In his latest Post column, SNP MSP for Anniesland Bill Kidd  shares his thoughts on the remembrance...


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Hello again, and where has the year gone.

All that getting old stuff comes to mind, but a wee bit more so at the time of writing this column as myself, my PA Cylina Porch and my council colleagues, Cllr Malcolm Mitchell and Cllr Chris Cunningham have all just spent some time having the privilege of commemorating those from all around the area that gave everything in war: the civilians, the Scouts, the four services; Royal Navy, Army, Airforce, and the Merchant Marine. We were at the Yoker Cenotaph on Friday, November 11 at 11am.

We were there with community members who had something personal to commemorate, school kids, our Local British Legion and again this year this was all seamlessly brought together by Sandy Busby from the Yoker Resource Centre, where we returned for a cup of tea afterwards.

After that Cylina and I moved on to Enable Glasgow’s Fortune Works awards ceremony, at the Great Western Retail Park, to hand out some very well-deserved gardening awards to their clients.

The work they are doing helps raise awareness of disability hate crimes and highlights how active the group actually is within the wider community.

More generally since my last column, on October 4, the office was present at St Marks on Kinfauns Drive, when the Moderator of the General Assembly Dr Iain Greenshields, was assisting Rev Audrey Jamison, in reminding people of the impact the church has had and continues to have in the lead up to Drumchapel’s 70th-year celebrations.

On October 14 I had the privilege of attending St Brendan’s in Yoker, where, along with Cllr Anne McTaggart, we watched the Dumbarton Road Corridor (DRC) youth group so professionally launch their “Buddy Program” with a film show narrated by various members of the group.

On November 10 the office staff also managed to attend the 25th Anniversary ‘Doo’ for Drumchapel’s very own G15Youth Project.

This was a very poignant look at the impact the project has had both with individual testimonies and a snapshot of some of the bigger projects they have introduced and maintained under some enormous financial pressures for the betterment and enrichment of the young people of the area.

I am delighted to promote the Scottish Child Payment has been uplifted to £25 per week per eligible child and extended to eligible children under 16 years of age. You can apply online here: mygov.scot/scottish-child-payment/how-to-apply