Latest news with #Sillars
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Sillars: Black wasted her 'exceptional' political talents
"Mhairi is a great waste of talent. She has bogged herself down in identity politics when our society is calling for people of talent to address much bigger problems," said Mr Sillars. "We have no housing available for the homeless. We have problems in the National Health Service. We have significant problems at every stage of education, from kindergarten to university. "Some of her talent should have concentrated on these big issues. And I deeply regret how she has marginalised herself in the political arena." READ MORE: Mr Sillars campaigned around Scotland ahead of the independence referendum in September 2014 with Ms Black in the "Margo Mobile", a van named after his late wife the former MSP and MP Margo MacDonald. "I can claim to have discovered Mhairi Black" he said. "At a meeting in Glasgow in 2014 I spoke at two young women spoke before me. Both were good, one was exceptional. "Afterwards I asked to get her telephone number and asked her if she would like to join the Margo Mobile. From the meeting, I went to STV to do an interview and told the producer that I had just met a young woman called Mhairi Black - remember that name." He continued: "She was and still is someone with exceptional talent, the kind of talent that we require in Scottish politics today." Jim Sillars wih Dennis Canavan, Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Colin Fox and Patrick Harvie, ahead of the independence referendum in 2014 (Image: Gordon Terris) Mr Sillars said he and Ms Black kept in touch after the independence referendum and when she became an MP. Speaking to [[The Herald]] ahead of her upcoming show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Ms Black told interviewer Teddy Jamieson that she had ended her membership of the [[[[SNP]]]] in recent weeks because she was unhappy with the direction the party had taken. 'Basically, for a long time I've not agreed with quite a few decisions that have been made,' she said. 'There have just been too many times when I've thought, 'I don't agree with what you've done there,' or the decision or strategy that has been arrived at. 'To be honest, I'm looking around thinking, 'There are better organisations that I could be giving a membership to than this one that I don't feel has been making the right decisions for quite some time.'' Mhairi Black pictured this week in The Herald offices (Image: Colin Mearns) Ms Black singled out what she described as 'the capitulation on LGBT rights, trans rights in particular,' as an issue for her. 'I thought the party could be doing better about Palestine as well,' she added. 'So it was just a culmination of these things.' Going forward, she said she would seek to support organisations such as the Good Law Project which has directly campaigned on issues such as climate crisis and trans rights by mounting legal challenges. 'That's what I want to throw my money behind,' she added. In 2015 Ms Black was elected as MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, beating Labour's Douglas Alexander, then Shadow Foreign Secretary, in the process. She was only 20 when she was elected to the Commons, making her the youngest MP since the 1832 Reform Act. Her maiden speech was watched 10 million times online. But her time in parliament also saw her receive death threats. At times she struggled with anxiety and depression and was forced to take time off from working in parliament at the end of 2017. She was also diagnosed with ADHD during her time as an MP. After successfully defending her seat in the 2017 and 2019 elections, Ms Black announced that she would not be seeking re-election in 2023. Last August - just weeks after the General Election which saw Labour return to power - she performed a Fringe show entitled Politics Is Not For Me, in which she explained why she believed Westminster was a dysfunctional institution and not fit for purpose. Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said: 'Mhairi Black was the future of the [[SNP]] once, but now she has chosen a new direction. 'That is, of course, the choice that Scots across the country will have at the Scottish Parliament election next year by voting to remove the SNP after almost two decades in power. 'The truth is that the SNP is a busted flush, with no vision, no ideas, and no strategy. 'From our NHS to our schools to our housing system, the SNP is responsible for so much of what is broken in our country. 'Anas Sarwar and [[Scottish Labour]] will work tirelessly to demonstrate that things can be better with a [[Scottish Labour]] government.' A spokeswoman for the [[SNP]] said: 'The [[SNP]] is the largest political party in Scotland, united under John Swinney's vision of creating a better, fairer Scotland for everyone. 'After a year of disappointment and let downs from the UK Labour government, it's clear that real change will never come from Westminster and that independence is essential for a better future.' One observer added: "I understand that the SNP party rules say that if somebody publicly resign from the party then they cannot be readmitted for at least two years and then only with the permission of The national executive committee." It is understood Ms Black informing The Herald that she is no longer a member of the SNP is not a 'public resignation'. Ms Black declined to comment.
