The world has been watching Japan recently, but I’ve been following events there for selfish as well as humane reasons. I’m due to fly to Tokyo in May for a holiday. I’ve been looking forward to it for months, have been learning some basic Japanese and had until recently been enthusiastically reading my Rough Guide. [...]
I’m no stranger to protest marches. I’ve marched against water privatisation, in support of a Scottish Parliament, and in disapproval of the Criminal Justice Bill. I’ve stomped through the Meadows to protest about poverty, I’ve strode around Glasgow Green in the name of women’s rights and like any self-respecting modern lefty, I marched against the [...]
My ongoing quest to find out why there are relatively few female MSPs led me to think about local government representation. The path from being a councillor to becoming an MSP is not so much well-trodden as thoroughly trampled, so an under-representation of women in councils would seem likely to translate to Holyrood. I’ve found [...]