A surprise...

I was in Strasbourg today at the European Parliament.

Walking in to the very impressive building you pass through a circular courtyard. Around it there are sometimes displays of various sorts.

Today I looked to my left as I made my way to the main entrance and saw a picture of my niece , India.

It was , for a moment at least , quite a stunning surprise.

I knew that she had been pictured in some of the European Parliament materials encouraging participation in the election earlier this year , with a still from a very moving and inspiring small film that her sister Hermione had made about her and which was shown on the BBC some time ago.

However I didn’t know that this series of images had been made into a further campaign about the key issues that the EU was taking forward in its new mandate such as (in this case) human rights.

The link with me is through my younger brother, Peter, India & Hermione’s father, who lives in Brussels and worked on the campaign. I blipped him with his third daughter, Ursula, a couple of years ago when they stayed with Cathleen and I on holiday in Spain.

Anyway it was a moving moment and also a talking point at various stages of a long day of productive meetings with MEPs from various countries during which the threat that Brexit poses to our future in Scotland as citizens of Europe, enjoying the projection of our rights by the EU, was never far from our thoughts.

Nor the fact that five years ago, to the day, Scotland had not taken the chance to secure its European future.

But next time....