Douglas Ross Talks Westminster, Football, and 'Adversarial Politics'

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00:00I have enjoyed adversarial politics. From my time back in Moray Council, I've always liked getting

00:06into a good argument and either winning or not, but having that argument is something I enjoy.

00:16I'm Douglas Ross, one of the MSPs for the Highlands and Islands,

00:19and I'm here to answer 10 of your questions.

00:20Sean A asks, are you frustrated that you haven't been appointed to the House of Lords while Baroness

00:31Davidson has?

00:32Absolutely not. Whatever happened with the election last year, and this was before I knew that I hadn't

00:36won the seat, I said I wanted to continue to be a representative politician to hopefully be elected

00:43by a community, and that means either in the Scottish Parliament or the House of Commons.

00:47Thomas asks, do you believe that Westminster has been a disaster for the entire UK?

00:53No, I don't. And I can imagine where that question has come from. And look, I totally understand we

00:58have a population here in Scotland that is still very divided over whether we should remain part

01:04of the United Kingdom or go alone. But the people of Moray and Scotland voted in 2014,

01:10quite comprehensively, to remain part of the United Kingdom. Indeed, we are filming this in Moray

01:16College. I was here when the Moray Growth Deal was signed at Moray College by a UK Government

01:20Minister and a Scottish Government Minister. That was £65 million of investment for our area

01:26because the government's decided to align themselves to the priorities of Moray Council

01:31and stakeholders here in Moray. David asks, can you name one thing you've

01:36done in either parliament that has directly benefited your constituents?

01:40I campaigned just, for example, on the Moray Growth Deal. The quantum, the amount of money that was going

01:48to be put into the Moray Growth Deal, in my view, was not high enough. And I campaigned very hard,

01:53both openly in the Chamber of the House of Commons and behind the scenes, which meant when we finally

02:00got the announcement, the Moray Growth Deal was the highest per head of population anywhere in the country.

02:06Laura asks, you've criticised the SNP for NHS failings, but what have you done to improve

02:13healthcare in Moray? Where I've been critical of the SNP Government is because health is fully

02:19devolved. We can't get away from that. We've got a situation where just a few weeks ago the Scottish

02:25Government had to provide a £67 million loan to NHS Grampian because in the past there hasn't been

02:32enough money going into this area. Moray is kind of forgotten about and doesn't get the attention

02:38it deserves. So I'll continue to highlight where I think there are failings. Sheila asks, you've made

02:42it clear you want back into Westminster. Is that because you feel your work in Holyrood is done

02:48or because the Commons feels like unfinished business? First of all, the areas that are reserved to the UK

02:54Parliament are areas that I'm really interested in. That's defence. Given that we have two parliaments,

03:00I don't think it should be completely unusual for certain politicians with varying interests to

03:08have more focus on one parliament than the other. But I also thought it was right, coming to the end

03:14of this session in the Scottish Parliament, to be honest with people, to say that I would like to

03:18seek the nomination and hopefully be elected as MP. Sheena asks, why did you need four jobs – MP,

03:25MSP, football referee and farmer? I gave up farming when I was elected back in 2007. I will accept for

03:32full honesty that I have four chickens and two pygmy goats, so maybe that's what's been counted as a

03:37farmer. It doesn't take up too much of my time. I stood for election to the Scottish Parliament while

03:42I was still an MP and was elected and indeed that dual mandate between MP and MSP is something that I

03:49think every single party has had members doing in the past. I was also a football referee because

03:54it's something that I've done for a very long time. I thoroughly enjoy. It's quite beneficial for

04:01politicians to have outside interests that constituents can ask about and can interact

04:06with before you get into the cut and thrust of politics. Chris asks, what are you most proud of in

04:11your career? I hope the thing I'm most proud of hasn't happened yet and that is taking a bill through

04:16parliament which is called the Right to Recovery Bill. It will basically provide a legal safeguard

04:22for anyone suffering with drug or alcohol addiction a right to get the treatment that is correct for

04:28them. In terms of proudest achievements, it was being elected as the Constituency MP for Moray. I was

04:34born here, my dad was a farm labourer, my mum was a school cook and to be elected for the area that

04:42I was born in, they brought me up in, I was educated in, it was something I was very proud. You come from a

04:46working class background, why do you think you formed such an allegiance to the Conservative Party?

04:52Because I think the Conservatives at their heart want everyone to achieve and to thrive and prosper.

04:59I felt most aligned to the Conservatives saying that, you know, we want to have taxes as low as

05:04possible to get people as much of their own money into their own pockets. Cliff asks, during the last

05:09general election was forever a point when you felt optimistic?

05:14So it was, look I'm not going to beat around the bush, it was a very strange election, I hadn't planned

05:20to be a candidate. When we look at the results, here in Scotland we held five of our six seats,

05:28so against a backdrop of an extremely difficult and disappointing night on a UK level, actually here

05:35in Scotland we held on to five of our seats. Morig asks, looking back on the last few years,

05:40if there were three things you would change or do differently, what would they be?

05:44There are political decisions that I have got wrong in my leadership role locally that I could probably

05:50fill another whole segment, but I think that's also healthy to be reflective and accept you've made

05:57errors. I have enjoyed adversarial politics. From my time back in Moray Council I've always liked getting

06:04into a good argument and either winning or not, but having that argument is something I enjoy.

06:09I did too much of the adversarial politics and not enough of, you know, just accepting and

06:16understanding there are two sides to every argument that you can actually get things done. Sometimes

06:20by going in quite strongly on issues, but other times taking a more conciliatory approach can get you

06:26equally good results.

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