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Arriving to meet Bill Aitken in his office in the Scottish
Parliament, he apologises immediately for the amount of paper lying
around: there are "bills everywhere". After meeting this
self-confessed legislation "anorak", it is unsurprising that the
Convener of the Justice Committee and former District Court judge
would take such a keen interest in the legislative output of the
Scottish Parliament, where Bill has been a Conservative MSP for
Glasgow region since the first election in 1999.
Although he had always had an interest in politics, it was a bad
footballing injury that provided the spur to becoming more involved
in the Conservative Party as a youngster. A keen footballer
in his youth, Bill sustained a bad cartilage injury and was no
longer going to be able to play football at the level at which he
wanted, so turned his attention to the newly opened local branch of
the Young Conservatives. Describing his upbringing as that of a
"poor boy, who lived in terrible housing" (a room & kitchen
with an outside toilet in Maryhill in Glasgow); the Conservatives
appealed to Bill as a "route out of that sort of thing for people
that were ambitious". Finding the Young Conservatives to be
"interesting, and also quite good from a social aspect", he
progressed through the hierarchy of the movement, culminating in
being the National Chairman in Scotland, at a time when the Young
Conservatives were a "very formidable movement" with several
thousand members across the country.
It is perhaps his early years that formed his commitment to
pursuing constituency interests. Citing Glasgow City
Councillor Gordon Rennie as his political role-model, he spoke with
admiration about his memories of seeing Cllr Rennie (a Conservative
councillor for Glasgow Woodside) trudging home late in the evening,
"terribly tired and care-worn", as Bill himself headed home from
football training. Both the dedication that Cllr Rennie
showed to his constituents and the results he achieved within his
ward obviously have had a lasting effect on Bill, and although
acknowledging that the sheer volume of caseloads taken on by Cllr
Rennie "eventually killed him", Bill speaks with some regret at the
diminished role that constituency work plays in his job since being
elected to the Scottish Parliament. As a City Councillor in
Glasgow, he relished the constituency work; but now finds that as a
result of the different demands placed on MSPs at Holyrood - and
also considering his roles as Conservative Justice spokesman and
Convener of the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee -
constituency work "is a pretty low percentage of the many, many
hours that I put in".
In addition to constituency work, legislative scrutiny is one of
the areas he highlights as a particularly rewarding aspect of the
job for him. His past role as a District Court judge in
Glasgow and a "knack for legislation" means he regards himself as
"a bit of a justice specialist" - ideal for his dual role as party
justice spokesman and convener of the Justice Committee. He
clearly revels in the intricacies of legislation, and cites the
Sexual Offences Bill as the piece of legislation he is most proud
of in the context of his role as Convener of the Justice
Committee. Describing the work done on the legislation as a
good example of the Committee system at its best he explains:
"where you have 8 people, not necessarily sharing the same personal
and certainly not the same political views -work together to
achieve a constructive solution to problems which are concerning a
lot of people." Quick to acknowledge the significant amount of time
considering and negotiating aspects of the legislation, he is
complementary of the role played by the Cabinet Secretary for
Justice, Kenny MacAskill, in the process which resulted in several
of the Government's initial proposals being significantly amended,
creating a "workable" piece of legislation.
Responding to the fact that the churches took a keen interest
throughout the deliberations of the Sexual Offences Bill, he
acknowledges the importance both in his capacity as a committee
convenor and in his personal capacity as politician in listening to
the point of view of Scotland's churches. However, when asked more
generally about the role that churches should play in politics, he
is quite clear that their involvement should be minimal.
Although paraphrasing from Matthew 22:21, in saying "I'm tempted to
say 'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God that
which is God's'"; Bill is adamant that the proper role of the
church and state is one of distinct separation.
Moving on to his Conservative party justice role, and quoting
the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill's well-publicised
recent statement that "prison is a skoosh"; Bill believes that life
for Scotland's prisoners is too comfortable. Although he is
quick to point out that he is not advocating "keeping people in
Dickension squalor and inhumane conditions", he argues that the
punishment element to Scotland's penal system is lacking.
Suggesting that he has stayed as a paying customer in some hotels
which are less comfortable than conditions in some of Scotland's
jails, he believes that there needs to be consideration as to
whether a TV in every room is really necessary, and whether
prisoners should benefit from recreational activities and
opportunities "which are denied to many people on the outside who
are law abiding". While in the case of prisons, Bill obviously
advocates a strengthening of provisions, he takes a typically
conservative attitude to the role of the state in the lives of
individuals more generally. He believes that much of the
legislation passed by the Parliament has been unnecessary and
therefore if he had a wish to create one piece of legislation, it
would be a bill to annul "about 65-70% of the legislation that the
Parliament has already passed". Fox hunting and fur farms are two
particular issues which he mentions as having unnecessarily been
the subject of the Scottish Parliament's attention.
Nevertheless, while disagreements on the issues of the day may
be clear during heated moments on the floor of the Parliament, Bill
is quick to say that relationships at Holyrood have generally
always been very good, and there are glimmers of consensus, such as
in the work of the Committees as already mentioned. There
are, as in any workplace, occasional personality clashes, but on
the whole, the MSPs at Holyrood get on very well. He recently
sponsored former Labour Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson for a
charity project [Cathy is undertaking a trek in Nepal in November
in support of WhoCares? Scotland- an advocacy group for children
& young people in the care system], which he admits is "not
without physical risk", offering her double money if she did not
return to Parliament! Such "banter" with opposition party
members may seem flippant, but Bill is adamant that "any politician
who carries the baggage of the chamber outwith the chamber is
really quite sad". However, while he is pleased that
relations are generally good, he is reminiscent of the type of
debating where "veins would be out the neck, eyes bulging" that was
often seen in the "more formidable debating forum" of Glasgow City
Council meetings. "Politics is all about passion", he says,
and in some respects he is not sure that Holyrood has entirely
reached that point yet.
On the subject of the Parliament, and where Bill sees the
devolution settlement heading in the future, his reaction to the
recently published findings of the Calman Commission on Scottish
Devolution is cautious. Praising Chairman Ken Calman, who,
like Bill, attended Glasgow's Allan Glen's School (although Bill
points out that he was a few years younger and did not really know
Ken at that point, but later served as his city Councillor for many
years); Bill acknowledges that he has done "a tremendous job", but
there is a long way to go. He particularly highlights
questions about the financial implications of any proposals for
further devolution, and argues that the Commission did not provide
answers, only suggestions: "Time will tell, but there is a lot of
water to go under the bridge". Faced with the hypothetical question
of a scenario in which the Conservatives take power at Westminster
after the next General Election, Bill says only that "even
Gordon Brown has smelled the coffee and woken up to the fact that
there will be challenges" from the Conservatives. How might a
Conservative UK Government affect dynamics between Westminster and
Holyrood? Again, Bill did not want to speculate too far, but
he was not sure that life would be particularly different:
"I've every confidence that David Cameron would treat Scotland with
respect, and there should not be any particular difficulties."