Alex Fergusson MSP, former Presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament attended a North Ayrshire annual lunch in Fairlie last Friday to support local candidate Jamie Greene in his campaign for Cunninghame North.
Alex met with over 30 local party members and activists at the Village Inn and shared a number of anecdotes from his time at Holyrood. Despite being a Conservative MSP the role of presiding officer is a neutral and non-partisan one so Alex officiated in a number of high profile visits to the Parliament from foreign dignitaries and political leaders.
Whilst keeping a certain level of discretion as to the nature of some of the encounters Alex recounted his regular audiences with the Queen and earnestly told the attendees of how we would feel “his knees knocking” as he waited to enter the room with her Majesty, but she “had a way of making you feel comfortable straight away”. Other leaders to cross his path included Dr Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness who came to office in Holyrood shortly after the setup of the North Irish Assembly and in the very early days of their new found relationship of working together.
Jamie Greene, local candidate also said a few words to those present and talked of his great admiration of Mr Fergusson’s wealth of experiences as Presiding Officer, Jamie said “I guess I am at the start of my political career so I have all of this to look forward to and I hope in 30 years’ time I too will be attending this lunch with a few stories of my own to tell!”.
Richard Wilkinson, local party chairman added “We were delighted to have Alex come to Fairlie and meet some of our local campaigners and share his fascinating take on being at the helm of our Parliament, his role is similar to that of the Speaker in the House of Commons and we all learned a great deal about the machinations of how Bills are passed and committees are formed. It is clear that Holyrood needs an effective means of holding the government to account.”
On a political note, Alex and Jamie both told local members that it was crucial that people in Scotland know that Scottish Conservative and Unionist party is just that. Scottish, Conservative and Unionist and that they will fight tooth and nail to keep the UK together and offer a strong opposition to the SNP in Holyrood.
Alex is standing down as an MSP next May