September 11th 2001 remembered, 2ndSouthwark Labour Party Conference,Govt rescue package, Cambridge University and Scotland start World Cup Campaign!

On the 7th Annivesary of what is known as "9.11" there is a lot of media coverage looking back at that terrible event and the personal experience of people directly affected by it.

I had an american relative who was in Tower 2 on that day and luckily escaped but with very severe post traumatic stress afterwards understandably.

Global terrorism is still a serious threat and I am absolutely in favour of any actions that have and will continue to reduce that threat in the future but accept that the genie is well and truly out of the bottle and therefore a heightened level of alertness is probably with us for the long haul!
Gordon Brown announced a welcome £910M package of measures to help with increasing fuel bills to support their recent announcements aimed at helping the Housing Market including shared ownership and Stamp Duty exemption.

These have got to be the right sort of measures to help cope with the worldwide recession and ensure that the UK bottoms out at the earliest opportunity and starts to pick up!

On Saturday we will be having the Second Southwark Labour Party Conference and , despite the national oncerns, we have a lot to be positive about, not least the fantastic election results in May which quadrupled Valerie Shawcross's majority over a (you have to say it!) a very good political campaigner in Caroline Pidgeon!

Last year's Conference was a real "shot in the arm" to the party locally and I am sure that this year will be no different with time to reflect on an excellent election campaign and the European, National and Southwark Elections to come over the next 2 years! Should be a good day!

The Media really have it in for the Government big time and the press coverage of all of this has been unbelievably negative! Rupert and his cronies have clearly now scurried back to the Tory Camp and we will find it very hard to get anything positive out of the media until the Election!
I spent a few days in Cambridge at a work Conference at the University . It was good top have a look around and in particular visit Kings College to see those amazing stained glass windows!
It was a really useful Conference as well and not I know more about Nanotechnology, and in particular Carbon Nano Tubes, that I ever thought that I wanted to know!

Scotland kicked off their World Cup Campaign in the heat of Skopje against Macedonia, lost a goal in five minutes and then played out a dreadful first half with only a slightly improved second half
Scotland did pick up last night with a 2-1 win over Iceland in Rekjavik but the lose of 3 points is a

blow and we really need a win against Norway at Hampden Park next month to put us back on track. With Holland the clear favourites for the top spot it looks like a fight between Scotland and Norway for the runners-up spot and the play-offs! i think that we do have a good squad of players with more options that we have had for years we just need constant good performances from all of them!Good to see Stephen Fletcher bumped up to the full squad after his 2-goal performance in the under-21 game last week.

Looking forward to seeing Derek Riordan back at Easter Road and in the team for the home game against Dundee United on Saturday. Come on Riordinho!!