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In a departure from our usual pattern of interviews with MSPs
and MPs, our interview this month is with Sarah Metcalfe, Director
of Research and Strategy for the Labour Resource Centre in the
Scottish Parliament.
As a child, Sarah Metcalfe wanted to be an actress, but like
Alex Fergusson, Gordon Brown and David Steel, she is a child of the
manse, a species which appear to find themselves inexorably drawn
towards the political sphere. Her own experience has been
that children of clergy are all over politics, and she keeps
finding more of them, not just MSPs and MPs, but at all levels of
political life.
It's a phenomenon that interests her and she has a few ideas to
try to understand and explain it. Party politics, Sarah
believes, has a lot of similar characteristics to church life; the
loyalty, the community and the often broad range of views
formulated into one coherent position. Then there's the
obvious, more ideological commonality; the passion and desire to
change society and make the world a better place for everyone.
She has another interesting theory - she sees that her parents
and older generations felt that the church was the place and the
vehicle through which they could and should channel their energies
to live out their Christian values and work towards their gospel
visions. Many of those in her generation don't see the church
as the place they can make this impact or where their skills can be
most utilised, instead politics is one of the vehicles in which
they can affect change and live out those same Christian
values.
The churches do have an important role to play in politics, she
believes, particularly where they can share their experience from
the communities they are part of. The churches have, Sarah
feels, an important perspective to contribute where they live among
people and respond and react to their lives.
Not only does she credit her upbringing and her parents'
distinct Christian values for motivating her to work in politics,
she also attributes her particular party affiliation to her
childhood experiences. She grew up in Castlemilk, one of
Glasgow's big peripheral housing schemes, after her father, the
former moderator of the Church of Scotland John Miller, was called
to be the minister in Castlemilk East Parish Church.
When asked how her upbringing has influenced her politics, she
puts it very simply, "I'd be hard pressed not to be Labour".
It's why she's in the Labour Party. She and her
classmates were at the sharp end of the vast inequalities in
Scotland today, the lack of opportunities and the pervasive lack of
ambition or hopes for her community.
Sarah had been thinking about joining the Labour Party for a
long time and signed up in 1991 after she saw an advert in the
paper. She is now the Director of Research and Strategy for
the Labour Group in the Scottish Parliament, a very busy and
demanding job in which no two days are ever the same.
She heads a team of researchers and press officers who support
the Labour MSPs on issues from crofting to crime, education to the
economy, both in preparing briefings and in dealing with the
media. Sarah is well qualified for the job having managed and
supported the Party's policy forum to prepare the manifesto for the
2003 Scottish Parliament elections. She also gained valuable
Westminster experience having worked for the Party in London on
elections communications at the time of the 2005 general
election.
The devolution settlement is quite clear so in many ways there
is not a lot of crossover with her counterparts at Westminster she
says. There is of course a wider Labour message and, Sarah
points out, it is good to see what is happening in policy
initiatives in England and Wales, to foster a cross fertilisation
of ideas and to pool experience. Sharing experience and the
practical outcomes of policy decisions in England and Wales also
helps the Labour Resource Centre to keep a check on how different
policies are working and enables them to see if Scottish people are
missing out on initiatives that have proved successful south of the
border.
When asked whether she would ever consider running for elected
office, she is very clear that at the moment she is focused on what
she is doing, and is enjoying her current work. And while never say
never, she is enjoying her back room responsibility supporting the
Labour MSPs in developing their role in opposition.
Being in opposition took a bit of adjusting for the Party she
admits, but in recent months they have developed into the
role. With Iain Gray's leadership they have settled and
started to ask the right questions to be an effective
opposition.
The SNP had a protracted honeymoon and had hit the ground
running but there has been a definite shift in their fortunes over
the last 9 months. The economic mantras, particularly their
focus on the "arc of prosperity" countries including Iceland, have
been undermined by the financial crisis and their ideas, Sarah
believes, have been found wanting, with the realities of their
rhetoric now coming home to roost.
Questions are now being asked by the media and wider society,
and by a stronger and more effective opposition. "It's a
serious time and there is a need to see how we can all work
together to keep on going - we need to think about and look at the
big picture."
Closest to her heart are issues of poverty and work, with the
global financial meltdown being the largest current single issue on
the political agenda. She is deeply concerned about the cuts
that she sees now coming into effect as a result of the local
government concordat, introduced by the SNP, in education and in
the voluntary sector. The key role of her unit and the wider
party just now, Sarah explains, is scrutinising the impact of the
Government's policies and asking the question, "What are their
promises and are they sticking to them?"
The best thing about her job is working in the Scottish
Parliament, it's a "total privilege". On the flip side
however, the worst thing is being in opposition and seeing
decisions having a bad impact on Scotland.
The best piece of advice she would pass on to someone else is
practical and specific, "Give up smoking - it's hard but once
you've done that you can do anything."