By Tristan Stewart-Robertson

If Bill Kidd MSP and his fellow parliamentarians around the globe win a Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning against nuclear weapons, he will be able to trace it back to a school lesson when he was eight.

The SNP member for Glasgow Anniesland was amongst those nominated for the recognition as part of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), a co-chairman for the group that counts more than 800 elected members around the world.

But the 59-year-old’s sense of right and wrong goes back to Blairdardie Primary when a teacher started talking about nuclear weapons.

“It’s quite heavy for children at eight years old,” admits Mr Kidd. “She said they were something we might have heard of in the news and we have them close to where we live, and what did we think about it? 

“That stuck with me.

“I have always been against nuclear weapons. It’s grown stronger than weaker. They are nothing that makes us proud or secure.

“There were other children at the time against them, though some thought it was exciting or the right thing to do.”

One of three brothers, Mr Kidd says he was political quite early in life, but that the dinner table conversations weren’t necessarily described along lines of politics. 

His dad worked at the former Barr & Stroud factory in Anniesland, near where his son’s constituency office now is. The large, extended family stretched to Temple, Knightswood, Partick, but Mr Kidd has always been rooted in Anniesland.

“We used to talk about how much we hated the Tories,” he says. “But there was not the great degree of policy discussions. I remember the factory was out on strike in a pay dispute and the leader of the union, Hugh Scanlon, came up to address the thousands standing outside and he said the union was not going to back them on their strike because it was a Labour government and they didn’t want to challenge them. 

“He had to leave quite quickly, apparently. That stuck with me.

“It taught me you will have to take things locally sometimes into your own hands.”

His dad was one of many laid off as the company evolved and was sold and the factory later shut, leaving a big hole in the area. Again, Mr Kidd took life lessons from this.

“Basically, it’s about standing together with people in your area or with people who have fallen on hard times. It’s about solidarity with people who are in difficult situations,” he says. “A lot of internationalism.”

Now running for re-election to the Scottish Parliament in May, Mr Kidd’s political foundation is firm. He worked in the civil service, sold timber, worked in pubs and shops, insulated lofts and then spent many years in hospital administration.

“My grandmother on my mother’s side was a member of the Independent Labour Party and my dad’s uncle was an MP, so we were always in favour of home rule,” he explains. 

“I always voted SNP, though I didn’t join until I was into my 20s. I didn’t know what I was working for.

“I stood for election in 1987 and it was 20 years of standing before I won in 2007. I had a long apprenticeship.”

Now the chief whip in parliament, Mr Kidd says that while the recognition of a Nobel Prize nomination is welcome, the long goal is simply to rid the world of the weapons.

“Disarmament is what it’s all about,” he says. “You don’t do it for prizes. 

“But I do believe the nomination is something which has helped to bring the whole discussion further into the public domain. 

“I don’t expect us to win, but even the nomination will benefit the PNND. 

“There are people who will disagree with you, but the important factor is you believe in what you’re doing and I can see more people coming around to our view point: these are a danger to the world.”