Skip to main content

National Secretary - first thoughts

By zsstevens
We have just had a very successful SNP National Conference. Technology fought us from time to time, in an entirely non-discriminatory way as far as I could see, but we largely fought back pretty effectively.

The big success, and the greatest enjoyment that comes from our conferences has always been gossip. Bumping into people you haven't seen for a year. Questions about matters which one has given no previous consideration to.

The Hopin technology platform that has replaced a physical conference centre this year has, it seems to be me, attracted its greatest plaudits for its Blether function. Randomly pairing people for 5 minutes chat; people you have probably never listened to before. And I certainly heard some comments on matters where I have limited knowledge. Good stuff.

The debates were further away from our traditional structures and decision-making processes. But we did debate, We did vote, We did decide. But for future conferences we need to make sure that our Members, Branches, Associations and Affiliates know how their proposals will be dealt with. That way they can prepare appropriately.

The re-activation of National Assembly as a tool to develop and test our present and future policies started before the pandemic. But is now a critical way in which a wider range of our members can directly contribute, and it can work in the online world. Every member can attend. They can just register and turn up.

Having a range of policy "in the bank" is not an abstract idea. When I became a Minister in 2007 almost my first thought was, "What should I be doing?". I read nearly ten years of Conference and National Council decisions and extracted those that related to my Ministerial portfolio. That ended up as about 60 pages and when I left office my personal "exit review" of my activity suggested I had done all but a couple of things on the list. So policy making must be a key part of what engages us in all parts of the Party.

So after four days as National Secretary what have I been up to?

Top of the list was thinking about the first National Executive Committee meeting post-conference. The first paragraph in the rules for NEC says, "Ordinary meetings of the Committee shall normally be held on the second Saturday of the month and shall terminate at 1pm." That means a meeting on 12th December although one may note the word "normally". The rules also require that the agenda is issued a week in advance. And drawing up the Agenda lies with National Secretary.

But holding meetings, any meeting, is a means to an end, not an end in itself. So immediate decisions at our first meeting include, getting the selection and ranking of regaional list candidates for 2021 completed, checking arrangements for a National Assembly to debate the arrangements for indyref2 as manadated by National Conference.

We also need as a group to act in a - give me another word if you can - "corporate" manner. We should test and debate in our meetings, but when we decide we must know what we have decided and how to ensure delivery of our decisions. And support the decisions, even those we argued against, when we leave the meeting.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Your comments will be read before adding to the blog.

Abuse, illegality or comment at odds with prevailing medical advice will be excluded.

Popular posts from this blog

Masking time

By zsstevens
My spouse has just brought to my attention an interview conducted by Jon Snow on Channel 4 last night. Carefully probing two professors about the flare-up of the coronavirus in Leicester, he let science lead the discussion. That picks up on my writings yesterday about the need for good quality, non-political advice closely available to political decision-makers. Young Jon Snow, he's nearly a year younger than me, is a cool head in a crisis. When I've met him, I have been impressed by his listening skills, his ability to pick the necessary essence of what's been said by his interviewee and test it. What struck me quite quickly was a coincidence of name. One the founders of modern epidemiology was John Snow. He was a physician who conducted a statistical analysis of cholera infection and linked it to a contaminated water supply. Famously the street water pump in Soho was disabled in 1854 and within three days cases dropped off. A further pointer to water being the pro
Post a Comment
Read more

No pigtail after all

By zsstevens
For the first Saturday in a normal recess, it would be routine to report that nothing had happened. But not so. The post-session recovery that generally occupies the first few days has yet to start. And indeed, is required more than usual. Since being elected nineteen years ago, I have had no May and June months with as many Parliamentary Committee meetings. A bit less speaking in the Chamber certainly, but it's Committee work that takes the real effort. In this past week, it has been well over three hundred pages of briefings to read. And to understand. There are those, not merely people who hope for a remunerated retirement to what Jim Hacker of TV series "Yes Minister" referred to as a home for vegetables-otherwise known as the House of Lords, who regret our not having a second house for our Parliament. Worth noting that over two-thirds of the world's legislatures are single Chamber like us. And a large part of those that do, only have one because ex-colonies
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer delight

By zsstevens
A double helping of Expresso flavoured ice cream from the Portsoy ice cream shop. When that was brought to me, it represented a small, but very welcome, few centimetres of a move towards a post-pandemic world. Apparently, the shop had quite a queue, with proper 2-metre distancing maintained, waiting outside. One customer, or family group, was allowed inside at a time. So altogether sounds like a safe way to operate the business. There is an ice cream trail along the Moray coast which, in previous times, was an important part of the local tourism infrastructure. The availability of locally made ice cream was the key to its success. With each shop having its own individual approach to flavours, colours and presentation. The Portsoy Ice Cream shop also had strawberries from Barra Berries at Old Meldrum. I am enthusiastically munching my way through a punnet. All that is the essence of a local shop. Today's ice cream feeds into my mild optimism about the future of locally-b
Post a Comment
Read more