Achi news desk-
By Russell Bruce
The news of Michael’s appointment as Chair of the Scottish Land Commission came as a bit of a surprise but again not entirely. Michael has been a long time supporter of the Commission and this may be the right time for a new challenge to direct his energies.
In the 15 or so years that my wife and I lived in Argyll and Bute we got to know two remarkable men. Michael Russell and the late Professor Sir Neil MacCormick. Argyll is the heart of the Westminster constituency which has seen many changes over the years. For most of the 20th century Argyllshire was Conservative Unionist except for the two elections in 1974 which were won by Neil’s brother Iain MacCormick with 49% of the vote but lost by 5% to the Conservative John Mackay in 1979. In 1983 the Westminster constituency in Argyll & Bute won by John Mackay was succeeded in 1987 by the ever persistent Ray Michie for the Liberals. Neil MacCormick stood for the SNP in 1992 and 1997 with 23% of the vote.
I mention this story because when we first got involved in Argyll and Bute the Lib Dems were the party we had to beat. Today Argyll and Bute is seen as the stronghold of the SNP with Brendan O’Hara taking the Westminster seat in 2015, 2017 and 2019. With the Lib Dem vote in 1997 17 points ahead of the SNP I realized that something needed to be done to move the party forward in the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999. The answer was voter identification.
Sometimes friends disagree. Michael, Chief Executive of the SNP at the time, wanted us to use the party’s Activate system. Being Mac based, we were not impressed with the MS DOS Activate system that the party used. These were different times (before GDPR) and we developed our own Mac software, bought the phone numbers and set up a call center in Dunoon that operated at least 4 nights a week. We needed a system where my wife and I could quickly record the feedback sheets from the call center when there were so many other things to do.
Council elections were also held at the time of the 1999 election so we also had to produce all the election speeches for our SNP candidates in a tightly controlled campaign to ensure policy consistency whilst allowing council candidates to emphasize local issues. My wife, Dorothy, produced all the campaign literature for Duncan Hamilton, the election speeches of the council candidates and several 8-page newspapers distributed by branches.
We did not win the constituency in 1999 but came within 2000 votes of the Liberal Democrat George Lyon. I was campaign manager for our candidate Duncan Hamilton who was first elected as a list MSP for the Highlands and Islands to our new parliament. That wasn’t the end of the story though. With just enough money left to keep the call center going Argyll and Bute produced the highest vote in the EU elections a month later and Neil MacCormick was elected as one of the 6 MEPs from Scotland.
With the steady rise of the SNP vote the 2001 Westminster election was a major disappointment. I shocked other campaigners when I predicted that Agnes Samuel, the SNP candidate, was to be in third or fourth place but it was so close that I couldn’t predict whether it was 3rd or 4th. As it turned out it was unbelievably close with Agnes in fourth place, just 3 votes behind Dave Petrie for the Tories. This was Labour’s best ever performance, coming in second with the highly respected Hugh Raven. Alan Reid won for the Lib Dems with a majority of 5.4%, down -11.6% from Ray Michie’s 1997 vote.
It was not until 2007 that Jim Mather won the Holyrood seat for the SNP, followed by Michael Russell in 2011 and 2016 with a healthy majority. The SNPs won Jenni Minto in 2021 when Michael resigned.
Every election, nationally and at constituency level, has the ability to spring a surprise underlining the importance of a strong national campaign linked to efficient and coordinated constituency campaigns.
By 2010 our time in Argyll and Bute was over and we returned to the Scottish Borders. My second term as an elected member of the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park board for the Cowal and Arrochar area ended in 2008.
The three elected members of the SNP only served one term. Duncan Hamilton did not stand again and was elected for a career in law and is now in KC. Jim Mather only served as MP for Argyll between 2007 and 2011 when Michael finally won his home seat as a long term resident of Argyll and Bute. Neil MacCormick (Professor Sir Donald Neil MacCormick QC (Hon) FRSE FBA) served only one term in the European Parliament taking a leave of absence from the University of Edinburgh.
Neil was the son of John MacCormick, one of the founders of the SNP. He was a lovely man who it was a pleasure to know. His commitment to independence was the reason for his many campaigns but as an academic he gained an international reputation, Neil was particularly interested in the philosophy of law and was president of the International Society for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, unfortunately. cut short by his untimely death. He was an honorary fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and the recipient of honorary degrees from universities in Canada, Sweden, Italy and Germany. He died on 5 April 2009 from inoperable cancer. He was only 67.
I still keep in touch with Michael Russell on matters of common interest. He is a source of knowledge on a huge range of issues that are part of our history and Scotland’s place in the world far beyond the world of politics. Taking over temporarily as interim chief executive of the SNP whilst President he delivered the governance review he promised. New horizons now come and I wish him well in his role as Chairman of the Land Commission in the near future.
