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Alex Fergusson is instinctively a Conservative - "I think I'm
just a dyed-in-the-wool Tory", he laughs. There might be aspects of
the party he'd like to change, but he believes in fighting from the
inside. As a farmer, his only previous foray into politics had been
as a community councillor. Unusually for a Conservative, he had a
longstanding interest in devolution, and - undeterred by his lack
of political experience - stood as a candidate, out of a conviction
that rural interests should be represented. "The opportunity arose
and I dipped my toe in the water of Scottish politics, and much to
my surprise I ended up as a Member of the Scottish Parliament".
His belief that the Scottish Parliament "would need all the
rural voices it could get" has, he feels, been borne out by
experience. The tendency to think that the "real social ills of our
time" - homelessness, drug addiction, anti-social behaviour,
poverty - are only urban issues, is a myth Fergusson is keen to
correct. "There's a heck of a lot of injustice out there" he says,
revealing that one of the hardest parts of the job is writing
replies to constituents - "often the most deserving of justice
(whether legal or moral)" - and not being able to access that
justice for them, having come up against a brick wall. Frustration,
he says, sums up his experience as a parliamentarian. Used to
running his own business, where he could change things quickly, it
has been a culture shock for Fergusson to get used to dealing with
the frustratingly slow political and bureaucratic processes: "yet
when you finally get through it all and you can get something done
for an individual constituent, the reward is there and that makes
the frustration worthwhile". He's convinced most politicians are
similarly motivated to make things better.
Fergusson admits he finds the demands of political life
incredibly hard to get away from … "It's something that lives with
you all the time and it gets into your system and just stays
there". Hobbies such as curling and playing guitar have had to take
very much a backseat, though he still finds time to mow the lawn or
chop logs which he finds "quite therapeutic"; Sunday afternoons are
sacrosanct for family. Now the MSP for Galloway and Upper
Nithsdale, he moved from being a list MSP for the South of Scotland
after winning the constituency seat. It's difficult to walk down
the street without being recognised and approached by constituents,
"at least it should be if you're doing your job", he adds; "I still
have friends and family from my previous life … I don't want to
sound as if I've sacrificed my life for politics - I haven't."
As someone with no political background, who confesses he was
always a little in awe of politicians, he was surprised to find
himself getting on so well with politicians from other parties with
whose views he has little in common. He's not naming any names of
current MSPs but he does talk about his friendship with the former
rebel Labour MSP John McAllion, forged when McAllion was convener
of cross party group on ME and Fergusson vice convener - an
unlikely alliance, despite being "completely opposite politically"
they "got on like a house on fire".
A son of the manse, he describes his father as an interesting
mixture - a soldier for over 20 years, a farmer for 10, and then a
minister for the latter 20 years of his life - "which is what he
should have been doing because he was extraordinarily good at it",
says Fergusson, reflecting nonetheless that the life experience
probably made him a better minister. Growing up in a household
based on strong faith, it's always been an integral part of his
life. "I don't - very much to my regret - have quite the same depth
of faith that my father had. I have many questions as yet
unanswered but I cannot contemplate life without it being centred
round faith". He hopes his faith informs his daily work but feels
that's really for others to judge.
Fergusson moved the original motion in parliament that led to
the creation of Time for Reflection. "It struck me very early on
that the week's business … lacked something - a dignity to get the
proceedings underway at the beginning of every week", he explains.
As well as giving dignity to the proceedings, he hoped it would
"remind members that there are other powers at work - it's quite
easy to get quite bigheaded in this job, you're in the public eye,
in the newspapers, and it's easy to get a bit carried away. Having
that brief moment at the beginning of every week is just a wee
reminder that you're not the only one in charge".
Although his initial idea was for Christian prayers, he's
pleased with the "exciting" way it has developed. "What came out of
that was absolutely the right answer because here we are in a new
Scottish Parliament, in a new political Scotland, and what a
splendid way to introduce an all-embracing Time for Reflection."
Time for Reflection has been "ultimately a great success", he
believes, noting that people often come into the chamber
specifically for that slot and leave afterwards. "I have no regrets
whatever about it", he declares, "and I'll probably never do
anything quite as meaningful again".
"One of my father's sayings was that we should never preach
politics from the pulpit and I think I still agree with that", he
says, adding, nevertheless, that he would "very much regret it if
they took a backward step in terms of pushing their views forward
and letting us MSPs know exactly what the churches think".
Recognising that in Scotland the Churches have always had a
substantial political role, he maintains that declining numbers of
adherents don't mean the churches are no longer influential.
Applauding the record of engagement so far - if not endorsing all
the views - he sees the Churches as having "grasped the whole new
process very quickly and very well". Although he's certain the
Churches don't need his encouragement, he would urge them to "carry
on in exactly that vein".
Fergusson's father was a very strong influence on him, and he
maintains that without his wife he wouldn't have gone into politics
in the first place. As someone for whom politics is a fairly
recent pursuit, there are no political figures he could identify as
having shaped his outlook, but he has a great admiration for the
black American civil rights leader and Baptist minister, Martin
Luther King - "the most inspirational character in political
history". "I wouldn't say he influenced me", he explains, "but he
didn't half inspire me. The 'I have a dream' speech and his vision
at a time when his race were almost worse than second-class
citizens - to have the courage and the guts to do what he did … I
admire anybody who has that kind of guts - Emmeline Pankhurst must
have had possibly even greater courage - incredibly courageous
people who fight hard for what they believe in. It's very
hard not to be inspired by those types of people".
A value he holds dear is a sense of personal responsibility,
which he feels has been eroded in society, because people expect
the state to provide more and more. He's clear, however, that
responsibility has to be tempered with an "absolute understanding
that not everybody is equipped to get through life without help -
any civilized society needs to be aware of that".
Given the build up to the creation of the Scottish Parliament,
Fergusson finds the 49% turnout at the Parliament's 2nd election
"really worrying", particularly the even lower rates of voting
among younger age groups: "once you start getting politicians
elected on 40% we've got a serious problem". He's clear that it is
politicians who have led to such high numbers of people staying
away from the polls and therefore up to them to reverse the trend.
He doesn't have a simple solution - "if it was an easy answer it
would have been done already". Part of the reason, he concludes, is
the lessening of differences between policy positions of the main
political parties in recent years. While some parties (e.g. the
Greens and SSP) appeal more to young people, the experience of the
SNP since their stunning breakthroughs of the 1960s and 1970s
suggests that people tend not to stay loyal to parties which
appealed in their youth. People are interested in
political issues, Fergusson is convinced, but he suggests that the
accountability of elected representatives has diminished to the
extent that "people can no longer tie up the person with the
issue". Fergusson doesn't see compulsory voting as a solution: "we
should be able to get 60%, 80% of the people voting through
choice", he insists. What is needed, he feels, is something to
"trigger back the belief that if you vote for a certain person or
party it will actually change something".