Listening's better than talking

One of the things I did when I was a Minister in the Scottish Government, was to continue using public transport. And that had immense benefits that stand me in good stead to this day.

I continued, then as now, to meet with and engage with the people who paid my wages.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the train from Huntly organising myself for my 4 hour journey to Edinburgh. The conductor casually says to the couple on the other side of the table, “Any complaints, just speak to this man”, pointing at me. 'Cos lots of the rail staff know me from my time in charge of transport.

That was the start of an interesting conversation about the world, Scotland, and trains. And an action on me to find out about a timetabling quirk that was irritating them.

Yesterday it was a conversation with two lads from the North East of England about the EU. I had thought they were both “Geordies” but now know that it's a grave error to describe someone from Sunderland – about 12 miles south east of Newcastle – in that way.

We soon had an animated discussion going and had drawn in a lass from Belfast sitting across the aisle who contributed her bit on the Good Friday agreement that has kept the peace in her area but which now might be threatened by Brexit.

No surprise that we didn't agree about everything. But, and this is the big but, they said if the SNP came down to stand in their area they'd vote for them. And that's simply because they saw me, and my colleagues, as listeners.

If there is one thing that matters to folk, it is being listened to.

And that seems to be at the heart of vacuum which is the two largest parties at Westminster – Tories and Labour.

The Tories created the Brexit mess – not simply by holding the referendum – but by doing so for internal party reasons unconnected to the interests of the people on the train, on the bus, in the supermarket, by simply forgetting to listen.

The Labour party paid the price in Scotland at elections in 2015 and 2016 because they had stopped listening.

And today – we may have seen the death throws of a party that a century ago had shifted politics from merely being the concern of the great and the good to become where everyone's voice mattered.

But which on Wednesday at Westminster saw people elected in their name heckle their own leader, elected with a massive mandate by their members, simply because he spoke to the truth documented by Chilcot. We thought that day might be about Blair and the many deaths that flowed from his decisions. Instead it was about the death of a political party.

I don't support the Labour party. But I support its right to exist.

All politics is diminished by the manner of its death. Personal interest above supporters' interests. Talking down to ordinary people instead of listening.

A turbulent world

In the recent referendum, Aberdeenshire voted strongly to remain in the EU. Surprisingly for those of us who attended the count and added up the votes, for and against, we found the fishing communities a bit less “Out” than we had imagined. In fact Banff and Buchan had under 1,000 more “Out” votes than our neighbours in Gordon constituency where that issue was of lower priority.

But the test of a democracy is perhaps how we treat our minorities not simply how we chose our majorities.

At the Scottish Parliament election in May all candidates standing in our area, Conservative, Labour, LibDem and myself for the SNP, supported staying in the EU. We now share a duty to the minority who voted to leave.

I have attempted to contact the representatives of all the lead organisations representing fishermen across the UK.

The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, whose membership comes from across England, recognises that in any renegotiation of quota for fishermen, “it is realistic to expect that there will be a price of some sort.”

Scottish associations seem more bullish and I look forward to hearing how we retrieve vessels and associated quota sold by us into foreign ownership.

But with Scotland very substantially voting to stay, our Parliament has voted to empower our First Minister to work with the countries and institutions of the EU to protect our interests. No party opposed this, albeit the Conservatives – authors of the current chaos – abstained.

Since they last represented our area in Parliament – ending in 1987 – we have, under successive SNP Parliamentarians, moved from being in the worst quarter for unemployment into near top of the league. Standing up for people actually delivers. That is what all political parties must now do.

The current power and policy vacuum at Westminster cannot, must not, continue. Although I fear for – I never imagined that I would put it this way – the character of public life after David Cameron. We must rebuild.

More optimistically, I have just left the Parliamentary chamber after an enthralling address by the Irish President. He talked of our shared heritage and the need for an inclusive world.

In our corner of Scotland, we have received new friends into our communities from all over. Just as many of our friends and relatives have relocated to other countries – for example I have a great many relatives in the USA.

My Boy Scout patrol leader, Spigniew Skrodski was the half Scots son of a Free Polish Army soldier who came here to help in our time of need in the 1940s. Spigniew subsequently died as a pilot in our air service.

There is no greater disgrace than if we tolerate current attacks on “new Scots”.

I think Irish Poet W B Yeats got it right 100 years ago when he wrote:

“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”