Comparing the two parliaments at Westminster and Holyrood is like comparing Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon
Jamie's Journal by Jamie Stone
“The Scottish Parliament and Westminster, Jamie – are they alike? How different are they?”
Having been an MSP, and being an MP now, I’m very often asked that question. Take the Scottish Parliament first, there are two things which are very different to Westminster.
Firstly, being one of 129 MSPs means that you are very visible to your electorate. There is nowhere to hide. If you don’t show in a debate that is important to your constituency, people at home notice it and are quick to ask why you didn’t speak up.
The second thing is that access to ministers is the easiest thing in the world. The architect Enrique Miralles designed the new Scottish Parliament so that you all had to bump into each other in the Garden Lobby going from A to B. In my time in Holyrood it was in no way unusual to bump into Nicola Sturgeon. Indeed once, in the underground car park, she spotted me and beckoned me over.
“Now look, Jamie, that new health centre for Tain you keep going on about – well you’re going to get it. I’m going to announce it shortly. Now do me a favour and back off!”
Westminster on the other hand could hardly be more different. I am one of 650 MPs, and while I tend to go on about this or that (e.g. maternity services in the far north, or our woeful broadband) I know of some MPs who you really never see in the place. Now you might say that this has been a result of Covid, but the fact is that they were just as invisible before the start of the pandemic. I’m not going to give names here because that would be unfair, but how they get away with it, and how their constituents haven’t twigged the part-time nature of their work, is beyond me. I find it quite astonishing.
When it comes to accessing ministers in Westminster, in the general run of things you don’t see nearly as much of them as you would in Holyrood. There are one or two exceptions, however, and one is Michael Gove. He makes it his business to be round about the place, in the corridors, in the Smoking Room chatting with MPs, and not only Conservative MPs at that.
Yes, I know that he has a mixed reputation amongst the electorate, but what cannot be denied is that he is a polite man with formidable people skills.
On the flip side, there are people you don’t bump into at all. Nicola Sturgeon’s opposite number, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is a perfect example of someone you never see about the place unless he is making a statement or answering questions in the Chamber. You might say that this is due to sheer weight of duties, but on the other hand, Boris Johnson was no different when he was on the backbenches with people like me.
I have never once seen him in the Smoking Room during my four years in Westminster, nor have I seen him stopping to have a yarn with the more ordinary of us. As soon as his questions are answered or his statement is over, he is out of the place like a Jack-in-the-box in reverse motion.
When I first got to Westminster I found this aspect of Boris’s character rather puzzling. Hitherto I’d always believed the newspaper image of a hail-fellow-well-met, a cheerful bloke slapping others on the back and exchanging gags. In truth he is not at all that. He is actually socially awkward when you meet him.
On the few occasions I have spoken to him he has seemed startled by my approach. The way I describe it to others is that I think his radar goes wonky when I hove into view. Readers may care to speculate on why this might be so. But I promise you it is.
Of course, I conclude with the opening question which implies an unspoken one – which is the better parliament?
Horses for courses. The things that directly affect people’s daily lives are mostly done in Edinburgh, and the things that are of more national significance, such as defence and foreign affairs, are done in Westminster. Both are important to the running of our country and this duality of governance often gives me immense pride as a Scottish MP. That’s what I say to people who ask me.
- Jamie Stone is the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.