Yellowcraig doing its thing earlier this morning.

Great to meet the team today. Thanks for all your brilliant work.

The ⁦⁦East Lothian Labour⁩ team out this afternoon *enjoying* pretty much every season of weather while listening to and talking with residents in North Berwick.

Great to drop in to meet the brilliant ⁦The Pennypit Trust⁩ team at their much valued lunch club for local kids in Preston Lodge High School with ⁦Cllr Shamin Akhtar⁩ & ⁦Martin Whitfield MSP⁩.

This article is a worthy tribute to the extraordinary work done every week by Cyrenians. I’ve spent time with Ewan Aitken 🇺🇦 & the team and seen for myself their deep commitment to tackling homelessness & food insecurity in Edinburgh & the Lothians. 👏 edinburghinquirer.co.uk/p/moments-of-j…

In his final speech as Labour Leader John Smith spoke these words: “The opportunity to serve – that is all we ask”.

As Scottish Labour each day we’re listening, working & campaigning to once again be given that opportunity.

When Liz Truss said “the jury is out” on whether Emmanuel Macron was a friend or foe she reflected the carelessness & destructiveness of the Conservatives’ approach to Europe.

Rebuilding trust & credibility with our friends & allies in Europe would be an urgent task for Labour.

After a decade of decline the UK's approach to international affairs needs renewal.

The roots of that decline lay in politics - and so too does the remedy.

But a new report by former officials is still an interesting Whitehall view on the challenge.
ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/new…

Thank you, as ever, for a brilliant effort this week from the East Lothian Labour team.

Let other parties be distracted or demotivated by the polls.

We take nothing for granted.

We’re motivated, determined, and we’re working hard for every vote.

Here’s the perfectly named street for the electoral trajectory of ⁦⁦Scottish Labour⁩!

One resident in Gullane today even told me how impressed she’d been by the cello playing of Thangam Debbonaire⁩ at a recent meeting for Orchestras.

Real sense it’s time for cello.😉 😂

Campaigning beckons but in the meantime….

If you read nothing else today read this searingly honest piece by Jonathan Freedland that combines real understanding, political insight & the gut wrenching revulsion so many of us feel observing what has unfolded in Southern Israel & Gaza over these last months. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Good to spend the afternoon listening to and talking with voters in Dunbar with our ⁦East Lothian Labour⁩ team.

It’s hard to overstate just how scunnered voters feel right now with both the SNP & the Conservatives.

And there’s a sense in East Lothian that it’s time for change

Great to join ⁦Martin Whitfield MSP⁩ this morning at the ASDA Dunbar store to meet colleagues and to hear about both the continuing challenge of retail crime and the brilliant work being done to support East Lothian organisations by their community champions.

It’s April, the clocks have changed, and we’re overdue some warm Spring weather, so what else would we *actually* expect than ”snow, rain and strong winds” as Storm Kathleen sweeps in.🤦🏻‍♂️ Here’s a pretty wet and wind blown Dunbar Harbour earlier this morning.

56 years ago MLK was killed. He spoke in Memphis supporting sanitation workers striking for decent wages: “One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker...All labour has dignity.” 
That’s still the essential truth about essential workers.

Brilliant.

Not a single vote has yet been cast: The only poll that matters is the General Election.

Our responsibility to communities crying out for change is to keep focussed, keep listening, keep campaigning & keep working for a Labour Government.

“Only one thing will halt or reverse the onward march of the SNP and that is a period of government in London which is really successful….that has once again restored the feeling that Britain is a successful, worthwhile country to belong to.”

John P. Mackintosh, 27 Sept. 1974

If “The Assassin” is half as good as the stories Tom Fletcher used to regularly tell in Number 10 then it’ll definitely be worth reading. He’s one of the best.