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Mourning the passing of Donald Dewar over 20 years on


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Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP Jamie Stone recalls the day he learned of the former First Minister's death

The late great Donald Dewar is commemorated in this Glasgow statue.
The late great Donald Dewar is commemorated in this Glasgow statue.

When I was first elected as an MSP over 21 years ago, I was issued with a thing called a ‘pager’.

About the size of a matchbox, you clipped it to your belt and from time to time it buzzed and told you that it had an incoming message. It was impossible to reply to the message, but it had its use in terms of keeping me informed. Only a couple of years later the emergence of texting on mobile phones rendered pagers instantly redundant.

That said, I return to the point of my story.

On October 11, 2000, I was in Invergordon Academy telling the senior pupils how the Scottish Parliament worked. Suddenly my pager buzzed.

“Excuse me, I must just take a look at this.” I glanced down – and I was instantly shocked by what I read.

A year-and-a-half before that, on my very first day in the Scottish Parliament, I got in a lift to find Scotland’s first First Minister, Labour’s Donald Dewar, beadily eyeing me up and down.

“Umm, ah, and who have we here?”

Slightly rattled at meeting such a political giant, I hastily confirmed that I was the new MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

“Ah yes, we did have high hopes for that constituency. Nevertheless, I’m sure that we shall work together for the greater good.”

Over the months ahead I came to know and respect Donald Dewar. Although sometimes hesitant, his spoken English was of the highest quality. With an occasional seasoning of Scots words, his verbal contributions in the Scottish Parliament not only displayed high intellectual ability, but also an almost poetic feel for the music of language.

It could be argued that Donald didn’t take as much care of his health as he should have done (he was an awful man for forgetting to wear an overcoat in wintry weather) and accordingly, while it was not a great surprise, it was a cause for concern when he was admitted to hospital in April 2000 for heart treatment.

Through the good offices of his deputy, Jim Wallace MSP, I was told in confidence the hospital ward that he was in – and with that knowledge I crossed the street in Tain and entered Grant’s the newsagent with a view to buying a ‘Get Well’ card.

But when I examined the range of cards for sale, I realised that they were all bawdy and full of 1950s seaside sexual innuendo. In the end, I settled for the least offensive and bought a depiction of a hospital patient in pyjamas offering a nurse a three-legged stool.

The caption to the card read: “No, Mr Jones, that’s not the kind of stool sample I meant!” Inside, I penned the hope that Donald wouldn’t be too shocked by the card.

Jamie Stone.
Jamie Stone.

Some weeks later, when Donald had recovered and was back at work, I received a personal letter from him.

“Your card was indeed deeply unsuitable, however, it cheered me and the medical staff. I wish you well in all your future endeavours – Donald.”

On October 5, 2000, I stood up in Holyrood and asked Donald a question.

“Does the First Minister agree that the ‘adverse consequences of winter pressures’ necessitate the local delivery of certain health services such as the consultant-led maternity service that is based at Wick General Hospital?”

In his reply, Donald said: “I am not going to be tempted – even by the charm of Jamie Stone – to discuss the immediate future of the maternity unit at Wick, although I am sure that it gives great satisfaction to those who use it...”

Back to the beginning. That message in Invergorden on October 11 told me that Donald had died.

It was only a few weeks later that I realised that my question of October 5 was the last Parliamentary Question that he answered in his long and distinguished career.

It is 20 years and a few days since he died.

I mourn his passing still.


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