John Gray

Councillor John Gray

I was at a memorial service for John Gray last night. He had been a long-serving councillor in North Kelvin in Glasgow for 42 years and had qualities that made him immune to the criticisms normally levelled at our elected representatives. There were over 100 friends and colleagues at Maryhill Community Central Halls to celebrate John's life of serving his community with modesty, honesty and results.

Amongst his many achievements were proposing the motion to stop the building of the Maryhill Expressway that would have demolished much of the community that he represented. He was instrumental in the creation of Maryhill Community Central Halls in a former methodist church. He always represented the area where he grew up and lived for most of his life, although as an electrician he had worked in Liverpool for a time. 

He championed services and support for ethnic minority communities and the homeless in Glasgow. He was active in running youth groups and youth exchanges and developing opportunities for local young people. He chaired numerous committees as a Councillor and campaigned vigorously on issues like low pay and poverty. He chaired Adoption Committees and is reputed to have placed more children in homes in Glasgow than has been achieved anywhere else in the UK. John had been adopted as a child and it was the son of his stepbrother who organised the evening to reflect on John's life.

I had been asked to give my appreciation of John from the perspective of a council officer. There were five more friends and colleagues who spoke about John's life and others who made spontaneous contributions on the night. Bob Winter had been Director of Social Work in Glasgow and later the Provost of Glasgow, he had known John since they were teenagers; Maria Fyffe, the local MP; Colin Williams, the former Director of Glasgow Council of Voluntary Service, John Rodgerson of the Queen's Cross Housing Association and Helen Crawford, a close friend who had helped care for John in his final years. In many ways, it felt like a farewell rally of the Glasgow Labour Party and fellow travellers from a period when the party dominated Glasgow politics. In the 1970s, '80s and '90s the party regularly gained over 60% of the popular vote and took 70 - 80% of all the seats on the Council. All of the speakers concurred that John had excelled as an elected representative because of his deep roots in the community, his essential humanity, honesty and determination to achieve positive outcomes for his constituents and community. 

My contribution has been copied below.

"Unlike many of you here tonight, I knew John for only a limited period of his life when he was a Councillor for Woodside in Strathclyde Region Council between 1975 and 1996. Although when I read Danny Crawford's excellent obituary in The Herald, I realised that I had first met him during the 1974 general elections. I had not long arrived in Glasgow and became involved with the Glasgow News, a radical news sheet based loosely on the West Highland Free Press. It was written and distribured mainly in the West End with Brian Barr, the producer of BBC's Brass Tacks and Jean Barr, of the Worker's Education Association very active in its production. The Labour Party was a bit too mainstream so I was not a party member.  Nevertheless, I had always helped at elections - canvassing and running committee rooms -  and getting rid of Ted Heath's government was a no brainer. Between 1970 -1974 it had trashed Royal Commissions on Local Government, the Land Commission as well as the economy.  I turned up at Kelvingrove Labour Party offices to lend my support for Neil Carmichael who was an effective MP, whom I knew from my work on the West Central Scotland Plan.

A well organised, no-nonsense agent after checking that I understood the manifesto and main policy areas wasted no time in dispatching me to canvas and leaflet for the Neil Carmichael. The agent was, of course, John Gray and over the next few weeks, he had me stomping up and down the stairs of tenements from White Street to Willowbank Street in Woodlands. It was February and the cold, dark evenings were not amenable to electioneering. This was repeated later in the year in October when Harold Wilson called the second election of the year to achieve a working majority.

A year later John was one of the 103 Councillors elected to Strathclyde Region Council, the largest local authority in the UK with over 100,000 employees. It was dominated by Labour and became increasingly so in the next four elections as Thatcherite policies denuded Scotland of Tories. The Tartan Tories, as the SNP were referred to in those days following their decision to vote with the Tories in a no-confidence motion on the Callaghan government in 1979, never took off in Strathclyde, they were a party largely focused in the northeast of Scotland.

I worked with John closely for sixteen years, mainly on the Social Strategy and Community Development. John was one of over 400 councillors from all political parties in 5 local authorities that I have worked with during my career. John was a bit different, a bit special. In the main, most councillors were committed to their wards, hard-working and respective of officers but there were always the bad guys as well. They were in it for personal gain, power and naked ambition.

Councillors have common traits and idiosyncrasies and can be grouped according to some of these characteristics. There were:

Hard-bitten trade union leaders who stamped their authority and could give you a hard time. They were a clubbable bunch and they kept clear unless they wanted something done when they could become very paly or very nasty.

