Helen Eadie MSP

Dunfermline East first elected 1999 - “My apprenticeship”

I would not even consider comparing my self to Beatrice Webb, who first used this phrase, but the early influences on me did give the feeling of serving an apprenticeship.

My father was a regular soldier in the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. When his army service finished my father worked as a moulder’s labourer in the Carron Iron Works. He became the branch secretary of what is now the GMB. Going to union branch meetings with my father and mother even in my pre-teens seemed quite natural to me. The other big influences in my early life, other than my mother Elizabeth, were my Auntie Mary, who was an elder in the Church of Scotland, and my Auntie Peggie. They gave me a moral compass that has still served me well in and out of politics.

After an eventful two years as a union activist and shop steward I went to work for my trade union as a clerical assistant to Walter Fyfe who had come to work as a union official via the Iona Community and the Gorbals Group. For me Walter was a great teacher and I was lucky to be able to learn from him.

This was an eventful time in my life. I attended an STUC Summer School at St Andrew’s University where I met my future husband at the tender age of seventeen.

It is an immense honour to represent Dunfermline East in the Scottish Parliament and apart from my formative early years I believe that I have been able to draw on my experience as a trade union official, working in the voluntary sector and as a local government councillor. These experiences have contributed to my apprenticeship and because of this I am confident about representing my constituents and I’m clear about the values that the Labour Party stands for and should be served by our elected representatives.