Pretentious? Moi? Maybe, but now is the time to say adieu

The way forward from today’s fractious politics is the ‘Margo Macdonald way’, writes Tom Peterkin

It is perhaps a little pretentious to describe the ramblings that follow as a valedictory column. But at the risk of taking myself far more seriously than anyone else appears to, it feels appropriate to point out that this is my last column for The Scotsman.

After a decade of covering Holyrood and politics more generally for this venerable newspaper and its sister paper Scotland on Sunday, it is time to move on to pastures new.

So, for me at least (if nobody else) it feels like a time for reflection.

These days, ten years at the same place of work is a reasonably long stretch. Indeed, another two years can be added to that total when a period as health correspondent

– a very good fit for someone as clean living as me – for Scotland on Sunday around the millennium is added to the ledger of life.

All told, one quarter of my life – so far – has been spent working for Scotsman publications, a statistic that is of no interest to anyone except me.

Nevertheless it has been a great privilege to work for such august titles and with such talented colleagues, especially during a period that has included this newspaper’s 200th anniversary and some pivotal moments in the political history of Scotland and the UK.

When it comes to the latter, it is difficult to look past the way that two referendums – one on Scottish independence in 2014 and the 2016 vote on European withdrawal – have dominated politics to the exclusion of almost everything else.

This has provided plenty of drama, excitement even, to write about. But by their nature, those two votes have also thrown up constitutional discussions of interminable tedium.

And more worryingly, in my view, they have stoked the politics of division. The binary nature of debates on Scottish independence and Brexit has often created an unpleasant environment where abuse has flourished and where people of opposing political views have treated each other with a lack of respect.

That has been the striking characteristic of how modern politics has often been conducted over the last few years.

Of course, the hurly burly of political life will always throw up disagreements. People are entitled to exchange firmly held views. And it is true that when conducted in a respectful manner, robust arguments are the best way to back up those views and cajole others.

But resorting to tribal factions of “them” and “us” at all costs can prove a destructive way to conduct public life. Therefore the nastier moments during the big votes on the future of Scotland and the UK still loom large in the memory of the last few years.

However, fortunately, there have been a great many other moments where more uplifting sentiments have been expressed by well-known figures in public life.

There is a poignant irony that one of the most memorable of these moments occurred on one of the saddest days at Holyrood.

The occasion was the memorial service for Margo Macdonald, a politician who held passionate views in favour of Scottish independence but was universally admired across the parties for the way she conducted herself and her politics. Those of us privileged enough to be present at the service at the Scottish Parliament’s old home on the Mound are unlikely to forget the powerful eulogy given by