Arthur Midwinter
◆ Ex-policeman who became an academic and gave outstanding service to Scotland’s public sector
Arthur Midwinter was an eminent academic and commentator on Scottish political affairs. A specialist in public finance, with the intellectual drive and ability to move beyond these topics into other areas, and who followed a career path that was as unconventional as it was distinguished.
He was Director of the Public Sector Management Unit at the Strathclyde Business School in the mid-1980s. And from 1988 as senior lecturer, then reader and ultimately professor in the Department of Government at Strathclyde University, he was a leading figure in what was one of the most prestigious political science departments in the UK.
He was then Vice-dean and subsequently Dean of the University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. On retirement in 1999, he became an emeritus professor. From 2002 to 2007, he advised the Scottish Parliament’s influential Finance Committee. In later years, he was associate professor in the Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research at the University of Edinburgh.
But he could have had a very different career if he had followed his original calling – as a police officer. Arthur was born in Arbroath in 1945. He joined the police shortly after leaving school. He used to say that his mother had been determined that her boy would not go out on the boats, which was the other obvious choice for an Arbroath lad in those days, but which carried a degree of personal risk. So he opted for an apparently “safer” choice and joined the local constabulary.
He achieved major success in his policing exams but realised that the promotion ladder in policing might be a long one and he decided to seek new ventures. He never lost touch with this past however and was proud of it, frequently regaling colleagues with tales of bloody-mindedly booking senior local councillors for illegal parking and of throwing Old Firm fans into the sea when they were causing bother (I think the last was a joke). Many years later he was to deliver courses at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan Castle.
He was married and with two young daughters to support. In 1970, he took the unusual step (at that time) of leaving the force to take up academic studies, graduating firstly from Dundee University and then gained a PHD from the University of Aberdeen. Always a ferociously hard worker, he had a number of jobs to support his family at this time, including as a delivery driver.
It was obvious that academia was his real calling, enabling him to combine his analytical expertise with his love of all things political. His innate ability to simplify complex local government finance issues, like the old rate support grant, and provide excellent analysis that the average punter could understand, made him in high demand by academic, political and media audiences alike.
He worked extensively with Scottish local authorities, as adviser to the then Highland Regional Council and other local authorities, but also with the local government body COSLA and specific interests within local government such as public libraries. He also advised the Scottish Office.
A natural old-school Labour supporter, both by belief and upbringing (and indeed he had been a councillor in the 1970s), he was not afraid to challenge assumed opinion. He joined Conservative Prime Minister John Major’s 1992 Taking Stock meeting on Scotland’s constitutional future, and was later critical of the then opposition Labour Party’s devolution proposals. He also publicly disagreed with COSLA over its non-cooperation position with the Major Government on local government reorganisation in the early 1990s.
However, in later years he advised the Scottish Labour Party under Johann Lamont and, to prove my point, also undertook advisory work for the Scottish Conservatives. In other words, he was fearless in pursuing what he believed in and in helping to explain to others why he believed in them. In the early 2000s, his expertise and knowledge was placed in a national context, as the Budget Adviser to the Scottish Parliament’s multi-party Finance Committee, where he advised members on the spending proposals of the Scottish Executive.
He always had what Denis Healey called hinterland. Research and political matters were his life, but they were certainly far from being all his life. He massively enjoyed his leisure pursuits. He was a very dedicated holidaymaker for a start. He was also a big football fan, supporting Aberdeen FC (as did his good friend, the late Professor Grant Jordan).
He loved music, having been part of that post-war generation which embraced rock ‘n’ roll, and that had broadened out to all aspects of popular music, especially country which was a major love. He was regularly heard walking around the corridors of Strathclyde singing songs by Elvis, Johnny Cash or other heroes. Students would often ask: “Who’s that singing?”. To which the answer was “Don’t worry, it’s just Professor Midwinter”.
A keen reader, he was never tempted to join what he called the cognoscenti – and once proudly said that his heroes were Sean Connery, Billy Connolly and Gavin Hastings. He was notoriously uninterested in anything to do with IT and would frequently ask colleagues to look things up “on the machine”. But it never held him back.
So, this is a story of an impressive career and outstanding service to the public sector. Those who knew him will remember a supportive (and challenging!) colleague, a generous mentor, and a warm and incredibly funny friend. Above all, he was first and foremost a family man. He was professionally fiercely ambitious, but that took second place to his family – to his late wife, Jean who died in 2008, and to those who survive him - his daughters Tracy and Kelly, his granddaughter Zoe, and all his wider family and friends.