Brixton, Balerno, Glasgow and Easter Road

Lambeth Town Hall

Been on tour the last few days. Visited Lambeth Council (Town Hall is in the centre of Brixton) with a couple of colleagues to discuss their Co-operative Council initiative. They've been leading the co-operative approach for a couple of years now and have developed some really innovative and exciting ideas. The Young Lambeth Co-operative for example which will be established in the next few weeks and young people will own and run their own services with the current budget transferred to them. And the day care centre that we visited that will soon become a mutual, owned by the staff and managed by staff, users and carers. Interesting stuff and not without its challenges but Lambeth colleagues were very open about some of the problems they've encountered, and resolved.

Having got off the train at 11.30pm on Friday I surprised myself by managing to get to the Balerno Farmers Market for 9.30am yesterday, then a cup of coffee at the Fairtrade event in Balerno church before meeting Andrew Burns to head to Glasgow for a Scottish Labour Councillors Conference. Addressed by Sarah Boyack, Anas Sarwar and Johann Lamont as well as a couple of workshop sessions it was very worthwhile and will be repeated.

Last leg of the tour is today, Easter Road, for what is likely to be the last derby of the season. Not hugely confident but looking forward to the game anyway.