Getting to Know You: Euan Stainbank

What is your earliest memory?

I was probably two or three and it is playing with wooden trains at a Christmas crèche. I can faintly remember my younger brother being there. The shopping centre where the crèche was has just been knocked down and is where the new Falkirk town hall is going to be built in the next couple of years. 

What were you like at school?

Either curious or annoying depending on who you were speaking to, and I think that probably still tracks to this day. But probably before I reached 16, I was quite studious, shy and I did quite well in my exams – I never had to study for modern studies, unsurprisingly, being very politically minded from quite a young age. I used to take part in the school debating society and played rugby until I was 16 as part of the SRU’s [Scottish Rugby Union] school scheme.

In my later school years, I did get a bit distracted by a burgeoning social life. I aced my law national aptitude test but missed out at a place at the University of Glasgow, so when I was 17, I ended up going to the University of Stirling. 

Was there a bit of complacency creeping in?

I still did reasonably well, I didn’t ace my Highers, which meant I had a very high threshold to meet and that was probably happening at the same time I began to have a social life for the first time, and I was perhaps hosting a few more empties than the straight A students. 

It was at university where I probably became a bit more politically active. I ended up getting a 2.1, having been the president of the law society, being on the debating society and an election loss in my final year when I ran for the president of the student union, which doesn’t haunt me as much as it used to. But I was a lot more active and vocal, and left behind the shy kid from school. 

Who would be your dream dinner date?

It would either be my grandad or my gran, who passed away when I was younger. I would love to see them as an adult. But if it is someone that’s alive, it would have to be Sir Alex Ferguson. I’ve done a lot of reading into his history; I read far too many autobiographies during lockdown when I should have been working on my dissertation. And Fergie played more games for my team Falkirk, which is obviously also in my constituency, than any other team. 

He also started his managerial career at East Stirlingshire, at the old Firs Park in the centre of Falkirk just a stone’s throw away from where I live. 

He led the Falkirk players out on a strike in 1960 over a pay dispute, and myself and my comrades in my CLP [Constituency Labour Party] exchange this fact often each time it comes up on Facebook. I think his book Leading should be read by anyone who wants to reach the top of their field.

What’s the worst thing that anyone’s ever said to you?

There’s nothing major. I always get hit with the ‘you’re too young for this’ patter, normally from nationalists online. But to be honest that amuses me more than anything.

Back when I ran for the council in 2022 it came from a few people I used to respect. So, I suppose as a 22-year-old running for council it was that that hit me a bit harder. Now, it doesn’t really register. 

What’s your most treasured possession?

There’s a picture of two boys fishing which very closely resembles my brother and me. It’s captioned ‘life’s not about the big moments – it’s about how you live the moments in between’. That may be a bit too ‘live, laugh, love’ for some folk. But it has been in our family home for as long as I can remember and when we sold it about four or five years ago, I got the picture, and it’s in my flat now. 

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?

My partner and I are trying to be better with our food this year, but we still like a Friday night chippy, so Guilio’s in Falkirk. She’s a Wishaw girl, so Franco’s if we are at hers. For her it’s always the same order, a small fish supper, but I go for all sorts – pizzas, kebabs, I could order the whole menu. 

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

There’s a bit of a theme building here but it would be 24 April 1957, which was the second and most recent time that Falkirk won the Scottish Cup. Unfortunately, in my lifetime we have been struck by [Rangers player] Nacho Novo in 2009 and Caley Thistle in 2015, and that still curses me to this day. It would be great to go back then and see us beat Kilmarnock and win the Scottish Cup. 

What’s the worst pain you’ve ever experienced?

I broke my toe playing rugby inside when I was 12, which to be honest, looking back, is unsurprising. It was very daft and completely warranted. 

Emotionally – it was the same year – finding out my gran passed away.

What’s your top film or TV programme of all time?

Game of Thrones. If I said anything else, anyone that knows me would tell you I’m lying. I’m an unapologetic fantasy nerd. I read all the books within the space of about three months, and they’re not short books. 

I also, possibly controversially, think that once George RR Martin is finished writing the books, season seven and eight of the TV programme, which were panned critically at the time, are going to be retrospectively looked at as quite reductive masterpieces. I just hope he does finish the books. 

What was your best holiday ever?

Last year, before the general election campaign, I went to Dubrovnik [in Croatia] with my partner and a few friends. It was sun and sand, spending time on boats, blowing around the old town. It’s obviously a Game of Thrones set as well, so I was nerding out about that. I wasn’t much of a traveller in my teens and my early 20s because of Covid and what I was doing, so I really enjoyed that.