Sunday, October 08, 2006

Local Radio Show & first Civil Partnership!

Saturday morning, local radio show yesterday seemed to go well - always difficult to tell when you're at the receiving end of the questions etc.; but I enjoyed the discussion, which is always a good sign. I generally find with these events, if you feel uncomfortable then something is certainly going wrong ;-(

Anyhow, that wasn't the case yesterday morning - so here's hoping for some positive feedback during the coming week from those who may have been listening??

Yesterday evening, the family all shot over to Glasgow (having dropped our son at his grandparents near Airdrie) to attend our first ever Civil Partnership event! Was a really enjoyable evening - atmosphere made all the better by Scotland beating France 1-0 at football just before the reception started, which seemed to send Glasgow into a frenzy of excitement ;-))

Can't help but comment on the general 'feel' of the whole evening - first off we had a few pints in a pub in Partick (not the most salubrious part of the city) and other guests from the North West of England were in the bar ... the atmosphere was great; England playing badly against Macedonia, Scotland practically 'claiming' the 2006 World Cup having beaten France, Scots and English having a really good laugh at it all in the pub, no smoking allowed inside, English smokers being told they are not down South now and can't freely pollute other drinkers lungs (this is in Partick remember!). Then the Civil partnership just round the corner still in Partick, same-sex couple tying a legal bond for life, lovely atmosphere, friendly, loads of diversity in the wedding party ... this paragraph (and yesterday evening) would just not have been possible - or even thought possible - 10 years ago.

Whether one agrees with the direction of change - yesterday reminded me that Governments DO unquestionably change society. For me, it was a wonderful example of the power of politics to create a 'good society' ... not perfect, just a bit better for many.

1 comment:

Andrew said...

Alan

I must apologise to all from Partick! We had a great evening there and I really didn't mean to be overly negative about the area - indeed, I thought it remarkable that Partick is now clearly more healthy than North West England ;-))