 | 'People who knew Donald far better than I have already pointed out that he would have regarded the "Father of The Nation" description with some disdain and perhaps a wry observation that a nation with 1000 years or so of continuous history is unlikely to have such recent parentage.' Alex Salmond in the Sunday Herald 15 th October 2000. |  |
"Father of the Nation" was how The Scotsman chose to emblazon its front page. The editor is fortunate newspapers are such transient things and few will remember how that paper has treated the Scots parliament in general and Donald in particular over the past 18 months.
People who knew Donald far better than I have already pointed out that he would have regarded the "Father of The Nation" description with some disdain and perhaps a wry observation that a nation with 1000 years or so of continuous history is unlikely to have such recent parentage.
For Donald Dewar was an exceptionally well-read man and his interests extended well beyond what passes these days for political theory into a deep appreciation and understanding of Scottish history and culture.
I took issue with a number of his views. His concept of Scotland seemed to follow a patrician, almost Whig-like, debunking of the romantic, celtic strands of Scottishness. For example, his dismissive opinion of tartan wouldn't fit easily with young Scots who cheerily use tartan as much as an identity statement as a fashion accessory.
However, without question, Donald was a Scottish patriot and I think it was this desire to do the right thing by Scotland which persuaded him to embrace the joint campaign with the SNP in the referendum of August 1997. Donald was a Labour man to his fingertips and at times an unforgiving one. He was also a crafty politician but at vital moments he was able to rise above the craft of politics.
A number of his close friends and certainly Downing Street were against this decision, believing it would concede too much ground to the independent position, but I found that in those crucial days of midsummer 1997, once he determined on a united campaign, he stuck to the path he had chosen.
He was aware that the decision created party difficulties for us just as it created internal problems for him. We worked out a position we could adhere to throughout the campaign, one based on principle as well as convenience. We both agreed that what brought the devolutionist and independence positions into a joint campaign was our overriding belief in the right of the Scottish nation to determine our own constitutional future.
That position held firm through the campaign and the resounding endorsement it helped deliver saw off the token parliamentary resistance from the Tory "last ditchers" in the Palace of Westminster and potentially much more potent blocking and tackling from Donald's own cabinet colleagues.
I like to think also that it was this "spirit of '97" that Donald was reflecting when he made what was undoubtedly the finest speech of his life at the official opening of parliament: "This is about more than our politics and our laws. This is about who we are, how we carry ourselves. There is a new voice in the land, the voice of a democratic parliament. A voice to shape Scotland as surely as the echoes from our past."
Such a sentiment does not make him the "Father of the Nation" but the "Father of the Parliament" - no mean epitaph for any politician.
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