It has been said many times over the past few days that Jim Wallace was a kind man. It speaks volumes that almost everyone you might ask has an example of this kindness. Here is my own. It is a doubly useful anecdote because it is quite embarrassing for me, and very complimentary to Jim.

Just a day or two into the Shetland by-election of 2019, when I was but a stripling in the world of political campaigning, I was assigned to go door knocking with Jim and another gentleman whose name, face and history I have entirely forgotten. Despite being a newbie to the world of canvassing I was the only one of us with the know-how (and perhaps the necessary smartphone) to run the canvass sheet on Connect and work out where to go.

We headed out from Lerwick south towards Levenwick area, on a gorgeous, blustery August day, and began marching up and down hilly roadsides to knock doors. After some time and some progress I noticed that the next nearest place on our list had a whole host of names on the electoral register, and we duly headed in that direction. On reaching the address we discovered that this hub of voters was, in fact, a nursing home. After a brief discussion, Jim and I went in.

Let me reiterate now that I was a novice in the world of canvassing, and had not a clue about what the appropriate approach would be in this situation.

The appropriate approach, as you might now guess, is not to canvass that location. This is partly because it is seen as being an intrusion on the days of elderly people who have a right to a quiet life and a lack of bothersome campaigners, but mostly because in the eyes of seasoned and cynical campaign managers, it is a complete waste of time. If someone is in their 90s and in a nursing home, and they are going to vote at all, they have probably already made their mind up already – and possibly some decades prior – on which party will receive their ballot.

Nevertheless, Jim went along with this foolish, naive proposal on my part, and we spent an hour or more chatting with the lovely folks in the nursing home in Levenwick. I have no idea why Jim agreed to this idea, and I have no idea why the staff did for that matter, but the people we spoke to were absolutely delighted to see us – or, being more accurate, delighted to see Jim.

Many of them knew Jim, had met him before and certainly had voted for him before, and were not going to miss their chance for a moment of good chat in his presence with a cup of tea. So that is what we did, for as long as we could.

Whatever thoughts were going through Jim’s mind that afternoon, whether he was having a truly wonderful day chatting with the residents in Levenwick or thinking daggers through my neck for making canvassing mistake #1, he was nothing other than the picture of contentment. To look at him, there was no place better to be in that moment than with the folks in the home, hearing their stories and being a friendly, familiar face.

To my mind that is a true definition of kindness. Not Jim’s (perhaps) tolerance of my poor judgement in canvassing organisation on that day, but his wholehearted willingness to spend the time just chatting with people, for no grand strategy or hard-nosed get-out-the-vote effort – simply because it was a kind thing to do.
Some years have passed, and I have (I hope) become a slightly savvier canvasser. I know a little more about the dos and don’ts of a good door-knocking session – who to bother and who to leave alone. Even so, when I think back to that August day in Levenwick, I can’t help but think that sometimes, like Jim, you should be willing to throw out the “correct” approach to doing politics – and instead just spend a day being kind.

* William Deans is Chief of Staff to Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland. He grew up in Tankerness in Orkney, as a neighbour to Jim Wallace.