 | 'She was an able parliamentarian and a doughty advocate for the constituents whose interests she represented robustly and eloquently.' Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie MSP, 21 st March 2006. |  |
| 'She was an able parliamentarian and a doughty advocate for the constituents whose interests she represented robustly and eloquently.' Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie MSP, 21 st March 2006. | |
THERE is a shoulder-hunchingly harsh wind that blasts its way along the seafront in Lossiemouth at this time of year. It has all the ferocity of a gust that has been snowballing since its departure from Cullen - 20 miles away, but clearly in view across Spey Bay - along the north-east coast.
If it doesn't have you cowering into your collar, then you can usually rely on a tornado or Sea King helicopter from the local RAF base blasting overhead to do the trick. One would imagine, however, that the beautiful town of Lossie tried the best it could to hush and huddle from its daily symphony upon the senses yesterday, as it paid its last respects to Margaret Ewing, Moray's long-serving MP and MSP, who died on Tuesday.
Maggie Ewing - I always thought that sharing a surname with the then in-vogue residents of Southfork, Dallas, merely added to the already incredibly glamorous image of our MP as I grew up, a perception she fortified by sporting some fantastic shoulder-padded jackets throughout the Eighties - was a local politician for local people.
That might initially sound trite, but it is not meant to be. It is a fact worth stating in an age when the soundbite reigns supreme, to the detriment of substance, and those tricksy little matters of local concerns and local policy detail are far too often overlooked as our Members of Parliament vie for exposure on a larger platform, a larger screen.
While Ewing was brought up by her farm worker father and mother in Biggar, she gave her heart and soul to the people and industries of Moray.
Ewing was not necessarily a politician reluctant to move with the media-conscious agenda that emerged during her time in politics.
The truth was more that the agenda didn't fit with her sincere and earnest style, so why should she change in order to fit it?
This wasn't naivety, idealism, or arrogance at play, rather a recognition of where her strengths lay. She notoriously lost the SNP leadership contest in 1990 to a more abrasive, more media-hungry (some would choose to say savvy) Alex Salmond.
It was clear that few thought Margaret Ewing had adequate aggression to battle and be heard within the media on the SNP's behalf. In a typically measured response, she chose simply to note that "Alex has fans - I have friends."
That leadership defeat was despite the fact that Ewing helped drive the SNP into the British political establishment: firstly by winning the East Dunbartonshire seat in 1974 by a margin of just 22 votes over the Tories, and going on to represent a more liberal side of the Nationalists, when they found themselves 11-strong at Westminster that same year as a result of the 'Scotland's Oil' campaign.
Ewing's career lasted 32 years, and she served the Moray constituency as MP, then MSP, for 19 of those. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, she underwent a successful mastectomy and returned to work six months later.
Late last year she decided, however, that she would not stand in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections. She planned to devote her time after standing down to tackling the issue of poverty at home and overseas. If it is not too cruel an observation, I thought it comfortingly fitting that she is understood to have slipped away in the early hours of Tuesday, on her couch, surrounded by constituency letters.
In noting such an important member of Scotland's political landscape, one can't help but contemplate whether Margaret Ewing's death speaks more broadly about the passing of a certain style of politician - one that is content to sacrifice the view from higher ground, for the sake of doing an honest job and doing it well from the cheap seats.
Moray's economy is heavily reliant on the farming, fishing and whisky industries, and it feeds ravenously off the income that two RAF bases provide through offshoot employment, housing and leisure expenditure. With the decline in all three of the producing sectors, and both the airforce bases having come under threat of closure, despite being significant players in the Gulf War, and more recently Iraq, Ewing had her work cut out to be all things to all people.
Yet she was. In her time, and with her tenacity, she proved it was possible to represent her constituents without removing herself from them. A figure such as Ewing bridged the passing age of rolled-up sleeves socialism and direct, local accountability into that which we find ourselves now - a merry-go-round of sleaze and spin in which all the horses whizzing past seem to look the same and it can all get more than a little dizzying. Ewing was a politician able to work across party divides, yet still retain a strong and individual identity as an SNP politician. Jack McConnell spoke a lot of sense last week when he said: "She was tireless for the cause she supported, witty when faced with bombast or pretension, but without rancour or malice".
Perhaps Orwell puts the perils of political ambition overtaking political truth best in his cutting reflection: "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
Maggie Ewing spoke truthfully and humbly. Some would argue that this led to a loss in profile, but ask anyone who lives in Moray what they thought of Ewing's 'profile' and you will hear resounding praise. She was their MSP and she worked hard for them. All politicians run surgeries and represent their constituents, of course, but the passing of Ewing has struck a chord with many up north as the passing of something far greater than can be conveyed in words.
SNP spokesman on energy, fishing, environment and rural affairs, Richard Lochead had, until last Tuesday, been lined up as the selected list MSP to contest Ewing's seat next year, and his portfolio appeared to stand him in good stead. Now there will be a by-election.
If any successor seeks to do the position justice, they need look no further than their surroundings. Moray is a rural area of Scotland that is battling to keep its honest traditions not only alive, but thriving.
A farmer's daughter from Biggar understood those aspirations and devoted her life to them. In the end she put the interests of her constituents before ambition for personal or professional glory. If her legacy were that alone, it would be one worthy of her.
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