Great Scott! Farmer MSP looks back on his long career

Scotland’s longest serving Conservative MSP of 21 years narrowly missed out on re-election this May by 170 votes, but was actively campaigning on behalf of farmers long before he entered into Holyrood.

He helped to steer the industry through the devastation of BSE by setting up one of the first farmers’ markets in Scotland, as well as leading protests to Westminster over dairy and beef prices.

Sitting down with The SF at his family farm in Girvan, he shared highlights of his time in both farming and politics and spoke candidly about what the future holds for the agricultural industry.

“I’m a civil engineer by degree, a farmer by profession, a politician by serendipity and a fixer by nature,” said John, who was in his third year at Edinburgh University studying civil engineering in 1972, when he received a call to come back to work on the family farm, after his Dad suffered a heart attack.

Following his recovery, John remained at Balkissock, helping manage their 1500-acre hill farm, where he continued to farm until he ventured into politics in 2000, becoming the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Ayr Constituency, for the Scottish Conservative party.

“I’ve been very lucky to have two complete careers in my lifetime so far,” continued John, who said that it had been an honour to serve his constituency for 21 years and he would miss it greatly.

In the years prior to becoming an MSP, John served as the convenor of NFUS’s Hill Farming Committee and recalled annual October trips to meet with DEFRA at Westminster to negotiate the annual Hill Farming Review, as well as travelling with NFUS groups from Ayrshire and Scotland to London to protest over beef and dairy prices in the late 1990’s.

“I recall John Duncan taking a group of us to London, which included David Purdie, Willie Rowney, Willie Campbell, and many others actively farming in Ayrshire, and we got on a plane and took our bagpipes down to Whitehall to make our case to MPs. We went to London on various occasions but particularly after BSE, when the industry was on its knees.

"I remember sitting in the NFUS board room at Ingliston on March 20, 1996, when the BSE crisis broke. Everyone just felt like they had been kicked in the guts. There was no plan B, it looked like desolation, for the beef industry then, and indeed it was. It took years to rebuild confidence in our product, but we did it, in a variety of different ways and one of the ways we did it was through Farmers’ Markets.”

John was one of the pioneers of Farmers’ Markets, setting up Scotland’s second market in Ayr, in July 1999. The first was set up by recently elected MSP and farmer Jim Fairlie, in April 1999. Thereafter John set up markets in Kilmarnock, Irvine and Paisley, adding that he couldn’t have done it without the help of his late wife Charity, who sadly passed away the following year.

“The reaction from the public was remarkable,” continued John. “We sometimes sold out of produce due to high demand. People in a crisis like to buy local, as we have seen again with Covid and having a familiar face, rosy cheeks and hacks in your hands, as most farmers have, was enough to reassure many local people in Ayrshire.

"We too were locals, and our customers knew they could come to our doors if they weren’t happy, which assured them. What we did was re-establish the link between town and country which had been broken by BSE.

“What was also vital was that farmers brought their product to a market stall for little cost, tested the market and discovered they could sell it, which gave them the confidence to open up farm shops and butchers. I sold my lamb for 13 years alongside Walter Young, Castlemains, who sold beef, and who then went on to open three butcher shops and Jimmy Crawford who set up the well-known Dowhill Farm Shop at Turnberry.”

John then founded the Scottish Association of Farmers Markets with the help of Douglas Watson and James Graham from SAOS and chaired it until 2005, all while embarking on his new career in Holyrood.

John Scott's Balkissock Farm boasts stunning views of Ailsa Craig and Arran

Reflecting back on his time as an MSP, he recalled 2007 when there were only 15 Conservatives at Holyrood and his former leader David McLetchie appointed him to the Rural Affairs and Fisheries remit.

“I was told I would be in charge of rural, fishing and environmental matters,” said John. “In fact, David said, ‘everything outwith the cities – if it is not human but it breathes, it is your remit’,” John laughed. “This wasn’t a request, it was an order, and I went on to hold that brief for four years”

He shared his most memorable career highlight which was when he led the two-year campaign to stop Ayr Hospital’s A and E Unit being closed down between 2005 and 2007, and which has literally been a lifeline for the people of Southern Ayrshire since.

“It was a very real personal achievement to help keep the Ayr A and E Unit open and having had previous experience organising protests, on one occasion we filled Ayr High Street with over 5000 locals protesting against the proposed closure of the unit. In the years that followed, it was very humbling during election campaigns when you would knock on someone’s door, and they would say how my actions had saved the life of a loved one. These were the moments that made the job worthwhile.”

