SNP deputy leader, Allan Macartney MEP.
| 'The Scottish Parliament is long overdue and it shows that we are enjoying a new spirit of confidence and optimism here in Scotland. But the new Parliament is only the beginning.' SNP deputy leader, Allan Macartney MEP. | |
His death at the age of 57 also plunged the turbid atmosphere of Scotland's pre-Holyrood politics into greater turmoil. Although the proprieties were being observed yesterday, the thinking was inevitably of what happens next in a by-election in the North East of Scotland seat which will become a dry run for the Holyrood campaign.
Dr Macartney took the once Conservative Euro-seat from Labour in June 1994 with a thunderous 32,000 majority. He went on to achieve a role within his party which transcended internal divisions and, as deputy leader, drafted the current selection procedures.
All parties now have to find their way through selection dilemmas for next June's European poll, forced to leave out talent already committed to Holyrood. The poll will become a barometer of the standings, with the SNP and Labour locked in an increasingly bitter conflict.
A son of the manse born in Ghana, Dr Macartney had a distinguished academic career, culminating in the rectorship of Aberdeen University, and was founder of the Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland at Edinburgh University. He was also an Open University tutor.
In tandem with this, his SNP career grew from his founding of the student wing of the SNP during his student days. He contested a host of elections and his speciality became the mechanisms for achieving self-determination, writing the main SNP document on the subject.
He was unanimously reselected by his Euro-constituency on Sunday and on Monday night attended two sets of meetings in Perth before driving back to Aberdeen. In the morning, he complained to his wife of feeling unwell but by the time medical help arrived he was dead.
Party leader Alex Salmond, who was travelling back from Ireland yesterday, said Dr Macartney would be a great loss to his party and his country: "I valued Allan's friendship, his wise advice, and his gentle humour."
Highlands and Islands MEP Winnie Ewing said: "Allan's loss is a shocking personal blow. He commanded enormous respect in the European Parliament for his commitment, knowledge, and dedication to the cause of Scotland."
Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar called him "a thoroughly decent man who earned respect well beyond the ranks of his own party".
A tribute which summed up the loss came from Ms Moira Craig, of the Campaign for a Scottish Parliament, who said: "This warm-hearted, intelligent, and civilised man's preference for co-operation rather than confrontation epitomised the generous inclusiveness of Scotland's new politics."
Lothians MEP David Martin, a vice-president of the European Parliament, also paid tribute from a Labour perspective: "Allan was an affable man who strove hard for the ideals he believed in. His contribution to the European Parliament will be sadly missed."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace was a political opponent but personal friend for more than 20 years. "He was a man of deep and sincere commitment - to his party and to Scotland," he said in Orkney last night.
Scottish Conservative vice-chairman Alister Jack said: "He was always a very dignified politician and well respected."
Mr Bill Speirs, general secretary designate of the STUC, said: "He was a decent man and a committed internationalist."
The sincere emotion behind the tributes paid to him by senior party figures provides a fitting epitaph for someone who might well be regarded as an unsung hero, and who fought the party's cause at local, national and European level with remarkable commitment.
He was born in Accra, Ghana, in February, 1941, the son of a Church of Scotland minister. He soon returned with his family from Africa to Scotland, and his school education was in Elgin.
He subsequently studied at the universities of Tubingen and Marburg in Germany, and thereafter at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He joined the SNP in 1960 while at Edinburgh, where he became founder president of the student wing of the SNP.
After graduating with an MA (Hons) in Economic Science from Edinburgh in 1962, and before studying for his B Litt at Glasgow two years later, he returned to Africa as a voluntary secondary schoolteacher in Eastern Nigeria.
As a lecturer in Government and Administration, he taught at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland for eight years.
After his return to Scotland in the mid-1970s, he became a staff tutor in Political Science with the Open University in Scotland, based in Edinburgh. He completed his PhD from Edinburgh University in 1978, with a thesis on Local Government and the Politics of Development in Botswana.
Before becoming SNP deputy leader in 1992, he was variously an SNP vice-president, vice-convener for organisation, and convener of political education. He also founded, and was provost of, the Scottish Self-Government College.
