Pauline Stafford MSP: Europe, indyref and me

The SNP MSP for Bathgate was a pianist before entering politics. Those worlds aren’t so different, she says

"If you’d asked me 10 years ago where I would be, my answer wouldn’t have been ‘in politics’.

"I trained as a musician – I was surrounded by music growing up in West Lothian and was given lots of opportunities to study it at school, and they even let me take a xylophone home for the summer holidays – and I went to Birmingham for uni and stayed for a couple of years. Then I completed a Masters in Utrecht in the Netherlands and worked in Europe as well.

"I was really proud to be a European, and I was frankly furious that that had been removed from my children and me, that we were no longer European citizens. Europe is where our values lie, and I think it’s really important that we get back to working as collaboratively as possible because there’s huge challenges coming that we’re going to need to face together, from climate change to conflict.

"Democracy is not a fixed point. Things change, and I think the way the world is looking right now, people’s views have changed radically since that vote 10 years ago.

"For me, there’s a big crossover between music and politics. It’s something that I really care about and I see a lot of similarities. It’s about taking an idea, an image of the world or what you think the world will look like, and then expressing that and communicating that to other people. Also, I did a lot of chamber music and I worked with singers, so it involves collaborating with other people.

"My upbringing and where I grew up – Bathgate – shaped my route into politics but it was really the time I spent away from there. Coming back, you look at the place you grew up with fresh eyes and so begin to challenge the assumptions, the things that you’ve taken for granted, and you just see different ways of doing things. 

"I found a photograph the other day from when my family first moved back to Scotland. We were outside [the Scottish Parliament] and my eldest child was in his nappy, paddling in the ponds. It was different from other parliaments I’d visited previously – there wasn’t a barrier there. I remember thinking ‘this is my parliament and my little boy can come and paddle in this pool’, and I felt so connected to it.

"We arrived back in 2013 during the independence referendum campaign, and that’s when I formally got involved in politics. It wasn’t until the following year that I joined the party.

"The referendum was a really, really formative experience because I’d seen people that I’d grown up with, people that had been in my life and for the whole time had never been interested in politics and never felt like their voices mattered, suddenly discussing really big issues and feeling that they did have power and that they did have control over decisions that were going to be made about their lives. That was really refreshing for me, and from there I aligned with the SNP’s general politics.

"People weren’t just having that kind of Yes/No debate, it was real issues they were diving into and being interested in. That’s a place I would like us to get back to.

"I had been campaigning away for the party but I didn’t stand until 2022, when I was elected to West Lothian Council. Being a councillor has been great. My experience is that we really need to rethink how we do local government so that it’s not tiers of power but spheres, because councils play a really important role. 

"I’ve been at meetings and been really conscious that I’m the youngest person in the room, and I’m not that young. We also don’t have any minorities on our council, and it’s really important to keep thinking about who is not at the table because then you get better decision making. I think that’s probably the same in parliament.

"Everything happens really quickly in parliament. I’ve tried the macaroni in the canteen, which I was advised to do. It’s nice but I prefer the salad bar. The building is beautiful but it’s not the easiest to navigate. There’s a fabulous member of staff I keep bumping into and she’s like, ‘no, wrong way’. Bathgate’s only half an hour away by train and I’m very aware of how lucky I am to be able to go home on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday evening, whereas other people are not able to do that until the weekend. 

"It’s a very new parliament with lots of new faces. I’m just hoping we can all live up to what the aspirations were when the Scottish Parliament was first reconvened.

Stafford performing | Contributed

"The night before the election count I was exhausted. We’d campaigned in a focused way for over a year. I went home, had a cup of tea with my neighbour and cleaned my house, because it had been a while. 

"We’ve got a really lovely street with lots of young families and children running about, and after the result my neighbours had got some balloons and I had some alcohol-free prosecco because I thought I might fall asleep if I had the real thing. 

"I had quite a lot of support from my dad and brother, and aunt and cousin. I lost my mum last year, so it was quite emotional that she wasn’t there, but we were all together. 

"I had my first sign that I had won when I saw my campaign manager smile for the first time in a long time. That gave me a lot of reassurance. But what I was most pleased about was – regardless of the result – our campaign had been so positive. I would have been proud of that either way.

"We were worried nearer the end because there were different polls coming out, and we were concerned about Reform. 

"The cost of living is taking a terrible toll and I can see why people are attracted by some of the easier arguments that parties like Reform are putting out. There was a concern that they had picked up support in that way, but in the end the margin was very big and they came in third after Labour. 

"What I’m more worried about is not the result, but the kind of rhetoric and the language that they’ve legitimised in our politics. It’s something that I think we all have a duty to work together on."