From pit rows to Parliament
For me the idea that a child being taken to London and having their photograph taken outside the door of No 10 Downing Street as an early indication that they are destined to become Members of Parliament, let alone Prime Minister, has always sounded a bit bizarre.
In my case without me realising it, the seeds of my future political career were sown on much more fertile ground, represented by the miners rows in Kirkford and in particular No 6 Pretoria Place.
Here was a community that cared both for and about each other in a way that I have never again witnessed. To relieve the hardship, share the worries and concerns, offer the helping hand in time of need to your neighbours in ‘the rows’. It was, for me, the example I sought to follow throughout my career.
But it is to my late father Willie, who was Provost of Cowdenbeath from 1952-1955 that I owe my greatest thanks. Very active in the Miners Union as well as the Labour Party, he was one, but only one, of a group of post-war Labour Councillors who, with courage and determination rebuilt Cowdenbeath.
Old houses with their outside toilets, cleared away and replaced with new
housing with space for people to have and to bring up their families. Each and
everyone of the Councillors of that time and many others who were not Councillors
who upheld socialist principles, were the influences for which I am eternally
grateful as they brought me into, and helped me through, my political career.