All change in the chamber
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FOR AN old hand such as myself, the new parliamentary chamber feels entirely different, with 69 SNP members and many familiar faces from the old Parliament missing.
Some of the members from other parties who lost their seats, after 12 years of service, were friends, and I wrote to several to express my regrets that they were not present again.
We are all Jock Tamson’s Bairns, and no party, as the Boss said in his opening speech, has a monopoly of wisdom – or folly, for that matter!
Of course, the Scottish Parliament and I think all parliaments are best when there is a sense of shared purpose and an absence of party bickering.
I have led, or responded to, as Government Minister, three debates in the past fortnight. In the tone and arguments adopted, I have tried to carry on as before in the first SNP Government.
That is, to build up a consensus on the problems facing us all. These are many and varied, but include priorities such as creating jobs especially for our young people; further improving our health service; taking advantage of new opportunities, such as the renewable energy industries of offshore wind, wave tidal and carbon capture; addressing the real problems facing many businesses, such as in the construction sector, and of course along the coast in Morayshire, suffering from the closure of Kinloss and worries about Lossie, in supporting the economy there in all the ways that we can.
We have been criticised, notably by the new Lib Dem leader in Scotland, Willie Rennie, of being ‘bulldozer SNP’, but I do not feel that metaphor is apt.
I feel that in many respects we do operate more as ‘Team Scotland’ in travelling with other parties towards shared destinations. So we are more of a team supporters’ bus than a bulldozer!
I will work together with colleagues from other parties, even though we now have a majority. We will, as the tabloid newspaper headline urged the nation, on the day of the election: “Keep Salm – and carry on!”
Many of the new members are young and talented. I am sure they will come to be Ministers in years to come. They bring a passion and energy to the chamber – though I hope that the greyer heads sitting in the front ministerial benches can still display these qualities too!
MY NEW ministerial job gives me responsibility for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, and I had the pleasure of addressing a meeting of Energy North recently in Easter Ross, where key players in the energy sector – oil and gas as well as renewables – met to share information and benefit as a result.
Collectively, they can, with others, create many new jobs in the years ahead, in places such as Nigg, Kishorn, Machrihanish, Orkney, Shetland, Inverness and many others, including of course Badenoch and Strathspey.
The past weeks have seen an endless round of meetings with civil servants who cover my new portfolio areas, but also leading industry figures, and business and Trade Union leaders.
I have found it hugely encouraging that all appear willing to pull on the jersey of ‘Team Scotland’ and hope that this will continue.
MY FIRST “posh” formal dinner took place last week, and I therefore took the dinner suit and dress shirt down in a suitcase from Boat of Garten to Edinburgh for its first outing since I became Minister. (I would don my kilt, but there is a need for a little extension around the waistline – don’t tell anyone).
Some readers may recall my writing about my daughter, Natasha, who is now three years old. When arriving in Edinburgh, I opened the case, only to find out that she must have been thinking of Daddy and worrying about whether he had enough to eat.
Because inside the suitcase, and on top of said sparkling-white ironed dinner shirt, Natasha had placed a full plate of bread, butter and raspberry jam...face down!
Smeared raspberry jam, I discovered, is not so easy to remove – but I did manage to do my male best.
New ministers do need to be brought down a peg or two!
