Margo MacDonald has died but the message, the idea, the hope and wish she has pushed from when I first saw her speak in 1975, at the Edinburgh Students' Union, is alive and well as both her legacy and her memorial:
"Scotland will once again be an independent nation state, within my life time."
Margo was thinking about the upcoming 1979 referendum on Scottish autonomy in 1975. that 'Yes' would win and the Scottish Parliament be recalled. This was always seen as a stepping stone to ending the Treaty of Union and full independence but Margo was cheated out of her dream in 1979 by Westminster gerrymandering which allowed the No side on that occasion to count the dead and the non voters in Scotland as, in effect, 'No' votes and so we Scots got nothing except 17 years of Thatcherism we never voted for. So much for Westminster 'jam tomorrow'.
Sadly the young, vibrant Margo of 1975 didn't quite manage to fight off her crippling illness for long enough to see the idea, the wish, the hope she so clearly expressed in that Student Union debate, 39 years ago, to be finally realised.
The national media, so quick to heap praise on politicians in Scotland with as much integrity as was in Margo's little finger. So quick to trumpet the genius of Gordon Brown or Alisdair Darling who with their Westminster chums robbed the UK Tax payers blind - how have they reacted to the news that the woman who embodied the 1998 Campaign along with her own personal heroine, Winnie Ewing? The woman who has been vocal and precise on why now is the right time for a Yes to Independence?
You will struggle to find much in the 'UK' press and media, Brian Wilson's piece is hidden away at the bottom of the Guardian politics page and simply damns her with faint praise. There is a strong sense in his piece that he is choking, not in grief but on his own bile. Brian Wilson, the Scotsman's answer to Alan Cochrane, was the Guardian's best option.
In the mean time Severin Carrell's concerns in the Guardian that Eddie Izzard's pro-Union, Better Together Fund raising gig will be swamped by 'Cybernat' hecklers, gets front page treatment from the Guardian.
You do not need to be much of a philosopher to understand the logic and message coming from the UK Press and media: Scotland - We don't actually give a shit!
Yet again Better Together and their media pals shoot themselves in both feet.
Like SPAM these numpties are a pink reconstituted mass, with a bland taste, compressed into a tin which is impossible to open with out damaging yourself.
"Scotland will once again be an independent nation state, within my life time."
Margo was thinking about the upcoming 1979 referendum on Scottish autonomy in 1975. that 'Yes' would win and the Scottish Parliament be recalled. This was always seen as a stepping stone to ending the Treaty of Union and full independence but Margo was cheated out of her dream in 1979 by Westminster gerrymandering which allowed the No side on that occasion to count the dead and the non voters in Scotland as, in effect, 'No' votes and so we Scots got nothing except 17 years of Thatcherism we never voted for. So much for Westminster 'jam tomorrow'.
Sadly the young, vibrant Margo of 1975 didn't quite manage to fight off her crippling illness for long enough to see the idea, the wish, the hope she so clearly expressed in that Student Union debate, 39 years ago, to be finally realised.
The national media, so quick to heap praise on politicians in Scotland with as much integrity as was in Margo's little finger. So quick to trumpet the genius of Gordon Brown or Alisdair Darling who with their Westminster chums robbed the UK Tax payers blind - how have they reacted to the news that the woman who embodied the 1998 Campaign along with her own personal heroine, Winnie Ewing? The woman who has been vocal and precise on why now is the right time for a Yes to Independence?
You will struggle to find much in the 'UK' press and media, Brian Wilson's piece is hidden away at the bottom of the Guardian politics page and simply damns her with faint praise. There is a strong sense in his piece that he is choking, not in grief but on his own bile. Brian Wilson, the Scotsman's answer to Alan Cochrane, was the Guardian's best option.
In the mean time Severin Carrell's concerns in the Guardian that Eddie Izzard's pro-Union, Better Together Fund raising gig will be swamped by 'Cybernat' hecklers, gets front page treatment from the Guardian.
You do not need to be much of a philosopher to understand the logic and message coming from the UK Press and media: Scotland - We don't actually give a shit!
Yet again Better Together and their media pals shoot themselves in both feet.
Like SPAM these numpties are a pink reconstituted mass, with a bland taste, compressed into a tin which is impossible to open with out damaging yourself.
I can remember standing with a large group of door chappers getting our marching orders from Margo and looking at her with puppy dog eyes and thinking I would walk over red hot coals for this woman, (I cant even remember where Govan, Hamilton0 I just know I was in the presence of greatness, but how great I only found out in 2007 when in a visit to my company Alex Salmond was giving (selected )member's of staff an audience, when after my revelations of my romantic past He said he himself was in same group of people and had (to be fair) a more accurate recollection of that episode than I did!
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