The missing First Minister

October1974 · The missing First Minister

Will Jack soon be out of sight, out of mind?
By Iain Macwhirter
Holyrood commentary
Comment
WHATEVER HAPPENED to Jack McConnell, the one-time first minister of Scotland? Appearances of the Scottish Labour leader are becoming increasingly rare. He has been absent from the past seven major debates in Scotland and the BBC's Question Time has tried 15 times to lure him out of his lair without success.

Websites devoted to sightings of Elvis Presley are adding Jack McConnell to their list. Indeed, people are beginning to wonder if the first minister exists at all or if it's just a cardboard cut-out at First Minister's Questions in Holyrood connected to a speak-your-weight machine. Conspiracy theorists are saying there never was any concrete evidence of McConnell's existence and it was just a plot by British intelligence to save Scotland from the SNP branch of al-Qaeda.

But, assuming that Jack McConnell does indeed exist, you have to wonder why he has decided to leave his chair empty at every broadcasting opportunity. Aren't politicians supposed to thrive on the oxygen of publicity? Surely he is keen as mustard to get stuck into Alex Salmond, to show what a gambler and carpet-bagger he is? To trash the other opposition leaders beneath the sheer weight of his dialectic?

advertisementI would not entertain for a nanosecond the idea that Jack McConnell is afraid of going into the television studio in case he makes an arse of himself. I'm sure the memory of his predecessor Henry McLeish failing to answer David Dimbleby's question on his sub-let offices does not enter McConnell's head. It would be unthinkable for the leader of the nation to be unable to argue his case on the mass media.

After all, as first minister, McConnell has been in office now for five and a half years, making him the most experienced politician in Scotland. There is practically nothing that has happened in Scotland in the past half-decade that he hasn't answered questions on or been briefed about. He should be more than a match for an absentee landlord, a Tory matron and a LibDem schoolboy.

McConnell has, moreover, a good message to sell. Scotland, we are told, is on the up and up - leading the UK in tackling child poverty, in educational performance, employment levels, skills, graduate numbers and salary rate rises. Gordon Brown comes north nowadays to get lessons in economic management from Jack McConnell.

There is no political mileage in hiding your light under a bushel. OK, McConnell may be looking forward to early retirement in the House of Lords, and lots of golfing holidays, but he has to win an election first. That bully Alex Salmond isn't going to stop his taunts just because the FM closes his eyes and counts to 10,000.

And as for the public, well, absence maybe does make the heart grow fonder, but there is a danger that, if this goes on, McConnell will become the forgotten man of Scottish politics. And when he finally does appear, there's a danger that nobody will recognise him.

Now, there is a Westminster convention that the prime minister doesn't lower himself by debating with his opposite numbers. Splendid isolation is supposed to enhance the dignity of his office. You wouldn't catch Tony Blair entering a studio on equal terms with a minority party leader like Alex Salmond. But Jack McConnell isn't Tony Blair, and anyway, Blair regularly submits himself to interrogation by John Humphrys.

In Scotland, politicians are expected to speak their minds and expose themselves to debate with their peers. Especially when they are leaders of minority parties themselves, as Jack McConnell is. There are no constitutional airs and graces in Scottish political culture, and when individual politicians start adopting them, and getting above themselves, then they are likely to lose public sympathy before you can say Jack the lad.

They are likely to be accused of being "frit", and once that charge sticks, it is very difficult to unstick it. Once columnists and cartoonists get the idea that McConnell is afraid to come out of Bute House, he will find that people will start to believe it. Then, no matter how often McConnell takes part in debates and media forums, he will still be accused of being a wuss.

But it's not too late. McConnell can still make an impact if he comes out of his corner. The UK ministers made idiots of themselves in November, going north to Oban and trying to frighten Scots about border controls, terrorist threats and national bankruptcy if Scotland became independent. They rudely brushed McConnell aside, afraid that his more upbeat pro-Scotland message might sound too much like nationalism.

Well, they have changed their tune. Gordon Brown is now playing pussycat, and commending Scotland on how well it is doing in becoming the skills capital of Europe. If this is down to McConnell and the "devolution dividend", then now is surely the time to press home the advantage; challenge Alex Salmond to say why independence would make Scotland any better.

The opposition's job is to oppose, and the SNP have every right to accentuate the negative, to portray a London-dominated Scotland as an impoverished dependent incapable of generating its own economic dynamism. It is up to the first minister to challenge this representation - but he has to be there first.

http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.1217824.0.0.php

Jimbo

But Jack McConnell isn't Tony Blair, and anyway, Blair regularly submits himself to interrogation by John Humphrys. <Quote

Not to mention of late, the police.

SLG

Does anyone really believe that McConnell is keeping a low profile to 'protect the dignity of office'? It could be for a number of reasons, but I very much doubt if that's one of them.

Andy McH

Is McConnell hiding or is he being kept out of sight by the Election organisers? The election fight may well have been taken out of his hands. Take note that is Wendy Alexander who is leading the Labour party's economic brief and not one of McConnell's Ministers.

Aventinian

Well the BBC reports that he was only asked to appear on Question Time two weeks before the programme. I imagine most professionals would have a hard time making such an arrangement.

Maol.Chaluim

Aventinian

Well, I doubt ministers like to cancel prior engagements.

If he considered it important, it'd be seen as cynical electioneering: putting an upcoming election before his duty as first minister.

Much of the time, it appears Jack McConnell is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Admittedly he's an arsehole, but he does get a lot of stick for things he doesn't particularly deserve.

Maol.Chaluim

Aventinian

It's a bit different - scheduling time for such things and then 'making time' for them.

IF Convenor

That other Executive minister, Nicol Stephen, seemed to be able to make the time.

A free spot on a BBC political programme must be a Godsend so close to an election; most politicians would jump at the chance!

Jimbo

Aventinian

That's because Nicol has a complete non-job.

IF Convenor

And Jack does a complete non-job.

Are you saying that all the panelists had lots of time on their hands and so decided to appear on the show, but the FM is just far too busy for that answering the public's questions nonsense?

Aventinian

SouthernJock

Whens an election campaign not an election campaign?. When Jack McConnell says he is to busy to debate and campaign, while touring Scotland, with either Alistair Darling or Gordon Brown, I suppose thats not campaigning but sight seeing!