Reasons to help Christine Jardine in Aberdeen Donside

On the wall in Christine Jardine's campaign headquarters, formerly a pet shop, just out of interest, there is a poster where people have written why they have come to help. Here it is in glorious technicolour.

Some of the best are:

Because the SNP have short-changed Aberdeen

Because Christine is awesome

I believe in Christine

Because I just really, really, really love the Lib Dems a lot. (I'd put money on Liberal Youth co-chair Kavya Kaushik having something to do with that one.)

Because we need people like Christine in Parliament.

Because Lib Dems support local communities

To stop the Nats

Donside needs a strong Lib Dem Voice

Christine is the intelligent choice

Because we are on the right side of local issues - and Willie Young sure is not

Returning the favour for Eastleigh

Delivering new pens

Because campaigning is a good hangover cure (this one appeared the night after Malcolm Bruce's 30th anniversary dinner)

Whatever motivates you, you would be given a very warm welcome in Donside over the last three days of the campaign at Team Christine Towers at 8 Scotstown Road. The phone number is
07516 450672 or you can email volunteer@christinejardine.com.

There's a new VPB as well if you want to catch up with some phone canvassing - C534BA-1813

Christine is an amazing candidate. She has knocked on thousands of doors over the last few weeks and her no nonsense, Aberdeen first attitude has been very well received. We also could not have asked for more from Liberal Youth Scotland. They have really stepped up to the plate and have been an intelligent, hard working,  integral part of the campaign. We are so lucky to have them. 

Willie Rennie as you've never seen him before

Everyone who knows Willie Rennie will know that he hardly ever stops. Whether it's getting on Alex Salmond's case in Holyrood, fighting for college funding or for the best start in life for two year olds, to travelling from one end of the country to the other encouraging and supporting activists, he's on the go all the time. Resting is not an option for him.  He can probably be described as WTF (Worse than Farron) in that regard. He will always enthuse you to do more work than you thought you were capable of.

He's spent a fair bit of time in Aberdeen Donside recently, supporting Christine Jardine's campaign. It was on a trip there last Friday that he was caught by an activist who had better remain anonymous doing something you don't normally see.

This uncharacteristic lounging around did not last long, however,  and he was soon back on the doors talking to voters.

The campaign HQ at 8 Scotstown Road is open every day and can be contacted on 07516 450672 or hq@christinejardine.com. I'm hoping that as it's Aberdeen based  Liberal Youth Co-Chair Kavya Kaushik's 23rd birthday today, that everyone reading this will knock on 23 extra doors or make 23 extra phone calls in her honour. Contact HQ and they will give you the VPB code. If you can't go, you can donate here.

I was in Donside on Saturday and found that Christine's message was going down very well on the door. People feel that the SNP has let Aberdeen down, taking money away from the city and putting them in the central belt. They don't have much enthusiasm for the Labour candidate or council either. They like that Christine is fighting for Aberdeen to get its fair share of government money and investment and for nursery education for 1000 2 year olds in the city, while the SNP only provide it for 40.

One thing that was very clear was that people really don't want independence. They're happy for the Holyrood to have more powers, but they want to stay in the UK.

We did have some amusing encounters on Saturday. On the first street we went to, I reckon you could have found a quorum for the Scottish Parliament. In just a few steps we counted 5 MSPs, including Willie Rennie and John Swinney. It was quite amusing that we'd all decided on that street, the longest in the constituency, on the same day.

Yet again the young people in this party are doing us proud, with LYS members Hannah Bettsworth, Daniel O'Malley and Euan Davidson spending most of their time on the campaign trail. First there was EastLY, then there was GoldGuard during the county elections and now Donside helping Christine.

From a personal point of view, this was a return to an area that I spent a bit of time in as a student. I got a harsh reminder of the passage of time on Saturday. When I first arrived I went to a church that met in Oldmachar Academy which was all very new then. I remember it being out in the open a bit and very visible from the road. Not any more. It's pretty much surrounded by mature trees. It really doesn't seem like almost 30 years ago.

Joe 90 campaigns for Christine Jardine in Aberdeen Donside

The likeness is incredible.

