Community spirit on show at events
The glorious weather we’re currently having was perfectly timed for the bank holiday weekend.
With typical Scottish pessimism when it comes to the weather, my main worry is whether we are using up our annual quota of sunny days ahead of summer.
If my schoolboy memories are any guide, the rainclouds should start reappearing about 10 minutes before the end of the last day of term.
But assuming the clouds hold off as predicted, it should mean perfect conditions for the Renfrew Gala Day this Sunday.
Right across Renfrewshire, communities are gearing up for a celebration of their local traditions and giving everyone a good time.
At a time when the costof-living crisis is making life harder for every household in the country, all of us deserve a day out around our towns and the fun of the fair.
In many cases these gatherings go back hundreds of years – with a year or two here and there in abeyance – part of a tradition of community celebration that has continuously shaped the places we live and the people we are.
When David Cameron was banging on about “The Big Society”, it was merely a fig leaf for his devastating programme of austerity and cuts, a programme which is still having severe consequences for our society to this day.
But the unpaid volunteers and workers who put in hours of graft every year to make their local day a success are the real embodiment of community spirit and a real big society.
Whether it’s in Renfrew, Barshaw Park, Bishopton, Bridge of Weir, Inchinnan, Houston, or Sma’ Shot Day in Paisley our summer events are open to all and open for fun – and I hope to make it along and see you at as many as possible, starting this Sunday at Robertson Park in Renfrew.
Meanwhile, with Westminster in recess I’m taking the opportunity to see the technology that will power our future.
Along with my SNP Westminster colleague Alan Brown MP, spokesperson on Energy Security and Net Zero, I’m on a whistle stop tour of the companies and industries that are generating the renewables we need today, and cracking the technology that will transport them into tomorrow.
The work going on here in Scotland on the new generation of renewables is genuinely worldleading.
In Orkney the almost limitless power of the tides is being harnessed to generate predictable and constant capacity for electricity production, helping solve the problem of intermittent supply.
Meanwhile the Scottish Government is working hard to bring investment to our shores, with foreign investors ready to build the factories that will produce the cables to link up the wealth of energy assets our country enjoys.
The last few decades have seen the one-off bonanza of North Sea oil and gas squandered by a Westminster cabal who refused to look to the long term and invest that wealth for the future.
Both Labour and the Tories have wasted our natural resources and left us with little to show for it – in contrast to our near neighbours in Norway, who have saved their luck and as a result sit on a pile £1.4 trillion high, ready to help their own citizens when needed.
But our renewables revolution can be different.
We can ensure the innovation and production are happening right here in Scotland, contributing to our economy, making us all wealthier and helping fight climate change.
There’s still a long way to go before we go completely green – but the work going on right now across our country shows we won’t have long to wait.