

The election in Glasgow East should have a few heads in the CWI and SWP hanging in shame. Until 2005, both organisations were part of the successful alliance that was (and is) the SSP. Both organisations when working within agreed parameters added to this alliance and were helping it move away from the one man band the party had been during the first sitting of the Scottish Parliament. Both organisations fought each other for control of its EC - but were counter balanced by the now dissolved ISM and other platforms within the organisation and of course, those within the SSP who were socialists without a platform whose numbers were greater than both the SW and CWI platforms. And there is the rub.
When both groups saw the Tommy Sheridan fiasco as a way to break the party and then control what was left over, they became politically redundant where the people of Scotland- and the left in Scotland are concerned. The party they and Tommy’s family (and some, quite frankly, “fans”) produced, Solidarity, was never a serious attempt at a political movement, as some within it’s hero worshipping confines would have led the UK left to believe. It became nothing more than a political Tommy fanclub. This has been evident in their street work during the election- parading Tommy as some sort of Presidential figure and having virtually nothing about their candidate on leaflets, only “A message from Tommy Sheridan”. During the campaign, they were molesting potential voters outside the Forge Shopping Centre in the constituency with, “Don’t vote for scabs” if they spotted an SSP leaflet in the hapless punters hand. The coup d’etat was the use of Tommy’s name on the ballot papers. The result of all of this was a collapse of their vote. It was evident on the streets that some of the opportunists who broke from the SSP because Tommy was “the only showin town” had had second thoughts (perhaps with the exception of their candidate).
Glasgow is a small village and the people of Glasgow know the truth- or know what they know about Tommy Sheridan. The SWP perhaps have realised this with their obvious absence and less than enthusiastic endorsement of the campaign. The CWI have pushed themselves to near destruction as they led their less than political Glasgow East campaign. The two organisations, of course, are pushing the “confusion” over the Curran name and other ridiculous excuses as reason to their collapsed vote- which doesn’t ring even near to true- and considering the inclusion of “Solidarity- Tommy Sheridan” as the party Tricia McLeish’s name was beside on the ballot paper, name confusion was not what saw the decimation of their previous pollings in this area.
Perhaps their membership should be pushing their leadership for a more honest dissection of the events of the past three or so years rather than another stretching of the parameters to expound the “wemake no mistakes” viewpoint so common with them.
What this election proved was that the people cannot be fooled. It also shows how stupid a divided left is in Scotland. An undivided left in this by-election would have beaten the Lib Dems and perhaps placed the Tories in fourth place. For the latter alone- in the constituency of John Wheatley- the groups who egged Sheridan on his path of destruction should be ashamed.
Those wishing to “Defend Tommy Sheridan” should do so without trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the working class voters by claiming this support group is in any way political and Tommy should go ahead with his rumoured `Jimmy Reid’ and jump to the less than socialist SNP. Those who feel they need to control political movements or impose a leadership should play their middle class vanguard ideas out in the Student Union; The SW and CWI approach to socialist movements- ie. control and the worship of an elitist “Great Leader” is one proven (and proven over and over by the failures of the recent analysis and actions of these organisations) to be destructive. Those in Scotland who are serious about a democratic left party should start (and in the light of the recently produced brilliant SSP pamphlet “Red/Green” - continue) talking to those who have kept real politics an real concerns of working class people to the fore- the constantly evolving and democratising SSP- the left party who surprised everyone on the ground with how many people they mobilised and how many people they politicised during this election.

http://eastdunbartonshiressp.blogspot.com/

 

SSP EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE/ WEST OF SCOTLAND BLOG UP AND RUNNING!

 

Please pass on! And add comments to the blog…

 

I am bloody annoyed.  Something happened in school today where I totally lost it with the Head Teacher.  She bandies around words like “professionalism” but acts in a completely unprofessional way.  Then she tries to intimidate in order to get her way.  I told her to take her intimidation elsewhere and appologise.  I sort of got a half an apology, but I know she will be gunning for me.  If she does, I will remind her - a bit more gently than I did today, that what she did has been a sackable offense in the past.

 

Anyway, the Scottish elections are hotting up.   If you read down my posts from last summer, you will see that the SSP had a bloody awful time of it.  Well - we’re back.  We may be battered and bruised - but we are out there doing what we do best - fighting on issues that will make working peoples and people who can’t work for one reason or anothers lives a bit better.  Free School Meals for all
Scottish Children; Free Public Transport; Affordable Housing; Scrapping the Council Tax and replacing it with a fairer income based tax and a SCOTTISH SOCIALIST REPUBLIC.  The press were painting us as a spent force after our ex-convenor shafted his friends and split the party with his lies (some socialist) - but we are back - as a proper collective.  And we are not going away.

OK.  I know I said I was going to quit this blog… but instead I have decided (and I realise it has been 6 months) to partially rename this blog and carry on. 

There are a number of reasons for this.  Firstly, I want to blog… and erm…

OK.  I admit it - I enjoyed doing this blog.  It was an outlet for a lot of thoughts that just drift into the ether these days… and I made a few friends here.

Secondly, I want to talk about the booze, much in the way I spoke about it during the year off - that is, hardly at all.  I will say, I went back on it, and found it was hard going.  It didn’t take much to give me a huge fucking hangover… and wasting hours on end recovering the next day.  I have decided to give the booze a rest for a while again, but It won’t be another year off.

Thirdly, a few other things have come along I would like an outlet for my own thoughts.  I have been involved in a “Left Unity” group on “Second Life” which has had successes and failures - and would like to give my own partial view on those, as within the group this is difficult as I am accused of trying to be a leader when I offer my sometimes forthright take on things.  If you haven’t become involved in Second Life… my advice is this.  If you already have a life, then to be honest don’t bother.  It can take a lot of your time - though I would say, those who live in the parts of the world where we have dark afternoons and evenings in the winter - it is an ideal space to visit sunny beaches and Dublin pubs etc and meet some interesting people.  Though I must say there are some people who are there not to be interesting, but to fulfil inner desires they may not be able to fulfil in real life (rl) like being a mating dog or something.

I also want to use the space to place my political views on record and my views on education generally and education in Scotland specifically.

Lastly, I hit a wall during my time away from blogging - and this wall actually led me to Second Life.  Depression is an awfully dark place.  And a difficult place to emerge from.  I may use the blog to talk about that.