
McConnell To Bannerman
Lord McConnell has spoken about his love for Malawi and the impact funding from Scotland is making in the African country Malawi Attending a school assembly in Glasgow celebrating the bicentenary of Scots missionary David Livingstone, the former first minister said money raised in Scotland was helping not only poor Malawians but young peoples in Scotland.
He said: “It has a special place in my heart certainly. It’s helping Malawi but it’s also really helping Scots understand the world a bit better and so many young Scottish people now will have had that experience as I found out today at Bannerman.”
He also insisted that money raised in Scotland was going to help those in need, and denied it was going to corrupt Malawian government officials. Lord McConnell admitted that the serious criminal investigation that is presently being carried out in Malawi should clear this allegation up by next year.
He said “There is a very serious criminal investigation going on just now in the and hopefully within the next year or so this will all be cleared up and the right people will be prosecuted.”
Politics Lord Jack McConnell describes to Bannerman High pupil, of his journey from being a Mathematics teacher to running the Labour Party Headquarters as a “rocky ride”. From winning the election to being elected as the Third First Minister of Scotland, Lord McConnell was “greatly surprised” as he was part of the Scottish Parliament for only two years.
Referendum In a wide-ranging interview, Lord McConnell also defended young people between the ages of sixteen and eighteen voting in the forthcoming referendum.
He said: "Everybody in the country who can pay taxes, which includes sixteen and seventeen year olds; or join the army, which includes sixteen and seventeen year olds should be able to vote, but I think these things to together.”
However, Lord McConnell tells students that he “wasn’t happy” about doing that only for the Scottish referendum and believes that if you changed the voting age restrictions on one election, then voting age restrictions should change for all elections.
He said: “It should change the rules for all votes or keep them the way that they are for all votes. I think it should be consistent.”
Nonetheless, Lord McConnell believes that now that the opportunity is there, it is a great chance for sixteen to seventeen year olds to get involved and hopes that people do not waste their vote and believes that voters between sixteen and eighteen may be the best informed voters on the subject.
He said: “I suspect they will probably discuss it more, debate it more, learn more about it, and actually may be the most informed voters on the subject.”
By Paige Beresford
published 11/06/2014 by Online Submission
last update 04/06/2014