The Herald Scotland
07-06-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Jim Sillars: John Swinney should resign as SNP leader
Polling suggested the SNP would win the crunch by-election but instead Labour took the seat pushing the SNP into second while Reform was placed third. The result prompted calls on Friday by SNP veteran Alex Neil for Mr Swinney's resignation as leader before the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026, when the SNP will have been in power for 19 years. Speaking to The Herald Mr Sillars echoed Mr Neil's views that Mr Swinney should quit though added he did not think a change of leadership would be sufficient to put the SNP on the front foot in time for the election next May saying better delivery on public services and a review of policy priorities was needed. "Look at yesterday's result," he said. READ MORE: SNP veteran calls for Swinney to quit after Labour shock by-election victory Sarwar: Swinney ran a 'disgraceful' campaign and is running down the clock as FM Rows with press, claims of racism and misinformation - a by-election that turned ugly "The SNP went down to 29%. If that was repeated in 2026 the SNP will have a disaster on their hands, they would get nowhere near the seats they need to get and therefore not be in government. "It is very difficult to see how they can reverse their position. They are also being judged by voters on the basis of their performance in government. "They have spent more time in Holyrood arguing about the identity of women than they have about the 85,000 children living in abject poverty. Former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars (Image: PA) "It is not just a leadership replacement they would have to rethink their whole policy priorities. They have lost the people." He noted the difference in support for independence and for the SNP. "When you get polling showing that support for independence is around 50% but the so-called party of independence is getting 29% of the vote in a critical by-election then there is a real problem," he added. "I never thought John Swinney would make a good leader. I think he should go on the basis that he is a failure, though it doesn't mean that him going would really change things substantially." Along with Mr Neil, Mr Sillars is a longstanding critic of Mr Swinney and former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Both were supportive of the late former First Minister Alex Salmond when he fell out with Ms Sturgeon. Turning to the First Minister's message that the by-election was a straight contest between the SNP and Reform, Mr Sillars said: "He punted Reform instead of dealing with the real opposition which was Labour. Scottish Labour's victory rally in Hamilton on Friday (Image: Colin Mearns) "It showed a man with a lack of judgment and someone who could not read the street." Former SNP health secretary Mr Neil was the first senior party figure to call for a change of leadership following the SNP by-election defeat. In a post on X on Friday Alex Neil, who held Cabinet roles in the administrations of both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, said it was time for a new leadership. READ MORE: Keir Starmer: John Swinney hasn't raised independence referendum with me Swinney defends claims Labour 'out of it' in by-election Not a shot that's been fired across SNP's bows, it's a cruise missile "Poor by election result for the SNP despite having the best candidate," wrote the former Cabinet minister on X. "It shows that the opinion polls appear wide of the mark. Most importantly it shows the current SNP leadership needs to be replaced urgently." Mr Sarwar and his party celebrated in the early hours of Friday morning after Labour's Davy Russell was elected as the new MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, winning the seat from the SNP. With the votes showing a swing of more than 7% from the SNP to Labour, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Friday the result showed people have "voted for change". The by-election had been held following the death earlier this year of Scottish Government minister Christina McKelvie. When the votes were counted, Mr Russell polled 8,559, SNP candidate Katy Loudon took 7,957 votes, while Reform's Ross Lambie secured 7,088. And although Mr Russell was elected with fewer votes than Labour secured in the seat in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP's support fell from just over 46% of all ballots then to 29.35% in the by-election. Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice insisting they were "delighted" with coming third - despite speculation prior to the count that they could come in second or may even pull off a surprise victory. Speaking at a media event in Hamilton on Friday morning, Mr Sarwar accused the SNP leader of running a "disgraceful" campaign" and insisted the by-election could "help lead the way" to him becoming Scotland's next First Minister. Mr Swinney said the SNP was "clearly disappointed" with the result. The First Minister and party leader said Labour had "won by an absolute landslide" in Rutherglen and Hamilton West - noting the SNP "came much closer" this time round. But he added: "The people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse have made clear that we still have work to do. "Over the next few days, we will take time to consider the result fully." The SNP was approached to seek comment on the interventions from Mr Sillars and Mr Neil. Since coming into office in Spring last year Mr Swinney has attempted to refresh the SNP's policy agenda with a renewed focus on addressing child poverty and improving public services, in particular tackling waits for NHS treatment. He has attempted to steer away from the public debate on gender politics which dominated the end of Ms Sturgeon's time in office.