Member News
By Alistair Carmichael - 5th February 2010
Tuesday 26 January
A normal Tuesday would see me at my desk in Westminster for an 8.45am conference call with colleagues in the Scottish Parliament. This, however, is not a normal Tuesday. It being the last Tuesday in January, it is Up Helly Aa day in Lerwick when the town celebrates its Viking heritage by parading round the streets behind a replica Viking longboat, which is then burned just as our Norse forbearers did when sending a departed soul to Valhalla. It is a truly spectacular sight and one which never disappoints. This year’s Guiser Jarl is the third generation in his family to have the honour, and approaches his duties with obvious relish and the day goes with a swing.
Amongst the visitors to Shetland for the day is Lord Lamont of Lerwick. You might not guess it from listening to him, but the erstwhile Chancellor of the Exchequer is Shetland born and bred and for many people he is still a favoured local son. Chatting in the town hall he is friendly and engaging. As I move among the crowd later, one local liberal is clearly in no mood for forgetting the sins of chancellors past. “Yon’s the last Tory to wreck the economy,” he mutters darkly. I certainly hope so. After the galley is burned in the evening I head off to the local sports centre for an evening of revelry, the highlight of which is the arrival of the main group of Guisers, the Jarl Squad all dressed in full viking rig out. It is an awesome sight and brings back memories of my tour of duty in the Jarl Squad of 2007. I eventually leave quietly at about 3.15am with the party still in full swing.
Wednesday 27 January
After a bare two hours sleep the alarm goes off and I am up and off to the airport for the first flight back to Orkney, where there is a midday meeting of the Airport Users’ Consultative Committee. This is an important meeting, as the chief executive of the company that owns our airports has come to explain the consultation he is carrying out on his wheeze to introduce parking charges at our airports. After the meeting, I return to the office and fail to achieve a great deal. Eventually at 4pm my secretary can stand the ‘half-shut knife’ impression no more and sends me home. It being unusual for me to be home on a Wednesday night, I cook spaghetti bolognese for my sons coming home from school via the Karate club. The reception for it is a little underwhelming. Apparently it is not what they expect on a Wednesday night, and they ask with ill-concealed irritation what I am doing home anyway.
Thursday 28 January
This is normally the day when I start the long trek back to the Northern Isles from Westminster. Being home already, however, I am able to spend the whole day meeting a series of constituents and local organisations. Come the evening I am off to a community centre to spend the evening with local party activists, peeling potatoes and turnips and setting up tables for our Burns Supper. While Shetland marks the end of January with Up Helly Aa, Orkney has a more Scottish feel and Burns Suppers are in vogue. This weekend brings two.
Friday 29 January
News reaches me today of a local building company in Shetland going into liquidation, with the loss of 30 jobs. Further enquiry reveals this to be an exaggeration, as the company in question is laying off 20 workers but will continue to trade. Twenty jobs may not sound like a lot to people down south, but in a community like ours it is a significant loss. The evening finds me back in the Firth Community Centre, mashing the now-cooked potato and turnip as the local party Burns Supper goes ahead at full steam. The evening is a stonking success. We fill the hall and 110 people enjoy a great night, raising £1,600 in the process. It is an unofficial launch for our election campaign and activists and supporters leave the hall fed, educated in the works of Burns, and motivated for the coming campaign. Job done.
Saturday 30 January
The snow is back in Orkney! Not enough to be fun, but enough to make driving tricky. My younger son’s swimming club is cancelled, although in truth I cannot really pretend to be sorry.
The evening brings another Burns Supper. This is to be the last of the year, and is a fundraiser for the local pipe band in which my son plays drum. It is again a busy and noisy affair and is followed by a ceilidh dance. Plan A was for us to make a discreet exit after the speeches but before the dance. Plan B involves me staying and dancing until just before 1am when my wife, who as well as being the agreed driver for the night is also the vet on call, is called away to see to a sick animal.
Monday 1 February
Snow again and this time it is annoying. I rise as usual at 6am to start the journey to Westminster, but in my heart I know that I will be going nowhere fast – and so it turns out. Shortly before noon, I eventually board the plane that should have left at 7.40am.
I have a mini-surgery in the airport and chase up some outstanding casework with council officers who are also delayed. It is, however, after 6pm before I can sit at my desk in Westminster and for the rest of the evening I compile a shortlist of applicants to interview for my new researcher post. I am glad that I got elected to Parliament because as I plough through the CVs of people with double firsts, PHDs and conversational Gujarati, I realise that I would have no hope of getting a job here.
Tuesday 2 February
The day starts with a session with Ian Kennedy and the IPSA team addressing the parliamentary party. They deny being London-centric in their approach (they would) but it is a theme that others readily identify. They offer no explanation for the total absence in the travel section of any reference to travel by ferry. They eventually depart, perhaps none the wiser, but at least better informed. Come the evening and it is on with the black tie and off to the FSB dinner. No haggis and no dancing and an early exit. Not as early as the principal guest, Lord Mandelson, who manages to arrive late and leave early, delivering his speech between the main course and the pudding. Not good.
Wednesday 3 February
To the chamber for Northern Ireland questions, which is a fairly subdued affair. Talks are still going on in Belfast about the devolution of policing and until they reach a conclusion there is not a great deal to be said. PMQs generates more heat than light. Brown does not have the one-liners that he has had in recent weeks, but Cameron still fails to shine. Being now on twitter I tweet my take on PMQs to an expectant world. Not sure if anyone is out there but later it becomes apparent that they are. Strange business Twitter.
Thursday 4 February
The weekend is in sight! The morning is taken up with an all-party debate on the constitutional future of Scotland for the think tank Reform Scotland. The audience is mostly English or ex-pat Scots. They look slightly bemused at the mini clan war that erupts in the name of political debate. From there it is off to Trinity House and a meeting of the RNLI national council, of which I am a member. It is an uplifting way to end the week in London, and I head for City Airport and the journey home in good spirits.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd