Pauline McNeill MSP

my regular blog from

Dear Constituent

It’s been a busy time in Glasgow Kelvin. The highlight of the week was attending the Broomhill Sports Club Annual Awards ceremony where I was giving out the awards. This club has gone from 300 to 700 strong since I last saw them. It is unique in the country and is a model for community involvement. Steve Prince and Kenny Moyes, two of the founders have done tremendously well. You can see me pictured with Ian McCall, Manager of Partick Thistle, handing out medals.

I was delighted to be given the opportunity to speak at the Radio Awaz Charity Dinner in order to raise funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). The guys at Awaz are walking the Great Wall of China in October and raised £3000 on the night.

Every year I attend the Pakistan Welfare Trust annual dinner as a guest of honour. The Trust supports excellent causes and is a great event.

I also attended the launch of the Drygate Mystery Project DVD with Bailie Gordon Matheson. My family has a strong link to this part of the city and I got the chance to hear the stories from Glasgow's History.

I popped in to the launch of Alan Clements' book; ‘Rogue Nation’ at the STV headquarters in Glasgow. We must support Scotland's budding writers.

A crucial development in the Devolution modernisation process was Professor Muscatelli’s report to the Calman Commission, which recognises the importance of the principle of borrowing powers. Managing borrowing and its repayment requires a sophisticated budgeting and planning process. I strongly support the introduction of borrowing powers for the Parliament and this report makes it more likely that this will now happen.

The past few days have obviously been dominated by the European Elections. While I have been meeting people out on the doorstep, people understandably raised the current issue of Westminster expenses. This gave me the opportunity to point out that the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood has a much better system and has published all expenses since 2003 on the Scottish Parliament’s website. The system is currently being reviewed again, in light of the review taking place at Westminster, to see if further changes are needed. The public must have trust that their elected members are using taxpayer’s money prudently.

Like many other people I was angry hearing the announcement that the BNP won two seats in the European Parliament. I have lodged a motion in Parliament on the issue. All political parties and anti racism organisations need to work together to ensure that there is not repeat of this and that the BNP’s racist policies are exposed. There is an on-line petition which I would encourage constituents to sign.

Thanks for stopping by.