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Second Harvest Food Bank launches ‘Summer Food Service Program' in Greater New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Second Harvest Food Bank kicked off its Summer Food Service Program on Monday morning. The food bank, located on Edwards Avenue, aims to provide meals during the summer months that students are usually provided during the school year. Breakfasts and lunches are prepared for more than 3,000 children in the area. New Orleans' French Market will celebrate annual Creole Tomato Festival John Sillars, Chief Strategy Officer at Second Harvest, says that the schools are helping to cover costs of the feeding program. However, the New Orleans community also plays a large part in helping the program come to life. 'This is a program where we do get compensated partially by the Department of Education, but we do need community support to keep it going because it doesn't cover the entire cost,' Sillars said. 'There is a fundraising gap that we need, and we depend on the community to close that gap.' There are currently 72 summer feeding sites in South Louisiana, the majority being in the Greater New Orleans area. Those interested in donating their time or money to Second Harvest Food Bank can visit the Second Harvest auto repair chain to close 145 stores nationwide Gulf policymakers detail efforts to brace for 2025 hurricanes Popeyes takes a dig at McDonald's with newest menu item Wanted: Man threatens to kill entire family if they call police 2 rescued after plane crashes into ocean off coast of Connecticut Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The National
01-06-2025
- Politics
- The National
Whether 1988 or 2025, we want politicians with something real to say
Labour currently hold 50 of Scotland's 72 seats in the House of Commons and are growing to dislike the moniker the 'feeble fifty'. Devolution is still 10 years off, Neil Kinnock is still failing rightwards in the forlorn search for the centre ground, the poll tax is poised to roll out across Scotland and Mrs Thatcher has no notion she is entering her final years in Downing Street. At this confluence of events in 1988, Labour found themselves defending the seat of Glasgow Govan after the incumbent MP Bruce Millan made an unparliamentary bid for freedom, escaping the House of Commons for the comfort of a European Commission job in Brussels. Just over a year earlier, Millan won Govan with a majority of just over 19,500, with Labour taking 65% of the vote. The SNP attracted just 3851. All of which must have given Labour a significant degree of earned confidence about their chances of holding on to the constituency. But in November 1988, the political weather was changing. Labour nominated trade unionist Bob Gillespie. The SNP selected Jim Sillars. READ MORE: Scottish independence support at 58 per cent if Nigel Farage becomes PM – poll In contrast with Sillars's native wit and quick repartee, it became obvious Gillespie was not a polished media performer. When the gabs were given out, Gillespie missed out on the gift. Notwithstanding these obvious vulnerabilities, STV was still able to coax all eight of the Govan by-election candidates to submit themselves to the cameras to answer questions in front of a live studio audience. The raft of candidates included Gillespie, Sillars, a fresh-faced Bernard Ponsonby, my old university colleague Douglas Chalmers for the Communists, and Screaming Lord Sutch for the Monster Raving Loonies. During the programme, the candidates were given the opportunity to cross-examine one another on a topic of their choice. What happened remains a cautionary tale for contemporary media handlers, which may go a long way to explaining the many absences of the Invisible Man currently in the running to represent Labour in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse in Holyrood. With a Cheshire cat's grin and a feline look in either eye, Sillars took the opportunity to ask Gillespie a technical question on what he thought about 'additionality' in European funding programmes. Visibly stumped, but unwilling to admit that he hadn't the foggiest what Sillars was talking about, Gillespie rambled. A polished deflection, it wasn't. As Sillars recalls, Gillespie was so flummoxed, he managed to knock over his microphone during his answer. The debate performance was widely perceived as a disaster, and the SNP went on to beat Gillespie in Govan by more than 3500 votes. Gillespie, to some extent unfairly, got a lot of the blame from his party colleagues, who insulated themselves from more troubling questions about why they lost by concluding they'd selected a duff candidate who squandered their natural advantages. But in 1988 as in 2025, you can only be eloquent if you actually have something to say. Labour's havers about how to resist the poll tax – if resist it they would at all – arguably had much more to do with the party's fate in Govan than one ashen-faced performance by the candidate facing a technical ambush by a wily opponent. But the Govan debate has always struck me as an interesting political moment – and a risky strategy for Sillars to have adopted. One bad answer on an obscure issue of European policy seems unlikely to sink a political campaign – though a bad turn can certainly confirm existing perceptions and prejudices about a candidate, fixing their reputations, feeding doubts, giving their opponents reasons to feel encouraged. But gotcha moments like this can easily rebound on the clever politicians who spring these kinds of traps on their goodhearted but hapless opponents. There's a very fine line – which has perhaps grown even finer since 1988 – between exposing your opponents' ignorance of big policy issues of the day, and coming off as an intellectual bully and a snob. Characteristically, Sillars got away with it. I found myself wondering if painful memories of Govan may have something to do with Labour's decision not to give reporters meaningful opportunities to ask their candidate in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election impertinent questions. You can understand the calculation. If the risks of your candidate participating in a political debate significantly outweigh the benefits to your campaign of exposing your boy to searching questions – from the media or anyone else – the safer thing to do is to pretend you're out pestering constituents at the crack of dawn or the end