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Murdo Fraser faces many an uphill challenge. As Deputy Leader of
the Scottish Conservatives he is trying to help the party come to
terms with devolution, "which of course was not something we ever
supported", and the disastrous situation it found itself in post
1997; "wiped out" in parliamentary terms in Scotland. He is also a
keen munro bagger, having passed the half way point last year.
He believes, however, that the political landscape post 2007 is
much more conducive to Conservative influence and success: "In
terms of the situation we are now in with a minority SNP government
I think we are demonstrating that we can actually get things done;
we can work well with a minority government in a way that is much
easier than was the case with the previous Labour/Liberal
coalition". He hopes that constructive engagement with the SNP
government will mean that the Conservatives can deliver some of
their manifesto pledges, as happened in the additional funding for
police numbers and the cutting of business rates in the
Conservative-backed SNP budget.
Murdo Fraser got involved in politics when Margaret Thatcher was
leader of his party, when she, according to Fraser, "transformed
Britain generally for the better". She has been a major influence
on him, alongside William Wilberforce, who wrestled with whether
the church or politics was the best way to progress his social
reforming agenda and demonstrated that often the political route is
the right one for those who want to make important changes in
society. He also cites Winston Churchill, drawing parallels both
personally and for his party with a man who was a "voice in the
wilderness and deeply out of fashion" for most of his career until
he led the country during the Second World War and has since been
voted the greatest ever Briton.
The poster on his office wall of Margaret Thatcher with the
slogans, "Join the Resistance, Fight for Freedom," is one of many
insights into his motivations and influences. He explains:
"Philosophically and ideologically I am a Conservative. I believe
in individual liberty, I believe in smaller government and think
society works better without politicians trying to tell everyone
what to do… I believe society works best where people are given
freedom to live their own lives without too much interference from
the Government whether it's in terms of levels of taxation or
whether it's in terms of social policy."
There are of course several areas where he believes new laws and
support from the Government is needed. He has recently introduced a
Member's Bill proposal to bring in an extra safeguard against the
closure of rural schools. In the last 8 years, 71 rural schools
have closed and he has two main arguments why this has to be
resisted. "Educationally rural schools do provide a high standard
of education", but there is also a wider issue at stake. Often when
rural communities have lost its local shop, its bank, its post
office, "the school acts as the last joint community asset that
exists" and so to lose this as well, "adds to that spiral of
decline of the vibrancy of rural communities".
Rural issues are very close to his heart, stemming from his
upbringing in rural Scotland and having family members who are in
farming: "how to protect the rural communities, how to ensure the
rural economy is vibrant, is very much at the core of what I stand
for". He has spoken about the need to "preserve God's earth" and
believes there is great potential to link this with support for our
rural communities, "I think there is a real win-win opportunity in
terms of reducing food miles if we can try and tweak the current
public sector procurement rules to encourage more sourcing of local
food and home produced produce".
Although the area of climate change and the environment also
comes down to personal responsibility, he argues that the
Government should be directing policy at incentives for people to
behave in responsible ways, such as a more generous grant scheme
for people who want to invest in energy efficiency in their
homes.
There are many pieces of legislation that he believes are
unnecessary, but, if given the opportunity to scrap one piece he
would choose the ban on fox hunting; as he explains, "it was
motivated by ignorance and bigotry in the main from people who
didn't understand the issues and had no concept of life in rural
Scotland".
Rural schools act as a link to the other subject that is close
to his heart and on which he represents his party - education.
There are three areas on which he wants to see progress: discipline
in schools; vocational training; and more flexibility in terms of
schools offering school specialisms.
"We are still living with the misguided legacy of the last
administration of reducing school exclusions. Persistent
troublemakers who should have been excluded weren't and the
indiscipline rates soared." The right to appeal against exclusion
should be removed with the final say being left with headteachers
and "second chance centres" should be developed, where persistent
offenders could be put together and be given more intense
support.
On vocational training, he explains, "We think there are
youngsters who will never excel academically but where, given the
option to go down the more vocational route, they would actually be
much more engaged in the school system and end up leaving school at
16 or whatever age much better equipped for the workplace than they
currently are and with much better life prospects than is currently
the case".
He is also the chairman of the Scottish Conservatives and
Churches Forum which exists "to help inform our internal policy
making as to the views of the Churches community" and thinks that
the churches have a really important role to play in politics,
although he thinks we have to be wary as he doesn't want to see
politics in Scotland going down the same route as the US where some
churches are very closely aligned to one political party.
"I think there as divergent views amongst Christians as there
are amongst any other section of society. You can be a Christian
and a Conservative; you can be a Christian and a Liberal; or a
Nationalist or a Socialist or whatever - You can have any political
view and I think still quite comfortably reconcile that with
Christianity. I think that's the way it should be…What is the
correct Christian viewpoint on levels of income tax, what is the
correct Christian viewpoint on which road should we building? It
seems to me that you cannot have an exclusively Christian viewpoint
on every political issue."
He heaps praise on the contribution Churches make to inclusion
and cohesion in society, fulfilling needs that are not being met by
the state, citing the work of Crossreach and the Bethany Trust. It
is "absolutely right that churches should stand up and say this is
what we believe and we will take a stand on what we believe."
Scotland is a multicultural and multifaith country and Fraser
believes it is generally free from racial and sectarian tensions
(though he is a Rangers supporter). "My experience living in the
East of Scotland is that sectarianism is almost like a different
country. Most of Scotland would say that sectarianism seems
entirely alien."
What he loves most about his job is debating, "Sometimes I come
back to the office and I say to my staff, I can't believe I get
paid to do this job."