ON THE DESK Sally Loudon,
Dress to impress
On the day that all the MSPs were being sworn in, there was that horribly embarrass- ing moment when newly elected SNP MSPs Roseanna Cunningham and Shirley Ann Somerville passed each other in the Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament wearing the same dress, only surpassed by the sight of Nicola Sturgeon wearing the same bright pink jacket as Ms Cunningham, who avoided standing next to her boss. However, the ward- robe faux pas clearly didn’t do any harm as both Cunningham and Somerville were promoted to the cabinet and the ministe- rial team respectively. Rumours that there is to be a dress code enforced for future gatherings have been entirely refuted.
By royal 1 2 3
Chief Executive, COSLA
5 4 7
5
6
appointment
3 Papers This pile here is about the external organisa-
Scottish Lib Dem’s Willie Rennie took a charity dare from Labour
leader Kezia
Dugdale to ask Prince Charles what he’d got his maw for her 90th birthday. However, Instead of the
promised use of the words ‘yer maw’, Whollyrude can reveal that Willie chickened out and used the Sunday phraseology of ‘your mother’, instead. Te formalised version still drew suspicion from the Duke of Rothsay, however. Apparently, the prince refused to say what he had given his mater, apart from to confirm it was “some- thing she’d wanted” [like?]. Despite the climb-down, Dug- dale still donated to Gorgie City Farm to subsidise Ren- nie’s porcine backing band. Bets are off!
Sally Loudon took up her post as the new chief executive of COSLA on 9 May, having previously been chief executive of Argyll and Bute Council. She told Holyrood that she hadn’t had time to put pictures on the walls yet or a bring in a photo of her children for the desk, but it looks like she’s got straight to work.
1 Papers There’s three distinct piles of papers. This
one is my plan for my first hundred days in the job and that’s all about relationships and the number of people that I need to meet externally and internally.
2 Papers
This one is about the COSLA review. COSLA’s been the representative body of local gov- ernment for decades and it’s about making sure that we continue to be dynamic, flexible enough to support councils and reflect the transformation that’s happening in councils and be outward looking.
tions that I’m going out to meet. 4 Laptop
The laptop is important to me, because first of all I get to do my work on the new Borders railway coming up the road in the morning, and also my intention is to be out and about visiting councils.
5 COSLA manifesto #chooselocal is the manifesto of COSLA,
which has at its heart that democracy should be at a local level as default and also reflects the first social media campaign that COSLA launched.
6 Local Government: Leading Reform
This is the COSLA conference that will be taking place on the 6 and 7 October, so that’s obviously on my radar.
7 Mug Lastly is my Tyrii Pottery mug. I brought that
with me to remind me of Argyll and Bute and what a wonderful place it is.
23 May 2016
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