Highs, lows and words of advice: the class of '99 reflect on Holyrood as they prepare to leave politics

The election in May will see a number of MSPs who first set foot in the Scottish Parliament at the dawn of devolution head for the exit.

Some - the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon, Shona Robison, Michael Matheson, Richard Lochhead, Fiona Hyslop and Christine Grahame - have been there continually since 1999. Others - Labour’s Rhoda Grant and Sarah Boyack - had short spells outside of Holyrood before returning.

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Here, key members of the class of ‘99 share their highs and lows as they prepare to retire from frontline politics - and offer some words of advice for those who might follow.

SHONA ROBISON

As the former deputy first minister, Shona Robison has held some of the highest offices in the land. Yet her fondest memory of the past 27 years actually goes back to her very first day as an MSP, watching Winnie Ewing “reconvene” the Scottish Parliament.

“All the excitement feels like a lifetime ago,” Ms Robison told Scotland on Sunday. “There was a real sense of Scotland coming together and high expectations - it was all quite daunting, but exciting at the same time.”

First elected as a North East list MSP, Ms Robison has represented the east of Dundee since 2003. Over the years she has served as social justice secretary, health secretary and the minister in charge of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, but insists her current role - finance secretary - is her favourite.

She fondly recalls the opening of the new Holyrood building in 2004. Prior to that, her temporary offices had “regular” rodent infestations. “You would find droppings all over your desk,” she said.

Ms Robison said her low point came between 2016 and 2018. “It was a really difficult period for me,” she recalled. “I was health secretary, which is one of the most difficult jobs in government by far, because the pressures are never-ending and there’s always something happening.

“I also lost both my parents in a six-month period and my marriage broke up in quite a public divorce. My advice to anyone in that situation is take a step back.

“I was literally trying to snatch time with my mum in hospital and I should have, for her sake as well as mine, taken some time. It was a difficult, difficult time and the lowest point.”

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She is hoping to do some travelling when she retires in May, and has already booked a holiday to Shetland with her sister. “She’s a massive fan of the Shetland series,” Ms Robison said. “So we’re going on a girls’ road trip in June to visit every area that’s appeared in the TV series.”

Her advice to new MSPs is to find their niche.

“Find the things you are genuinely interested in, and try to pursue those in a way that you know you can get things done,” she said. “And if you’re a woman and you have a kid, take the proper time off - I didn’t do that in 2003 and I deeply regret it.”

FIONA HYSLOP

Fiona Hyslop was first elected to the Lothian region in 1999, and since 2011 has represented the Linlithgow constituency. She remains the only MSP to be asked to join the cabinet by all four SNP first ministers.

On her first day in the new Holyrood building in 2004, she ended up making the front pages with her nine-week-old baby.

“I had just had my third child and I went in with my baby early to get my pass for the new building,” she recalled. “Because I had my nine-week-old baby with me in the pram, the journalists and photographers all wanted pictures.

“I think I put [Tory MSP] Mary Scanlon’s nose out of joint because I made the front pages with this beautiful picture.”

Prior to moving into the new building, Ms Hyslop shared an office with the late Margo MacDonald, which she said was a “really interesting education”.

She said: “She was delightfully thoughtful and could wrap young male reporters around her little finger when they turned up. She’d intimidate them by making them wait while she put on her makeup very slowly - it was an interesting power play.

“She was a very smart, extremely clever woman and I learned a lot from her.”

Ms Hyslop said her highlight from her 27 years in Holyrood was the morning after the SNP’s first election victory in 2007.

“We were peering out of the window of Bute House and could see the mass of media outside, but we were getting on with the job and our early plans,” she said.

“We got our photograph taken out on the steps, but behind the scenes there was a lot to do very quickly. I remember thinking we were doing the housework of history. It was such a historic moment and I will always remember that.”

The low point came the morning after the 2014 independence referendum.

Her advice to the next crop of MSPs is to trust their instincts. “And my mum gave me the best advice - it’s not the quantity of time you spend with your children but the quality of time,” she added.

CHRISTINE GRAHAME

It did not hit Christine Grahame that she had been elected to the Scottish Parliament until she saw the Crown of Scotland on her first day.

“The place was deserted and I watched this open-topped black limousine going past with the Crown of Scotland in it,” she recalled.

