Day 154 - 1:00pm, 4 June 2019
In the 15 years it has been in operation, today was the first time I've been inside the Scottish Parliament building - other than visiting the cafe once when the eldest was a baby. Architecturally, the building is stunning. I think the fact that you so seldom pass it on foot, but drive past in the car, means you rather take it all for granted, so it was nice to see its features from the inside looking out.
But beautiful as the building was, what impressed me more was the people inside it. There were lots of meetings going on in open spaces. We - I was a parent helper on a class trip - bumped into one of the Deputy Presiding Officers, Linda Fabiani, who was getting her picture taken with a group and then stopped to chat briefly with the kids. After the tour, the children then had the opportunity to question one of our MSPs, Jeremy Balfour. They started off slowly, but quickly warmed up. As we were leaving, there was a small protest going on outside the building. Apparently people were chaining themselves to the railings later, but not at this point.
So the take away for me was that while we are sick of hearing of Brexit and of politicians generally, it shouldn't colour our thoughts on living on a democracy and the freedom that affords us to whinge and protest as we see fit. Not everyone has that luxury. And because are news is dominated by all that is bad in our country and world, it is easy to forget that politics is not about parties and elections, even if that's all it seems to be. It's about people stepping forward, trying to do their best, to make the world a better place and that's something we can all do more of. And if we were to do it with "Wisdom, Justice, Compassion and Integrity" as inscribed on the Scottish Parliament Mace, all the better for all of us.
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