Douglas Alexander MP

Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Paisley Daily Express Column 10 May 2010

COMPLIMENTS FROM CRAIG

On Saturday afternoon, after all the work of the election campaign, I was at the Houston Kirk Carnival with the family.

The guest of honour on that sunny afternoon was Craig Brown, the Motherwell and former Scotland manager. When speaking to the assembled crowd of carnival goers Craig told them of how he had coached a team of Scottish MPs for a match against English MPs just over a decade ago at Upton Park.

I played that day in the dark blue shirt of Scotland, in an unlikely team including Jimmy Wrae, Iain Davidson and Dennis Canavan. Craig on Saturday paid generous tribute to my footballing skills that day and declared me “the best player on the pitch”. Suffice to say my son, who was with me at the carnival, was much more impressed by this footballing compliment that he had been by my electoral majority the day before!

But when he left the Houston stage, Craig told me a story about the Scottish MPs v English MPs game even I hadn’t heard before. He told me that before the match George Galloway, still then a Labour MP, told him “Craig, you have to pick me?” A perplexed Brown replied “Why George?” To which Galloway replied “Because I’ve scored for Scotland right around the world!”

GETTING DOWN TO WORK AGAIN AS A LOCAL MP

It was quite a week for politics – locally and nationally – last week.

As I write the national issues are still being resolved but locally the result was straightforward.

Renfrewshire is where I grew up. It’s the community I care about – so I was humbled by the trust that local people once again placed in me and in the Labour Party.

I’m convinced part of the reason I was re-elected was local people’s support for some of the local issues I’ve been championing.

In particular I’ve been campaigning hard to oppose the SNP/LibDem led Renfrewshire Council’s agenda to close local pools in Elderslie and Johnstone, the cuts to the free school bus service affecting children across Renfrewshire and the closure of local services like South Primary School and Todholm library.

Of course times are tough at the moment but I’m determined to continue to stand up for our local area and our local community in the years ahead.

So let me conclude this first column of the new parliament by saying thank you to all the Paisley Daily Express readers who supported me. And let me assure all those who didn’t that I’ll continue to work hard for all my constituents – regardless of their party allegiance – in the years ahead.