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Contrary to some perceptions, being an MSP is very demanding,
and our parliamentary representatives do not "just swan off for
free lunches everywhere and shake hands with the Queen", says Nora
Radcliffe. Having worked in the hotel and catering industry and
with the opinion that "food is wonderful", she shares with the
indomitable Winnie Ewing not only a taste for fine food and drink
but a real passionate love of Scotland. Now that Mrs Ewing is
retired from active politics, Nora Radcliffe is definitely a
contender for the title of Madame Ecosse.
It was the home rule cause that first drew her into active
politics at the age of sixteen, because "what struck me about
politics was that a lot of decisions were made in London about
Scotland that were completely out of kilter with what was happening
in Scotland, completely uninformed about any Scottish problems,
issues, affairs". The Home Rule issue determined her choice of
political party, as she did not believe in total separation but
felt that some decisions had to be repatriated to a local level and
it struck her that the Liberal Democrats had the most sensible
policies on this issue. Scotland is one of her passions because "we
have just such a beautiful country - a great place to be". She is
particularly fond of her own constituency area; although
Donside is not spectacular it is made up of "very down to earth
practical people, …who would do anything for a neighbour - the salt
of the earth".
She still strongly believes that home rule is the way forward
but "it is not about nationalism, or 'a little Scotlander'
mentality". She would also like to see an inclusive Scotland, where
English people can live without fear of being abused. With Euro
2004 underway and some of the national newspapers printing
"dangerous rubbish", Nora received e-mails from folk expressing
their distress at the treatment that they were receiving and she
thinks that "there is no point of blinding yourself to the fact
that there are some very nasty things in our country right here and
now" which she would like to see tackled, as "it doesn't do us
justice as a nation".
As for devolution, she thinks that it "is working reasonably
well" in practice although she says there are many grey areas
between reserved and devolved matters. She thinks that Sewel
motions on the whole work well to solve this conundrum but feels
there should be a mechanism in place for when they do not. One such
occasion was the recent Civil Partnerships Bill (dealt with via a
Sewel motion), which she felt "was not what we would have hoped for
it to be". But she says that we just have to be sensible
about things and deal with them at the most appropriate level,
whether it's at local government or at the UN level.
Having established her credentials as a possible successor to
the mantle of Madame Ecosse, her Liberal Democrat loyalties are not
under any doubt. Her own personal motto is to "try not to do too
much harm", with an underlying philosophy that "people as
individuals are important". Jo Grimond is one of her heroes because
he did a lot to "impart liberalism" and was an empowering leader,
as well as being a "thoughtful and radical thinker". Her other hero
was her mum (who sadly passed away very recently), who did an
"enormous amount" as an activist in a very quiet way - espousing
Liberal principles and also working for devolution - "I was just as
proud of her and all that she did, and delighted that she saw come
to fruition in her lifetime something she had worked so hard
for. That she had direct contact with the Scottish Parliament
through me was great for both of us".
She also feels that the Lib Dems have moved the political agenda
"in a big way towards what we find important" and have had an
impact on policy that they would never have had in
opposition. Although when the Parliament first opened she
"was quite firmly of the view at the outset that it was better to
have a minority administration" and for the Lib Dems not to enter
into a coalition with the Labour Party, but in the space of three
days she completely changed her mind. Her initial hope was that if
there was a minority government then the parliamentary committees
would be given the importance that they deserved, sharing an equal
strength with the Executive, but "to make that happen you had to
have an opposition that would co-operate and what surprised me was
the antagonism from Tories and SNP on a party political basis". She
was surprised and disappointed at the unwillingness for party
political barriers to be set aside "and all pitch in a Scottish
Parliament for all of us".
As well as the impact of the Lib Dems on policy, she also feels
that the number of women in the Parliament has been another big
influence in establishing an ambience that is more reasoned and
less confrontational than might otherwise have been the case.
She says that the female MSPs "have earned the respect that maybe
we didn't get at the beginning". She says that they are all
reaping the benefits from Labour adopting a 50/50 male/female
policy, although her own party agonised over such a policy and
decided against it. She believes that was the right decision as "I
just can't get over the fact that discrimination is discrimination,
whether it's positive or not".
Now in her second term as an MSP, Nora finds the work extremely
busy but extremely satisfying. When the Scottish Parliament
came along she decided that if she didn't go for it she would kick
herself for evermore, despite the fact she knew it would have a
huge impact on her family. She was aware though that not many
people have the opportunity to be part of the vision they have
campaigned for. What she likes best about the job are all the
opportunities that it has given her, and she has learnt a lot in
the five years she has been an MSP; she doesn't want to "throw away
that learning curve experience", so she might put herself forward
for another four years at the next election. MSPs "are ordinary
people doing an extraordinary job", so the minute anyone gets
inflated ideas about themselves they can't do the job adequately.
However, she does believe that there should be some measure of
respect, not for the person but for the role of an MSP as someone
representing 60,000 people. She says that some people do have
a bizarre idea about what it is MSPs spend their time doing (such
as swanning off for free lunches). Nora says the work is demanding
and that "it takes all the hours you are prepared to give it and …
to preserve your own sanity you cannot do everything you want to
do". Therefore her advice to anyone thinking about following
in her footsteps is to look after themselves and keep "a wee bit
back for yourself and your family (because) you do this job to the
exclusion of your family". She also advises against "beating
yourself up" about what you can't do; just get on with what you can
do, because "politics is the art of the possible".
As for regrets, she thinks that they should not have cut down
the size of the parliamentary committees in the first term.
Although that might not seem important, she believes the committees
would be more effective if they had a larger membership: eleven or
fifteen people having an in-depth discussion of an issue is going
to be much richer than with fewer MSPs. "Another trivial thing is
that I wish we hadn't changed our logo" - some people probably
never noticed this, but it switched from being a "simple and
elegant" logo which said "The Scottish Parliament" and somehow
"changed to something with a thing that looks like a threepenny
stamp".
Ah well, as she said herself, a very good philosophy to have is
the maxim "grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to
know the difference".