As recess comes to an end I can honestly say that, as usual, it just flies in and for me as your constituency MSP it’s back to the parliamentary schedule.

Recently, I was speaking on a European Championships motion I lodged earlier in the summer congratulating Glasgow City Council, its staff, all the volunteers and most of all its citizens on showing the world how to successfully hold our part of this year’s championships. Many of the events sold out – it really was a treat as well as being a flag ship event and financial success for the city.

During the last few weeks I have been invited to several locations to speak with and meet a variety of organisations. These included the opening of the new Macmillan entrance at the Beatson. This newly designed area will enable Macmillan staff to interact more freely with the service users and expand into offering to provide such things as benefit advice.

This also gives me a chance to help publicise the £100million the Scottish Government has put to funding the Beatson’s new innovative treatment plan. This will provide: six new nurse posts, four clinical pharmacists, two clinical oncology consultants and one senior radiotherapy physicist and will reduce the total amount of radiation administered to each individual by around 30 per cent.

I had a swell time at the LINKES family day out recently and wish everyone there all the best for the great work they do across the generations. I also managed to attend Antonine Court in Drumchapel’s 25th anniversary “Doo” - the staff, carers and service users know how to have a good time.

The Scottish Government is asking if people would like more powers devolved to a local level and if so, what type of powers and what level of control. Could I ask those of you who can, please take two minutes to look at and fill in the questionnaire at gov.scot/democracymatters, or call my office and we’ll send you one.

Oh, and as a last plug for Macmillan – I will be attending their coffee morning being run by the staff of M&S at Knightscliff Avenue in Knightswood on September 28 for a charity auction with some great prizes. Why not drop in?

Here’s hoping we all get to enjoy the last of the summer.