Inverness MSP: Would cross-party working get more done?

When my late mother Winnie was elected in 1967 as the MP for Hamilton, she quickly became very well known and was sought after to speak all over the country.

She took me, then aged 12, with her on a Highland Tour which included a meeting with the Provost of Wick and his fellow members of the then county council.

At the end of the meeting the Provost, resplendent in his chains, kindly asked me: “Fergus - do you want to be a politician when you grow up…?”

I answered: “No, no - it’s much too hard work,” then adding: “But I wouldn’t mind being a Provost though!” My first recorded utterance as a smart Alec!

Six decades on, I now know that many politicians and provosts work very hard indeed, others perhaps less so.

But back in those days, there were no “party” politics in the council chamber. These days, I fear there is a surfeit of partisan party politics both in the council and Holyrood chamber. That serves to foster division, not unity, discord, not debate.

Recently in a national newspaper I argued that perhaps it’s time in Scotland for the main parties to come together to work together on the very difficult problems now facing us, most especially the essential reform to the NHS, and education - but also the vital task of boosting the economy and jobs.

In the committees at Holyrood, the engine room of parliament, we tend to work together fairly well.

In fact, on the petitions committee, on which I have the pleasure of serving, there is no “party” politics at all.

So if there, why not in the chamber?

There we have verbal fisticuffs, repetition of rather stale and brittle arguments, where success is judged on how much (of other people’s) money you can spend, not on the outcomes achieved. Playing the man not the ball seems to be the game plan.

It’s pretty tiresome and, I fear, repellent. In my opinion it serves the reputation of Holyrood ill.

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In the Second World War, Tom Johnston was appointed Secretary of State for Scotland by Churchill and was de facto the first unofficial First Minister of Scotland. Churchill let him get on with it. All parties did work together at a time of crisis.

Entirely different days I know, but with the world today facing more uncertainty than in the last half century, is it not time to think differently about public life - and recognise the truth?

The truth that I have discovered time and time again that a great many people in the public do very much want politicians to work together, and not indulge in what often appears to be pointless squabbling.

All easier said than done, but there are across the main parties good, hard working, clever people who could work together for the common good.

If all parties did work together then it would help the delivery of the dualling of the A9, as all the main parties support this. The Green Party is the sole dissenting voice.

So that would be one example of what might be better achieved that way.

It looks impossible. It feels a remote possibility at best. But then who exactly would have predicted the turn of events over recents years, here and in the rest of the world?

As the Poet TS Elliott wrote: “But our beginnings never know our ends.”

Fergus Ewing is MSP for Inverness and Nairn.

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