FROM GP TO MSP (PART 1 -THE ELECTION)

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Working as a doctor when the pandemic struck, I felt let down by the Scottish Government when I was sent out of date PPE, feeling that there was poor communication with doctors.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.  

Pam Gosal MSP with Sandesh Gulhane MSP

Pam Gosal MSP with Sandesh Gulhane MSP

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.

 

WORKING FROM HOME AND THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

By J S Khan

“I will be working from home tomorrow” was usually a phrase only reserved and uttered by senior managers, or someone who has been with the company a certain amount of time and earned that trust.  When overhearing this phrase as you passed through the corridors or in the canteen, a sense of envy would flow through the body and a moment of reflection would enter you mind.  You then convince yourself that you have also earned the trust, and so you pluck up the courage to ask your manager “Can I work from home?”.  The sheer sense of relief and joy that overcomes you when it is approved is indescribable and as you strut and gloat with your chest puffed out you feel a sense of achievement.  You cannot wait to bump into a colleague and utter the phrase “If anyone needs me, I will be working from home tomorrow”.

Fast forward to now, and the difference is staggering.  Working from home has now become the norm, and no longer is it only a privilege for a select few but almost encouraged at every level of an organisation.  The causation of this has been the pandemic, so is it here to stay and what are the consequences?

Working from home, remote working, flexible working and my favourite, the remote agnostic model are some of the terminologies used to describe working away from the office. Generally, tech companies are the innovators of new working models and go against the grain of traditional methods. One of the biggest tech firms Twitter announced employees will be allowed to work from home ‘forever’.  A company spokesperson said. “We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive”.  But is this a knee jerk reaction by Twitter?  Remote working in its early stages was a resounding success agreed by both the employees and corporate executives.  This was mainly due to the widespread availability of technologies such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, Google Hangouts and others, which enabled people to smoothly adapt to the new setup and stay in constant contact. Although as we think about it, they would say that.  Can you imagine the opposite statement from a CEO of a FTSE 100 company? Can you imagine if they said that staff “working from home has bought the company to its knees”, their share price would plummet. 

The other group that needs to be considered is the “bricks and mortar brigade”, those who are trying to convince everyone that working from home is a bad idea.  Could they have huge investments in the property market, needing the offices leased out to companies to stave off losing millions in rent?  We also must consider that pension investments are linked to property, so if the value of property goes down then pensions may be impacted.   

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It is easy to focus on the benefits, such as avoiding long commutes and saving on travel costs and expenses.  From an organisation’s point of view, there are potential cost savings from long-term leases no longer being needed.  However, there is a dark side that has emerged that needs to be seriously considered.  The social, mental, and physical aspects can impact the normal working life, and this extends to working away from the office.  It has been suggested that working from home means that you never really leave the working environment either physically or mentally, leading to inadvertently working longer hours, which can have a detrimental impact on mental wellbeing.  In terms of physicality, you become less mobile when you are at home than when you are in the office.  People can form lifelong friendships or even meet their life partner at work, so if we never go into the office again, what impact could this have on individuals?

People learn in different ways and an important way is through observation. You learn by seeing what others do, through language and behaviour, and these things are difficult to pick up through virtual meetings.  How will training new starters be conducted? There is nothing that can replicate the physical classroom setting, so young people coming into the work force may be particularly impacted when first starting out. 

At a more macro level, what impact will this have on the nation and the economy?  The biggest impact will be felt with the hospitality industry, within the towns and cities where the morning, lunch, and after work trade are a large source of income for these businesses.  We have already seen the impact on many of these businesses having to close their doors for good as more and more people are choosing to work from home.  We have already mentioned the property market which will also be impacted, particularly in the larger cities.  This will obviously have an impact on the economy, and as more businesses close, unemployment rates will accelerate, and taxes will have to be increased to offset the loss incurred.

Organisations simply looking at the financial savings of working from home may have misunderstood the complexities and the impacts of this change in working, and if they ignore the sociological impact then the consequences may be severe.  It has been reported that Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom, admitted that he has been suffering from “meeting fatigue” after too many meetings while working at home. The Chinese-born American entrepreneur also said that he was planning to call the company’s employees back to the office for at least two days a week.  Citigroup have introduced Zoom-free Fridays and HSBC will follow suit and have announced that they will be trialling Zoom-free Friday afternoons to tackle employee stress. The lines between home and work have been blurred and spending too much time in front of screens has health implications. 

It is widely agreed that the 5-days in the office structure will probably become something of the past. The future approach will most likely look very different, but a mixture of home working and office working can meet the best needs of the employees and employers alike in terms of achieving productivity, creativity, and work life balance.  When done right, the results could lead to a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce.