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In recent times Kenny MacAskill has changed both his personal
and political style. Notoriously involved in a fight at a Scotland
match a few years back, he says his passion for football has not
diminished but he no longer spends his Friday nights in the pub: "I
go running instead, to keep me out of mischief. I've swapped
alcohol for endorphins". In fact, the Kenny MacAskill of today
appears to be a lot mellower than when he was first elected in 1999
(which he says is down to the process of ageing and the fact he has
two teenage sons).
Instead of lambasting his opposite number in the Executive, he
now practices the art of constructive contributions (reckoning that
this kind of contribution incidentally leads to a higher quality of
response from Ministers). He attributes his previous name calling
style down to the way local Scottish politics worked, where in his
area the SNP and Labour went about "bashing" each other. He kept
the adversarial practice up on becoming an MSP: "I used to kick the
Minister up and down the length of the Parliament. Then I realised
that it made the Minister black and blue, gave me a sore head and
more importantly was doing nothing to help the people of
Scotland".
He agrees with a remark Sarah Boyack made in a book (Agenda
for a New Scotland) he edited - that everyone put all their
thinking and energy into getting a Scottish Parliament so that when
they actually got one, no-one knew what to do. To his own shame,
the most surprising thing he has found since becoming an MSP is the
amount of respect he has for many MSPs in the other parties. He
says that once proportional representation is introduced into local
government elections, the era of opposing parties continuously
being at each other's throats should come to an end. He is also
pleased that PR has allowed parties like the Conservatives to get
representatives elected. Despite his initial glee when Scotland did
not send a single Tory MP to Westminster after the 1997 general
election, he later felt that it was wrong that the Conservative
voters in Scotland had no-one representing their interests.
His own reflection on last month's general election is that
England now faces a constitutional crisis because although the
Conservatives polled most votes in England, they have a Labour
government in power. Asked how he felt about Scottish MPs being
allowed to vote in Westminster on matters that will only affect
England and Wales, Kenny said that if he lived in England he "would
be outraged". He thinks it would be wrong if Gordon Brown or anyone
else uses the Scottish Labour MPs as lobby fodder to push through
legislation that will only affect people in England and Wales; this
situation will, he reckons, have to be resolved.
As an SNP politician, Kenny's solution to the constitutional
crisis is for Scotland to become independent. He argues that the
historical reasons behind the union of the two nations are no
longer valid: England, fighting France at the time, didn't want a
rogue state on its northern borders and Scotland joined to get
access to the trading areas that England had throughout the world.
However, he sees independence as a long term goal, as he believes
that in order for Scotland to become independent it does not just
need a legal constitutional framework but a confident Scotland that
believes it can be successful, which could take some time. He looks
to the successful example of Ireland and wonders what kick-started
their ability to believe in themselves - becoming a member of
Europe? the Irish football team doing well internationally? Mary
Robinson as the President?
He wants Scotland to start developing that kind of positive
attitude and this is what has partly motivated him to put together
a book on Scottish ex-pats who have done well for themselves
abroad. We should, he believes, be making the most of our Scots
abroad, networking with them and building up links for Scotland's
benefit, instead of criticising them for the temerity to be
successful outwith Scottish shores.
Other than a declaration of independence, if Kenny could be
granted one piece of legislation he would like to see sport, music
and the arts become mainstream activities for young people and not
simply seen as a luxury. He believes that funding for these
activities should come not just from an education budget but also
from the criminal justice and health budgets. By participating in
such activities children would not only keep fit and have something
constructive to work on, but would also learn about individual
responsibility, valuing themselves first of all and then others. He
feels that young people lack facilities, and can't even play
football in the street without neighbours complaining they will
break their cars.
Kenny gets animated when discussing what he sees as an
increasing intolerant attitude towards young people. He
acknowledges that there is a tiny minority of young people who do
cause trouble (the fault of the parents from his generation he
says), but that the vast majority are trouble free. He looks back
to when he was young and would get up to mischief but the attitude
then was that "boys will be boys". He says that some of his friends
even got as far as appearing in front of the children's panel,
where - because of a generally more tolerant attitude towards young
people - they were given a chance and have since grown up to be
successful senior businessmen, whereas now young people find
themselves tarred with the same brush and subjected to anti-social
behaviour orders, which Kenny believes are "a complete waste of
time".
He gets frustrated that as a society we are obsessed with supply
rather than demand when it comes to offending behaviour. Instead of
asking what can be done to punish those involved, people should be
asking what can be done to prevent such behaviour in the first
place. He likens parts of Scotland to South Africa during
apartheid, where sections of society are segregated from one
another. Kenny says that education, investment and employment have
to be given priority in these areas. He says that there is no
surprise that there is a correlation between those in prison and
poverty (although obviously not every poor person commits a crime
or that that every crime is committed by a poor person). This is
why Kenny wants Scotland to follow the Swedish model of governance,
where you build up a prosperous country but take everyone with you,
which is of benefit to everyone. He criticises the Anglo-American
model where the economy is the most important criteria and you let
"the rich get richer and the devil take the hindmost".
Kenny does not have any personal faith (his mother went to
church but his father emerged from the second world war secular and
fired up politically), but he believes that the church has a huge
role to play in shoring up the gradual erosion of moral standards,
as well as protecting the weak and vulnerable, such as asylum
seekers in Dungavel.
Kenny's researcher offered the view that "working for Kenny, he
always has lots of ideas bouncing around". There is certainly no
doubting his energy and enthusiasm, which seems in part to come
from his love of the job, and the new and different issues that he
is faced with.
Stranded on a desert island, his one luxury item would be access
to a book club; if he had to narrow it down further he would opt
for a dictionary, as he loves words. He says he was the sort of
father that gave his children a word for the day, such as
marsupial, so they could learn what it meant. His favoured
companions would be Mary Robinson because of his admiration of what
she did for Ireland and also her work later with UNESCO. His second
choice would be Nelson Mandela, out of respect for the way he
emerged from his experiences without any hatred towards those who
had put him in prison for 26 years and instead is a man full of
graciousness. Kenny adds that there is also the added bonus of
drawing on Nelson Mandela's skills of survival, because after 26
years banged up in prison, surviving on a desert island should be a
cinch.