Working Lunch

Monday's normal routine was broken with a little working lunch at Blackaddie. It was an opportunity for local business people to meet Alex Ferguson, David Mundell and Annabel Goldie and voice concerns over issues affecting local business in Mid and Upper Nithsdale

Top of the agenda was the shifting of the map for European Regeneration funding and the potential impact to this area's larger employers - while bureaucrat's massage statistics and change funding boundaries, we need to be sure we are heard. People of Nithsdale are living in an area needy of regeneration efforts - statisticians appear to consider car ownership a luxury, not a necessity, so the higher the car : population ratio, the more wealthy they perceive a community to be. That may be fine for an urban home counties area - but not here. More thought needs to be given to which measuring sticks are used.

Green Issues were another discussion point. The causes and effects of global warming will put energy conservation at the forefront of policy making of any party and I have no doubt green taxes will bring in lots of money ... what we need to hear is how that money will be used ...

It was interesting to put faces to the names - thanks everyone

ps I was feeling a little out of my comfort zone but thankfully had no major problems with my jerks