‘It’s a privilege to be able to help people – it keeps me optimistic’ WHEN asked to name her hobbies, Annabel Goldie places weeding at the top of the list. We take it that she is referring to her garden but still, it's tempting to wonder if she wouldn't like to apply a bit of weeding to the more obnoxiously sexist politicians who
sneer at her spinster status, denounce her caution and jeer that she represents "the tombola
and zimmer-frame faction" in the Scottish Conservative Party.
Good naturedly, as well as shrewdly, she throws her head back in a great, rolling chortle. "I'm not going to be drawn into any dangerous commentary on my friends of the opposite sex," she says. Goldie has the demeanour of a benign headteacher of the old school, who - if she were older - might well have distinguished herself in something like the Women's Royal Army Corps. And out in the real world, beyond the hot house of politics where insults flourish like poisonous plants, she is genuinely liked as a good egg; someone whose loyalty and conviction are beyond question, and whose sensible suits suggest a person with scant time for frippery. You won't catch Goldie in Theresa May's high-profile kitten heels.
"I do think women have a different approach to challenges, whether the challenges are in politics or other fields altogether. We are much more pragmatic in that we'll sit down and say: We know what the problem is. Now can we talk intelligently about finding a solution?"
On BBC Radio 4's Any Questions? the other week, Goldie rather flummoxed the chairman, Jonathan Dimbleby, by declaring that people were "scunnered" by the Punch-and-Judy style of
politics. And for the benefit of
listeners south of the Border,
she explained "scunnered" as meaning "turned off, big time, by hypocrisy and the wheels and deals of so much public life".
Not much caution there. "Well, there is an assumption that if you are not landing a verbal blow on your opponent, then you are not an actual politician. There will be times when you have to be passionate in your condemnation of what another politician or party has done. There will be times when you have to manifest your anger. This has happened to me and I have found myself moved to make
it clear how upset I have been."
But Goldie is notable for never despatching a broadside of personal invective. A case in point was her recent phlegmatic reaction to the Mundell Memo. This was the
publication of a vituperative aide memoir to David Cameron which was reportedly written last summer by David Mundell, MP for Dumfrieshire, Clydesdale and Tweedsdale, in which he condemned her lack of activity and strategic thought. To make matters worse, the memo appeared on the eve of one of David Cameron's visits to Scotland. His public response, however, was gallant. Goldie, he said, was doing a great job, and he praised her "no-nonsense approach in addressing the issues that really matter".
That didn't silence the begrudgers, and there was muttering that Goldie was over-sensitive about how she was presented
during Cameron's Scottish trips. But that's hardly an exclusive foible. All political leaders in Scotland are touchy about being sidelined when the party chiefs hit town.
On becoming Tory leader, Cameron denounced Punch-and- Judy politics but he has done
little since to curb his relish for
the practice in the Commons chamber. Doesn't that
disappoint Goldie?
"You know, men by nature are desirous
of expressing a certain virility, whether in sport or politics or down
the pub at the quiz. There's always this macho need to show that I'm bigger, better and stronger than you'.
I don't think that women are like that. But the arena of the Scottish Parliament really is a totally different configuration to that of Westminster, and I think that has been conducive to a more civilised level of debate in Scotland."
Yet what does Goldie say to those who insist she is too nice to have the killer instinct required in politics? "I don't know whether that says something about our political system or whether it says something about me. But if it's a criticism
it's a criticism I will live with, and
it won't keep me awake at night."
goldie was 17 when her father, a retired stockbroker and grocer, died. By then she was head girl at Greenock Academy, a distinction she downplays by saying that there was no-one else available for
the honour. If that really was the
situation it was repeated decade later when, in 2005, David McLetchie resigned as Scottish Tory leader in the frenzy of allegations that he had abused his taxi expenses. Goldie, his deputy, assumed control, her dependability never doubted but her lack of image-maker's pizzazz derided by the opposition. "I am what I am," she retorts.
| Men seem to have a macho desire by nature to show ‘I’m bigger, better and stronger than you’ | |
|
When her father died, she realised how quickly the gift of stability can disintegrate. As a result, she has always kept that word close to her as a mantra, and on taking over the leadership, stability and loyalty were implicit in her warning to the party that if the in-fighting didn't stop, Scottish Tories faced oblivion. "Frankly, the indiscipline has been degrading," she said.
And now? "I'm not being drawn on an election forecast, and that's not because I'm being evasive.
I mean, I think that even the
commentators are at a loss to know how May 3 will pan out. What I can say is that we are getting very good, positive feedback. Recent polls
suggest we are on the move, and I'm very heartened by that."
After graduating from Strathclyde University, Goldie began her professional life as a lawyer
in private practice in 1978. In
1999 she became an MSP for West of Scotland.
"I'm very glad that I had a completely different career under my belt before I came into politics because there is no doubt in my mind that it has certainly shaped my attitude to lots of issues."
as a lawyer, she saw life in the raw. "The people who are your clients are vulnerable. They are troubled. They are uncertain and they look to their advisor to try to steer them along some very difficult paths."
