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Winning the Edinburgh Central seat for the SNP at the election
(a seat which was predicted to be a two-party race between Labour
and the Liberal Democrats) shifted former SNP staff member Marco
Biagi's position in the parliament from a background role in
statistics to being an MSP in the majority administration which saw
the most decisive victory for any party thus far in the history of
the Scottish Parliament. At 28, he is the youngest MSP to be
elected to a constituency seat, and represents the constituency in
which the Parliament itself is located, also taking in the most
expensive street in Scotland to council housing, "and everything in
between: I've got family housing, student housing, I've got the
university, the hospital, Police HQ. The only thing we don't
have is a farm - other than Gorgie City Farm!"
Growing up in Dumbartonshire, on the west coast of Scotland,
Marco "literally grew up in chip shops", which his family
ran. He has vivid memories of days spent playing with toys
sitting on top of the potato sacks, but he always knew that he
wouldn't want to take on the family business, although he has a
head for numbers, something which he never fully embraced until he
realised he could combine maths and politics working in statistics
for the SNP. After brief spells of wanting to be in mountain
rescue (though Marco was only 5, and now attributes this to his
love of Thunderbirds), and a writer, he realised in his teens that
really he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. Taking Highers in
Maths, Computing and Chemistry, he was drifting towards a future in
something scientific, until he studied for a Higher in Modern
Studies in his final year at school. Having not taken this
subject at Standard Grade, it was entirely new to him, and he found
himself engrossed, particularly in the module on international
development, "looking at the issues of global justice and food
security… these really important issues of the levels of poverty in
the world, and what we can do about it, and what we're not doing
about it, that really made me open my eyes and realise, not just
things about the world but things about myself and what I wanted to
do."
Marco developed his interest in politics, studying International
Development at St Andrews, specialising in Third World Development,
but at that point his career was travelling down an academic path,
taking a place at Oxford University to undertake a PhD. Looking
back, he describes his involvement in student politics at St
Andrews, which was less party-political and more issue-based,
including working with Amnesty and People & Planet, rather than
the party politics, as having been "formative", but never having
really distracted from his studies. However, he experienced a
pivotal moment during his time in Oxford: "there was this moment, I
still remember with perfect clarity, I was walking down a street in
Oxford and thought, you know what, I don't want to be writing about
this, I don't want to be observing this, I want to be changing
this. I'd been involved in the SNP in various other campaigns over
the years, and I think it was at that point I realised that was
what I actually wanted to do. Only 5 years later, here I
am!"
At the swearing-in ceremony for MSPs, Marco took the solemn
affirmation in both English and Italian. First Minister Alex
Salmond later described Marco's "lyrical Italian" affirmation as
being one of the examples of the diversity of the new group of MSPs
in the Scottish Parliament. He is intensely proud of his Scots
Italian identity, and realises that it gives him a distinctive
perspective on many aspects of politics. His Italian roots
come from his grandfather, an Italian Catholic who married a
Scottish Protestant, something which he says caused tension in his
family. It is that personal experience which leads him to be
very interested in the developments around sectarianism which are
taking place at the moment.
He also believes that his identity affords him a different
perspective on independence, and although most MSPs in the SNP
group have what he describes as an "outward looking nationalism",
wanting Scotland to "take that role in the world that we know we
can fulfil", for Marco "it's not tartan and shortbread; it's not
waving swords. You're free of that baggage because you have a more
cosmopolitan background." Although he wouldn't use the term
"role model", Marco mentioned a couple of prominent politicians
whom he regards as inspiring. He has particularly high regard
for both Nicola Sturgeon, current Deputy Leader of the SNP and
Winnie Ewing, Scotland's first SNP MP. The way in which
Winnie Ewing served at Westminster, he says, was so positive: it
was never about isolationism or parochialism, but rather about what
Scotland can do, and this positivity is reflected in Marco's own
views about independence.
Describing himself as one of the "Facebook generation" of MSPs,
Marco engaged with social media during his campaign, although his
first few attempts at using Twitter got off to a slow start.
Now on his third account, he is determined to use the social
networking site to keep in touch with people. He is not yet
convinced about the value of sites like Facebook and Twitter as a
campaign tool, but the "potential for keeping in touch with people
is huge and I want to keep that going."
With 48 of the 129 MSPs being new, Marco is not alone. To
help new MSPs get to grips with the Parliament, they are offered a
range of induction talks and tours. The SNP also run a
"mentoring scheme", pairing up new and more experienced MSPs.
Marco revealed, however, that he doesn't have a mentor: "The deputy
Whip came in and said 'you've been around for a while, you don't
need a mentor do you?'" However, Marco did admit that despite
his experience working in the Parliament, the first time he
submitted a parliamentary motion, he forgot to put a title on
it! Seating in the Chamber is also something which he is sure
will become clearer over time; some MSPs are very territorial and
have their "usual seat". He is not sure that sitting near the
front (where the First Minister sits) is necessarily an advantage,
either: he was in the second row when speaking early in a debate
and found that the glare from the sun coming through the window was
almost unbearable: however, he suggested that in Edinburgh, this
was likely to be an infrequent problem!
Due to his previous job in Parliament, Marco has established
relationships with a number of MSPs and knows if he needs advice,
there are people he can call on. Marco has already noticed
that there are some pieces of advice which have been repeated:
don't join too many cross-party groups; don't rush into recruiting
staff (although this one, Marco says, has had to be disregarded
because of the volume of work already accumulating); and find your
niche. Marco is well aware of the potential for backbench MSPs to
find and develop a niche, an issue which they can investigate, draw
attention to, and hopefully make progress. In addition to his
constituency work, this is something which Marco has already
started to consider. However, education is one issue on which Marco
is already extremely passionate. He was delighted to be
allocated a place on the Parliament's Education and Culture
Committee, as he says that "children are the future, and we can't
let them down and the experience of school is so crucial, from the
early years and right up, and then afterwards, training and
university or whatever people go on to, it defines an entire
life."
Although baptised in the Church of Scotland, Marco was not
really a church attender when growing up. However, despite going
through an "aggressive atheist phase" in his teenage years and
reading a lot of philosophy, Marco began to realise that many of
his views were not so dissimilar to those of people of faith.
He now worships at St Mark's Unitarian Church. He notes that it is
regularly assumed that he is an atheist, but he was keen to be
clear that this is not the case. He also welcomes the
involvement of the Scottish churches in Scottish politics, and says
that while there are people who oppose the Churches' involvement in
politics, "I prefer a plural society myself, because I recognise
just how important the churches are to a great many people when it
comes to morality, and politics and morality are inseparable."
Diagnosed with asthma as a child, Marco was keen to try to get
the condition under control as he had spent much of his childhood
unfit and overweight, so he set himself a goal of being able to run
a marathon before the 20th anniversary of his diagnosis. Last year,
just less than 20 years since his asthma was diagnosed, he managed
to complete the Edinburgh Marathon. He now looks to improve
upon his time in the Dublin Marathon which he will run later this
year. It is this determination to set himself a goal, achieve it,
and then try and improve on it that is likely to stand Marco in
very good stead as an MSP over the next five years.