I don’t like to talk about politics on this site, but today in Scotland it’s tough not to. Like many I watched Alex Salmond at the Parliamentary Enquiry. I have absolutely no comment to make on the rights and wrongs of his testimony but it cannot be denied that he delivered, as many seem to acknowledge, an accomplished performance.
Not that long ago, Scottish politics had many representatives of this calibre, including Donald Dewar, John Smith, Tam Dalyell, Teddy Taylor, Michael Forsyth, George Younger, Gordon Wilson, Robin Cook, Malcolm Rifkind, Bruce Millan, Russell Johnston, Judith Hart, Jeremy Bray, Norman Buchan, Harry Ewing, Dennis Canavan, even Roy Jenkins!
Look, there are others and this may not be much of a list – you’ll have your own thoughts – but most of the above you could send out to bat for the country. And I can’t help noting that very few of them were “professional” politicians, most had roots in the real world, and perhaps importantly, Parliament sat late into the night (not 9-5), allowing many members to stay in touch with their occupations or professions. Many argued that this was a bad thing giving rise to conflicts of interest but I’m not so sure.
What we may have created with this is a new profession as politician. I don’t care for this. You can’t be a good politician by studying politics. You experience life and then bring that to politics. For over a decade now my first criterion when selecting who to vote for is “What work have you done and for how long?”, a question that nowadays is more important than ever, if we are to make Scotland better.
Make Scotland Better 