VIOLENCE against women and girls is a national shame that we must eradicate. In Scotland, up to one in three women will be subject to gender based violence in some form.
This violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women.
White Ribbon Scotland is a campaign that encourages men to do more by asking them to make a pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent on gender based violence.
The 16 Days of Action campaign to end violence against women ended on Monday, and I was delighted to support this again this year, chairing the White Ribbon all party group meeting, and taking part in the Reclaim the Night March in Paisley.
I also wrote to all of my SNP Parliamentary colleagues asking them to become ambassadors and champions for the campaign in 2019 and to sign the White Ribbon pledge. Why don’t you do the same? Visit whiteribbonscotland.org.uk/makepledge
In other matters since my last column, I have been heavily involved in campaigning for the UK Government to clean up the mess made by disgraced company HELMS.
As we approach the end of the year and are now deep into winter, you may be noticing how much it costs to heat your home. You may also be considering your own impact on the environment.
Some years ago, the Tory government implemented their Green Deal scheme. This was supposed to help people afford energy efficient homes, yet due to a disastrous implementation by the Government, it has failed drastically and left thousands victim to aggressive mis-selling, mostly by the now liquidated HELMS.
Last week at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), I asked Theresa May if she would finally do the right thing and step in to give immediate financial assistance to those who have been affected by mis-selling.
To say the answer I received was disappointing would be an understatement. After MPs raising this issue in Parliament on multiple occasions, and coverage across the national media on HELMS, the PM said she had no knowledge of this particular case.
I was also on Scotland Tonight to challenge the disgraced former managing director of HELMS, Robert Skillen, on his deplorable behaviour.
He tried his best to deflect and blame everyone else but himself.
Finally, last week, following PMQs, the Prime Minister decided to fly to Renfrewshire to make an attempt at selling her blindfold Brexit deal to the Scottish people, continuing the great tradition of UK Prime Ministers flying north to Scotland for a day and thinking that was enough time to consider the views of people across our country.
Theresa May was joined by David Mundell, her Secretary of State for Scotland, who has an awful habit of threatening to resign if other places in the UK are offered preferential treatment over Scotland and then doing nothing when exactly this is on the table.
I was not informed of this visit, and my colleague, Mhairi Black, was only informed a few hours before it took place.
If we knew she was visiting, I would have been happy to have arranged with her to meet some of over 300 of my constituents who have been mis-sold home improvements by HELMS.
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