‘THOUGH she be but little she is fierce” ... Shakespeare could have been talking about either of two giants of Scottish politics who last week announced their retirement as members of the Scottish Parliament. Holyrood will be the lesser for their loss of the indomitable Jeane Freeman and Sandra White.
It was in Sandra White’s constituency that The National newspaper and The Sunday National were born, and it was in an office in her constituency that Richard Walker, then editor of the Sunday Herald brought that newspaper out for Yes so famously. Sandra is warm and funny and a real woman of the people.
Cutting her political teeth as a councillor in Renfrewshire she started chapping the doors and talking to ordinary men and women about independence and making their lives better and she just forgot to stop.
She has been doing that every day for 31 years – 10 as a councillor and 21 as an MSP – she has been standing on the street stalls, chapping the doors, marching on the marches, speaking at rallies and blethering to wee businesses in her constituency. The woman is a veritable powerhouse of community and hard work.
All her recent speeches in parliament have been to make life better for ordinary people, recognising that the biggest issue for any government is always the necessity to end poverty.
Sandra draws attention to small businesses, the hospitality industry and comedy clubs. In fact comedy and hospitality is how I came to be Sandra’s pal. In 2014 in the run up to the referendum I changed the name of my Glasgow pub to Yesbar in a show of support to the YES movement and independence for Scotland.
Sandra promptly proposed a motion in parliament thanking us. I was gobsmacked and so appreciative. We celebrated with several glasses of red and were firm pals by the end of the evening. When just a little later I joined the party she welcomed me with open arms and encouraged me to seek election myself, endorsing my campaigns and nominating me for branch positions.
I spoke to Sandra last week and she is grateful and over the moon at the mountain of pals and well-wishers who have been lavishing her with justified praise since she announced her retirement.
Sandra has given so much to Scottish politics and to all of us who know her. After the sad death of her beloved other half Davie last year it’s great that Sandra will now have time to devote to her many pals and loving family. That said, I am not alone in suspecting that Sandra will not be leaving her lifelong activism completely behind and everyone who knows her is looking forward to chapping many more tenement doors with her in the future.
Jeane Freeman has completed just one term in office but what a term it has been. Elected to serve the good people of Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley in Ayrshire, where she came from, she was appointed Minister for Social Security in May 2016 and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport in June 2018.
That role has not been without its challenges and in this the time of Covid-19, has been of the utmost importance to our country.
Jeane is a woman with gravitas and authority; empathy and brilliance in sharp contrast to the populist buffoonery of Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump.
There is nothing quite like hanging out with the smartest kid in the class for making you up your game and Jeane Freeman does that simply by walking in the room.
Jeane was the reason I started speaking at political rallies, and Sandra White was the reason I decided to pursue political office. In their very different but equally warm and feminist and supportive ways they raised me up, as they do every wee girl who has watched either or both of them stand in Holyrood and strive for better.
I was utterly in awe the first time that I heard Jeane speak. She was a founding member of Women for Independence and we were both elected on to the inaugural national committee.
I WAS privileged to learn how to do politics differently – the mission statement of WfI – and how to be better and how to do better, I learned how to talk and I learned how to listen and debate while sitting at that table with some of the most awe inspiring women in Scottish politics.
At that time the committee and advisory group were simply amazing. I went to my first WfI get-together more than a little intimidated and terrified; I’m a working-class air hostess and barmaid from Partick and there I was at the table with Jeane Freeman OBE, who had unbeatable political expertise.
I looked across and there was Dr Philippa Whitford and former MSP Carolyn Leckie ... and did I spy Rosie Kane? Joanna Cherry QC was in a corner chatting to Gillian Martin MSP. There was Ash Denholm MSP, Dr Marsha Scott of Scottish Women’s Aid, Dr Lesley Orr, Zara Kitson, Susan Stewart, Michelle Rodger of Business for Scotland, Margaret Young, office manager of Anne McLaughlin MP, Maggie Lennon, director of Bridges refugee charity, councillor Julie Bell. We were all warmly welcomed to the meeting by the scariest feminist in the land, SNP stalwart Kathleen Caskie.
I knew, there and then that the future of an independent Scotland was in the most spectacular of hands.
There are those wondering about how all these brilliant women stepping down from Holyrood will ever be replaced? To that I have but one thing to say: Fear not, because these brilliant women lifted so many of us up to join the trail they blazed and soon we hope to follow in their path.
Jeane and Sandra may both be just around five-foot-tall, but their women’s committees achieved big things. They took on the government and went to battle in the trade unions and the councils and parliament and we have heard their clarion call.
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