Maybole

It was Jeane Freeman's Adoption Meeting in Maybole last night.

I have blipped adoption meetings before and last nights , for the Scottish Parliament constituency of Carrick Cumnock & Doon Valley , was as good as the best of them.

John Swinney, Alex Neil and Corrie Wilson ( the new MP for Ayr) spoke , MSP Chic Brodie and former MSP Kay Ulrich draw the inevitable ( and huge ) raffle and I ran a fund raising auction which garnered a usefully large sum for campaigning.

The sitting MSP is Adam Ingram , who is retiring, was a fine compere but what struck me most was the size of it.

41 years ago when I joined the SNP the old constituency of South Ayrshire had the largest Labour Party membership in Scotland. Labour seemed absolutely impregnable as my good friend Roger Mullin found out.

In a great and illustrative twist he was the brave young SNP candidate then but now ( after many valiant but losing electoral battles since ) he is finally an SNP Parliamentarian having won Gordon Brown's old seat in Fife this May by a massive margin.

Meanwhile in Sourh Ayrshire there are now several thousand members , infectious enthusiasm and an absolute determination to get Jeane elected as Adam's successor .