Fergus Ewing: Backbencher of the Year 2022

It was an honour to win Holyrood magazine’s Backbencher of the Year last year and afforded the chance to reflect upon my time (so far!) in Holyrood.

The greatest gift from Scotland to the world is from Scottish Enlightenment leaders such as Adam Smith and David Hume: rational analysis as the key tool for government. Logic, evidence, and reason.   

When first elected as a young (I was 42) MSP in 1999, I had run a business, served in a mountain rescue team, and worked in innumerable election campaigns – many for family members!

But I’d no clear idea how best to do the job of MSP.

Fortunately, I then had an apprenticeship of eight years in opposition before government in 2007. But, despite this, was I ready to be a minister? No. I well recall the ‘welcome’ speech of the Permanent Secretary, to us – rookie ministers all assembled in the austere wood-panelled offices of St Andrews House, like be-suited sheep in a pen. 

“Remember,” he said in the manner of Christopher Lee or Vincent Price, “everything you say… you say as a MINISTER.”  Disappearing into the dark New Town night, I don’t think I ever saw him again.  

The fear of God having been thus implanted, we, newbies all, then went about our ministerial business. But the point is this: rational argument, logic, and evidence – they have been my main guides and friends, then and since.

The UK civil service top brass had little obvious desire then or since to offer us much advice how to do the best job for the Scotland we seek. A point we seem to have forgotten over recent years and events. 

Now, unshackled from ministerial office which I (mostly) hugely enjoyed, I am seen by some, at 65, as a rather late developing rebel.  

No, that is not what I am. But I’m standing up for the very aims and policies which my party has supported for most of my near half a century of membership – but which now have been set aside – without reason, logic, or evidence. 

Developing our own oil and gas resources, vital for our cause of independence as a bulwark of economic strength. Providing the Highlander with better and safer roads that our central belt friends take for granted. Standing up for small businesses rather than conniving in their destruction by a bungled deposit return scheme.   

These are all dictates of logic, reason, and best evidence. Adam Smith would have approved. 

Advice: none of us know how long we will serve in our parliament. All of us should use our abilities to speak out without worrying overly about fear of reprisals from whips or spin doctors. The best poem on Holyrood is Edwin Morgan’s Open the Doors.

What Scottish people don’t want, he said, is: “A nest of fearties; a phalanx of forelock tuggers…the droopy mantra of ‘it wasnae me’.” 

He exhorted: “Open the door! Light of the day shine in; light of the mind, shine out!”

That enlightenment – the light of the mind – is our precious Scottish gift which we extinguish at our peril.