Mark's MPs Meme

The UK's third most influential Lib Dem blogger, Mark Reckons has challenged us to name all the MPs who had ever represented us.

That'll be a breeze, I thought, being the political geek that I am, they will all just trip out of my brain, just like that.

Not so - most were easy, but a couple took some checking on the internet.

I've been lucky enough to have been represented by a cabinet minister, and a good one who resigned on a matter of principle, a couple of ministers, a Scottish Party leader, a UK Party leader and a complete maverick - not so bad. I've lived in mostly safe seats, but with a couple of marginals in there too.

So, in chronological order, here they are:

1967-79: Russell Johnston, passionate about both home rule and Europe. I'm sorry that I was just that bit too young to get to know him properly, although I met him on several occasions.

1979-87: Robert Maclennan. Bob was the last leader of the SDP and one of the most decent people I've ever known in politics. Although I moved away from Caithness in 1985, I continued to go back to help in elections there until 1992. If you read this blog regularly, you'll be fed up of hearing how I got detention for skipping school to go canvassing for him in 1983 when I was 15!

Those of you who have known me for a long time will know that I was in Aberdeen for a couple of years as a student but I never came off the electoral roll in Caithness so I could vote for Bob in the 1987 election. Just to show I'm a geek, my local MP in Aberdeen North at that time was Robert Hughes

1987-88: Ron Brown, who added colour to the House of Commons and who eventually pissed Labour off so much that they deselected him.

1988-89: The one and only Lord Foulkes.

1989-92: After we moved to England, I was quite disconcerted to be represented by a Tory for the first 3 years, and one with a very Scottish sounding name, Andy Stewart, at that. He lost his seat in the 1992 election that saw John Major cling to power. Paddy Tipping, the Labour MP who succeeded him, is still there.

When we moved back here in 2000, we not only had a Westminster MP but an MSP too. Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary at the time and Bristow Muldoon had seemingly unassailable majorities at the time.

Sadly, Robin, who resigned from the Cabinet over the Iraq war, passed away in 2005 to be replaced by Jim Devine, who, it has to be said, is significantly down the food chain and who has recently been deselected by the Labour Party over his expenses.

Bristow lost his seat in 2007 to the SNP's Angela Constance. I've known Angela ever since I moved here when I was on the local Community Centre's management committee. As a local councillor, she attended practically every meeting. I have a lot of time for her. She works very hard and has always been very friendly and polite.

It's quite disappointing that I had to wait until I was almost 40 years old to be represented by a woman. The preceding list is depressingly male, and white for that matter. The issue of getting more women elected is something I want to explore more more fully over the next few weeks.

I am not going to tag anyone with this, so just go ahead and do it if you want to.

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My Political Firsts

Here's my late contribution to the Friday meme from Liberal Democrat Voice. I think it makes me look just a little rebellious and not quite as if I am completely under the control of Dr Pack and Mr Tall and Ms Mortimer et al if I steadfastly refuse to do it on a Friday....

First political memory:

I guess I was kind of aware of Richard Nixon resigning as US President in 1974 - I seem to remember that there was tv on at breakfast time, which was downright revolutionary then.

I have to say, though, for British politics, it was watching General Hospital (the British one, with Mr Parker Brown and Dr Armstrong and Student Nurse Stevens - anyone remember it?) with my Granny and Grandad in their tiny flat in 1976 and seeing it flash up on the screen that James Callaghan was the new Prime Minister.

First time you voted:

1987 General Election, for Bob Maclennan in Caithness and Sutherland.

First party election broadcast you remember watching:

The one that comes to mind for this one, because it absolutely turned my stomach, (no, not Rosie Barnes and the rabbits) was a National Front one - I think it might have been the first one that they ever got. I remember watching it in Wick, so it must have been for either the 1983 election or 1984 Euros and I remember thinking to myself how awful it would be if people like that ever got anywhere near power.

First political poster/advert you remember:

Labour isn't working - the 1979 Tory one. 'Nuff said. They won. We suffered. The end.