He was elected Euro-MP for North East Scotland in June 1994 with a majority of 31,227, having been narrowly defeated in the same seat in 1989. He sat on the fisheries and development committees of the European Parliament.
He had contested numerous Westminster seats - West Renfrewshire (1970), Berwick and East Lothian (1979), Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (1983), Clackmannan (1987) and Kincardine and Deeside (1991 by-election and 1992).
He was convener of the Transition to Independence Committee, which compiled a detailed report prior to the last General Election on the mechanism for achieving independence, and his last public engagement was on Monday night in Perth, where he detailed his proposals for developing links between the Scottish Parliament and Europe.
He was an academic author - co-editor of The Referendum Experience, editor of Islands of Europe, Self-Determination in the Commonwealth, Towards 1992, and Asking the People - the Referendum and Constitutional Change. He was an Honorary Fellow in Politics at Edinburgh University, and founder and former Honorary Secretary of the Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland. He was elected Rector of Aberdeen University in November, 1986.
He is survived by his wife, Anne, his father, three children and four grandchildren.
SNP leader Alex Salmond and fellow MEP Winnie Ewing last night expressed their sorrow at his untimely departure, and pointed out that he had not lived to see the first sitting of the Scottish Parliament, for which he had worked so hard. He will be greatly missed by his party, but his contribution to Scotland's future will not be forgotten.
- Aug 26
It is rare for a politician to command such universal affection and respect. Not even his opponents had an adverse word to say about Allan. I think that this was because he was so clearly sincere, straightforward and honest. His helpfulness and his patience were inexhaustible.
Many of us who have been his colleagues in the party have reason to be grateful to him for exactly these reasons.
Allan had another quality too, which is rare in public life and that was an essential modesty. He was a man of solid intellectual achievement and linguistic ability. His contribution, for example, to a book on the 1979 referendum, of which he was one of the editors, was a masterly piece of political analysis.
This you had to discover for yourself. Self-advertisement was remote from Allan's attitude to life.
Many of our distinguished men and women, like Allan, have been children of the manse. Ian Ross, in his recent biography of Adam Smith, said of the Presbyterian inheritance that it instilled "the values of a frugal style of life, self-discipline of a stoic cast, diligence in one's calling and strict justice towards others tempered with benevolence".
Allan Macartney was an outstanding example of this tradition. He maintained his connections with the Church of Scotland throughout his life and was a church elder and a member of the Church and Nation Committee.
This does not mean that there was anything stern and forbidding about him. On the contrary, the warmth of his personality was the most obvious thing about him.
He seemed always to be in good humour, at peace with the world, with a ready but gentle wit and a keen sense of the ridiculous. He was a natural conciliator, prepared to see the best in everyone.
It is significant that in Allan's case, the manse in question was in Africa, where his father was a Church of Scotland minister in Ghana.
When the family came back to Scotland, Allan went to primary and secondary school in Elgin followed by the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Tubingen and Marburg.
He taught in schools and universities in several African countries and learned their languages. He was an internationalist by conviction and by experience, and an admirable spokesman for the SNP on Europe and external affairs.
Several times, I have had the privilege of meeting delegations from other countries in Allan's company and have been struck by his ability to establish quickly a friendly and understanding relationship.
In the European Parliament, he was a tireless campaigner for Scottish interests and a keen analyst of European politics.
His internationalism, which is a Scottish tradition, was an essential part of his Scottish patriotism. He joined the SNP in 1960 when he was a student at Edinburgh University and from that time gave his time and energy to the party and other Scottish causes.
He filled many offices in the party and fought many elections before his clear victory in the European election in 1994. He became deputy leader of the party in 1992.
It is particularly tragic that his life ends just as Scotland is about to achieve the constitutional advance for which he worked so long and so hard.
He was a man in the mould of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, who firmly resisted the Union in the last Scottish Parliament and who, like Allan, was admired even by his political opponents.
One of his contemporaries said that there could be no higher praise of anyone who deserved well of his country than to say that he was like Fletcher. In the case of Allan Macartney that thought is irresistible.
PAUL HENDERSON SCOTT
(For the last year, Paul Scott has been deputy to Allan Macartney as SNP spokesman on Europe and external affairs)
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