Scotland — Articles — Centric Magazine

By Sandesh Gulhane MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament)

The past six months have been a whirlwind, and I still feel that it is surreal being the first male Indian heritage MSP to be elected. I have been very open on my social media , where I have been documenting behind the scenes of what life as an MSP is like, but the journey I have been on is unique.

Working as a doctor when the pandemic struck, I felt let down by the Scottish Government when I was sent out of date PPE, feeling that there was poor communication with doctors. I decided I could no longer just sit back waiting for change, so I applied to stand for the Scottish Conservatives at the 2021 Holyrood elections. Baroness Mobarik was instrumental in helping me understand the process of getting selected as a candidate. I passed the candidates board exam, which allowed me to apply to become a candidate for the Glasgow Region. Given that I had only been involved in the Party for a few months, I felt as though I had no chance of securing a high place on the regional list, as I was up against a sitting MSP in Annie Wells, several Glasgow City Councillors and others with much more experience than me. The following weeks were a nerve-racking time as I awaited the results of the regional ranking postal ballot, and it was through the narrowest of margins that I was ranked second, giving me a real chance of being elected.

The campaign was unusual, as personal engagement with actual voters was severely restricted. I was juggling life as a GP, husband and father, with the demands of being a candidate - delivering leaflets, telephone canvassing and attending online hustings. Every few days, opinion polls would be published, some showing that I was going to win a seat and some showing that I wasn’t. As we arrived at polling day, I felt that our team across the Glasgow Region had done everything we could, and I was proud of our efforts.

I went to the count on Saturday having had to self-isolate on Friday because my 13 month old daughter had spiked a temperature and we had to await the result of her COVID test. My more experienced colleagues advised me that it should be a straight fight between the Greens and myself for the seventh list seat. As the count was taking place over two days, we already had the results of the regional count from five of the nine constituencies and we had a small lead over the Greens.

Anyone who has ever been to a count will tell you that there is a lot of waiting around as ballot papers are sorted, counted, and verified, before the result is actually announced.

We waited for several hours before the first three results were declared. These results were for the remaining constituencies but gave a rough indication of how the list voting would go and things seemed rather positive. We then waited for the list votes to be counted.

The first regional list result extended our lead, as did the second. Of the two remaining regional results we expected to do better in one than in the other, but our expectations were dented when we didn’t achieve as many regional votes as expected from the penultimate constituency. I now only had a slender lead over the Greens as we approached the final declarations. I spoke to my colleagues, asking about the permutations and it seemed that if results were similar to the last election, it should just be enough. As you can imagine, I was rather nervous but tried not to show it.

When the final constituency result was announced, it confirmed that the Greens had done well and with the regional result for that constituency still to declare, we expected the worst. I was gutted. It is the hope that kills you and until this point things were going quite well. I called my wife and my 7-year-old answered. I explained to him what was happening and that I was not likely to win, but he refused to believe it. I can remember him asking me if the final results were in and as they were not, I should be more positive and believe it could still happen. Sage advice, but I decided he probably did not understand what I was saying and asked to speak to my wife, where we decided to have a Nando’s to cheer me up. After hanging up I looked around at my party activists. What had been a mood of optimism for most of the day, had changed. My election agent had his head in his hands, and Annie and her partner came over to give me their commiserations whilst the other candidates were simply crest fallen. We knew there was almost no hope.

However, all was not lost. I will let you into a secret here, the candidates are told the result minutes before it is officially announced. Given what we expected, I could not bring myself to go to this. My election agent and two of the other candidates attended to receive the final declaration, which would give us the overall result. What happened next, changed our mood and my life.

My election agent and two candidates had been away for quite a while when there was a loud scream. I saw one of our candidates, Grahame Cannell, jumping and shouting down in the main hall. His face as he ran round to meet us will stay with me forever. He was saying, “we did it, we did it, we did it.” The despair and gloom suddenly vanished, and we erupted with sheer joy.