First party conference attended:

1986 - Paisley, Scottish SDP where I spoke in the drugs debate and took part in the comedy entertainment in the evening. I think YSD did some sort of sketch that involved poking fun at Charles Kennedy. I went later that year to Harrogate and met Shirley Williams for the first time.

First politician you met:

Bob Maclennan, obviously, but you'd get bored if I wrote about him all the time. The first time I was completely and utterly starstruck by a politician was when Charles Kennedy and Russell Johnston came up with Alan Beith to Caithness during the 1984 General Election campaign. It was quite an inspiration that somebody just 8 years older than me could have been an MP for a year. I was so bowled over that I could barely breathe. I was wheeled out as the token young person to do the vote of thanks at the end of the meeting and got invited for High Tea at Mackay's Hotel in Wick.

If I was startstruck by Charles, I was completely enchanted by Russell, who was very funny and charming and absolutely passionate about Europe.

It also marked the day when I realised that politicians were not all perfect. Now, remember, I was quite a sheltered highland teenager. Not only did Charles smoke that day, but I was actually really shocked to hear him say "Shit" when he dropped some money when making a phone call (no mobile phones then......). So, there you have it, the scoop of the day, Charles Kennedy taught me to swear!

First canvassing experience:

With Helen MacLennan, somewhere near Thurso, in the 1983 election. She was a complete natural at it - so good with people on the doorsteps. It must have been quite a scary time for her. With the idealism of youth, I just didn't see how someone as good as Bob could lose, but he was one of the few MPs who had joined the SDP who did survive. The other thing I remember about that day is that we had these calling cards, "out" leaflets, if you like, and if somebody was out, Helen wrote them a note. I learned then how important these personal touches are.

The first time I remember flying solo on the doorsteps was in 1987 in Kincardine and Deeside when Nicol Stephen was the candidate. I was sent to squeeze the Labour vote out of an estate in Torry, I think it was.

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7 Reasons I joined the Lib Dems

Time for me to tackle the meme of the moment. You'll notice that I'm not conforming by waiting until Saturday to do it:-)

The backdrop to my political DNA is found in the Preamble to the Party's Constitution - the rest of the document is as dull as ditchwater, as constitutions are to most people, but the Preamble sets out our core values as Lib Dems - fairness, community, decentralisation and respect for people as individuals. And the thing is, these aren't just words to us - we know what they mean and we try to live them out whenever we are in power, and in our lives as well.

1. I watched Roots when I was about 8 and was appalled by the scenes of human beings treating other human beings so brutally. That was the start of my political awakening. The Party has such a long tradition of campaigning against injustice and abuse and unfairness that it was only natural that I should join.

2. Things like the closed shop, and people being abused for refusing to go on strike, used to really annoy me. The huge mass meetings of the 70s just seemed to me to be so undemocratic and intimidating. The Party was in favour of making unions more democratic and accountable to their members and also in giving employees a greater say in the running of the companies they worked for.

3. Bob Maclennan, the SDP MP for Caithness and Sutherland, was such a good, decent person and took time to thank me for the work I did on his campaign and to answer any questions I had and to involve me in the party, even though I couldn't vote for him at that time. As an aside to that, the people in the Liberals and SDP were all really lovely and welcoming. I made friends during the 1983 campaign when I was 15 that I kept in touch with for the rest of their lives.

4. Everybody's unique. Everybody is individual. They have their own feelings, opinions, and experiences. The Lib Dems get that. I remember being really turned off by the Labour Party at university - if you didn't believe in everything they did, you were seen as somehow a lesser class of person. We celebrate debate and diversity.

5. Not everybody has the same chances in life - we want a society where being poor, black, gay or female is not allowed to stop somebody from fulfilling their potential. That's why Nick Clegg is always talking about how angry he feels that someone in a rich part of Sheffield, where he's an MP, is likely to live decades longer than someone in a poor part.

