All change

February 16, 2009

It was a week of condolences, commiserations and congratulations in the Scottish Parliament.

First, we said farewell to Scotland’s first Asian MSP Bashir Ahmed, who sadly passed away last week.

The image of Bashir being sworn in to the Parliament in Urdu will go down in Scotland’s political history and I am sure he will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him.

As a result, Anne McLaughlin was promoted from the SNP list and sworn in as Scotland’s new MSP.

It wasn’t the only change in the Parliament this week with a reshuffle of the government cabinet spelling the end of some political careers and opening up opportunities for others.

While I certainly opposed some of the negative decisions made by outgoing minister Stewart Maxwell, he has paid a heavy price for the failings of his bosses.

Let us hope his successor Alex Neil will bring a new determination that will tackle the acute shortage of quality housing we face in Inverclyde and across Scotland and ensure the future of our locally-based housing associations.

There was also a big goodbye this week to the government’s flagship policy as local income tax was ditched.

The inconvenient truth for the government of course is that the promised abolition of the council tax will now not happen.

And only at the next election will we find out if the decisions of this week will end in congratulations or commiserations for the government.