Scotland will be free, believes Fife’s last communist councillor

Willie Clarke says the country getting ‘self-determination’ is ‘inevitable’

Britain’s recently retired last communist councillor, Willie Clarke, believes Scottish independence is inevitable.

Mr Clarke made national headlines in the summer when health issues forced him to step down as a Fife councillor after 43 years representing his home village of Ballingry.

But while the 81-year-old hasn’t given up hope of a revolution and insists that Scottish independence – or selfdetermination as he prefers to call it – is “inevitable”, the former miner admits that the biggest challenge he now faces is his health.

“I’m not doing too great,” admits Willie, who lost his left ear to cancer five years ago.

“I’ve got depression. And my balance isn’t so good. I’m getting tested for Parkinson’s. And I’ve got sugar diabetes.”

Willie’s wife, Betty, thinks that since her husband of 31 years stood down from the council, it’s given him more time to dwell on his physical ailments and hastened his depression. But Willie isn’t looking for sympathy. “It’s just how it is,” he said. “I didn’t want to be the person who took the salary who hung on to the next election without going to meetings. I would be letting everyone down.”

While not everyone has agreed with Willie’s politics over the years, there’s no disputing his life-long commitment to doing the best for his constituency – and this was respectfully acknowledged in July when he became only the third recipient of the Freedom of Fife after The Black Watch and the late accordion legend Sir Jimmy Shand.

The world has borne witness to momentous events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the Soviet Union.

But Willie’s communist beliefs haven’t changed since he first went down the pit aged 15.

Just two days after his election, he had to deal with the aftermath of the Seafield Colliery disaster at Kirkcaldy which claimed the lives of seven miners after the steepest inclined coalface in Europe collapsed 2,000 feet beneath the Firth of Forth.

“We were down there and standing on the face with the bodies still underneath,” he recalls. “It was a terrible time.” The former councillor remains saddened at the state of modern politics. He cites Tony Blair and the Iraq invasion as the catalyst for the collapse of Labour.

“I’m not saying Labour can’t come back. There are a lot of good people in the Labour Party,” he said.

Willie continued: “I believe Scottish independence – or self-determination – is inevitable. It’s the most natural thing in the world for people to want to make their own decisions.

“I don’t see the Irish or India for that matter running back to say they want to be part of the English parliament again.

“So why should the Scottish people feel any different? It might not happen soon, but it’s only a matter of time.”

It’s the most natural thing in the world for people to want to make their own decisions

Former communist councillor Willie Clarke believes Scotland will ultimately get its independence.