Quines for Independence

gill win

Photo by Ben Kempas

By Gillian Martin @misssym – part of our #newvoices  series for the General Election 2015.

I think it was around 4am on 19th September that I decided to join the SNP. Little did I know I was one of thousands making the same decision. I am the Executive for Women for Independence in Aberdeen City and was leading a team of women whose effort of a year of campaigning was culminating in watching the count as election and counting agents. I needed some fresh air and stood outside with my friend Mark McDonald, a local SNP MSP and we were contemplating the impending disappointing result. I think my words were, “Well that’s it then. I’m a nat. Better sign me up” . There was a URL to the join up page in a text message to my phone by the time I got home a couple of hours later.

I’ve voted SNP my entire adult life but I never felt the need to join the party, unlike my parents who are lifelong members. I had no political aspirations, I didn’t feel the need to nail my colours to any particular mast. Plus I liked to argue with my SNP father on occasion at the dinner table to hear how high pitched he’d go. But I’ve always been “a nat”, and by that word I mean simply, I’ve always thought Scotland should be an independent country, but now that I was a campaigner it was time to make it official. And for me the morning of the end of the yes campaign somehow seemed the perfect time, because in my head it was only the start of my campaigning life.

During the referendum campaign I did things as a member of Women for Independence that a year before I couldn’t have ever imagined doing. This is a story that is mirrored across Scotland for so many of our activists. We were just ordinary folk getting up to speak to halls jammed packed full of members of the public, debating against seasoned MPs, being interviewed by journalists,  chapping on hundreds of strangers doors to talk about independence and having a new-found respect for post office workers as you applied germolene to your scraped knuckles from leafleting a thousand households with aggressive letterboxes. The referendum thrust us all forward to a domain previously only inhabited by elected representatives, in fact it seemed to prefer to put us “ordinary folks” up to speak on behalf of the movement. It really was great, wasn’t it?

What I wasn’t expecting at all was that in the days after the referendum was that people started assuming that I was going to stand as an MP. Genuinely the thought hadn’t entered my head. It was happening a lot and from people that I hugely respect and admire, not least Christian Allard MSP who stood up in parliament and made a declaration that “Gillian Martin is absolutely the right type of person to stand for this parliament or to sit on the green benches”. I wasn’t watching live, as I was teaching at my college but I could see my phone going daft out of the corner of my eye on the desk as people sent me messages telling me what Christian had said. This was starting to get hard to ignore.

The decision to stand has been hugely difficult, though. I work in education and I love it. I teach students how to make television, and when I’m not doing that I make videos for education, the oil industry and anyone that’ll have me. I also write and make art. I have two kids and a pretty chock full family life full of people who are used to seeing a lot of me. These are all things that will be hugely impacted upon by my decision to become that politician. I’ll have to give up many of the things that make up me. But I keep on coming back to this: be the change you want to see.

I have spent a good deal of my time in the campaign arguing that more women should get involved in politics. I’ve got a gang of women in Aberdeen who had never campaigned before. We are quite famous actually, they call us “The Indy Quines” and we are growing in number by the day.  The logical conclusion is that many of those women should now seek to get involved politically and be the change we argued that we wanted to see in an independent Scotland. We don’t have the independence, but let’s not let that stand in the way of us making the changes to the political landscape we want to see. Personally I am tired of seeing a good deal politicians coming from only a few streams of activity. I guess the old Billy Connolly quote applies here. ““The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one.” I’d change that slightly to “If all you ever wanted to be is a politician, you should be banned from being one”. Politics needs people from a wide range of backgrounds. Because if the corridors of power are stuffed only full of lawyers and former student politicians how can we ever claim that the populace is truly represented?

So it became apparent to me that I should cease being a hypocrite and put my money where my mouth is. I want change. I want it badly. I want a situation where my city can be protected by an oil fund so that the whims of OPEC and American energy markets don’t mean people live in fear of losing their jobs. I want public sector workers to feel that they can afford to live in my city where property prices are so high many teachers, doctors and nurses elect to move to more affordable cities. I want the economic powers to reside fully in Scotland so that we can sort out our own specific local problems, because we know best how to do that. And if we have elected MPs who come from different walks of life, we’ll be closer to the true meaning of representation. After all isn’t representation what being an MP is really about?

