This is of course very much about the present and the future but nonetheless it is surely appropriate to say a few words about Arnold Kemp, the exceptional Scottish journalist whose name is so fittingly given to these awards. Arnold was a man of many parts but one of his defining qualities – perhaps the defining quality – was the interest he always took in young people without being in any way patronising.
     He helped them, he befriended them, and he treated them as mates, as colleagues, as equals. Many of them became friends for life, and I’m happy to place myself in that category.
     When I reported for my first night shift as a graduate trainee sub-editor on the Scotsman in 1969 – my goodness, almost 40 years ago – I knew little about newspapers (and yes, I know some people think I still know little about newspapers) but I’d seen a lot of American movies and naively I was expecting an exciting noisy adrenalin-pumping action-packed eight hours.
     Instead I found myself surrounded by gloomy and grumpy old men – no women were present – who were wearing filthy soup-stained cardigans and drinking appalling coffee out of battered old flasks. They worked in total silence. And they did their best to ignore me.
     That night the one person who showed interest in me and gave me any kind of welcome was Arnold Kemp, who was at that time the paper’s production editor.
     This was so typical of Arnold. It was largely through his influence, particularly when he became deputy editor, that the Scotsman began to recruit more and more young people, some straight from school, some from university. He took a genuine interest in them all and he continued to do this throughout his career, including his long and distinguished stint as editor of the Herald.
     All over Scotland, all over the UK and indeed all over the world there are journalists who owe a lot to Arnold Kemp, not least because he supported them when they were starting out.
     Of course he helped more than journalists – I can think of him helping young musicians, artists, scientists – even politicians. When Arnold was in the very happy coda period at the end of his career, working in London on the Observer, and I was one of his successors as editor of the Herald, I remember telling him that I was trying to launch the Scottish Politician of the Year awards, to encourage high standards in our new parliament – I’m not sure how successful these particular awards have been – and the very first question Arnold asked was “Are you going to have a young Politician of the Year Award?”
     And before I could reply (Arnold could be quite combative in conversation) he went on: “And if not you should!”
     Arnold Kemp was a special newspaperman and, more importantly, a special human being.
     How happy he’d be if he could be here celebrating with some of our wonderful young Scots at this event where there’s so much to be cheerful and hopeful about.

Collette Paterson on the Young Scotland Programme
[More]

Young
Thinker
of the
Year 2008
[More]


Young Scot
of the Year
[More]




Scottish Academy
of Merit
[More]

Assistant Director appointed
[More]