6. We think the State is there to facilitate justice and fairness, and not to tell people how they should run every minute area of their lives. We won't ban or compel unless there is a very, very good reason. We view the restriction of individual liberty as extremely serious. I remember when I was pregnant, just after Labour came to power, listening to a Labour Minister being interviewed about "National Average Bedtimes." Why waste time on such frivolties when people are living in terrible poverty? This is why we are instinctively against such things as ID cards and CCTV being used to spy on people putting their bins out, and why we don't think the Police should be able to detain people for weeks without charge.

Shirley Williams is one of my absolute political idols and I totally admired her for being involved with Project Liberty in the 90s. It was an organisation which went into the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe and tried to help the Government organisations in them develop a culture of service, rather than one they had been used to, where they were all powerful and people just did what they were told.

7. At the 1997 election, I remember being upstairs watching the election results at the count in Chesterfield. I was alone in the room with Tony Benn, who didn't say a single word to me as he ate his white chocolate Magnum. Chesterfield Labour Party were never that nice to the Lib Dems, unsurprisingly because we kept beating them and showing them up for being incompetent bunch they were. I'm not sure they've improved that much since then, to be honest. But maybe Benn's silence was a good thing because I was practically crying with joy that we were going to get a Scottish Parliament.

It always seemed crazy to me that we didn't. We had a separate legal and education system. Why on earth was the centre of political power for those things in London? Independence never did it for me. I guess because I just thought that decisions should be made at the lowest sensible level.

The principle of decentralisation of power is and always has been a key part of Lib Dem philosophy. Lib Dems in Government are always looking to empower and to listen to local people and communities and that, to me, is a key part of what makes up a good Government.

So there are my 7 reasons as to why I not only joined, but have stayed involved for 25 years. They are why I've delivered leaflets in the rain, endured election campaigns where sleep is an optional extra if all the work is done, spent a small fortune on travelling to and from various elections and donating to campaigns and basically run my life round the party. I've had highs, the best of which was the win in Dunfermline in 2006, and lows - losing a Council by-election by 17 votes is no fun, believe me. I've made some lifelong, wonderful friends, though, and I couldn't imagine my life without the Lib Dems in it somewhere.

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The First Time Ever I............

Thanks to Jeff for tagging me with this meme, brainchild of Iain Dale in which we take a trip down memory lane and recount some important milestones.

So, here goes:

First Job:

Assistant Warden at Braemar Youth Hostel. This was a Summer job that kept me busy during the Summers of 1985, 1986 and 1987. I loved it, meeting people from all over the world, including a divorced man twice my age I would later run away with, much to the consternation of my parents. Good move, though, given that we have now been married for over 20 years.

First Real Job:

Nanny to a little girl in Edinburgh after said running away with hostel guest.

First Role in Politics:

I guess being on the local Committee of the Caithness and Sutherland SDP when I was 16, reducing the average age considerably. I was instinctively a Liberal rather than a Social Democrat, but the SDP, with an average age in the 50s, seemed younger. That kind of mattered when I was 16...

First Car:

A gorgeous little gold Mini Metro that I loved to distraction. Learning to drive became a necessity after we moved from Leith to the Nottinghamshire countryside. I was heartbroken when abovementioned man twice my age pranged it a year later - although I was relieved that he was ok, I'm not that heartless. And he has the cheek to criticise my driving! To be fair, it wasn't really his fault. It's undoubtedly a tribute to British engineering that a shunt at fairly low speed was enough to write off the car.

First Record:

Mull of Kintyre, by Wings. How in love with Paul McCartney was I at the age of 10? That was the first single. The first album was Hits of 76 which had my favourite record of that year, I Love to Love, by Tina Charles. I am really showing my age now......

First Football Match:

Inverness Caledenian Thistle v Dundee Utd, September 2006. It was the first time former manager Craig Brewster had returned with his new team since he'd left and the crowd jeered at him with all the passion of a woman scorned. It was very funny. It was a lovely day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I saw a different side to my lovely brother-in-law, Mike, who works for a bank and is very sweet, that day. I don't think there was a swear word he didn't use. After the F word, the C word and B and S words in close succession, I had to tell him not to hold back just because I was there.