of the day, rather than offering up yet another viral clip to the internet, confirming all the unflattering perceptions your opponents have seeded about the numpty you might have nominated. (Image: Gordon Terris) STV were the first to be dinghied, Davy Russell declining the opportunity to participate in a panel debate. The reasons given for declining this friendly invitation are farcical. As STV's Colin Mackay put it last week: 'Davy Russell has told newspaper journalists that he would 'rather be chapping doors and talking and listening to ordinary voters' – but given that Scotland Tonight hustings is not on until 10.40 at night, if he is chapping doors, he's likely to get chased.' It turns out Davy isn't a morning person either, or he is so much of a morning person, the good people of Hamilton should brace themselves to find him hanging off their doorbells at sparrow fart. Given the evolving excuses, it's difficult to say for sure. What we do know, however, is that Russell sadly 'wasn't able' to join BBC Good Morning Scotland's programme last week either. The programme was profiling all the candidates putting themselves forward to represent the Holyrood constituency – except for Mr Russell, who was inexplicably contemplating the universe or engaging in some wholesome homespun local activism instead. Social media hits involving the candidate have also been significantly cut and edited, resulting in ungenerous questions about whether Russell can 'string a sentence together' and suggestions he's become the 'invisible man' of the campaign, at least in terms of national coverage. Curiously, Anas Sarwar's reaction to suggestions that perhaps we should hear a bit more from his candidate and that his absence from the airwaves might suggest a lack of confidence under scrutiny was to claim these criticisms amounted to class snobbery against the whole constituency. 'That's a completely disparaging comment that is below the belt,' the Scottish Labour leader said, claiming it 'demonstrates a classist approach to someone who is from this community and speaks like someone from this community'. I don't know about you, but I haven't had to use Adobe Premiere Pro to get a coherent line or two of conversation out of folk from this particular corner of South Lanarkshire. If anything is classist, isn't it the suggestion that criticising an individual in hiding from the mildest kinds of democratic scrutiny must, somehow, represent a condescending commentary on the community itself? If your candidate refuses to talk to the media except in the most stage-managed fashion, if his minders maintain a constant cordon sanitaire around him to prevent awkward questions being asked and answered on the record – the questions aren't about your candidate's accent or his eloquence, but whether he can produce a voice at all, and what he might use that voice to say. People, generally, don't want to be embarrassed by their politicians. I may not be across every issue in public policy – but if you don't know where to start, we have a problem. Most folk don't like public speaking – but the shyest people in the room can be the most savage critics of other people's attempts and failures to force the words from their lips in a roughly coherent sequence. Being an MSP is a public-facing job. Would-be politicians dodging scrutiny deserve no sympathy. If you choose to step into the circus ring, you must expect to meet lions. If you've no idea how to fend them off, and no idea how to find the gumption to even try, you're applying to join the wrong job. If you want a quiet life, become a librarian.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Second Harvest Food Bank needs support amid federal funding cuts
ELMWOOD, La. (WGNO) — Federal funding cuts are now impacting charities, like Second Harvest Food Bank. Leaders of the nonprofit say they're going to need help from the public, so families don't go hungry. 37 loads of food expected to arrive at the food bank will not be coming because of cuts made to federal food programs.'That's over 600,000 pounds of food, which has a value to us of $1.1 million,' explained John Sillars, the chief strategy officer for Second Harvest Food Bank. New Orleans City Council resolution criticizes federal spending cuts Sillars says their food bank also relied on a program that allowed them to purchase fresh food from local farmers.'What we learned was, that program was being canceled nationwide, and so that is impacting us,' said Sillars. 'It's impacting the farmers who we were buying food from.' These cuts are happening as the amount of people experiencing food insecurity in south Louisiana increases to nearly 440,000.'Maybe it's a child who is, you know, it's Friday today, and they are leaving at the end of the day, and they're not sure when they're going to be eating over the weekend, if they're going to be eating over the weekend, because really, their main source of food is the food they get from school,' said goes on to say they've budgeted $500,000 to purchase food in the next few months, and they're leaning on other sources as well.'We're investing in food sourcing, staff and partner infrastructure, and then we're also depending on advocacy,' said donations are always welcome, and collection bins are located outside the facility on Edwards Avenue in Elmwood. People can also volunteer.'They can come help plate meals or pack boxes, and if they really want to help us out, they can call their federal and state representatives to express their support for food assistance in south Louisiana,' said Sillars. The USDA has terminated nearly 80 contracts so far, totaling more than $130 million dollars. Their secretary has said these cuts were necessary to stop wasteful spending and optimize the department to better serve American 2025's Strawberry Fest Grand Marshal! Meet this year's 'Strawberry Blossom' for Ponchatoula's Strawberry Fest Second Harvest Food Bank needs support amid federal funding cuts Bristol casino plans for first busy race weekend at permanent site REPORT: Saints QB Derek Carr's status for 2025 season now in jeopardy Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