Christine Jardine is proving to be a fabulous candidate, showing how the SNP is neglecting Aberdeen in favour of shoring up its more fragile power base in the Central Belt and calling on the Labour Council to stop dithering and build the third Don crossing. There was a stormy hustings yesterday, on Brian Taylor's Big Debate where the Labour and SNP candidates seemed to be more interested in kicking lumps out of each other than anything else. They made a lot of noise but Christine made sure she got in there and made her very reasonable, practical points as well. You can listen to the whole thing here.

Christine made the point that people she meets on the doorstep feel that the SNP Government is doing nothing for them. She also challenged the SNP on their refusal to provide nursery education for the poorest two year olds, 1000 of them in Aberdeen alone.

The Scottish Government experiments on my child!

It's a pretty anxious time for any parent with a child in the early years of secondary school in Scotland. The Scottish Government has introduced a new Curriculum, called the Curriculum for Excellence which aims to produce a new generation of responsible citizens, successful learners, confident individuals and effective contributors.

At primary school level, this has been embraced and has really given teachers the opportunity and flexibility to teach key skills in an imaginative way. Anna's primary education was excellent all the way through, but you could see in the last few years how the Curriculum for Excellence was making a difference. They were given innovative and exciting challenges which delighted them - for example, they'd maybe have to pitch an idea, Dragon's Den style. A far cry from the olden days when we copied things down from the board (not on slate, we'd moved on to jotters by the time I was at school) and  spoke when we were spoken to.

The problem with Curriculum for Excellence comes at secondary school level. My daughter and her friends have to sit the new qualifications in three years' time. The year above her has to sit them in two years' time. Only thing is, nobody has much of a clue what these exams will look like.

The SNP's abrasive Cabinet Secretary for Education is dismissive of criticism. You would expect that a  government minister would understand that parents are pretty anxious about the standard of their kids' education and show a bit of sensitivity to parents' concerns. That is not Mike Russell's style. Well, Cabinet Secretary, some of us parents aren't willing to accept your entirely unsubstantiated platitudes and assurances that it will all be fine. Our kids' education is a bit too important for that.

Until recently, Christine Jardine was the UK Government's Scottish Media Adviser, deep in the heart of Downing Street. She's now returning full time to Scottish politics. Many parents will appreciate this article she wrote on the new Curriculum for Excellence in this week's Scotland on Sunday. She argues that Scottish education has a bigger problem, too - it is consistently failing children from deprived backgrounds. We may well have free university education up here, but only 11% of students come from a deprived background. That's not good enough.

Christine writes:

While our government at Holyrood has been trying to rescue the implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence, they have failed those who need our education system most. Social mobility does not appear to be part of their agenda. Yet if they were to look south, they would see a ­readymade programme to tackle the problem.

The Pupil Premium, which aims to improve educational attainment for disadvantaged children, is a key policy of 
the Lib Dems in the coalition. Its aim, put simply, is to give head teachers the power to help poorer pupils in the way that works best for them.

Nick Clegg has done something about this south of the border with the introduction of the Pupil Premium. The Scottish Government needs to act, too. You very rarely hear Alex Salmond talk about poverty and social mobility. It's time he and Mike Russell turned their attention from picking fights with Westminster and on to our kids' futures.

The team that rocks - the yellow bit of Downing Street is about to get a whole load better

After a very upbeat week at Liberal Democrat conference, I am delighted to hear news that two very sensible appointments have been made to augment the Liberal Democrat team within Downing Street.

The first was actually announced about 10 days ago by the Herald - former Herald journalist Christine Jardine is going to be the link between No 10 and the Scotland Office. One can only hope that if David Cameron and George Osborne ever express the wish to say anything about Scotland, she'll be able to lock them in a cupboard until the urge passes.

The second, announced today on her blog, is the appointment of Olly Grender on a temporary basis as Deputy Director of Communications to cover for maternity leave.

Both Olly and Christine are people whose judgement I utterly respect and trust. They are very practical, with their feet firmly in the real world. I don't just expect that they'll make a real improvement to the way the Government operates, I know they will. The analytical and strategic knowledge they bring to their new roles is pretty darned brilliant.

Good luck to both of them.