Police Scotland It’s public knowledge that I believe Scotland’s police chief Sir Stephen House should resign.

He should go after a number of recent events which leave the reputation of Police Scotland tarnished. The tragic deaths in the M9 accident is just the latest incident to cause public concern. Lamara Bell had to suffer in her car for three days next to her dead partner, John Yuill, before the police responded to a call from a member of the public. Sadly Lamara also died. This follows redundancies among civilian call centre staff, many of whose jobs are now being filled by uninformed police officers. There has been controversy over stop and search policy, and the policy of armed police officers. The vast majority of Scots have a high regard for their local police officers and have a huge admiration and respect for the difficult job. However, I have been contacted by serving and retired officers who are complaining about low morale and high levels of stress. All of this starts to have an impact on public perception and it’s not fair on our hard working and professional police officers. There does need to be an investigation into what happened with the M9 accident. But Police Scotland needs a fresh start and that’s why I believe it needs a new Chief Constable. But let’s not kid ourselves. Many of these problems have been caused by the decisions made by Scottish Government Ministers and this includes a failure to properly fund the service. Ministers too must be held to account.

Piping success It was great to hear Johnstone Pipe Band saw off some excellent competition to win two top prizes at the recent Pipe Band Championships in Paisley. Hundreds of pipers came from as far afield as Northumbria, Dunoon and Ayrshire to compete in this hugely successful contest and it was tough to impress the judges. So it is well done to the award winning band from my constituency who were awarded the top prize in the two toughest categories, the grade two March and the Strathspey and Reel. It was a fantastic day for Renfrewshire and my congratulations go to all who took part and the crowds who braved the weather to support the bands.

Top of the crop I never cease to be amazed by the thoughtfulness of young people who see something they care about passionately and act on it to make a difference. Young Mira Mansfield spent years growing her hair only to have it chopped off to give to The Little Princess Trust, a charity which makes wigs for children with cancer. The Lochwinnoch schoolgirl watched a video about the charity, thought what they did was amazing and decided that despite loving her long hair she would donate it because it wasn’t that important. She lost 10 inches of hair, raised £350 – which wigs can cost – and the profile of the charity so I think she is amazing.