LD 357. Old and New

This is the start of my final two weeks in the Parliament.  What would have been dissolution in normal times takes place a week on Wednesday but as we have to maintain an ability to meet in case there is any COVID related emergency, we are actually going into something called “election recess” which means the same and restricts what MSPs can do, but does retain our basic function if needed.

So in ten days time I will cease travelling to Edinburgh for my work, something I have been doing since I became SNP Chief Executive in December 1994 though in fact my regular sojourns in the capital date back well before that.

My mother was brought up in the city and we used to come through from Ayrshire to see my grandparents regularly in the 60s (traveling by way of the Calders on the A71 ) .   Then in the 70s I lived in the city whilst attending Edinburgh University and worked there after graduation until 1977.   

In the 1980s when we lived in Lanarkshire I would be a regular work visitor and even more so when I became a senior office bearer of the SNP, and a member of the party’s National Executive, in 1987.  

So there are lots of images I should be seeking out as keepsakes but I suspect given we are also in the last ten days of the Parliamentary session I will be within the Holyrood bubble more than anywhere else.   

But I was in George St this afternoon ( collecting, amongst other tasks, my new glasses) and this view leapt out at me- the juxtaposition of the column that commemorates Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville erected in 1821 , the  inscription on which is about to be updated to reflect his discreditable role in prolonging the slave trade, and the new rather intriguing hotel being built where the old St James Centre used to lurk,  the distinctive roof of which is now clearly visible from many place in the east end of the city.

And all the while the elegant old HQ of the Royal Bank stands between them.