LAST week I asked a question of the Prime Minister which quite frankly, stumped him. My constituents however would not have been amused that it was on the issue they contact me most frequently about, housing.

In this country there is a chronic lack of affordable homes to rent or buy, a ballooning but very fragmented private rented sector and more young people giving up on ever being able to afford their own home; these are persistent problems requiring bold solutions.

But the Government's only bright idea - the Help to Buy programme - is to provide a system of state guarantees on mortgages similar to those issued by the doomed US mortgage banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

IT feels like yesterday that I was sitting in the audience at the launch of Yes Scotland.

The excitement in the air was tangible, the speeches and support from Brian Cox and Alan Cumming roused the crowd and people were ready to take to the streets to drum up support.

In fact, it has been just over a year since the campaign launch in Edinburgh. And in the past year, more than 372,000 people have signed the Independence Declaration.

This is fantastic, and shows that more and more people are backing the campaign for an independent Scotland.

A NEW law designed to protect tenants at risk from unscrupulous landlords has recently come into force.

Anyone who has rented a flat knows that if they cause damage to the property, they will risk losing their deposit. But many people find that they run that same risk even when no damage is caused.

A minority of landlords seem to consider the extra month or two's rent as a perk of 
the trade.

Making it difficult or time consuming to get a deposit repaid can cause real problems. Few people who find themselves moving
to a new flat can afford to lodge another
 deposit while waiting months to get their
 old one back.

FORMER Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously once said that "a week is a long time in politics".

He was right. But in British football a year is an eternity. And this year it has been all change in our national sport. I have written before in the Glaswegian about Scottish football and so today I wanted to write a wee bit more about football down South.

And what a year its been. But it is how the game has been played out in the boardrooms and back rooms more than on the football field that has made the headlines. Perhaps it is because results - barring the stunning Cup final upsets - were predictable several weeks ago.

The one thing that has been surprising but is perhaps now just part of the sport is the way in which managers are instantly dispensable. Tune into any radio phone-in and the talk is all about the manager and his tactics. Today personalities seem to dominate football more than ever before.

AS you may have spotted, there is a referendum coming. Stop, don't go away! This article isn't about voting Yes or No to independence; we still have well over a year to debate that one and I don't want to bore you all to tears.

No, this is about a more immediate question which the Scottish Parliament is debating - who should actually get a vote when that referendum comes along.

To implement their commitment to reduce the voting age to 16, the SNP Government has published a Franchise Bill alongside the main Referendum Bill, and it is making its way through Parliament right now. MSPs will soon start voting on amendments to it.

MEMBERSHIP of the EU is certainly not the main talking point in Glasgow, particularly at a time when families are struggling to make ends meet.

But it's been hard to miss the extraordinary antics of Tory M.P.'s this week at Westminster when they have led their own P.M a merry dance whilst he was ironically meeting President Obama to promote the benefits of a trade agreement between Europe and the USA.

Given the Tories are clearly not able to tackle the real challenges we face around the economy they prefer instead to have petty squabbles amongst themselves and endanger our longstanding successful alliance in the Europe that could result in a very negative impact on everybody's lives.

THE sight of a great tall slab of a building buckling, heaving and then collapsing to the ground like a house of cards is always dramatic, and can be relied upon to make for eye-catching TV coverage.

As the latest tower block demolition took place in Glasgow at the weekend I suspect that the locals had mixed feelings.

The Red Road Flats became notorious symbols of a failed experiment in high rise housing, but for some people there was also a kind of pride associated with them, an almost defiant community spirit which was defined by the buildings despite their obvious flaws.

LAST week marked two years since my election to represent the people of Glasgow in the Scottish Parliament.

It is incredible how quickly time passes - it seems like yesterday that I was at the count, celebrating with my re-elected SNP colleagues and digesting the news that we had an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament.

At the same time, it also seems that I have been an MSP for longer than two years, as so much has happened since May 5, 2011.

However, every day I remember how honoured and lucky I am to be in this position - it is never something I take for granted.

I HAVE never been so exhausted in my life and it is not because I've reached 46 years of age. It was the 26 miles of last weekend's London marathon that did it for me. I've written before for the Glaswegian about getting ready for the run and now that it's done I think Glasgow can learn from it.

I managed to get round the route in 3 hrs 31 minutes and 44 seconds, not bad for a first-timer, but I'm filled with a wee bit of "if only...". If only I had trained harder, if only I hadn't been injured before then maybe I could have taken 1 min 45 sec off my time and gone below 3 and a half hours.

But life is full of such thoughts and a much better way of looking at it is "I'm going to...". For me that means I'm going to run another marathon.

LAST week, I was delighted to join Lena Weeks, Ivan Gorman, Natasha Zaman and Mustafa Mousa from Hillhead Primary School to launch a new four-week conversation asking people what makes Glasgow a great city.

The initiative, led by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, runs until Tuesday, May 21, and is geared at encouraging the people of Glasgow - and anyone who has a connection with the city - to have their say, with responses helping to inform the development of a new city brand that will replace Glasgow: Scotland with style.

Since its launch in 2004, the Glasgow: Scotland with style brand has created a strong, recognisable identity for Glasgow; positioning the city as a world-class destination in which to live, work, study and do business.