Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Len Ironside: Politics have become too much about parties and too little about public need

Andrew Bowie has spoken out about his family's experiences with dementia. Picture by Kenny Elrick.
Conservative MP Andrew Bowie's suggestion of specialist centres to help with long Covid in children was rebuffed by the Scottish Government

Something has changed in the world of politics.

Len Ironside

Maybe it was the indyref, which caused bitter divisions between friends and families and the arrival of the social media trolls, or maybe it was the Brexit result which created all sorts of unedifying debates in parliament. Perhaps the arrival of the pandemic, or a combination of all three.

But the political mood has shifted. If you had asked me a few years ago: “Why do people come into politics?” I would have said to improve the quality of life for the population. We all have the same aim, its how we achieve it that is different. And that’s where the politics come in.

But recently I’ve seen examples of silliness where party politics has become more dominant than public needs.

MPs are playing a popularity game

Conservative MP Andrew Bowie suggested the Scottish Government introduce children’s centres to deal with long Covid in young people. A system which works successfully in England. A perfectly sensible suggestion.

However, the Scottish Government almost immediately rebuffed the idea, presumably because it came from a different political party, saying there are many ways to deal with the infection in children.

The second example was during a TV debate where the participants were discussing payment for residential care for the elderly. MSP Drew Hendry smugly claimed that in Scotland we don’t sell off homes to pay for residential care. That statement was, of course, untrue.

Councillor Douglas Lumsden MSP made his first speech at Holyrood yesterday.
Douglas Lumsden MSP

We do have to sell our homes to pay for care. There are a couple of exemptions – for example, if you have a dependant relative living there. But the bold statement that we “don’t do that” in Scotland was an attempt to make Scottish nationalists look better than the rest of the UK when, in fact, we are similar.

Elected members appear to be looking for popularity from the media rather than addressing the issue. The people who lose out are those most affected by the populist statements.

Time to promote the north-east?

It was disappointing to see newly elected Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden attempting to influence Labour Party internal politics over the case of the Aberdeen nine independent Labour councillors.

The affable Mr Lumsden may wish to reflect on the large hole in Aberdeen council’s budget due to Covid-19 and the number of capital projects which ran over time and over budget during his period as finance convener and co-leader.

It might be useful to promote the north-east and turn his fire power onto the Scottish Government who have consistently underfunded Aberdeen city and the surrounding area – something he must know.

Mixed messages have caused confusion

The whole debate about wearing face masks has been similarly affected. The leaders of the four nations met to discuss a common approach out of lockdown easements.

As usual, no agreement was reached. Wales and Scotland keep the mandatory requirement, whilst England leave it up to people behaving responsibly.

In a perfect world that would work. But as we have seen in recent weeks there are a lot of irresponsible folk out there. People who just can’t or won’t accept the need to consider others. This is bound to cause frustration and anger between responsible folk and those behaving selfishly.

Each party is looking to see what benefits they might gain in the popularity polls, rather than considering the impact on the health of the public

Had the governments reached a consensus, there would have been one simple message. Mixed messages have caused confusion and people are interpreting the rules to suit their own situation. And, as we have experienced, even the parliamentarians reinterpret the rules to suit themselves.

It seems impossible for four leaders to agree on this. Nothing to do with following the science. Each party is looking to see what benefits they might gain in the popularity polls, rather than considering the impact on the health of the public.

This leads to a blame culture where no one takes any responsibility, and it’s always someone else’s fault.

I wish inspiring, caring people would stand for election

It’s little wonder that Scotland is sleep walking into the state of independence, as the opposition parties continue to kick lumps out of each other whilst the nationalist government gets a free run.

Spare a thought for our carers and nurses out there who have worked long shifts since March 2020. They are exhausted but have little option, with rising coronavirus cases amid public confusion and low staffing levels. We are all grateful for their continued dedication.

Dame Katherine Grainger is a five-time Olympic medal winner

On a more positive note, it was reassuring to see Dame Katherine Grainger, five-time Olympic medal winner, using her roles as Chair of UK Sport and Chancellor of Glasgow University to raise awareness of the part universities can play in improving community health post-Covid. A tremendous initiative.

I wish more people like that would stand for election.


Len Ironside is a former champion wrestler who served as an Aberdeen councillor for 35 years, with four years as council leader

Read more by Len Ironside: