Politician and executive. An appreciation

Born: May 10, 1958;

Died: March 12, 2017

PAUL Martin, who has died aged 58, was the youngest ever Conservative leader on Edinburgh Council at 24 and was earmarked for Westminster and potentially high national office, before his political career was stymied by salacious revelations about his personal life.

I first met Paul when we were 12 and in the same class at the Royal High School. He was not only “openly gay”, but decidedly camp as well, which did not always play well with the more boorish elements in the school, though he seemed to revel in the nickname Mary and later admitted that he played up his campness.

This was the early 1970s and attitudes to homosexuality were somewhat different from attitudes today. Many concealed their sexuality and homophobia was widely accepted. As late as 1997, when Paul’s career went off-course, The Herald ran a piece suggesting that he “flaunted” his gay lifestyle, mentioning as evidence his nomination of Alexander the Great as his favourite historical leader and Gary Glitter’s I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am!) as one of his favourite songs.

Of course there was a lot more to his lifestyle than that. An urbane and often charming character, he enjoyed life to the full. He was a bon viveur and enthusiastic gossip. As the clergyman at his funeral said, Paul was no saint, but he was one of life’s more entertaining sinners.

He was born Paul Charles Martin in Edinburgh in 1958. Despite his politics and his dapper appearance, Paul grew up in a council house in the Craigentinny area of Edinburgh. At the end of his primary schooling he was put forward for a place at the Royal High School.

Until recently the Royal High had been fee-paying and selective, even though it was by this time a local authority school. The council decided to scrap fees and instead choose the most academically able boys from every school in the city.

The successful candidates were then sub-divided further on the basis of test results and Paul was placed in the A1 form. The atmosphere was one of intense academic and sporting competition. Paul was no sportsman, but he was not alone in his preference for literature, art and opera, and one shudders to think how he might have fared in a state school in a rougher part of town.

He and I founded the film club (with Gordon Lamb), but this being the Royal High we called it a cinematic society. We somehow managed to show a string of X films, including Blow-Up, If…. and Night of the Living Dead, barring only first-year pupils, either to protect them from such depravity, or because we could sell out the screenings without them.

He studied politics at Edinburgh University, was recruited to General Accident’s graduate management scheme and was elected to Edinburgh District Council at 21, becoming its youngest councillor. Within three years he was leader of a group, which until recently had been in power.

In the 1983 general election he stood against the former Labour Government minister Gavin Strang. This election gave Mrs Thatcher the most decisive victory since 1945 and the Conservatives had high hopes of taking Edinburgh East, but an unexpectedly high Liberal vote probably helped Strang retain the seat.

Initially Paul represented Craigentinny on the council. Latterly he served as Dean’s councillor. The interesting thing here is that his successor as Craigentinny councillor was his own father Charles Martin.

For the 1992 general election Paul was given the chance to fight the highly marginal Edinburgh Central and lost to the future Chancellor Alistair Darling by just 2,126 votes. Beyond politics, he worked as general secretary of the British Youth Council Scotland and was assistant Scottish director of CBI.

He left the council in 1992 and took a post with the Ministry of Defence, working on policy on Europe and Nato. But he found his private life splashed across the press in 1994 when it was reported that he was involved with a student who at the same time was having a relationship with a Government whip.

This was hardly the Profumo affair, but the student was 20, the legal age of consent for gays at the time was 21, though it was on the point of being lowered to 18. He left the MOD and worked for Ofwat and Thames Water. In 1997 there were further newspaper revelations about a clandestine relationship with Sir Michael Hirst, the Scottish Conservative Party chairman, a married man with three children.

There is no doubt that some of the reporting was homophobic, but what is perhaps even more striking now is the way in which political opponents rushed to exploit the situation with talk of a “gay mafia” in the Scottish Conservatives.

Rightly or wrongly, Paul would never attain the high political office which once seemed likely. He worked as Director General of the Timber Trade Federation, CEO with Alupro. the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation, and Director General of the Railway Forum.

Latterly he lived in Warwickshire with his partner Daniel and their cocker spaniel Maestro, the last in a series of canine companions. Last year he was one of the main organisers in the Midlands for the Vote Leave campaign, having previously been pro-Europe. He liked fine wine, good food and vivacious company and he enjoyed reading political biographies. His parents and sister predeceased him.

BRIAN PENDREIGH