Mhairi’s Campaign Diary – Dumfriesshire
by Campaigning in Dumfriesshire with our candidate Joan McAlpine was the next stop on my campaign trail.
The first visit of the day was to Doonhamers Boxing Club where Joan and I met some of its users. We got the chance to hear about the club and catch up with the Scottish welterweight title holder, Dennis Broadhurst, and his coach, Anne Armstrong.
The young people in the gym were really keen to chat politics, asking questions about a range of topics from local transport issues to independence.
From the gym we headed over to Soul Soup – a local mental health charity – to have some lunch with a range of youth groups from Dumfries and Galloway.
I got the chance to speak to young people from Listen2Us who get actively involved in the design of services which looked after people access or receive. It was awe-inspiring to hear about the counselling services being delivered on a voluntary basis in the area.
The next stop was a Q&A at Oasis Youth Centre where young people from Dumfries had the opportunity to ask me anything. The questions they asked went from the Trade Union Bill to testing my knowledge of the Titanic so they definitely kept me on my toes.
The High Street was my next stop, where I met SNP supporters. Joan has a superb team around her in Dumfriesshire, who are committed and enthusiastic about the upcoming election. I even got a big cuddle from a labradoodle puppy!
Last stop of the day was over at the Stove Arts Centre to meet some women from the Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign – or WASPI for short. The turnout was so big we had to move from the café to an upstairs room before we got started. It ended up a very productive meeting – by the end of it we were organising WASPI Dumfries and Galloway!
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