We are born facing the right direction. Clear. Curious. Unburdened. We arrive with a sense that life is meant to be lived, not endured. But the world is efficient at distraction. Before we even understand the word “choice,” we are nudged onto tracks laid by other hands. We learn to run before we learn to question. We learn to obey before we learn to see. And slowly, quietly, the years begin to disappear. Not because we are weak. Not because we lack ambition. But because we were trained to mistake movement for meaning. We run through school. We run into work. We run through routines. We run through expectations. We run through noise. We run through fear. We run through the belief that “this is just how life works.” We run until we forget we are running. Somewhere along the way, we accept our “lot.” Not because it fits us — but because we were told it was sensible, responsible, realistic. We were told: Someone older will guide us. Someone educated will protect us. Someone in authority wi

I have decided: the rest of my life must put God first. By His strength, not mine. To His glory, not mine. Whatever has gone before, my focus now must be on Him — every action, every expression, every breath aligned to Him. No more uncontrolled anger. No more worldly bickering. No more letting the noise of man drown out the pull of God. God is the Magnet. His commandments and His laws are the Compass. Not the laws of men. Not the shifting opinions of society. Not the hamster wheel that keeps us too busy to think, too distracted to see, too numb to feel. For decades I lived on that wheel — job, money, expectation, survival. Running, running, running. Never stopping long enough to ask where I was going, or why. Only when the noise fell away did I finally see the world clearly: a world that tolerates homelessness, injustice, inequality, selfishness, and calls it “normal.” A world that hides the suffering and rewards the indifferent. A world that has lost its Compass because it has ignored

THE BUDGET: THE GREAT CIVIC ILLUSION A budget is not a pot of money. It’s not cash in a vault. It’s not a guarantee. It’s not a limit imposed by the universe. A budget is simply: a plan, based on assumptions, approved at a moment in time, predicting what you think will happen over the next year. It’s a map — not the territory. Inside councils, governments, charities, and companies, budgets are usually created by: Finance teams (the technical builders) Department heads (the ones who say what they need) Executives or councillors (the ones who decide priorities) The finance team crunches the numbers. The leadership decides what gets funded and what gets cut. Approval depends on the organisation: Councils: elected councillors vote on it. Governments: parliament votes on it. Companies: the board signs it off. Charities: trustees approve it. Approval is political, not mathematical. A budget is a plan. Cash is reality. They are not the same thing. A council can have a £2 billion budget and st

Across Glasgow and other Scottish cities, we’ve been hearing repeated street‑level conversations among housing‑deprived people about a house-deprived group calling itself SHARP — Safeguarding Home And Rights Protection. We cannot confirm whether SHARP intends to stand in the May 26 elections, but the rumour is spreading quickly among those with lived experience of homelessness. If true, it would mark the first time a group formed by housing‑deprived citizens themselves has explored entering Scotland’s democratic process. To help anyone curious about what this would involve, we’ve prepared two short executive summaries based on Electoral Commission guidance. Executive Summary 1: How to Register a Political Party in Scotland Political parties in Scotland must register with the Electoral Commission before they can appear on ballot papers. Registration is not automatic — applications are assessed against legal criteria. Minimum Requirements Completed application form submitted to the Elec

“When you become homeless, there are two things involved. Either the system sees you, or it refuses to. If it sees you, there are two things involved: Either it helps you, or it delays you. If it delays you, there are two things involved: Either you survive the wait, or you don’t. And if you don't survive the wait there is only one thing involved: Hell.” — Seumas Oniwaasu Omowale O'Duibhin (All respect and thanks to Basket Mouth for inspiration)

“The refusal to acknowledge the need for safe, same‑sex accommodation for women is not oversight. It is vile indifference — the quiet cruelty of those who choose not to see.” - Seumas Oniwaasu Omowale O'Duibhin. A Moral Question to the Leaders of This Nation There are moments in a nation’s life when silence becomes complicity. When those entrusted to serve turn their backs, choosing the comfort of not knowing over the burden of responsibility. When institutions adopt the old creed of cowards — I see no evil, I hear no evil, I speak no evil — as if refusing to acknowledge suffering could absolve them of the duty to end it. These are the moments that define a country’s character. Not in speeches, not in slogans, but in the quiet decisions that determine whether the vulnerable are protected or abandoned. And tonight, across Scotland, those decisions will determine whether a homeless woman sleeps in fear, or maybe gets no sleep at all. For in cities, towns, and rural communities across thi