I called my wife again and we quickly changed to having a celebratory Nando’s with my son looking at me on Facetime and just saying, “see daddy, I told you to just believe.” I really should not have doubted him! The euphoria went on for what seemed like an age and when the result was confirmed, I was elected by 456 votes. A close result, but one which I am incredibly proud of.

This result has completely changed my life from being a GP to being thrust into politics, going to Holyrood and standing up for my constituents, the NHS and our recovery from the pandemic. In the next article, I will explain my first few weeks as an MSP.

By Callum Brunton

Will Scotland leave the UK?

It’s the question I was asking myself almost 7 years ago when I cast my vote in the Scottish independence referendum at age 16.

It’s the question I thought I knew the answer to in the early hours of Friday 19 September 2014.

But the truth is, it’s an impossible question to answer.

In the years leading up to the referendum, independence dominated Scotland’s televised media, radio stations and newspapers to make it the most extensively covered political event in Scottish history. Millions of people were having conversations in classrooms, offices, supermarkets and pubs about what Scotland’s future should be and who we are as a nation. Over that 2 year long debate I had my fair share of shouting matches over the dining room table with my dad on the pros and cons of whether to remain part of the United Kingdom or become independent.

The referendum had record high voter engagement, with the largest turnout for an election in the UK since before the introduction of universal suffrage.

Seven years on, independence continues to define Scotland’s electoral politics and mass media reporting. Public opinion polling from January 2021 has suggested that up to 60% of Scots would consider voting in favour of independence in the event of a second referendum and this has become the fuel to many sensationalist tabloid articles and widespread media speculation.

But are we close to seeing Scotland become independent?

Nicola Sturgeon’s approval rating has certainly gained momentum since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. But with investigations into her role in the Alex Salmond court case ongoing, and increasing traction for opposition leaders, can her popularity hold?

Brexit brings a different dynamic to the independence question. Scotland now faces life outside of the EU despite having voted 62% to remain. According to Professor John Curtice and Ian Montagu, this has contributed to a rise in support for independence. That said, in the years following the referendum on Brexit, support for the SNP and independence dipped to its lowest level in years. As the split from Europe now becomes embedded, it remains uncertain how this might affect a future ballot on independence.

Then consider the polls, which have become the cornerstone for setting the narrative on Scotland’s future.

At the time of writing this, polling would suggest that more people in Scotland want to leave the UK than remain. But dig deeper, and the picture becomes murkier. The polls also suggest that most Scottish people believe independence distracts from other issues and that the Scottish government should focus on the pandemic, education, and the health service ahead of independence.

People live in the here and now, and this is reflected in public opinion polls. When asked to consider what currency an independent Scotland would use, and the arrangement at the Scotland-England border, polling from Survation has suggested that most people in Scotland would still reject independence by a similar margin to the previous referendum. In the lead-up to the 2014 referendum, the polls were also inaccurate by a factor of more than 3%. This margin of error makes it all-the-more difficult to predict ballot outcomes on this question, especially if public opinion remains as divided as it currently stands.

It’s worth remembering that Scotland is the most politically volatile country in the UK. Since the referendum in 2014, 90% of Westminster constituencies in Scotland have changed to a different political party, and the vote share for Scotland's largest parties has bounced by over 20% between different elections.

And let’s not forget about the impact of underlying factors such as religion, social class and national identity, or the economic and social aftermath of the pandemic.

Ultimately, Scotland’s future relationship to the rest of the UK will come down to the individual choices made by the people of this country. For some, Brexit will be the be-all and end-all in deciding what their attitude is towards the constitution. For others, it might come down to the economy, or to party leaders, or to which campaign has the better logo.

Nobody knows how attitudes in Scotland might change if we return our focus to another 2 year long independence debate. But maybe we should ask ourselves why speculators in the media are so determined to make a ruling now on what the Scottish public thinks when no vote has been cast on the issue since 2014.