How I used to be Jamie Stone
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As I walked into a local shop last week, an older couple were coming out. "That’s Jamie Stone!" she said to her husband, "Or at least it used to be…"
Sic transit gloria mundi – the lady couldn’t have put it better; and I have been dining out on it ever since.
"Are you missing the council yet?" I was asked by a friendly former constituent on Monday. Well, actually it is 12 years since I was the Highland councillor for Tain – but the enquiry was kindly meant and the confusion unintentional; so I talked about missing working with local people (always a joy) and absolutely NOT missing being in the glare of much of the national press, always there waiting for you to say or do something that they could write up and scold you for.
In that regard, the toilet paper sticks in my mind.
"MSP claims for cost of toilet roll!" or something like that, was the screaming headline that greeted me one morning. I had tried pointing out to the journalist that it was entirely unreasonable to expect constituents coming to see me in my constituency office, and having occasion to avail themselves of the facilities, to bring their own paper. "Name me any workplace where this is the practice!" I had challenged the journo. But did he use that quote in the piece he wrote? Did he heck.
The one my mother most enjoyed was when a tabloid caught me on camera (four times in fact). I was sitting and looking extremely bored behind my colleague and one-time agriculture minister Ross Finnie who was addressing the Scottish Parliament at length and in great detail about something or another of importance.
The Sun (for it was them!) captioned the story "Watch Your Back!" and claimed that I had coughed, scratched my nose, polished my specs and actually turned round and spoken to someone behind me during Ross’s speech. Actually, I have to say that it was highly amusing – and it resulted in Mr Finnie having a sense of humour failure, and my mother having the cutting framed and put on her lavatory wall.
That was over a year ago – and I have to say that, now the dust of the election has settled, I am sorry for Ross Finnie. For he, and a host of other MSPs, were unceremoniously dumped by the electorate on 5th May.
It was one thing for me to announce a year ago that I was standing down in order to concentrate on writing for the next period of time – it is quite another thing to completely unexpectedly see your majority, your seat, and your livelihood disappear like snow in spring sunshine. I spare a sympathetic thought for all 28 of the former MSPs (from all the main political parties) who were ‘out’ in May. It’ll be a difficult time for them.
But that is the nature of politics: in a properly functioning democracy, the expression of the will of the people is paramount. When you board the rollercoaster of political life, you have to accept that you don’t necessarily have a ticket that takes you the distance of your choice.
In Easter Ross we have a new politician in our midst – independent councillor Fiona Robertson who won the council by-election on 9th June. Her clean and positive campaign led her to a clear victory and I have no doubt that she will work hard for her constituents during the years to come.
Indeed, an aptitude for work is an essential prerequisite for a local councillor. Far more than an MP or MSP, a councillor is about the business of point-blank range street corner politics. A councillor’s telephone and email in-box gets heavy use – and a councillor does not have the support of personal staff in the way members of parliament do. Fiona – good luck!
