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It doesn't happen very often that a Minister has to resign from
her position in order to defend the party line, yet that is why the
very likeable Mary Mulligan resigned from her position as Deputy
Communities Minister. The possible closure of St John's Hospital in
Livingston has exercised many people in her Linlithgow
constituency. She resigned not in order to join the campaign to
keep it open but to explain honestly what the changing situation
would mean for her constituents, to suggest to them that
compromises would have to be made and perhaps some services could
be provided at their local health centre rather than at St John's.
But she "was worried that people would think she is saying that
because she is a Minister, rather than I was saying it because I
believed it and because I think it is important".
She enjoyed being a Minister, despite the fact it is an
'absolutely hectic' life. She was thankful that she had time to
settle in as a backbench MSP first before being promoted as "I
don't know what it must have been like for the poor souls who
became Ministers straight away" after the 1999 election. When asked
about the input in policy making between Ministers and civil
servants, Mary said that a lot was dependent on the personal
relationships between the two, as some civil servants were very
determined and others were more open to negotiation.
As for getting beyond civil servants to reach out to others she
commented that she always thought it was a terrible excuse for a
Minister to say that the civil service had neglected to tell them
about something: "I think if you are a Minister, it is your job to
get out there and hear about it". She says that the whole point of
a consultation is for Ministers to listen to all the arguments but
"at the end of the day the Minister does have to make a decision
and maybe not everybody will be happy about that, but I think
people feel (if they are honest) they have been listened to". She
feels, though, that Ministers and the Parliament generally has made
huge strides in listening to others. At one point, she says, the
Parliamentary Committees kept hearing evidence from a band of usual
suspects but that they soon realised that and worked to go beyond
them and to reach out to those who were not being listened to.
Mary imbibed politics with her dinner as her father was a strong
trade unionist and politics was part of the dinner table
conversation. From him she realised that people had an uphill
battle to establish their rights and she felt that "it was
important to have somebody from a working class background who was
willing to take on the usual interests". She also believes that it
is important that more women should get involved in politics and
she decided that she had an obligation to practice what she
preached. After university (where she had time to have a life -
"unfortunately I have now given that up") she moved to Scotland and
rejoined the Labour Party in 1983. By 1988 she was a councillor in
Edinburgh and then she put herself forward for the Scottish
Parliament.
As for being elected in 1999, "I think there is not very much
professionally that would go beyond that first initial boost of
having being elected". Linlithgow had been a Labour constituency
for over 40 years with Tam Dalyell as the local MP but it was never
a foregone conclusion that she would be elected as Tam had a lot of
personal votes. But she was elected to the new Parliament: "a huge
opportunity for anybody, but for somebody like myself it was just
tremendous, actually being part of that; to feel people had placed
their trust in you is alarming, but hopefully I can repay that in
the work that I do for people". She really enjoys her job and
thinks that it is an exciting and rewarding life being a politician
even if it is challenging. But she believes that you have to take
the job on for the right reasons as it is not the career to take if
you want to be an important person. She gets frustrated when
politicians don't listen to others and think that they have all the
answers, displaying not only prejudice but also arrogance.
Tam Dalyell is still the constituency MP for Linlithgow and she
finds working with him interesting, although he may not be "quite
convinced that the Parliament here is a good idea"; Mary says he
accepts that it is the will of the people, and the two politicians
do work quite closely together because of their constituents and
she appreciates his vast experience. She says that he keeps a close
countenance on his own behaviour and will not comment on what is
the responsibility of the Parliament. She thinks that "he still
harbours the fear that it is the slippery slope to independence. I
hope that it isn't. Obviously I hope that it has stopped us going
down that route to independence and I hope people will appreciate
that devolution is a good option for them and probably the best of
both worlds".
Education is the policy area that really exercises Mary, it is
always top of her list because she is passionate about everyone
having the right to a good education. She thinks the ideal of
comprehensive schools should be promoted because she believes that
it is the best system. It worries her somewhat to see in places
like Edinburgh that a significant number of children do not go
their local school because their parents have opted to put them
into private schools, which "removes the most advantaged children
from our schools and stops them being fully comprehensive".
Employment and health are the other two big issues for her and she
thinks that for many in the Labour Party "the health service is an
example of what we really mean about providing services for people
at the point of need regardless of what your income might be". Mary
holds to the belief that we are all equal and therefore we all
deserve the same opportunities. Her Catholic beliefs also shape her
belief in treating others the way she herself would like to be
treated.
Because politicians and church people should all have the same
aim of trying to make life better for people, they should work
together to try and achieve this. She does wonder though if
individual church people "think that their views are more important
than everybody else's". She thinks that politicians should listen
to what the churches have to say but that religious tolerance
should be promoted, with churches having respect for each other
despite doctrinal differences.
If for some inexplicable reason she got stranded on a desert
island and she only had to take two people, Mary would take her
husband John (they are still good friends despite everything!) and
someone to make her laugh (John does make her laugh but for all the
wrong reasons). Her luxury item would be a radio, not so she could
listen to news and politics programmes but so she could listen to
music. (She says she was a wayward Minister because she couldn't
face listening to Good Morning Scotland on Radio Scotland
in the mornings, she would just dip in and out of it). The one book
she would take would be Pride and Prejudice because of her
everlasting love of Mr Darcy. Mary's personal motto is to always
look on the bright side of life and she has a great sense of
humour, so it's got to be said she would make pretty good company
herself on a desert island.