funeral at Glasgow Cathedral a week later, amid scenes of mourning for a politician in the city not seen for generations. Over a year before, on the day our newly devolved Scottish Parliament met for the first time on July 1, 1999, Donald proclaimed it as “the day when democracy was renewed in Scotland”. “This is about more than our politics and our laws.
This is about who we are, how we carry ourselves,” our inaugural first minister added.Scottish Labour giants of that era such as Donald and his contemporaries John Smith and Robin Cook were sadly to spend most of their years on the opposition benches, during the best part of two decades in exile.Yet, at the time of Donald’s death 20 years ago today, Labour had presided over three years in.
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