83 days to go

At lunchtime I took part in the launch of English Scots for YES which has been organised by SNP Councillor Math Campbell . A large group of founder members were joined by four SNP MSPs who were born in England - Shona Robison, Nigel Don, Christine Graham and myself.

I was born in Bromley (when Harold MacMillan was the local MP) but my parents moved back to Scotland when I was 9 months old. My mother and grandfather were both born in the village of Abbots Langley near Watford, where the only English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear, was also born though many centuries earlier !

I gave a lecture to the British Scholars Society about this "social union" a couple of years ago and you can find it HERE.

As it was the last day of term there was a lot to finish off - meetings with officials about a range of topics, with the Presiding Officer about a couple of issues including promoting the "" project to MSPs, with the UCU for our six monthly catch up and at the end of the day a farewell for Kirsty Hamilton who has been my Assistant Private Secretary for the past 18 months but who is moving on to work in the Health department. So I only got home to Argyll at midnight, hence the late blip.