Richard Lochhead: It's good to leave when they want you to stay

Why are you stepping down? Someone once told me that it’s good to leave when they want you to stay. But more seriously, I think I have done a fair shift in public service and hopefully I’m still young enough to contribute in other ways. It’s also important that those of us who have been here a long time, in my case since 1999, make way for new blood. It doesn’t apply to everyone, we need a blend of experience and new people with fresh ideas, but if we all went on until we were physically unable to go any further then there would be a lack of churn, so I think it’s good to have new blood coming into the parliament.

You’ve been in Holyrood since the beginning, how have you seen the job evolve? The job of an MSP has changed massively because in the first couple of [SNP] administrations there was a lot more space to be creative and to focus on exciting initiatives. But since Brexit and the pandemic, they have been really tough years and a lot of the government’s time has been soaked up by coping with the impact of outside factors on our economy and our society.  

How would you like to see the role of MSPs change in the future? I hope that the next generation of politicians will find ways to raise their eyes and look into the future to see the fundamental game-changing innovations that are coming down the road towards us fast will have all kinds of implications for how we raise taxes, what the working week looks like, and in so many other ways. There will be implications for every single part of our civilisation and I’d like to see more opportunity for our politicians and our government to be better prepared for that. 

What would make parliament a more productive force for Scotland? There are a couple of areas that I do think about. One is that politicians need to find better ways of deploying the expertise we have in this country who could perhaps do a bit more to help us solve our problems. Something else that floats around in my mind is the world’s getting faster and we can’t afford for Scotland to fall behind. We’re not going to achieve Chinese speed because we’re a democracy, but we don’t want Scottish speed to be too slow. We can’t have a situation where the world’s getting faster and faster in terms of science, technology and the changes in our society and we get left behind.

Where do you feel like you did your best work as an MSP? When you’ve been in government for 17 years, including nine years in the cabinet and serving under all four SNP first ministers, I can say I’m proud of a lot of the policy areas where I think I’ve achieved significant breakthroughs. For example, I’m very proud I helped kick off the first national food and drink policy which, according to all the feedback I get, was very successful and made a big difference. And just now in my current role, I’m hopefully making a difference in elevating technology and AI onto the government and Scotland’s agenda. I hope to leave that as a legacy as well. 

Where do you think you could have done better? It doesn’t take long in government to realise that sometimes the world doesn’t move as fast as you’d like and that no matter how much power you’ve got, you’re often up against vested interests and bureaucracy or things that are out of your control. I remember when I was minister for further and higher education, I had some ideas in my head that I began to float with the sector about how our universities could work closer together. Then the pandemic happened and it was all hands on deck for a couple of years, dealing with the fallout of that and protecting the future of our institutions and students, so I didn’t quite pursue some of the ideas that I had in mind. 

Meeting Poppy the sea lion at Blair Drummond Safari Park in 2013 | Alamy

What do you wish you knew in ‘99 that you know now? When I was a young 29-year-old first elected to parliament, like many of my counterparts I was keen to make my mark and it’s only now, when you look back over the decades, that you find that being able to put things into perspective is quite a talent. Some of the issues you perhaps thought were the most important back then you now see opposition members in particular pursuing, and you think to yourself, ‘you know, this is a bit petty’. With all the serious issues out there, getting up in the morning and thinking about how you can score political points against your opponents is perhaps not the best priority for the country’s future.

What’s some advice you would give to the next generation of MSPs? My first bit of advice would be to be your true self and be authentic. I’ve always strived to just be my true self, no matter who I’m speaking to or what I’m doing. This is not just a stage where you act, you should be here through conviction and principles. But most importantly, show vision, be bold, be courageous and just go for it.

What will you miss most about being an MSP? I was speaking at a community reception I held a couple of weeks ago and I was saying at the end, as I was summing things up, that this would be my last opportunity to speak in front of many of the people in the room. As I was doing that, I got quite tearful because I do still pinch myself that I represent the Moray constituency. I remember my predecessor, Margaret Ewing, and I would think of how lucky she was to represent such a magnificent seat in terms of its heritage, its culture, its people, its villages, its coasts and so on. And now I’m sitting here, just about to celebrate my 20th anniversary representing that constituency, and I just think how lucky I am with my constituency, my local party, who I’ve had a great relationship with over the years, but also my constituents. They elected me in 2006, 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2021, five times in a row. Hopefully I was doing something right.

What’s next? I’m not retiring. I want to stay busy and active and I feel I’ve got a lot to contribute, whether that’s in the private sector or in any other capacity. There are so many issues I’m passionate about and I think that the next few years are very crucial  for Scotland’s future and particularly the economy. Maybe there’s some role I can play in that, I don’t know yet, but I do want to keep myself busy and stimulated.