The John Smith Centre spent the afternoon at Kilmarnock Academy last week for what we hope will be the first of many visits to secondary schools in Scotland.
Our aim is to take politicians into schools to talk about their lives, their experiences and their reflections in the hope of showing students a different side of, and more hopeful take on, the nature of political life.
Specifically, we want to go into schools in parts of Scotland where students perhaps don’t have the connections – and encourage them to think of politics and public life as something that’s just as much for them as it is for anyone else.
For our first event we were delighted to be joined by former SNP Health Secretary Alex Neil and former leader of the Scottish Conservative party Jackson Carlaw MSP.
One pro-independence, one pro-Union; one a socialist, the other a free marketeer, Jackson and Alex are old friends who did much together during their time at Holyrood.
We wanted to show the students that despite massive political differences, constructive politics is still possible.
We were delighted to be joined by Kilmarnock Academy FP and entrepreneur Marie Macklin who has been incredibly supportive in our efforts to get “Political Conversations” off the ground. Marie’s personal drive and commitment to the Centre’s goals is deeply appreciated by us.
The students peppered Jackson and Alex with a series of intelligent and perceptive questions. Two responses from the pair stood out for me.
As we discussed whether politics really made a difference, Alex recalled a story from his time as Health Secretary. He had discovered there was a problem with deaf children getting cochlea implants: often they had to wait seven or eight years to get a new implant. He was told by civil servants that reducing the time to two years would be too expensive – but decided to push back, insisted they find the money, and got the policy changed. He told the students:
A few months later I was having lunch in a restaurant in Glasgow and this guy came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder, and said, “My child is deaf and you have no idea the transformation in his life and in our lives since you took that decision.”
So much for politics not bringing about positive change.
The second story involved budget negotiations in 2014, just a few months before the independence referendum. The headlines were dominated by constitutional conflict. In the background, however, the two recounted how they could work together on health priorities. As Scottish Conservative health spokesman, Carlaw had devised a policy to increase the number of health visitors to support communities; as Health Secretary, Neil decided to back it.
So much for politicians not working together when the cause is justified.
You can see what the students made of it in the video.
