Getting to know you: Michael Marra

The Labour MSP for North East Scotland chats to Louise Wilson about having an arty family, last minute holidays and learning from Lincoln.

What’s your earliest memory?

My earliest memory is being lifted out of my cot by my cousin Laura, so I must have been really quite young. I think it probably sticks in my mind because Laura died a few years later of leukaemia. That was obviously a big thing in my family, losing her when we were young, and we were very close to her and her brother and her sister.

Did you know her well?

Yeah, I did. She was 11 when she died and so I would have been about six, she was about five years older than me, so I knew her well. But she was ill for a long time, and she was really important in our family. Laura had flame red hair and she was a lot of fun.

What is your most treasured possession?

Two small busts that were made by my uncle who also died when I was quite young. My grandmother kept them and when she passed away, I got them. They sit on my bedside bookcase and they mean quite a lot to me. He was an artist and an art teacher as well. He turned his hand to all kinds of things, painting and sculpture and so on. These two heads, one of them looks like it’s whispering to the other one, but it also looks quite like my grandfather.

Are you arty at all?

Absolutely not, no. My daughter is, though, both my daughters are. I have a grown-up stepdaughter who is really quite artistic. She always has been, but clearly, you know, doesn’t get that from me, but my daughter, who’s 10, she’s very creative and she draws all the time, constantly. When I read to her, she sits and draws. I could see her going to art school – I hope she does.

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

Probably 1850s America. I’ve always had a fascination with the American Civil War. I used to read an awful lot about it and but I’ve got a bust of Abraham Lincoln in my office. The compromises of the 1850s around slavery and the politics, and then the rise of the Republican Party, it’s a period of history that really  fascinates me. I most recently read a book on that, Every Drop of Blood by Edward Achorn, which is amazing. It’s about Lincoln’s second inaugural address and just really evocative of the time. I was reading biographies of Lincoln when I was a teenager, that probably sparked my interest in elected politics more than anything else.

Do you think we can learn from it?

Oh God, yeah. Lincoln was an extraordinary writer, and no one that I know could ever aspire to that. I did include a couple of quotes from Lincoln in my first speech in the parliament, but I don’t think they were picked up by the official report, so I’ve maybe conned them into thinking they were my words rather than somebody else’s. In terms of his ability to understand the art of compromise in order to achieve great ends, I think any politician could learn from that particular time when the stakes in politics were so high.

What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

I can’t think... People give me advice all the time, I probably just don’t follow enough of it.

How about advice you would you give to other people?

Oh, bloody hell, that’s worse. I can’t think of any advice I’d give to people. I suppose in surgeries, you have to give advice to people to try and help them. Most of the time when people come to me in surgeries, both in my time as a councillor and as an MSP, it’s trying to convince people to be kind to themselves, to give themselves space and time. I know that when people are facing catastrophic situations, that sounds trite – but on a day-to-day basis, it can be true.

What was the best holiday you’ve had?

My wife and I went to Italy before our daughter was born, that would be about 11 years ago, and it was the last holiday just the two of us. We went to Rome, Florence, Venice and the lakes. It was amazing, absolutely brilliant, partly because it was just the two of us and we knew that it was never going to be just the two of us again. That was probably the best holiday, but other than that I travelled quite a bit in South America on my own and in India and parts of Europe. I’ve always liked travelling, I used to travel a lot more and I do miss that a little bit.

Do you think you’ll ever get back to it?

Sometimes I wonder, is it going to be possible? Probably not. I used to just pack a tiny bag and go on my own and go see things. I quite liked it, but my wife wouldn’t tolerate that. She doesn’t want to end up sleeping on benches and terrible places. I remember being in Venezuela and waking up the next morning and there was a chalk outline of a body outside the hotel I’d stayed in in Caracas. I realised at that point what a dodgy neighbourhood it was.

Is travelling something that you’d recommend to your own kids?

Probably, as long as they didn’t tell me about it – I’d be terrified. I can’t actually believe that my own parents, feeling the way I do about my own children now… yeah, I’m not sure. I do worry about the way that the world is going at the moment, between climate change and war in Ukraine and instability and economic challenges, that how open the world has been to people over the last 30 years may decrease and we will all lose something from that.

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?

Going to the pub with my friends, because I’ll not really be able to do very much for the rest of the weekend. You don’t feel like a particularly good father in that situation.

I don’t think that counts!

It’s the bit that comes after that makes me feel guilty! I’ve managed to get my son heavily involved into going to football, so I don’t have to count that as a guilty pleasure anymore. I can count that as parenting. I can basically say to my wife that that’s what I’m doing all day Saturday, he plays football in the morning, we go to the football in the afternoon, I play football in the evening. The two of us do all that together, I get away with that because he loves it.