Campaigning by the canals

Who says the last week of the campaign is a slog?

We had a great time on our Central Scotland canal cycle campaign. Starting in Kilsyth with local list candidate Rob Kay we saw improvements to the high street and investment from Historic Scotland doing up another building. But more could be done - Greens will shift Scottish Enterprise support from multinationals to local businesses, rejuvenating our high streets and keeping money in our local economy.

Setting off along the canal, the sun sparkled off the water, swans nested in the reedbeds and everyone was either out on the water or walking or cycling next to it.

We met up with the Falkirk team at Bonnybridge for flashmob leafletting and topped off the day with a pint (and more leafletting) in a canalside pub! Not bad for a day on the campaign trail.

Bandwidth the breadth of the nation

All rural areas have specific needs, and in a region like the Highlands and lslands those needs can be particularly acute. The very size of the place means that communication is particularly important.

However, despite this special need, this is the region where internet broadband is least available. Access to high-speed broadband is a question of social equity. In the twenty first century universal access to broadband is becoming as essential as a universal postal or telephone service.

In the Scottish Green Party's manifesto we talk about how we need a "a long-term shift in investment away from building extra capacity in the trunk road network... instead we'll invest those resources in demand management strategies. Comprehensive access to broadband would allow the development of home-working"

For those of us who live in the Highlands and Islands anything that cuts down the need to make long journeys would be particularly welcome, but internet providers are focused on the areas where the profits will be highest, not where the need is greatest.

For rural communities we need to speed up the roll out of high-speed broadband to help us cut emisions and, crucially, make life easier for everyone. Something that's all too clear from this fragile internet connection on the island of Mull.

The revival of election hustings

This has been the week of many hustings! Six in total for me, personally, and that’s not accounting for the other hustings that my colleagues on the Lothian list also addressed this week. And it is not just that there’s been a lot of hustings – the turnout has been big as well: with audiences of more than 100 common.

It’s curious, in a way, that this should be so.  Ten years ago hustings seemed to be dying out, in the face of stage-managed performances for the media.  Add to that the rise of facebook, twitter, youtube and blogging and it is a surprise that they have survived at all.

Here’s my theory as to why.  This year, to a greater extent than ever before, there’s been a number of “leader’s debates”.  Despite a significant majority of the population saying, in a Yougov poll, that they wanted to see the Greens in those debates, the media machine, in its thirst to be kingmakers, has excluded the Greens.  So events organised by STV, BBC and the Scotsman have ignored the Greens.  The exception to be congratulated is the Federation of Small Businesses, however, which, in its leaders’ debates, recognised that we have a five-party landscape in Scotland.

But in general these leaders’ debates have been utterly woeful – focusing on performance, not policy and vacuous exchanges not vision.  As one twitter follower put it, “on this showing I would not vote for any of these 4”.

So maybe the old-fashioned hustings, in the church hall or community centre, is an antidote to all that.  Whatever the reason, it’s a breath of fresh air.

And it has also been the week of the first screening of the Greens’ party election broadcast, featuring a few of our best but often unsung campaigners here in Edinburgh.  The response has been really positive so far to our upbeat, affirmative message on how government and communities can work together for the greater good.

And it has won new support.  I had a message last night from one of our members who has worked in Sighthill in Edinburgh for many years.  I’ll spare you the clichés about Sighthill being one the most disadvantaged parts of the city.  It has its share of problems, certainly, but generalisations like this fail to capture the strengths and assets of a community as well.  Many of the people of Sighthill don’t conform to the easy stereotype of Green voters; yet our broadcast seems to have won over new converts there too.

But enough looking back – a busy weekend in store!