Why wasn't Graeme Dey featured in our colleges special?

James: When we sat down to plan this series on colleges we had all sorts of things we wanted to focus on, and I think we probably had enough ideas and content for two or three times as many articles as we actually had the time and space for – so I remember that it took some time to figure out the overall story.

Garrett: Absolutely. And so many of the stories in the series could have easily turned into two or three. I barely scratched the surface on how the UHI partnership actually works; my time at Glasgow Kelvin College raised so many great points about all of the pastoral services colleges provide for students and community members; and I know you would happily file content on college data, or Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, for days on end.

James: Yeah that’s true. I think that was why it was so important to get that overall story right just to hold everything together – from funding to disputes to innovation and success stories and, ultimately, the future. You and I said from the start that we really wanted to deliver a series that offered real depth and insight into a sector that gets overlooked – and that’s also why we were so keen to speak to the minister responsible for it!

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Garrett: And we’d been trying for long enough. So in January, I sat down with CES director Gavin Donoghue and EIS-FELA assistant secretary Stuart Brown. I'd written a few news pieces in 2023 about the ongoing pay dispute and results boycott, and it felt right to try to get away from the press releases and see what each side really had to say. In the spirit of the new year, it came out as a mini-series looking back on the disputes and ahead to a solution. Part of that solution involved the government, and so I went to the minister for further education, higher education and veterans affairs Graeme Dey for comment.

James: And in the interests of transparency he was really keen to talk to you about this absolutely crucial sector?

Garrett: He was not. I requested a short interview, then an email Q&A, then a comment in his name, until eventually receiving a ‘government spokesperson’ comment.

James: Which is pretty much exactly what happened again this time. We asked for all the same things, this time while there’s a major special on the sector he is responsible for taking place. We even gave them more notice than would usually be the case.

"And in the interests of transparency he was really keen to talk to you about this absolutely crucial sector?"

Garrett: And we got a ‘government spokesperson comment’.

The thing is, I get it: my first asks came around the holiday period, ministers are busy, and now, more recently, this has not been a quiet couple of weeks for the SNP government. On top of that, Mr Dey's remit is massive and somewhat conflicting given how further and higher education are sometimes battling it out for the same pots of funding. Not to mention the veterans' affairs brief. 

James: Absolutely. But for months and months? And to not even be willing to issue a statement in the minister’s name?

Garrett: Right – and how do you do justice to an in-depth series on Scotland's colleges without having at the very least a comment attributed to the minister who directly oversees the sector? Even more than that, we wanted his voice in the series in the interest of fairness – we both said that over and over.

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James: That was a big part of it for me. Without his voice being there, I figured people would – not unreasonably – ask why we didn’t give him the chance to talk about the sector when we were doing all this work on it. And on the other hand, some people would have accused us of letting him off the hook.

Garrett: It was always going to come up, and we have heard repeatedly over the course of this series and regular coverage of colleges that workers want to hear from him, and they want to hear what he has to say outside of a highly-partisan floor debate in Holyrood. But we also knew that there would be criticism.

James: Yeah that was just inevitable. People had already been telling us about a lack of faith in Graeme Dey and using some pretty cutting language to describe his apparent inaction, and I was going to a picket line for God’s sake! We could both see what was coming.

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Garrett: But instead of rolling up to Holyrood with a camera and a mic––

James: Which we definitely could have done, by the way – just rock up and wait and then put the questions to him as he, presumably, walks away from one or both of us.

Garrett: We absolutely could have, but the series wasn’t about pinning folks to the spot for catchy soundbites. We wanted to do our best to take an even look at the sector from all angles.

James: Hence asking for an interview; and then when they said no, asking for a Q&A; and then when they said no, asking for a comment in his name – and that was all days in advance as well.

Garrett: That’s right. And what have we ended up with? A situation where lecturers told us, on the record, that he is known as “The Invisible Man” and a “non-entity”. And so we had to ask for a response to those accusations.

James: Which was: ‘a Scottish Government spokesperson said…’.