Lunch with a President

Interview by Athole Murray Fleming

Alastair Dorward

I first met my lunch guest when I served alongside him on the Board of Perthshire Chamber of Commerce. I quickly discovered we held the same passion for contemporary Scottish art, both in viewing and collecting. With a further shared keen interest in wine and good food, I knew that one day I'd want to interview him for Business Perthshire. 

And now, after his recent appointment as the new President of the Chamber, this seemed the right time to invite Alastair Dorward to lunch. I was delighted to meet up with him at the very popular Café Circa which is based within the hugely successful Scottish Antique Centre at Abernyte.

On arrival at the Centre and after a brief "nosey" around, we headed for the recently extended Café Circa. The new layout is most attractive and the atmosphere relaxed. The walls are hung with a fine display of contemporary Scottish painting and the only empty table was the one proprietor Wendy Ebblewhite had reserved for us.

She welcomed us warmly and handed us our Café Circa lunch menu - or rather, two menus; one for a light lunch, and one for a summer lunch with an additional page of salads, snacks and side orders.

Wendy explained there are no "starters" on the summer menus. The chef, George Lewek and Wendy had decided that in summer people tend not to want a long lunch. "So we dropped the 'starters' from the summer menu but will have them on the winter menu," she explained.

We made our choices with some difficulty - torn between the light and summer lunch, but in the end we all chose from the summer menu and Alastair asked for the grilled monkfish with a light spring onion and scallop sauce, asparagus and rosemary new potatoes. I ordered Scottish roast venison steak with a port wine sauce and wild mushrooms, and skirlie. My scribe's choice was a pasta milano - handmade fresh pasta in a tomato, garlic and basil sauce with sweet peppers and Italian sausage, topped with parmesan curls.

I asked for the house red wine and it turned out to be an excellent Montepulciano. The house white is a Pinot Grigio. Also on the wine list were a Chablis and a claret - a limited choice, certainly, but all first class wines, very reasonably priced and all available by the glass.

I started off the business part of lunch by asking Alastair about his background.

I was born and brought up in Broughty Ferry, went to Dundee High School from the age of 5 and from there went on to Queen's College, St Andrews University, where I studied law. In 1966 I began my legal apprenticeship in Arbroath , working afterwards for two and a half years in Edinburgh before returning to Dundee.

Was there a family connection with the legal profession?

None at all. My father was an agricultural grain buyer but I'd had the ambition to study law from a very young age - at least before I was 10. How much of that was influenced by court films, you know the kind of thing usually starring James Robertson Justice - or maybe even Rumpole, I don't know! There was no family influence at all. My older stepbrother went into hotel management and my stepsister became a dietician.

When I came back to Dundee, I took some time out. I went round Europe. This was, I suppose, at a time before gap years were the done thing. In the process I came to the realisation that all I really wanted to do was law. I then joined Miller Hendry and have been a partner in the firm since 1976. I work in the private client department specialising in Trust law, tax planning, succession and charity law. Partners chair the firm in rotation for 5 years - currently I am the immediate Past Chair. I am married to Anne and we have a 23-year-old daughter Stephanie studying for a Master's degree in land economy at Aberdeen University, before, hopefully, becoming a chartered surveyor.

At this point our food arrived - all of it beautifully presented.

Given the almost daily news of new European legislation and the flow of anti-terrorist legislation in this country, I asked if Alastair had seen any disturbing changes affecting Scottish law in particular.

I think the whole concept of human rights and of democratic society are at risk, first of all from the terrorists, but also from the current anti-terrorist methods and proposals. The rule of law and the execution of justice are essential to the continuance of our democratic society - and if we dabble with these we do so at our peril. Already measures are being put in place which are whittling away at our civil liberties. I feel very uncomfortable with this.

But the law, at least in some cases the administering of justice, is seen as weak and lily-livered by the general public. How then can civil rights and human rights be made compatible these days?

There IS a balance. Terrorists have no interest in the rule of law. They don't conform to any of our standards of an understanding of the rule of law. If there is no rule of law what pulls a country together? For the fundamentalists the answer lies in extremes of religious belief. The rest of us don't think like that and the only glue that holds us together as a democratic society is the rule of law. For so long this was a matter that was well understood. We didn't need a written constitution to protect our society. The protection was all there within the laws of the land. I have a fear that if you have a constitution, part of which is written down and part of which is based on traditional understanding, checks and balances, then the capacity for conflict is there.

Changing the subject completely - as the new President of the Chamber do you have any particular thoughts on how you'd like to see Perth develop?

Well, first of all, can I say just how magnificent the new Concert Hall is. It is really splendid. Cutting-edge design. I wish it well, really well.

From a commercial point of view what Perth wants is a comprehensive, quality visitor experience and this includes more good quality retailers with larger floor area premises. I favour meeting that demand. Smaller business needs footfall so need to be in the main hub. Good visitor experience counts for a great deal in commercial success - as does a good sense of civic community. The Farmers' Markets, the Continental Markets, are great and are to be encouraged - as are the quality retail boutiques. More than that, I'd love to see develop what one might call a cafŽ society linked to and in and around the centre. Perth has all the ingredients to make this possible - in fact, it already exists and I hope it goes on growing.