Addressing the ever-changing political climate for farming, John shared his concerns about how current policy is moving: “I worry about the future of our industry. We are almost forgetting that the most important value of land to this country is still for food production.

“It is no exaggeration to say this country was virtually starved out of existence and was almost unable to feed itself, or fight to defend ourselves, during the second world war, as food supplies from the Commonwealth and America were decimated by U-Boats. As a result, all post war agricultural support both outwith and within the EU was directed to improving self-sufficiency in food production until 1983 when milk and beef mountains emerged and food production stopped being a priority.

"However we have currently lost sight of the importance of food production in Scotland and the UK, and Brexit and Covid combined, have again exposed the fragility of our food supply chains, so dependant now on product produced and processed in the EU."

Looking back and considering the effect on the environment of increased food production last century, John commented: “Without doubt there were wildlife and biodiversity losses caused by this post war dash for increased food production, which I could see even then needed to be repaired.

"So in 1993, with the help and support of Col. Sir Bryce Knox, I set up and Chaired the Ayrshire Farming and Wildlife Advisory group, to increase awareness of environmental issues within our rural communities. These FWAG groups were set up all over the country and the people involved then, have continued to integrate environmental enhancement and sustainability into their farming practices since."

Commenting on his parliamentary colleagues' understanding of rural issues, John said: “I don’t believe the majority of MPs and MSPs at our parliaments have any real understanding of the complexities of crop and animal husbandry techniques, or of the management of our landscapes in a sustainable way and the part farmers, crofters and land managers have played in that. We lose that rural skillset at our peril,” he warned.

“We need people in landscapes and we need all of these areas populated. This is one of the things that bring tourists in their hundreds of thousands to Scotland. Managed landscapes are the product of tens of generations of farming and crofting families throughout Scotland and what I want to see maintained for future generations of tourists, environmentalists, farmers and crofters.

“However those providing food, environmental enhancement and restoring biodiversity, need services and an income sufficient to keep them in these often remote landscapes and to encourage young people to live and work there in future."

Looking ahead to the increasing pressures on farmers to change their practices to meet net zero targets he called for a more integrated approach between farmers, crofters and academic institutions.

“If land managers are to be expected to enhance the environment, deliver on government-set net zero targets and produce food, then they must be encouraged and shown how best to do so. While there is a huge repository of knowledge in our academic institutions such as the Moredun, the James Hutton, SRUC and our Universities, about how to deliver carbon reducing farming techniques, the knowledge transfer systems are not yet sufficient to meet this educational need and farmers who are so busy on a day-to-day basis making ends meet, must now be helped to be made aware of these new techniques, in the same way as previous generations were made aware of better food producing techniques when that was the priority.

"There is a need for a constant renewal of knowledge. What worked 20 or 40 years ago most probably doesn’t work today, as in every other industry. Pace of change has never been faster and people’s ability to keep up has to meet that pace of change, if we as an industry are to be competitive in future."

Touching on Brexit and the UK Government’s global trade agenda, he said that Brexit was now done politically and that farmers now have to live with it and equip themselves to face this new set of challenges.

“The ability to turn a challenge into an opportunity is what sets the best apart from the rest and always has done in this industry,” John continued. “There are opportunities on almost every farm if people can just see them and have the capital, or support from government to explore them.”

John recently received the news that he is clear from cancer, having undergone six months of intensive chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer back in September 2019 following surgery. Losing his seat this May was devastating, but he is grateful to have come through his treatment and is determined to embrace new opportunities, and hopes to continue to contribute to the industry as a new vision of farming unfolds.

“For the first time in 50 years I’m not working to someone else’s agenda” said John, “maybe even 60 years if we count my years in primary school and having to check the mole traps and feed the calves every morning before I went to school. Over that time I have discovered I sometimes have an ability to pull people together and have always enjoyed working collaboratively with different groups, but particularly with farmers.”

He added that he won’t be going back to physically working on the farm, although mentally he has never stopped, with the day-to-day running now in the capable hands of William Stevenson, Auchenflower.

“I will miss my life as an MSP hugely,” he continued. “I gave it 21 years and I would have no hesitation in saying that I have helped more than 20,000 people and families in that time in both urban and rural settings. So, it is a matter of regret that I will not be able to keep up all of those personal contacts and friendships I have made. But it really has been the honour and privilege of my life to have been able to help so many people in both my farming and political careers,” he concluded.