Busy old year

December 28th, 2009

Whether through at the Scottish Parliament or here in Inverclyde, it has been a busy old year in politics.

The biggest news of 2009 had to be the release of the Lockerbie bomber, a decision which saw the eyes of the world trained on Greenock.

With our most notorious resident heading home to Libya, it sparked a huge debate on whether he should have been released on compassionate grounds and whether they were other factors at play.

Another event which brought Inverclyde some national headlines was the campaign for tougher sentences for knife crime.

Started locally by a community tired of the toll knives were taking on people’s lives, John Muir’s petition forced people and politicians to take notice and brought about an excellent summit on knife crime at the Scottish Parliament in January.

Since then we haven’t let up the pressure on the Scottish Government and I look forward to the parliament taking a vote on Damian’s Law in 2010.

That won’t be the only local campaign that comes to a head in 2010 with a decision due later this month on the future of the Inverclyde Royal tea bar.

The volunteer-run service has had the axe hanging over them for more than six months despite support from thousands of staff, patients and visitors to the hospital - support that will continue right up until the health board take a decision on their future.

So we can look back at 2009 with some satisfaction, having successfully fought for more apprentices in the budget, secured investment for an additional supported needs school, won our fair share of the town centre regeneration money and seen more progress on the regeneration of our waterfront.

But we can’t afford to rest on our laurels, with campaigns for improved flooding investment, better housing, enhanced public transport and tighter child protection services all pencilled in for the New Year.

Of course, we have a general election looming in the coming months, a time for the country as a whole to take stock, consider the hard decisions and chart a course for which direction we want to go forward as a country.

With all that and more to come, I am already looking forward to 2010.