I'm amused to read that Alistair Carmichael is striking fear in the heart of the pro-independence faction, who have been told he is 'combative', 'a bruiser' who as Lib Dem Chief Whip 'dragooned' his troops in Westminster. Yesterday's cartoon in the Herald made me laugh and today's letter page is a joy. The only things I've read about Alistair this week with a ring of truth are his BBC profile (I'm guessing he wrote it himself) and his comment that the most important person in their house is Kate, his wife, who is the local vet.
This is Alistair, aged 16, with his Higher French and German classes in Islay High School. That's me and the German teacher plus the French Assistant of the time in the middle row.
You'll notice something about this photo: during his formative years, Alistair had to compete with some of the feistiest, brightest and most combative women in the country: Betti Angus is a published writer; Catriona MacMillan is a teacher in an international school in Guadeloupe; Annie Cusick Wood is a theatre director currently living in Hawaii; Sheila Loach is an FE lecturer in Glasgow. And yes, they were competitive.
He also grew up with two equally bright and feisty big sisters and a Govan mammy.
Alistair honed his survival skills here.
He also went to a secondary school that had just been upgraded. One of many good things the old Strathclyde Region did for Argyll & Bute. Before, clever young people were sent away to finish their education in Dunoon, Oban or Campbeltown. Now they stayed in their community. The staff of the school increased, with a bigger (can I say better?) mix of teachers, technicians and support staff. The staff had no preconceived ideas about what these young people could do because they simply didn't know, so they set the bar high.
I know I'm going to trot out a cliche here but it strikes me as self-evident that people are the product of their surroundings. Young people in Islay in the 70s and 80s lived in a quite surprising environment: yes, teenage American culture had reached them and they were into the music and the clothes everybody else liked, but the traditional West Highland, Argyll, island culture - call it what you like - was strong. Kids tended to spend more time in adult company than young people in Glasgow. They had no option. They were more at ease among adults and used to what we now call 'the banter'. They were also almost universally charming. Part of the upbringing, you see: you were expected to be hospitable, polite to strangers and newcomers.
They also had a level of freedom that I can only wonder at. I once took visitors to Portnahaven on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon. We met a pupil of mine. I'll call her Colina - that may even have been her name - fishing off the pier. A few minutes later we met her again, soaked through. She'd fallen into the sea. We met her several times more that afternoon, always wearing different clothes. Once, because she'd fallen in a cow pat. Another time because her brother had shoved her into a burn. She and her friends struck me as being the luckiest kids on earth. By the time my visitors and I left the village, Colina and her friends were off to help load cows onto a transporter. Then they planned to go and groom her cousin's horses.
So if people want to work out what Alistair is going to be like as Secretary of State for Scotland, pick the bones out of this lot.
And maybe I should end by saying he was also a pretty good actor when he was at school.
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