Heaven on Earth

You may find it odd that my chosen image has a telegraph pole right in the middle of my picture, but today I was on my way to a colleague's funeral when this rainbow just appeared so I snapped this from the train window.

I like to think it was Jim telling us he was okay and he'd moved on and so should we. He was one of the few people I've met in my working life who tried not to judge people and always looked for the good in them. I think the image captured me because of the telegraph pole in the middle- because he was also one of the best communicators I've ever met.

I've known him since I was quite young and his words always showed a careful and considered approach in everything he did. He, like the world’s greatest communicators, knew that people are persuaded, people are moved and people act based on more than words alone.

He and I had many a chat, over the years, about what we needed to do to promote equality of opportunity and education to people who'd had poor experiences of school.

He once told me, that just because someone doesn't seem to pay attention to what your doing, doesn't mean that they don't notice what you're doing and that has stayed with me for about 20 years. In fact it's why we continue to do what we do.

All of us who knew him will find the world a worse place for his passing, at least for a while, but we'll find signs like the one I saw today that shout to us, come on get on with it, get that message out there.

We're all equals so what do we need to do to make sure everyone feels equal. Jim like me, believed that education for all is the only way to realise equality-and I for one intend to honour his memory by working to ensure that every person in Scotland gets the education they need to live a healthy, wealthy and wise life.

Maybe then, we can think about the kind of future we want for our people and our beautiful country. We'll miss but not forget you.