Let the People Decide: The Autobiography of Dennis Canavan

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His oldest son, Mark, died in Australia at the age of 41 in March 2007, after a three-year battle with motor neurone disease. The post-1979 civil war saw an upsurge of cult personality politics around Anthony Wedgwood Benn (or Tony as he had become), an embrace of a Marxist analysis and democratic centralist views on making MPs and the party the servants of activists rather than electors. At the general election that year, Dewar was sent north to fight the Conservative-held seat of Aberdeen South. Harold Wilson won across the UK at that election, Labour returning to power after 13 years in opposition. Dewar cut the Conservative majority in the Granite City to under 4000. An intellectual giant who spoke in a distinct upper class voice, C A R Crosland should have been Dewar’s dream minister. But they did not get on. The Scottish MP found that Crosland “spoke in a sort of intellectual short hand and if you couldn’t keep up then too bad”. Dewar also found Crosland’s lionising working-class MPs who were useless to be annoying.

There was some behind-the-scenes friction with other ministers over some of the clauses in the Bill, but Dewar, with skill and persistence, managed to get what he wanted.

Provost's Award

Indeed, I will leave you with a couple of quotes from those involved in different aspects of the strike, firstly this quote from a police officer from a mining community himself: On the fourth of his famous attempts to become Scottish first minister, Mr Canavan's speech focused on his campaign to have Falkirk Football Club promoted to the Scottish Premier League for winning the First Division title. In terms of next steps, today’s statement marks the beginning of a new phase of activity in relation to the miners’ strike. The next steps in this process will be for me to consider carefully the criteria that might apply to the pardons scheme – so that we have a rationale which is well-thought through and informed by the views of stakeholders. Dennis Canavan's memoir tells of heartache and Holyrood". The Herald. 21 September 2009 . Retrieved 16 January 2017.

Courting praise and controversy in equal measure, the former maths teacher, who stepped down as Falkirk West's charismatic independent MSP before last year's Holyrood election, was also a key figure in several pieces of legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament. I’m really proud of Adam. It was just last year he was a pallbearer at his sister’s funeral when he was only 15.”

Significant Anniversary

Scottish Government suicide prevention efforts will be undermined with doctors and nurses being asked to facilitate the deaths of some patients whilst working to prevent suicide in other cases." It is true he did not do confrontation and he listened to trusted advisers Wendy Alexander and Lord Murray Elder, although the late Sam Galbraith believed that he should have trusted his own judgements more, arguing that some appointments appeared to be pressed upon him.

He could be genuinely bemused by the sexual antics of colleagues or by behaviour he considered odd. Crossing Parliament Square with a journalist friend on the night of a vote to equalise the age of consent, he looked at what he considered a ‘freak show’ of drag acts, men dressed as nuns and assorted Village People wannabees. “How are you voting tonight Donald?”“For 16, of course,” came the definitive reply.

Ana­lys­is by CARE’s James Mildred

Supporters of assisted suicide argue it can give those suffering from terminal conditions a more dignified death. He said: “I was brought up beside miners all my life and had nothing but respect for them for doing a very dirty, dangerous, hard job – that view has not changed of the honest hard working men I met and knew.” Independence supporters are right to be concerned after a recent opinion poll found support for ending the Union had slipped below 50%, a former Yes campaign boss has said. It is reported that in Scotland, 200 miners were dismissed – this is 30% of the total number of UK dismissals, at a time when Scotland’s miners made up only 7% of the total number of UK miners. It is clear that a sense of unfairness remains. There was also some behind-the-scenes wrangling over the use of Glasgow Cathedral for his funeral. This confirmed agnostic would have hated that too. In fact, the whole panoply of grief that accompanied his passing would have been met with an air of barely concealed contempt by the late Donald Campbell Dewar.