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Sitting back and moaning about things isn't Fiona Hyslop's
style. Active in campaigning against third world debt while at
university, she decided as a 21 year old that political parties
were the best way of affecting change. Her mum who was studying for
an Open University degree, encouraged her children to keep abreast
of current affairs, and had several friends in the SNP. "I used to
get dragged along to fundraisers, jumble sales and coffee mornings.
If anything that might have deterred me from getting involved in
politics!" she laughs. It seems ironic to her now that at a later
age she joined the same party.
In addition to her core beliefs in fairness, equality and
respect for others, she feels that public service itself is an
essential belief for those involved in politics. As a Christian,
her faith is "very much compatible with my own value system and
visa versa", and she doesn't feel a tension between her Christian
beliefs and her political values. While she attends Church and is
bringing up her children in the Christian faith, she is a strong
advocate of the philosophy that people should make up their own
minds about faith, and take individual responsibility for "living
out that commitment in their daily lives".
"It should reflect itself in the values with which you conduct
your daily life," she continues, noting that the issues that
brought her into politics - third world debt, nuclear weapons and
the miner's strike - were also issues the Churches were heavily
involved in. Like most youngsters she went through a sceptical
phase, although she almost decided to study religion at university,
encouraged by an RE teacher - "probably because I was so
argumentative!" she recalls. As the SNP's spokesperson on
education, the feedback she has had from teachers is that
increasingly young people are engaging more and more with moral
issues.
Issues around poverty, especially child poverty, are
particularly dear to her heart. "I get frustrated with the Scottish
Parliament because most of the powers to tackle poverty are
reserved," she explains, citing the school meals debate. When a
loophole threatened to take away the entitlement of 6,500 children
to free school meals, the Executive had to rush through an
emergency Bill: "we had an opportunity to increase the take-up of
free school meals", she reflects sadly, "but we have to end up
fighting round the edges on poverty rather than facing it head on
like other countries."
The most striking thing about the involvement of the churches in
Scottish political life, she believes, was their pivotal role in
helping bring about the Parliament in the first place - a role she
considers shouldn't be underestimated. "We've got a good tradition
in Scotland of civic participation by the Churches, trade unions,
and voluntary sector. It's a very important part of ensuring the
sovereignty of the people is promoted in parliament. The Churches
have been very involved since day one in engaging debate. She might
not always agree with the churches but applauds the "responsible
and professional" way they have engaged with political
debate.
The political system itself alienates people from politics, in
Hyslop's view. "It doesn't allow them to feel they have any power
or control. A lot of the decisions that affect their lives are
controlled by quangos - people who are unelected, unaccountable".
They may be accountable to Ministers but not directly to the
public, she goes on. With the boom in non-governmental
organisations such as Scottish Water, Scottish Natural Heritage,
and Communities Scotland (formerly Scottish Homes), and local
authorities "electing to lose control over their housing stock",
increasingly people feel very "detached" if they want to complain
about services, such as the health service or water charges: "we
have to have a re-birth of 'people power' to make people feel more
connected and that they actually have control over things that
affect their everyday life. People are detached from the power
structures. It's very damaging to democracy … We need to find
mechanisms to decentralise power and reconnect power to people
rather than people to the power".
Many of Fiona Hyslop's political influences are local SNP
activists who aren't nationally recognised names, yet there are two
household names who have made a big impression on her over the
years. Winnie Ewing is a continuing source of inspiration. Elected
to Westminster at a time when there were hardly any women MPs, and,
as the sole nationalist MP in Parliament, "treated with contempt",
she had to battle very hard, Hyslop reflects. Ewing's career also
had to be juggled with the demands of her young family. "She did a
lot - and continues to do a lot - to promote the cause of women".
Former party leader, Alex Salmond she credits with making the party
"more engaged, more left of centre". His emphasis on policy
positioning was vital, to let the public know what type of Scotland
the party stood for, Hyslop is convinced.
As someone who has a keen interest in the role of women in
politics, particularly in tackling poverty and promoting peace, she
maintains that the relatively high proportion of women in the
Scottish Parliament has made a big difference. One of the earliest
debates was on domestic abuse, when a strong message was sent out
predominantly by the female members that the issue was a major
priority, and she's convinced this would never have happened but
for the numbers of women.
Their presence has shaped the parliament in terms of its culture
of behaviour and its priorities, she feels, with women tending to
be more inclined towards a "heads down, get on with it" mentality,
with less political posturing than many of their male counterparts.
She views the behaviour of politicians in the Scottish Parliament
as far better on the whole than at Westminster. Yet she cautions
against simplistic notions that women are necessarily more
consensual or free-thinking, noting that some of the most
entrenched positions are often taken by women MSPs. "If we could
chill out a bit more we might get a lot more done," she adds, with
a smile.
So how does she wind down from politics? She laughs - with two
children and one on the way, unwinding is not that easy. When she
does manage to get some spare time she likes to go swimming with
the kids. Part of the evening before the interview was spent making
pancakes with them for Shrove Tuesday. Her children are "the
greatest joy I have - they can bring you down to earth with a bump.
The more I listen to them the more sense I get".
Intolerance and disrespect are Fiona Hyslop's bugbears - whether
in the form of institutional racism or as basic behaviour from one
individual to another. "As a country we have to face up to a lot of
truths and as a society I think increasingly we're doing that.
Again, in many respects I think its young people who are grasping
the issues to do with discrimination, racism and sexism, and I
think the value system of Scotland is shifting towards being more
inclusive and more tolerant, though we've got a long way to
go".
She believes that in an independent Scotland the pace of change
would accelerate. "I want to see a liberation of Scotland" she
says, "where power lies with the people … people feel they do have
control and we can hold our head up high internationally and have
people wanting to emulate us. I want to liberate our people to be
all they can be".