Like everyone one else I’m sure I will be very happy when the weather finally decides that we can say goodbye to the winter conditions that have been doggedly hanging around.

It certainly caused an unusual amount of disruption, which I think we all realise called for some extraordinary commitments from both individual people and from our councils. I would like to put on record my thanks to all those that helped things keep moving, from looking after their neighbours to those that trudged through the snow to keep society ticking over.

In and around our constituency the aftermath has meant there has been an upsurge in calls to the office regarding issues as diverse as cold weather payments to potholes and car damage. Like my other elected colleagues, we have been working our way through these to assist our constituents.

On the morning on April 5 I attended my local Citizens Advice Bureau in Drumchapel at the invitation of Laura McMahon, the centre manager. It was their first all-day drop-in session where they expected to advise nearly 30 clients, and it really brought it home to me how important and necessary a service this is.

I managed to sit in on a case and the breadth of knowledge and professionalism of “Jim” the advisor was incredible. Overall there seemed to be a majority of cases involving welfare issues that day and from my political standpoint I just wish we had taken a different direction in 2014 so that this imposed austerity would no longer be the direction being followed.

In parliament it was a great honour to host an event to congratulate the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on them receiving this year’s Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the work they have tirelessly put in to campaign against the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the possible use of these weapons. It was great to meet Beatrice Fihn who actually accepted the peace prize on behalf of ICAN.

Just as a last note to share. On April 28, there are events both at the People’s Palace in Glasgow and at Alexandria Park in West Dunbartonshire to mark International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD). This type of commemoration is more than 70 years old and started in Canada. It is coordinated in Scotland by both STUC and Scottish Hazards to commemorate all workers who have died while at work and is attended by trade unionists and the workers’ families. There are various other events running the length and breadth of the country and it follows the oft repeated trade union saying of “remember the dead, fight for the living”.