After spending the first few years in the former Lothian Regional Council offices, she ended up with an office next to the parliament gym after moving to Holyrood. “I used to tease Tommy Sheridan and say ‘no doubt you’ll be in there looking at yourself in all those mirrors’”, she joked.

Now the oldest MSP in Holyrood, the 81-year-old was first elected to the South Scotland region in 1999 and became the constituency MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale in 2011.

She said the highlight of her career was the opening of the new Borders railway line in 2015 after years of campaigning. “The day it opened I nearly missed the train and I wore a huge hat so nobody knew it was me underneath it,” she said.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the old movies of the Wild West, but people were cheering with flags, clapping and waving, and then just outside Heriot there was a man with a horse who raced the train - I will never forget it.”

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Ms Grahame said new MSPs need to make sure they get the “right team” behind them and remember it is “a privilege to be here”.

She added: “And thirdly, the party whip is important and you can’t just go off and do what you like, but if there is something that is really against your principles and you can’t live with your vote, don’t do it. It will cost you so you can’t do it regularly, but sometimes you just have to say ‘I won’t do that’.”

RHODA GRANT

Rhoda Grant’s first day as an MSP was “surreal”, she recalls. She did not expect to get elected, and was then left to set everything up herself.

“We didn’t even have offices, we were all just milling about,” she told Scotland on Sunday.

“Myself, Maureen Macmillan [MSP from 1999 to 2007] and Peter Peacock [MSP from 1999 to 2011] commandeered an office. There were piles of mail everywhere and we had no staff, so we just had to get organised.”

Ms Grant represented the Highlands and Islands region until 2003, and was then re-elected to the same region in 2007. She has served Scotland’s largest region ever since.

“Getting to sort out a problem for someone who is in a bad situation, just because you have those three wee letters after your name, changes folks’ lives,” she said. “That’s the award you get, and I will miss that.

“It’s a privilege to get that involved in people’s lives and for them to put that trust in you, but it can also be really tough.

“While that is the high of the job, it can also be the low, because if you can’t sort it, it’s very hard not to take that with you because people are in horrendous situations and it is frustrating if you can’t help them.”

She said her electoral region is “the most beautiful part of Scotland”.

“Every community, every island, has its own personality,” she added. “It is an enormous privilege to be an MSP, but even more so to cover an area like the Highlands and Islands.

“Although a drawback of having a big constituency is things like having a burst tyre at the side of Loch Lomond in the dark - I’d never changed a tyre before and I thought I was going to have to walk home.”

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Ms Grant will be taking time off after the May election as she is “exhausted”, but said new MSPs need to get to know the people they are representing.

She said: “We are not experts in everything and the best source of information, advice, knowledge, is speaking to your constituents because someone in your constituency will know what to do. You are surrounded by experts, so use them.

“And try to have a wee bit of a personal life. It’s hard because it is 24/7, but if there’s something you have an interest in, hang onto that because you need space for yourself.”

RICHARD LOCHHEAD

Richard Lochhead was elected the MSP for North East Scotland in 1999, but says winning the Moray constituency in 2006 was a highlight.

"All regional MSPs want to be constituency MSPs,” he said. “Anyone who says that's not the case is perhaps not being as honest as they could be."

He was the long-serving rural affairs secretary under both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, and currently serves as the minister for business and employment.

"Politics is difficult to switch off from, and the idea you could have time to yourself a bit more often is attractive,” he said.

"I've been doing this for 27 years. It's always good to get out when they want you to stay, and I feel as though I'm leaving on a high.

"Many politicians leave politics through no choice of their own, but I've been very blessed in my time in politics over 27 years."

His advice to new MSPs is to be team players, while remaining true to themselves. “Perspective is always a key word for me in politics,” he added.

"Sometimes in politics you think some things are going to have a lot more impact, or controversy perhaps even, and they don't. You have to focus on what's really important and keep things in perspective."

He also stressed the importance of vision. "I think there's a lack of vision in politics just now. It's easy to get up in the morning and think, 'How am I going to get today's headlines?' And we've still got politicians in this Parliament who do that.

“They survive on a day-to-day basis. How can you score political points, how can you get headlines? That's not vision."