Realising a 'long-held ambition'

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On 1 July, Scottish devolution will celebrate its 10th birthday.

In the first of a series of articles for the BBC news website by Holyrood veterans, Conservative MSP David McLetchie reflects on some of his personal highs and lows over the last decade.

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One of the most enjoyable aspects about being an MSP is the opportunity to meet young people from all over Scotland who come on visits to the parliament.

As part of their programme, there are Q&A sessions with MSPs - and one of the most frequently asked questions is, 'why did you become an MSP?'

I always tell them it was a combination of a mid-life career change and a mid-life crisis.

Basically I wanted the challenge of representing the Conservative Party in a parliament which was an ambition I had harboured since my teens, but which I had not been able to put into effect in the preceding 20 years because of career and family commitments.

I had had an unsuccessful shot at Westminster in the 1979 election but the advent of the Scottish Parliament was an opportunity to fulfil that ambition and play a role in rebuilding the Scottish Conservative Party following our wipe-out in the 1997 General Election in Scotland.

Ten years on, I do not regret that decision, despite the highs and lows of that period from a personal as well as a party standpoint. Politics is held in lower regard today than perhaps at any time in our history but I still consider it an honour to be an MSP.

Ironically, the Scottish Parliament we opposed has been good for the Tories - even if it has taken many of our supporters a long time to be reconciled to the idea

It is a fulfilling job in terms of the challenges it presents, the variety of issues with which one has to cope and the job satisfaction it provides.

Ironically, the Scottish Parliament we opposed has been good for the Tories - even if it has taken many of our supporters a long time to be reconciled to the idea.

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament has undoubtedly moved the whole focus of political debate in Scotland from Westminster to Holyrood and not simply on issues which are formally devolved in terms of the Scotland Act.

As a Unionist, and someone who led the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament for six years and who recognised that we had to make devolution work from the moment the votes were counted in the 1997 Referendum, this is not a development which I wholly welcome.

Scotland now has two parliaments, but that change of focus has contributed in part to a very poor relationship between the two institutions.

Petty jealousies

At one level, the dispute has been about relative status and attention seeking.

There is a substantial and influential press lobby now based at Holyrood which far outnumbers the Scottish lobby at Westminster.

In part, that has been a deliberate editorial policy and, in part, a cost cutting measure to reflect the financial pressures on the media.

However the effect has been the marginalisation of the vast majority of MPs who are not government ministers and this is true not only of the national media in Scotland but also of local papers and local radio.

It would be easy to dismiss such bickering as the product of petty jealousies, but it has had a more serious impact because it has produced a stand offish attitude and a series of turf wars which have also been reflected in poor inter-governmental relationships.

Ten years on, we remain a long way short of a mature and stable federal (or semi-federal) system of government in the UK Furthermore, it has fostered an attitude in the Scottish Parliament which constantly seeks to mark ourselves out as different from England and from Westminster and to preen ourselves as superior even although this is not always justified by reference to the performance standards of the public services for which we are responsible.

Accordingly, 10 years on, we have a lot to learn about making devolution work and it is a supreme irony that the architects of devolution - Labour and the Liberal Democrats - have failed that challenge and it will be up to the SNP and the Conservatives to succeed where they have failed.

Ten years on, we remain a long way short of a mature and stable federal (or semi-federal) system of government in the UK.

I hope the recommendations of the Calman Commission will help in this respect but we need a change of attitude as much as any change in the formal division of powers and responsibilities.

The financial crisis makes it even more imperative that we succeed in this objective.