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A few years ago during a September holiday weekend, Karen
Whitefield, her mum and her gran were at the shores of Loch Lomond
enjoying a cup of tea. Two women kept glancing over at her,
prompting her gran to say that they must know Karen, although she
had no idea who they were. Eventually they came over and spoke to
her. Free concessionary bus travel had just been introduced and
they were two Airdrie pensioners who had taken advantage of this to
have a day out; they just wanted to tell their local MSP how
pleased they were with the scheme. Karen says that, for her, the
Scottish Parliament is all about "improving people's quality of
life and working on domestic issues which affect every day life
that often matter to them the most".
As a youthful 35 year old, Karen grew up in the 80s during the
time of the Conservative government when "in my opinion, people
particularly from much of Lanarkshire where I grew up, were not
being given the opportunity or the life that I thought they
deserved". It is the needs of her constituents that drive her
political work - advice given to her by her former MP, John
Reid.
Karen is definitely a warrior for her constituency, which is
where she grew up. Much of her constituency is made up of former
steel and mining communities and she wants to see the spirit of
those communities harnessed so that they are given a new purpose
and allowed to improve and develop. She is fighting for Airdrie and
Shotts to be given their fair share of resources, which is why she
has a surprising interest in transport. Karen believes that
transport "is an issue about exclusion" because it is people who
are less well off that rely on public transport to get to things
like job interviews. She has also been campaigning to get the
Bathgate to Airdrie railway line reopened as she feels that link to
Edinburgh will have a huge impact on her constituents' quality of
life.
Becoming a politician had never crossed Karen's mind before
devolution. She had been personal assistant to Rachel Squire, MP
for Dunfermline West, and always saw herself as a backroom person
assisting those at the forefront. Since she was only in her
twenties at the time, she felt that she had plenty of time to get
involved in frontline politics later on in her life if that was a
direction she felt she should go in. But, after becoming very
involved in the campaign and the referendum for the Scottish
Parliament, people in her constituency encouraged her to stand
because they felt it was important that all of society should be
represented in the new institution; so she was persuaded to go
forward for selection.
On becoming an MSP in 1999, she wasn't prepared for the
hostility that MSPs faced from some outside quarters when they
first entered the Parliament: "people were criticised for the way
they spoke - the women for the way they dressed and for the
contributions that they made". She says that the criticism that she
and others received made them determined to get on with the job and
prove themselves and as a result they have outlasted some of their
biggest critics. Despite the hostility, entering Parliament has
been the biggest highlight of her career and she has no regrets ("I
think you have to be positive about things and no matter what
happens you learn something from those experiences").
The criticism that she faced at the start has not hampered her
political career. She was appointed ministerial parliamentary aide
to the Lord Advocate from February 2002 until March 2003. As an
aide her role was to be the link between the Lord Advocate, the
Solicitor General and the Parliament making them aware of
parliamentary processes, and assisting them if they required it. As
someone with no legal background she said that the post was a great
opportunity for her to get a real understanding of the prosecution
service in Scotland. Her political star continues to rise, as she
is now Convener of the Communities Committee. When asked what
ministerial portfolio she would ideally like if she were offered
one sometime in the future, she replies that it is not something
she thinks about: "my main priority is being a good constituency
MSP".
As well as her other MSP duties, a significant amount of Karen's
time is taken up with improving the rights of shop workers. She is
currently promoting her Member's Bill on Christmas Day and New
Year's Day trading, which aims to safeguard those two days for shop
workers. "I am concerned that shop workers increasingly are feeling
that, in a society where they are expected - and are often very
happy - to work seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, they
can't say there are two days out of the year when they can do
whatever they like". She says that shops are increasingly beginning
to open on New Year's Day and believes that in time this will
extend to shops also opening up for business on Christmas Day. She
argues that those in the retail trade who shout loudest against the
idea of shops remaining shut on those holidays are "not the people
who will be operating the tills or staffing the doors on the days
that the shops are open". However, a number of retailers have
responded positively to her consultation - such as Scotmid, the
Federation of Grocers and Habitat, who would welcome everyone
operating on an even playing field. She says that the majority of
MSPs have indicated that they will support her Bill, with the
notable exception of the Conservatives, which she says is "a little
disappointing".
As for the Member's Bill system itself she says that although
the Bill takes up a tremendous amount of her time, it is very
worthwhile because it means that "we actually are able to pass
legislation that people want and they think there us a need for".
She says that the system at Holyrood is much better than at
Westminster, which has a lottery system, in which it all comes down
to whether your name is pulled out of the hat. The result is that
someone could be an MP for twenty years and never have the
opportunity to take forward a Member's Bill, whereas at Holyrood
there are no such restrictions as any MSP can take one forward. She
says that the various parliamentary stages will weed out any Bills
that "don't add up or if there appears to be no need for them".
Outside of her obviously busy political life, Karen has found
gardening her favourite hobby, which has come as a bit of a
surprise to her as she could never fathom the attraction gardening
held for her mother and grandparents; it seems genetics has won out
because, now that she has a garden of her own, "it is an
obsession". What she likes most about it is that there is an end
product because as a politician it often takes a long time to see
something come to completion, whereas she can look at her garden
and think "I have achieved that" (should you ever want to send her
flowers, sweetpeas are her favourite).
Karen is unique in that she is the only MSP who was in the
Girl's Brigade - she was also a Girl's Brigade Officer - and she
has kept the connection up as an advisor to the Girl's Brigade
Scotland National Management Board. Her faith and beliefs were
shaped and nurtured by what she learnt in the Girl's Brigade and
she has been a member of the Church of Scotland for a number of
years now.
What is the former Girl's Brigade leader's biggest vice?
"Probably food"; which is why she would invite Gary Rhodes with her
to an uninhabited island, along with Nelson Mandela, whom she
admires greatly. She would ask Gary Rhodes to take some of his
kitchen equipment and some food with him so he could cook them some
amazing culinary delights, while "Nelson Mandela could just bring
his experiences".
At present though, with her constituency duties, Convenership of
the Communities Committee and her Member's Bill, being on a desert
island spending her day listening to Nelson Mandela and being fed
by Gary Rhodes seems like a far-fetched fantasy. Karen does not
know if she will spend the rest of her working life as an MSP -
bearing in mind that she has quite a long time before she reaches
retirement age - but "one thing I do know is that I don't want to
go on ad infinitum!"