Foreword:
The following interviews form part 4 of a series of interviews conducted during the General Election. The author interviewed four current UoA students and alumni who stood for election for four UK political parties. In this Mustafa speaks to William Linegar, a Scottish Greens candidate and a student at the University of Aberdeen. These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
Can you tell us a little about yourself, William?
I am William Linegar, I am 28, and a candidate for the Scottish Greens Party from
Aberdeenshire and Kincardine. I am in my second year of a Zoology degree at the
University of Aberdeen. I’m originally Australian, but my family lived in Brussels for quite a
while and that’s probably where I’ve spent most of my life so far. And then we moved to
England in 2017, and we’ve been in Scotland for almost three years now. And I have to
say, so far, I’ve really loved being in Scotland.
Did you apply any of the skills learned during your degree in zoology to your work
in politics?
I don’ t know if I necessarily needed experience at the university to do work in politics
because I’ve done political stuff before. I was involved in the Green Party when we lived in
England as well, I was doing a lot of stuff there. It had a lot of similar values to the Scottish Greens Party despite being very different. So, joining the Scottish Greens up here in Aberdeen was kind of like a resumption of my previous activities rather than starting
something entirely new, so I felt comfortable going into it. I didn’t really feel like I needed to learn anything new or have any new skills to transition into politics in Scotland.
Why the Scottish Greens Party? What were the key values of the Scottish Greens
Party that aligned with yours?
I am deeply concerned about the environment and what’ s happening now, and what’ s
predicted to happen into the future. We’re already seeing temperatures and weather events
which 10 years ago were forecasted to happen closer to the middle of the century, so things are changing and they’ re changing quite quickly. And it’ s frustrating to me that we don’t seem to be doing enough about that, and of course as you know, various climate and nature crises become more and more obvious; other political parties are finally starting to
get on the bandwagon and finally starting to increase their own promises about the
environment. I’m still interested in staying with the Greens because they’re the only major
UK political party which is left of centre, and that’s very much where I find myself naturally
sitting on the political spectrum.
What has your experience been with campaigning?
It was pretty good, actually. So, where I am in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, it wasn’t a target area for us. So, it didn’t have a lot of resources for us to campaign. And we didn’t have a huge schedule of campaigning activities. Our focus was more on the city, because we are the Green Party for Aberdeen City and Shire. That’s one branch of the party together.
So, we prioritized in the city. And indeed, we got a higher vote in the city. So that was worth doing. So, my campaign was a bit more relaxed. I went to Portlethen, and I was knocking on doors there. And I was hearing about what some people think we should focus on, mostly around social support for people who need it.
What skills does a young politician like you have to employ to ensure equal
representation?
You need to be able to present yourself well you need to be able to articulate clearly and
you need to be able to communicate what you’re thinking quite well and quite easily to
other people. You need to be able to answer questions you need to not be afraid of people knowing who you are and knowing what you look like and listening to you and judging what you’re saying or standing by!
What is the most significant problem that Scotland’s facing?
I’m not happy with the democratic deficit that we have here in Scotland, by which I mean, yes, we do have Holyrood, we do have a Scottish government and a Scottish parliament for dealing with devolved laws. The problem is it’s a little bit fragile; all it would take to get
rid of the Scottish government is a simple majority vote in the House of Commons that just
says, ‘ There is no Scottish government,’ done, finished, gone. So, I think if you’ re going
to have a Scottish government for Scotland then it needs to have some slightly more
concrete abilities; it needs to be on a slightly firmer foundation and it needs to have more
teeth. One of the main things the Greens talk about, of course, is independence: we would
prefer for Scotland to be independent, entirely; failing that, stronger devolution with some
more legally concrete foundations and some more powers.
What are the basic responsibilities of the government? Which provisions are
necessary for every citizen?
I think that what a government basically is in theory is a treasurer for the citizens of the
country, basically because obviously governments make laws, and they enforce things. But
what it all comes back to is money, and how you choose to allocate money, because
anything that the government wants to do costs money. But if you ask me, I think the
absolute priority should be fulfilling the basic needs of comfortable human existence, which
is food, water, shelter. And in the 21st century, energy and communication. Those things
are essential for what we consider to be a modern and comfortable standard of living. And
there is no reason that we can’ t do that. There is so much money and knowledge and
technology just swirling around the planet. We can solve just about every human life
problem that currently exists. If we’ re not solving that, that is a choice. That is because
certain people are deciding that we don’ t need to and the money can stay where it is and
it doesn’t need to go where it’s needed.
What do you perceive good leadership as and what has shaped this perception?
I think good leadership fundamentally is having the correct balance between your own
conviction and between being able to compromise and take on board what other people
say because you need both of those things. If you don’ t have any conviction yourself, then
you don’ t have the mentality of a leader. If you’ re not interested in leading. You don’ t put
yourself forward to be a leader in the first place, which I think is a very important thing. If
you want to be in politics, that means coming up against people who disagree with you and
who have got into politics for different reasons, and a good leader should not only know
how to hold their own against other entities but also to learn to co-exist with them.
What is the long-term plan for this Greens candidate?
I have been doing this for a few years now – seven, I guess. But if I retain the confidence
of the local party then I would like to try again. I would like to be a candidate again in the
future because I want to give people the option of voting Green if they wish to. This is not
a particularly Green area of Scotland but more than a thousand people voted for me in the
general election and those people might not have had the option of a voice at all if I wasn’t
there. They may have just stayed at home and been excluded entirely from the democratic
process. I gave them a reason to include themselves in that process and as of now I want
to keep doing that!