Women who were active in the voluntary sector and their communities. They batted for their organisations and constituents. They were challenging but usually politely so.

Battle-hardened workers who had worked in shipbuilding, the railways, the mines or manufacturing. They had often been the victims of bad management. They wanted a fairer society and could be ruthless in the pursuit of this.

Business people who thought that their well-honed business skills could be applied to make Councils more efficient. Their rhetoric usually over-hyped their competence. They were surprised at the vast range and extent of public services, it was beyond their ken. The competent ones realised the need for extra services for those with special needs or for deprived communities. Others wanted simple solutions like contracting out.

Academics, who had the time, oratory and self-importance but sometimes lacked the day-to-day common touch and pragmatism. 

But worst of all there were the young politicos, anxious to make a career of politics and regarding the Council as an apprenticeship for greater rewards in the future. They have grown in numbers, and malevolence, in recent years.

And then there was John. There was no artifice about him. He had values that were instinctive, well-founded, timeless and embedded. We would call them social justice today but they were about basic humanity, fairness, understanding and resolution. 

He was in many ways the glue that held together the disparate bunch of outstanding politicians who led Strathclyde and made the Social Strategy its fundamental principle. We had the oratory of Geoff Shaw, a church of Scotland minister, the strong and stable leadership of Dick Stewart, the class politics of Albert Long, chair of Social Work, the academic philosophising for social justice of Ronald Young and the communitarianism of Tony Worthington. They were all big beasts displaying commitment and drive but also quasi-religious self-belief that sometimes hindered progress.

John was more diffident but gained kudos and trust from all these leaders for his pragmatism and integrity. He knew that the Social Strategy was not just about geographic communities, although he was instrumental in the redevelopment of Maryhill and the work of the Housing Association. He actively helped local youth groups, homelessness organisations, adoption committees, and children in care. He was a totally committed champion and advocate for ethnic minority groups, many of whom lived in his ward. 

He was respected and liked by fellow councillors from all political parties. He was a taciturn but commanding figure when chairing meetings. No grandstanding, no-nonsense and he gave time to all his fellow councillors. He was liked and respected by officers from all departments as well as the voluntary bodies he served on for his principles, consistency and easy demeanour. He was reliable, always turned up on time and always read his papers. He was there to help people from all backgrounds and he was more interested in resolving issues than debating them willy-nilly. He represented all his constituents with an unstinting dedication. It was only fitting that his majority increased from 699 with 49% of the vote when first elected in 1974 to 3000 with 58% of the vote by the end of the 1980s. A politician who grows in popularity over time is as rare as a hen’s teeth.

John was also a man ahead of his time when it comes to lifestyle, ethics and sustainability. Every day was a dress down day for John. He lived in the area he represented and was primarily concerned about helping his electorate with their problems irrespective of their age, sex, creed, ethnicity, sexuality or political persuasion. He walked to the Council buildings every day, then he walked to the Arlington or the Woodside Inn to meet friends, and to Firhill to watch Partick Thistle. He even marched his fellow councillors to evaluate community projects in Glasgow much to the chagrin of many of these councillors who preferred to travel by the council's cars. He had a carbon footprint that most modern politicians would lie for. Like so many things about John he didn't do it for effect, it was just common sense.

We now live in an era when the standing of our politicians is at an all-time low ebb. They take expensive trips abroad, favour friends and lovers, claim for personal services, equip their houses, fill their wardrobes, use social media to slag off opponents, cheat and lie with impunity. It is easy to go along with this generalisation. But then you think about John, he was a tribune for fairness. He was rooted in his community and true to his values that were instinctive.

I loved the story from Danny’s obituary about John meeting Clem Attlee, the PM who made life so much better for most of us here this evening. John was a great fan of Clem and as a young man, he was nominated by the Labour Party to sit next to him at a meal in the Central Hotel when Clem visited Glasgow. When Clem leant over to say something to John, he was expecting some gems of wisdom. “They do a great fish tea here!” said Clem. A masterful opener in the art of conversation that John would remember as much more relevant and honest than much of the waffle that he witnessed in the council chamber. Clem Attlee had the same values as John. They both stand as the very best examples of delivering a type of socialism that has made a huge difference in people's lives

Last year I lent my copy of John Bew’s excellent biography of Clem Attlee to a friend who had grown up in these parts and is here this evening. When he finished the book, his wife told me he had been in tears “Why do we not have politicians like this today?” I think most of us here this evening probably feel exactly the same when we remember John. His honesty and modesty were a given but they concealed a politician who operated at full voltage and delivered truth to power.