55 days to go

I was in Glasgow this morning and managed to find the time to pick up my Commonwealth Games Accreditation which I will need for a series of visits that I am making on Monday.

Then I travelled down to Dumfries House near Cumnock where HRH The Duke of Rothesay was holding a reception for a group of Commonwealth Students who had been attending the 33/Fifty event in Glasgow.

33/Fifty is a new venture which aims to bring together young leaders in the Commonwealth to talk about key issues and propose solutions. It has been taking place over four days in Glasgow and has involved a very intensive programme with around 100 participants. 12 of them have stayed on to act as ambassadors for the scheme and do some further networking and it was this group that met sponsors , such as the Weir Group and De La Rue as well as public sector supporters like the Scottish Government, this afternoon.

The weather was , once again, stunning - almost too hot - and we got a tour of the gardens and the various new education and training projects at Dumfries House before having a cup of tea with HRH and the students.

The organisers of 33/Fifty are Common Purpose , which is a global leadership development social enterprise , and the Royal Commonwealth Society and the name comes from two statistics - 33% of the worlds population live in the Commonwealth and 50% of these are under 25.

In the picture is one of those 33/fifty - Amber Wheatley a first year medical student originally from the British Virgin Islands She is flanked by the UK CEO of Common Purpose Marie Mohan and the Director of the Student Experience Project, Andy Coxall.