Comments (15)

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  1. Steve Bowers says:

    Go quine go, inspirational writing, thank you.

  2. bowanarrow says:

    I believe we are going to see a lot of people like you coming to the fore for the greater good of Scotland. It is very heart warming to see…. Thank you…and Good Luck.. 🙂

  3. fermerfaefife says:

    Good Luck – Was at a candidate hustings last night and two of the candidates were like yirself – ordinary punters who came to the fore during indyref …. it was noticeable that they didn’t speak like politicians and they came across with enthusiasm and energy. It was also noticeable that this particular seat was being targeted by “professional” politicians with about 4 of them in the frame. I came away from the meeting with the feeling I wanted to give the ordinary guys a go – for the same reasons as yourself.
    whats the point of this great movement of ours when all the mp candidates end up as the same old faces & party workers that want to make a career out of the job.
    So I would appeal to everybody that has a choice – back a yesser, back an ordinary guy or gal that wants to do it for the betterment of their fellows , not for the job — and then we can really really change the face of politics.
    Good luck to you MisssyM. (and if you don’t get to London – make sure you try for HR2016!)

  4. John Tracey says:

    Would I be misjudging you by saying that you don’t want to be a politician: you want to make things better?
    Too many of todays MPs, MSPs, MEPs want to BE rather than want to MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
    I have spent my working life teaching and have always said, ” It’s my vocation; not my job.”
    Follow your vocation.
    Thank you.

  5. Monty says:

    Good luck. Let’s hope the election brings lots of new faces to Westminster and that a lot of them will be people who have only really become active in politics in the run up to the referendum like yourself. If doctors can’t afford housing in Aberdeen the property market must more over heated than I thought.

  6. Monty says:

    Oh and any chance of getting a potential make candidate from Aberdeen to write a similar articles so we can get a piece Loons for independence

  7. Marion Dow says:

    Wish you all the best and unseat an MP who doesn’t stand up for Scotland.

  8. It’s been great to see how the referendum breathed life into so many grassroots groups – like women for indy – thereby injecting some real idealism and principle into Scottish politics. Contrast that with labour in Scotland with Jim Murphy trying to calculate a set of positions which he thinks will give him an advantage and which he’ll then pretend to believe in for as long as they serve a purpose.

    We can’t go back to that; it’s just too depressing.

  9. bill kirk says:

    Great article, keep up the good work

  10. Dougster says:

    you want to do not become
    Good Luck I hope you make it

  11. David Allan says:

    Yessers can and should be given the opportunity to represent the SNP, many of them had a greater impact in their constituencies than seated Councillors or even SNP Branch Office Bearers. YES Campaigners served their apprenticeships influencing voters they displayed the creative skills required of a new breed of SNP Politicians. These skills and their inspiring enthusiasm and passion can defeat those Labour MP’s who for decades have taken voters for in Scotland .

    If big majorities are to be overcome then SNP members need to consider the adoption of new candidates prepared to fight a new style of election campaign.

    Gillian Martin has demonstrated her desire to win in Aberdeen. Good Luck Gillian .

    ( If not adopted for WE many MSP’s will be challenged by Yessers in 2016)

  12. Alastair Ewen says:

    Good luck MisssyM. I also joined up in September of last year but I live in Canada, so I feel a bit useless other than contributing. Canadian politics (outside of Quebec) is bereft of causes.

    I did, however, give a (paid for) copy of your Blether Map to each of my two quines here in Calgary. If you win I’ll ask them to scribble in “Nae bad ava!”

  13. leginge says:

    Good Luck Missy M. I just wish the SNP top brass would open up a bit to the new membership. There does not appear to be any means of the grassroots communicating with the higher echelons of the party. The words “inclusiveness, interaction, listening to the membership” were tripping off the mouths of Nicola S etc. I haven’t seen any sign of it so far.

  14. Tina Feedgie says:

    It’s something a lot of people think about but so few act upon – it’s quite a sacrifice to make regarding your personal life so hats off to you. Good luck quine.

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