New MSPs can learn a lot from the 1999 club
A lot of experience is being lost from Holyrood - but the new intake of MSPs can learn from them.
Whatever happens at the upcoming Holyrood election, there are going to be a lot of new faces in parliament.
Even if the polling plays out and the SNP retains its crown as the largest party in Scotland, there are dozens of longstanding MSPs quitting frontline politics for good in May.
A huge amount of knowledge and experience is going to disappear from Holyrood in the blink of an eye. While this happens every election cycle, there is a fairly sizable number this time around.
Some big names, like former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, are leaving. Former party leaders like Richard Leonard are calling time.
Several cabinet secretaries are stepping down too, including the finance, transport and rural affairs ministers.
There is also the question mark over how many seats Reform UK will win. If the polls are to be believed, there could be up to 20 new Reform MSPs, which means 20 new faces with almost no colleagues with that level of experience to rely on for guidance.
The majority of the remaining ‘1999 club’, those who have been in the Scottish Parliament since the dawn of devolution, are also ending their careers in May.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been interviewing some of the ‘1999 club’ for their reflections on their 27-year long careers, and what advice they would give to new MSPs who are coming into the job for the first time in May.
I know there are a lot of people who are fed up with politics right now, and therefore think most politicians are useless and not worth listening to. They are probably despairing at me suggesting they have knowledge to impart.
But in interviewing these politicians, it really struck me how much expertise and experience they have, and how much they genuinely care about their constituents and the local area they represent.
All of the outgoing MSPs I have spoken to said they will miss the people, and miss the privilege of being trusted by the people to serve them in the corridors of power.
Others pointed out to me that MSPs can learn a lot from their constituents. While MSPs individually are not experts in everything, there will be a constituent out there who is, and politicians should lean into that and take advantage of that wealth of knowledge that is sitting waiting to be untapped.
I would like to think most newly-elected MSPs will come in with a spring in their step, bright-eyed and hopeful of being able to make a difference for their constituents.
My advice to the new MSPs - take a leaf out of the ‘1999 club’ members’ books. Remember the people who put you in Holyrood in the first place, and remember that it is a privilege and an honour that most people will never get to experience.
If the new MSPs keep this mantra with them, then there is hope for the next parliament.
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