Holyrood Magazine issue 399 / 12 March 2018
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Scottish Labour Party Spring Conference 2018: featuring interviews with Dame Margaret Beckett and Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard. Also, a focus on the gender agenda including gender parity on public boards.
3 Editor’s note
In this new climate of hyper-vigilance, there is also a creeping hyper-sensitivity, an intolerance of nuance and a disregard for the mistakes and mess-ups inherent within human behaviour
6 Roundup
Pictures and numbers from the past two weeks
7 Talking Point
The Beast from the East exposed our car addiction
9 Mark McDonald
The former children’s minister speaks to Holyrood about his fall from grace
12 Overview: Labour Party Conference
Jeremy Corbyn’s success at the 2017 election has quietened dissent, but could Brexit cause the leadership more pain?
14 Interview: Richard Leonard
The Scottish Labour leader on Scotland’s cooperative heritage
19 Overview: The gender agenda
Current events and history have converged to make gender equality a high-profile issue in recent weeks
26 Focus: Gender parity on public boards
Parliament has legislated for gender equal public boards, but what about the private sector?
28 Cover story: Margaret Beckett
The longest-serving woman MP ever speaks to Mandy Rhodes
34 Event Report
Procurement takes centre stage at the Scotland Excel conference
36 Photo gallery
Pictures from the Scotland Excel Supplier Excellence Awards
38 Comment
Henry McLeish: Labour’s opportunities lie in post-Brexit Scotland
39 Holyrood Policy
Loneliness is a lifetime condition
40 Diary
A crown prince, a new single market and Theresa May hits the wall
41 Politicians and their pets
Mark Ruskell’s speedy pal Bert
42 Last Word
Mike Russell appears in front of the Delegated Powers Committee, as MSPs scrutinise scrutiny itself