 | 'As Canon Kenyon Wright so honestly told the nation, the Convention is seeking a devolution settlement as a means of saving the union.' Jim Sillars, in the Scotsman July 1st 1989. |  |
| 'As Canon Kenyon Wright so honestly told the nation, the Convention is seeking a devolution settlement as a means of saving the union.' Jim Sillars, in the Scotsman July 1st 1989. | |
A prominent campaigner for devolution was yesterday revealed as the Liberal Democrats' prospective candidate for the Banff and Buchan Scottish parliamentary by-election.
Canon Kenyon Wright will be seeking the seat vacated through former Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond's decision to seek re-election at Westminster rather than Holyrood.
Mr Salmond has held the seat at Westminster since 1987 and won the seat in the Scottish Parliament with a majority of more than 11,000.
Canon Wright, 68, was executive chairman of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, which campaigned for a Scottish Parliament until the "yes/yes" vote of the 1997 referendum. He pledged allegiance to a political party only last year when he joined the Liberal Democrats.
Now retired, Canon Wright worked in the poorest areas of Calcutta for 15 years and was a member of the consultative steering group at the Scottish Parliament in the year leading up to its establishment.
In 1999, he was made a CBE for services to devolution and constitutional reform. He said yesterday that, although he had campaigned extensively for a Scottish Parliament, he was still waiting to see it become the finished article.
"The reason I am standing now is that, although I think this Parliament has been a substantial improvement on what we had before, I don't yet think it's good enough," he said. "The people of Banff and Buchan really do have a unique opportunity to send a half-term message to the Parliament at what is a critical moment."
Canon Wright has no direct links with Banff and Buchan but said he had visited the area on many occasions and was on a steep learning curve regarding constituency issues.
"I separate things into what I would call the needs of the area and the needs of Scotland as a whole," he said. "I am saying to the people in Banff and Buchan that I believe I can be an effective voice for their needs and for Scotland as a whole.
"The needs for Banff and Buchan are fairly obvious. Fishing is in some crisis, while farming is facing an opportunity as well as a problem - to rethink farming in our country.
"There are also the closures which will take place at the RAF station and the cutbacks at Peterhead Prison, meaning we need economic regeneration in urban as well as rural areas.
"I don't have total understanding of these issues, nor would I claim to, and I certainly don't have easy answers - I don't think anybody does. But I do have the negotiating skills to bring people together to find answers that, as far as possible, meet the needs of everybody."
Canon Wright said Holyrood still had too much of the "yah-boo" politics which characterised Westminster and from which he wanted to move away. The Scottish Parliament is not yet the fully open, accountable body we hoped for and there are many, many things which can be done to use the next two years to make it a much more different body.
"Sometimes, but not always, the Scottish Parliament almost looks like a mini-Westminster. People are still shouting at each other, still scoring party political points, whereas the Liberal Democrats - and this is one of the reasons I joined them - have played a much more constructive role."
The SNP's Holyrood candidate for Banff and Buchan, Stewart Stevenson, dismissed Canon Wright as a newcomer to North-east politics and claimed he would face a backlash from voters because of the current Liberal Democrat administration of Aberdeenshire Council.
Mr Stevenson said the Lib Dems' 1999 Holyrood candidate, Maitland Mackie, had shown excellent judgment in not contesting the forthcoming by-election.
"The record of Liberal Democrats in Aberdeenshire on school buses, cemetery grass-cutting and closure of toilets has irrevocably damaged his party's prospects for the next election.
"I wonder if (Canon Wright's) recent conversion to the Lib Dem cause has left him still equipped with his rose-tinted glasses."
The Lib Dems also announced yesterday that Douglas Herbison would be the party's Banff and Buchan candidate for the general election. Mr Herbison is managing director of Europe Analytica, an independent business advice firm.
-May 5 th
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