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Jeremy Purvis has a very strong conviction that a politician
should be an enabling person. He believes that his job is to
make public policy that will help people to run their own lives but
"we absolutely should not run people's lives for them".
Therefore he feels that people should be allowed to make their own
choices, whether that is relying on their faith or looking up to
David Beckham. This high regard for personal autonomy has
prompted Jeremy to introduce his Member's Bill on euthanasia and
physician-assisted suicide.
At a very young age he wrote an "advance directive" for himself,
at a time when it was not recognised legally or by the medical
profession. He argues that, now that people have the right to
choose to have treatment withheld or withdrawn knowing that it will
lead to their death, it is "inhumane" that people don't have the
right to ask for assistance to help them die. He
gave the example of a case in England where Mrs Z wanted to fly to
Switzerland to seek medical assistance "to have an easier death"
but her husband would be charged with an offence if he bought the
air ticket to allow her to do that. Jeremy thinks it is wrong
that the man "will become a criminal for doing something out of
love and compassion for his suffering wife".
He has started the process of trying to get the law changed in
Scotland to prevent people in that situation becoming
criminals. He thinks that we are mature enough in Scotland to
have a debate on euthanasia, and in that context he found the
Moderator of the Church of Scotland's comments (in support of wider
debate on the issue) "very, very welcome". He believes that
no-one has anything to fear from the debate because people who
believe in the sanctity of life also at times question the role of
God whenever suffering and pain occur.
He thinks that the debate will be a long one and he is currently
putting his consultation paper together on euthanasia and physician
assisted suicide which will be out for a three month consultation
soon. He is well aware that he is challenging the fundamental
beliefs of many people and as a result his member's debate on dying
with dignity was a very polarised affair, with people debating two
completely different set of moral values, which he felt was not
beneficial to anyone. He hopes that at the end of the process
there will be more areas of agreement in terms of providing support
for people nearing the end of their lives and "ultimately even if I
am not successful in seeking to change the law, I think it is
justified if it has drawn more attention to hospital care and the
hospice movement". He thinks that it is an issue of
conscience for colleagues who have a lot of different views on the
issue, while the Executive will remain neutral on the subject (as
it is a Member's Bill), so it is a case of waiting to find out what
the decision of the Parliament will be.
Jeremy thinks that churches do have an important role to play
because they represent many people but he doesn't think they should
have a greater or lesser role than any other representative
body. He believes that faith is a very personal thing, and he
doesn't share the views of some of his colleagues who closely align
their religious beliefs with their political beliefs. He says
that when politicians "put their religious beliefs ahead of
political argument and interests for either their constituents or
their area, then I think that raises questions". Again a lot
of it goes back to the fact that he can't stand people dictating to
others how they should run their lives based on their particular
moral code - he hates that kind of prejudice. He would like
Scotland to become a more open, tolerant and liberal society with a
legal system that has "as light a touch as possible". He also
believes that those in power have a duty to share out wealth and to
find the best way of spending taxes.
Despite the focus on euthanasia the issues closest to Jeremy's
heart are agriculture, land-based industry, and the economy in
rural areas. He said that they are his main issues by default
because they are relevant to his constituency (Tweedale, Ettrick
and Lauderdale, which was represented by David Steel for many
years; when he retired in 2003, Jeremy stood as the candidate in
his former boss's constituency - he used to be David Steel's
research assistant). At 30 years old Jeremy is the second
youngest MSP in the Parliament (Richard Baker narrowly pips him to
the post for the title of youngest), but he says that he has
colleagues twice his age that are just as radical and idealistic as
he is. He feels that despite the fact he is aging very fast
in the job and that his hair is "falling out at rather a depressing
rate", he is still "within grasping distance of being young" so he
hopes to be able to raise the profile of the Parliament amongst
younger people. As Finance Spokesperson for the party he has
also come up with some different thinking on how the Parliament
should be financed in the future - "fiscal federalism".
Jeremy is also one of a very rare breed - a Liberal Democrat
elected into an incumbent government. He says that Liberals
"tend to be aspiring people". They also tend to rely on
self-discipline according to Jeremy as he says that they don't
really have any party discipline - "we do have some but it is akin
to herding cats". He adds though that they are a team and
meet every Tuesday for their parliamentary party group meeting.
Having worked in the political arena for some time before
becoming an MSP he was prepared for most things, although he found
adjusting to the personal side of things fairly stressful. He
was elected on Thursday, and attended his surgery in Peebles the
very next day, where people came to him with "very personal
problems and sometimes horrendous problems and inevitably it has an
impact on you on a personal level". (On his website, he
claims to have taken up over 900 cases on behalf of constituents
and held over 100 advice surgeries since he was elected in May
2003.)
He has virtually given up any semblance of a social life since
becoming an MSP but if he has any spare time he loves art and
design, particularly painting. One of his own original works
is displayed in his office. And who do you think "a very mild
mannered", 30 year old Lib Dem MSP would most like to have stranded
with him on a desert island? Peter Ustinov and Victoria Wood
apparently, armed with whisky and cigars.
Jeremy's own personal motto is to "live and let live".
When I said that I probably wouldn't be able to get that James Bond
theme out of my head for the rest of the day, he corrected me that
the song is "live and let die - but that's a bit too close to my
Bill".