In an exclusive interview with The Courier, Fife Provost Jim Leishman tells Michael Alexander about how he’s settling into his new role.
Coughing and spluttering as he fights the onset of a cold, Jim Leishman has a secret to share with the special needs children seated before him at Starley Hall residential school near Burntisland.
When he wakes up each morning, he stretches out and checks there’s not the wood of a coffin around him. ”When you get to my age, you can’t be too careful!” he says, much to the hilarity of the pupils and staff.
Not many people can make jokes about death and get away with it Jim manages to do it with a wry smile. But the miner’s son who became a football legend has a serious point to make to the youngsters, many of whom have behavioural difficulties.
”Every day is a new day,” he says. ”When you put your light on in the morning, that’s positive. You put the light off, that’s negative. Be the best you can be. Let all the so-called ‘tough guys’ go their own way.
”You all have abilities but it means nothing to you kids if your attitude is wrong. Attitude is your biggest strength, your biggest secret. Say to yourself: ‘I’m in charge of my life’ and make something of yourself.”
When Leishman was elected provost of Fife on May 17, he promised to give ”105%” and on this, one of the many diary appearances he has made across the Kingdom so far, he is certainly showing his natural ability to connect with people from all walks of life.
A man of the people, he’s a great ambassador the friendly face of Fife Council at a time when difficult decisions lie ahead about spending and service provision in the face of a £70 million budget black hole.
In particular, though, it’s his pledge that everyone in Fife deserves a chance to reach their potential that motivates him and he especially wants to see young people from all backgrounds given the opportunity to succeed.
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”I think everybody deserves an opportunity,” Jim tells The Courier as he continues his tour of the school, even managing an impromptu game of football with some of the kids. ”Sometimes, through no fault of their own, young people end up in a situation. The message I want to put across to these young people today is that no matter what shape, size or background, they deserve an opportunity to become the best they can be.”
Jim is deeply proud of the roots that helped form his character and his values. Born in Gardiner Street, Lochgelly, and from a close-knit mining background, it was football that gave him opportunities as a boy. He didn’t get his first football boots until he was 12 years old but was still determined to go and play football in his sand shoes before that.
”We didn’t have a lot,” he recalls of his upbringing. ”We got fed, we got clothes our parents did the best they could do. My dad was a miner, my mum was a factory worker, but when an opportunity came along to play football, I went and played.
”If there was an opportunity to be a paper boy at 13 years old, I took it. I went to the potatoes the tattie harvest it was a chance to earn something so that I could go and buy what I wanted.”
Jim admits he didn’t stick in as much at the academic side of school but he was motivated by a number of Cowdenbeath High School teachers and names like Fred Cummings, Mr Hutchison, Mr Clark and Mrs Craig stick in his mind.
But despite the Dunfermline Athletic director of football being no stranger to the spotlight and overcoming the steepest of learning curves when he became the youngest manager of the club at the age of 29 in the early 1980s, Jim still struggles to comprehend that he is now the provost of Fife.
”It’s been brilliant so far,” he says. ”I didn’t know what to expect, it was that quick. I was elected on the Friday and I was the provost on the following Thursday. My folks would have been so proud, as would my late wife Mary… I didn’t realise how big an honour it would be to be provost.
”Yes, it’s hectic, but it’s about time management. It’s a juggling act between being a councillor, being provost and my work with Dunfermline Athletic. But if there’s been a downside to being provost over the first four or five months, it’s that I haven’t spent as much time on the local ward stuff.
”I apologise for that but it’s just because it’s been so hectic as provost. I want to start getting into the local area and finding out what people want because that’s what I promised.”