But has that experience of confronting the rough, and often squalid, end of life, made her pessimistic about human nature?
"No. I think it's a great privilege to have the opportunity to help people, and that keeps you
optimistic. And most of us are
motivated by wanting to help
others in whatever way we can."
An Elder in the Church of
Scotland, Goldie says that her Christian faith transcends everything else. "To me it is the primary influence in my life, and in other political parties you will find those who share this same profound belief in religion."
Such politicians, she says, have other measurements to assess the common good than the transient, illusory signposts of daily headlines and opinion polls. "If you have a faith you just quietly go on doing the best you can and seeking the guidance you need, reassured that whatever happens there is a power that will see you through."
That's a bravely unfashionable view in this aggressively secular age. If her party does badly on May 3, will her religious belief
offset the disappointment? "Well, I'm anticipating that we'll do well.
But the whole point about having a faith is that it does support you on occasions of great joy, and when the going gets tough it's still there. So, in that sense you are never alone."
But in temporal terms, Goldie knows a lot about being alone. Yet she hardly fits the spinster stereotype of someone prissily resentful of lost chances. When time allows she has an active social life with old friends and her bother's family in Hertfordshire, where she enjoys the valuable role of trusted aunt.
"My brother and I were very lucky to grow up with a network
of loving aunts. They weren't all
relatives but they were a sort of institution. They did home-baking. They made tablet, and they were always there. Solid and reliable, the port you went to in the storm."
Those warm and important memories have allowed Goldie to build a genuine rapport with
children, which is obvious when her campaign circuit demands the inevitable school visit.
"If you are living on your own as I do, you have to be very careful not to allow that solitariness to become corrosive. Do I regret that I've never married and had children? Yes, but hey - if it wasn't to
happen, it wasn't to happen."
So, you can bet that no matter the political slings and arrows that may be thrown in her path, Annabel Goldie will always weed out the negatives, to find happiness in what she's doing.
8:12pm Friday 13th April 2007  Print  Email this  CommentPosted by: Michael Smoth, Glasgow on 8:36am Sat 14 Apr 07 ‘It’s a privilege to be able to help people – it keeps me optimistic’ says Annabel Goldie.
Is this the same Annabel Goldie who was a member of the Tories during the 1980s and 1990s when they dumped the poll tax on us?
The same Tories who got rid of the minimum wage (remember security guards working for £1.25 an hour) and then fought against it's re-introduction in 1997?
The same Tories who fought against devolution?
I hope when people go to vote on may 3rd they don't fall for the new-Tory David Cameron and put a cross next to the Scottish Tories.
Need further convincing? The Scottish Tories are now so bad the English Tories want them to go their seperate ways because they're an embarassment.
‘It’s a privilege to be able to help people – it keeps me optimistic’ says Annabel Goldie.
Is this the same Annabel Goldie who was a member of the Tories during the 1980s and 1990s when they dumped the poll tax on us?
The same Tories who got rid of the minimum wage (remember security guards working for £1.25 an hour) and then fought against it's re-introduction in 1997?
The same Tories who fought against devolution?
I hope when people go to vote on may 3rd they don't fall for the new-Tory David Cameron and put a cross next to the Scottish Tories.
Need further convincing? The Scottish Tories are now so bad the English Tories want them to go their seperate ways because they're an embarassment.
Posted by: Mr Lachie Todd, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. on 5:03pm Sat 14 Apr 07 The United Kingdom is now a quasi-federal state in everything but constitutional name! The centralised U.K. is long gone with the wind! The soon to be reconvened Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, in what many forget was the the first such devolved parliament in the United Kingdom, now reaffirms this political arrangement between the Home Nations! However, the indigenous Tory Party has still never accepted the realpolitik of the new status quo, and it is the responsibility of every Left-of-Centre voter to keep this reactionary political party as far away as possible from the levers of political control in Scotland! Otherwise, if the indigenous Conservative Party ever gains control of the Scottish Parliament it will dismantle devolved government and its institutions! IF, the Nationalists fail again at the forthcoming Holyrood Elections, it would indeed be ironic if it was another anti-Scottish Tory administration that finally convinces the Scots to secede from this unitary state? The indigenous Tories are now surplus to the 21st Century requirements of a modern Scotland! Lachie Todd. The United Kingdom is now a quasi-federal state in everything but constitutional name! The centralised U.K. is long gone with the wind! The soon to be reconvened Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, in what many forget was the the first such devolved parliament in the United Kingdom, now reaffirms this political arrangement between the Home Nations! However, the indigenous Tory Party has still never accepted the realpolitik of the new status quo, and it is the responsibility of every Left-of-Centre voter to keep this reactionary political party as far away as possible from the levers of political control in Scotland! Otherwise, if the indigenous Conservative Party ever gains control of the Scottish Parliament it will dismantle devolved government and its institutions! IF, the Nationalists fail again at the forthcoming Holyrood Elections, it would indeed be ironic if it was another anti-Scottish Tory administration that finally convinces the Scots to secede from this unitary state? The indigenous Tories are now surplus to the 21st Century requirements of a modern Scotland! Lachie Todd. | 
