The political divide

Former MSPS Ruth Davidson and Neil Findlay reflect on the election campaign and result

WITH OVER 10,000 of our fellow citizens dead this should have been an election dominated by the pandemic. It should have been an election where the government that oversaw this level of loss was held to account for their decision making during the past year. Decisions like the one that saw elderly patients discharged untested or Covid-positive from hospitals into care homes, resulting in the virus spreading through the system and claiming thousands of lives. Decisions the now departed health secretary denied responsibility for all year, only to admit to "mistakes" from the safe refuge of her home where she nurses her ministerial pension. Decisions that saw working class school students discriminated against by a rigged exam system because of where they live, only for it to be overturned due to a countrywide uprising, and decisions that ignored pandemic planning advice leaving care staff without PPE, untested and unappreciated. But alas, no, the election wasn’t about any of that – these issues were barely mentioned. Neither was the ferries fiasco that has seen hundreds of millions of pounds of public money squandered, the growing educational attainment gap, the drugs crisis where the First Minister said she "took her eye of the ball". The scrutiny of these life-changing and life-ending decisions was almost non-existent. Indeed, the hapless former drugs minister Joe Fitzpatrick saw his big majority increase at the election. Instead, we had an election where the debate about Scotland’s future again dominated. Of course, a polarised debate over the constitution suits the SNP and the Tories. Douglas Ross who performed so badly he couldn’t even get a mention, never mind a photo on some of the Tory leaflets, couldn’t answer the most basic questions without resorting to his stock line of ‘Vote Tory to stop another divisive referendum’.

And what about Labour? Well, Anas Sarwar had a decent campaign. He performed well in TV debates. A showman, his dancing outside Livingston football stadium was one of the most watched social media clips of the campaign. But his effort to focus the debate on a national recovery was yet another failed attempt to get off the constitutional debate and therein lies Labour’s problem. The constitution is the debate in Scottish politics. Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In reality, Sarwar used the cover of COVID to rebrand the same failed strategy of previous leaders of not wanting to talk about the biggest issue in Scottish politics, whilst trying to tell voters what they should be talking about – health, education and jobs. I and others have tried unsuccessfully for 10 years to convince successive Labour leaders to develop a credible devo-max position, a realistic third option in the independence debate. An option that if developed credibly and presented effectively, would – in my view – win. Until Labour does that, it will remain a declining and largely irrelevant force in Scottish politics, not a government in waiting. Labour must now accept the Scottish people have the right to self-determination, sell that credible devo-max position, engage positively and constructively in the debate over Scotland’s future and enter discussions with the SNP to ensure that the third option is on the ballot and that the party is able to influence the timing, question and conduct of any future referendum.

Finally, I wish all the new MSPS the very best. I wouldn’t dare offer them advice, they should do things their own way, but I can only reflect on what I did as a new MSP a decade ago. I was very much of the belief I would only be there for one term and either my party or the voters would get rid of me. So, I decided to have a go, speak up and campaign on issues I felt strongly about. If my views didn’t always sit comfortably with my party’s position, that was their problem not mine. Looking across the chamber, my imposter syndrome faded as my confidence rose and when I took a knock I fell back on my principles and philosophy for reassurance.

My naïve hope for this new parliament is that those who have been elected speak up, stick to their principles, throw away the party script, hold all parties (including their own) to account and be true to themselves. If they do that they will serve our democracy and the voters.

SINCE LAST TIME...

…became an ex Msp…went with Fiona on my first trip of the year in our campervan…had a few pints at a pub – hopefully many more to come (trips and pints)

LET’S GET BACK to overnight counting. Immediately. That marathon limbo period between polls closing and the results being finalised was excruciating.

Discussing the situation with the Scottish Conservatives’ director, who has masterminded the ground war of every one of our party’s campaigns for as long as anyone can remember, we both admitted to never having been as nervous waiting for the results as we were last weekend. The emotional swings then encountered weren’t helped by the fact that at various times during the two-day counting period we see-sawed through around a 10-seat spread in our projected result – depending on the latest numbers to have arrived and the particular split between the parties.

But, among the nerves, there is a calmness too. Like the still air in the vortex of a hurricane, there is the helplessness that nothing more can be done, even as the whirl of possible results buffet on all sides.

I don’t think those outside politics really understand how we can all spend six weeks knocking seven bells out of each other but, at the time when the votes are counted (and the future hangs in the balance) that is the exact time when – for a brief interlude – hostilities cease and we take to social media to broadcast supportive and understanding messages about our opponents.

So the warmth of feeling towards the SNP’S newly elected Glasgow Kelvin MSP, Kaukab Stewart, and the Tories’ new West of Scotland member, Pam Gosal, at being the first women of colour to be elected in Holyrood’s 22-year history was immediate and crossed all party lines. Frankly, it’s long past time.

Similarly, the messages of support for those MSPS who stood for re-election but were defeated. Whether the Conservatives’ John Scott, Labour’s Claudia Beamish, SNP’S Joan Mcalpine or independent Andy Wightman. The four could hardly be more different, but the sentiment regarding their contribution to the parliament and the acknowledgement of how difficult such an abrupt end is for their hardworking staff, was sincere from all quarters.

In the wider sphere, MSPS and former members united to praise BBC Scotland’s choice of election experts – professors Ailsa Henderson and Nicola Mcewen. A rare all-female double act and one which cut through the waffle with genuine insight. This being Scotland and everybody being only a few degrees from everybody else, I can’t watch Ailsa Henderson on telly without being transported back to my slightly hazy teenage years and inwardly cringing. In my first year at university we were paired up as debating partners (successfully so, winning a prestigious rookie competition and being presented with a toilet seat for our troubles). I was 17, stupid and determined to enjoy the full student experience so spent most of that year in various states of inebriation. She was as smart, considered and articulate then as she is now. I shudder to think what her recollections of me are.

But no cessation of hostilities lasts forever. As the results arrived and parties tried to spin their own narrative, Scotland’s proxy constitutional war ramped up online with each side claiming a mandate conferred or denied.

As it seems the arguments are continuing to rage ahead of new members being sworn in, it’s worth remembering that across-the-aisle understanding and relationships are vital to making Holyrood work.

In a unicameral parliament where the committees are vital to the quality of legislation passed, MSPS simply have to work together. By my count, a third of the Holyrood chamber comprises of new faces. Having watched the toxicity of the fifth session, there is a job of work to be done to deescalate the tribalism generally but also to let the new members know that it is not only permitted but actually important that they are on friendly terms with members wearing different coloured rosettes.

In every TV debate on every channel, each of the party leaders repeated the mantra that the biggest focus of this sixth session of the Scottish Parliament is going to be recovery from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. If that is to mean more than words, then those same leaders are going to have to show a bit of leadership and instruct their teams to put the constitutional sniping to one side, roll up their sleeves and get down to the business they have been elected to do – to remember the eye of the storm on election night and use that same empathy of each others’ shared experience to get a postpandemic Scotland back on its feet. A girl can dream.

SINCE LAST TIME...

… I have left parliament…had a post lockdown haircut… started filming a documentary…despaired at Dunfermline losing another championship playoff