Craig Meighan

Shettleston Councillor, Thomas Kerr Thomas Kerr is not your stereotypical Tory: no private education, no nanny growing up, no connections to Eton and no silver spoon wedged firmly wedged between his teeth. In fact, he is the exact opposite. He grew up in a high rise in Cranhill and attended Eastbank Academy, a school in Shettleston. From a young age he’s had to deal with parents addicted to drugs. Kerr was disadvantaged from the start but didn’t let that stop him from achieving the impossible (or at least implausible): a seat in the East-End of Glasgow’s Shettleston ward. A ward that only a few years ago was reported to have a life expectancy lower than that of war-torn Iraq. Kerr explains he is a Tory, not despite growing up poor, but because he grew up poor. “To me the only party that offered somebody from a working-class background, like myself, opportunity was the Conservatives. “To me, the SNP and Labour’s ideology is to try to keep people in their b...

Dogs Trust has must increase its presence in Scotland to help widen its appeal says employee at Glasgow branch.  Lloyd Rodman, assistant manager, speaking about his own shop in Tollcross Road said: ‘One thing that has to improve is more shops to share stock. We get about 50 bags a day and the shop is tiny.’  Rodman said: ‘The fact of the matter is if there were more dogs Trust shops in Scotland we could share stock. Sometimes we have stock here that we can’t sell…it has to go all the way down south which costs money. If there were more shops around here it would be easier to share, which means more proceeds to the company.’ Rodman said the charity, founded in 1891, should try market itself more to young people.  He said: ‘Charity shops have a pretty bad stigma for being junk shops for older consumers. I would have more young people in.’ Speaking about the practical steps the charity takes, he said: ‘Dogs Trust last year made £2.4M from charity s...