East Lothian Courier Colum - June 30th 2014

This week has seen East Lothian Council cut £123,000 from Musselburgh Grammar School’s budget in the face of a recent report which criticised standards at the school. This Labour-led authority is determined to lower education standards across the county as they seek to make £600,000 worth of cuts to the secondary schools budget. Ultimately the students will suffer and there will be serious long-term problems arisen from these cuts. 

My congratulations to, Musselburgh resident, Kenneth Crawford who was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to aviation. Kenneth worked as Head of Aviation at Transport Scotland for more than 14 years until his retirement in September.

And this week, we have seen the No campaign embarrassed again as Scottish Tory Chairman, Richard Keen, attacked Labour’s proposal for more powers for the Scottish Parliament. He went on to accuse Labour of being “thoroughly complacent”, taking voters for granted. The domestic between the two parties comes as Scottish Lib Dem leader, Willie Rennie, admitted that their campaign had a little “wobble” six weeks ago, citing problems with “resources, message disciple and striking the right balance between the positive and negative”. With senior figures in the campaign lining up to criticise Project Fear, can we really trust anything they say at all?

And finally, I was delighted to be able to celebrate National Care Home Open Day at the Drummohr Care Home in Wallyford. The Open Day allows members of the public to visit their local care homes to learn about the services they provide and to organise events to creating lasting ties with the community. This year’s theme was the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the residents certainly had a lot of fun. My thanks go to the manager, Giuseppe Faraoni, his staff and all the residents at Drummohr Care Home. They made me feel very welcome and I can’t wait for next year’s Open Day.