First Concert:

No wonder I ran away with divorced man twice my age - he took me to the U2 concert at Murrayfield in 1987 for my 20th birthday. How naive was I, though? I hardly really knew him, he lived in Leith, I was in Braemar and he invited me down to stay in his flat. He said it was 2 bedroomed flat and I could stay in his spare room. He was telling the truth, but he could so easily not have been. Anyway, it was a very lovely weekend and I moved in for good less than 3 months later.

First Country Visited:

Portugal, at the age of 6. We went on one of only two family holidays we ever had to Estoril for Christmas 1973. The other one was to a cottage in Stoer, Sutherland, in 1980.

First TV Appearance:

I think it was the SDP conference in Paisley (?) in 1986. A vox pop for STV.

First Political Speech:

At the same conference, slagging the Government for cutting customs officers and so letting loads of drugs be smuggled into the country. I said at one point that drug abuse was not confined to the Central Belt and I had been aware of it in Caithness. I was subsequently described in the Press and Journal as an "all over problem". A year later, when I was working at the Youth Hostel, the local paper, the John O'Groat Journal, rang me to follow up the story.

First Girlfriend/Boyfriend:

Feb 1984, met him at a Scripture Union training event. (How my outlook on life has changed!) He was gorgeous, 20 years old and called Rory Dobson. It was very short lived and relatively innocent, but lovely.

First Encounter with a Famous Person:

I don't know if I was ever in the same room as him, but when I was very small, my mother ran a secretarial business in Inverness. One of her clients was Jimmy Page - so that's a really tenuous claim to fame.

Proper famous, who's not a politician, would probably be Jon Pertwee at a Cult TV convention a couple of years before he died. We had a bizarre conversation in Russian and he signed a photo of him in a sports car.

First Brush With Death:

Touching wood and all sorts, I have thankfully managed to avoid life threatening situations, although it may have been a mistake to challenge aforementioned man twice my age (also very tall and at that time probably 2.5 times my weight) to a drinking competition. It was the only hangover I've ever had which lasted more than a day.

First House/Flat Owned:

I never really owned the flat in Leith - it was the man's bachelor pad, so the first house with my name on the deeds was the little semi we moved into in Coylton, Ayrshire a few months after we were married. We were unpacking boxes just after moving in and heard loads of sirens, and wondering what was going on. It was December 1988 and they were on their way to Lockerbie.

First Film Seen at a Cinema:

I know there must have been some before, but the first I can remember right now is Star Wars.

First Time on the Radio

A Moray Firth Radio phone in on religion and politics round about 1984/5.

First Politician I Met:

Robert Maclennan, then Labour MP for Caithness and Sutherland, who did the prizegiving at Wick High in either 1980 or 1981.

First Book I Remember Reading:

Noddy's Adventures in Toyland, by Enid Blyton, when I was very small.

First Visit to the London Palladium:

Never been - although I did go to the Royal Albert Hall for a Star Trek convention in 1995 so I'm not entirely uncultured.

First Election:

In 1983, at the age of 15, I walked into Bob Maclennan's campaign headquarters in Wick to ask for a copy of a manifesto. I walked out with a bundle of leaflets and a map.

The election was in June, and my O Grades had finished at the end of May. There was nothing doing at school and I was bored, so I bunked off to help the campaign as often as possible. I had official permission to be off school for a whole day to attend the Caithness Music Festival, where I was doing some poetry reading. My bit was finished by 11, so I went into the nearby HQ. Bob's wonderful wife, Helen, offered to take me canvassing far, far away. Unfortunately, one of my teachers saw me get into her car. Detention for me.......but it was worth it, and I was so boringly good that I needed to have a moment of rebellion.

It was quite an ill-tempered election as there was a lot of bad feeling from Labour over the fact that Bob had left them. One of the things he taught me, and therefore one of the first lessons I ever learned in politics, was never, ever to take any votes for granted and always to listen to people. He was always modest, courteous, decent and attentive and I still have bags of respect for him.

I'm going to tag Will Patterson, Duncan Borrowman, Neil Fawcett, Yousuf Hamid and Jennie from the Yorksher Gob, and anyone else who wants to do it.

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