Margo MacDonald

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Margo MacDonald

| honorific-suffix =

| image = MargoMacDonaldMSP20111121.jpg

| imagesize = 220px

| caption = MacDonald in 2011

| office = Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Lothian
{{nobold|Lothians (1999–2011)}}
{{nobold|(1 of 7 Regional MSPs)}}

| term_start = 6 May 1999

| term_end = 4 April 2014

| predecessor =

| successor =

| office1 = Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party

| leader1 = William Wolfe

| term_start1 = 1974

| term_end1 = 1979

| predecessor1 = Gordon Wilson

| successor1 = Douglas Henderson

| office2 = Member of Parliament
for Glasgow Govan

| parliament2 =

| majority2 =

| term_start2 = 8 November 1973

| term_end2 = 8 February 1974

| predecessor2 = John Rankin

| successor2 = Harry Selby

| birthname = Margo Symington Aitken

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1943|4|19}}

| birth_place = Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2014|4|4|1943|4|19}}

| death_place = Edinburgh, Scotland

| party = Independent (2003–2014)
Scottish National Party (1973–2003)

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Peter MacDonald|1965|1980|end=div}}
{{marriage|Jim Sillars|1981}}

}}

| children = 2

| alma_mater = Dunfermline College of Physical Education

| occupation = Politician, Teacher, Broadcaster

}}

Margo Symington MacDonald (née Aitken; 19 April 1943 – 4 April 2014) was a Scottish politician, teacher and broadcaster. She was the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Govan from 1973 to 1974 and was Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party from 1974 to 1979. She later served as an SNP and then Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Lothian from 1999 until her death.

Background

Margo Symington Aitken was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, and grew up in and around East Kilbride, one of three siblings.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10744561/Margo-MacDonald-obituary.html Obituary for Margo MacDonald], telegraph.co.uk; accessed 5 April 2014.

Her mother, Jean, was a nurse, and her father, Robert,{{cite news|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/obituaries/margo-macdonald.23883336|title=Obituary: Margo MacDonald |first=David |last=Torrance |work= Herald (Glasgow) |date=5 April 2014|access-date=5 April 2014}} was described as a "very cruel" man from whom her mother separated when Margo was 12 years old.{{cite news |url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/interview-why-margo-macdonald-is-determined-to-have-the-right-to-choose-when-she-dies-1-2564964|title=Interview: Why Margo MacDonald is determined to have the right to choose when she dies |first=Peter |last=Ross |work=The Scotsman |date=7 October 2012|access-date=5 April 2014}} She was educated at Hamilton Academy, and trained as a teacher of physical education at Dunfermline College of Physical Education immediately after leaving school.{{cite news |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/archive-interview-margo-macdonalds-crusade-to-die-with-dignity.1396623665|title=Archive interview: Margo MacDonald's crusade to die with dignity |first=Vicky |last=Allan |work=Herald (Glasgow) |date=4 April 2014|access-date=4 April 2014}}

Family

She married her first husband, Peter MacDonald, in 1965, and they ran a Blantyre pub, the Barnhill Tavern (known locally as The Hoolet's Nest), together. The MacDonalds had two daughters, Petra and Zoe, before the marriage ended in divorce.

Her second marriage was to politician and columnist Jim Sillars, whom she married in 1981. Sillars went on to win the 1988 Glasgow Govan by-election for the SNP. Petra MacDonald married Craig Reid of the Proclaimers; the Reids have four children.{{cite news|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/life-and-times-margo-macdonald-in-words-and-pictures.1396619994|title=Life and Times: Margo MacDonald in words and pictures |work=Herald (Glasgow) |date=4 April 2014|access-date=5 April 2014}}

Parliamentary career

A committed and vocal supporter of Scottish independence, MacDonald entered parliamentary politics by winning the 1973 Glasgow Govan by-election as an SNP candidate at 30 years old. There were "scenes of near-hysteria by supporters" as she was declared the winner in what had, until then, been a Labour stronghold. Her election, during the last months of the Conservative Heath government, "overturned the theory that the SNP can thrive only [...] when a Labour Government is in office".{{cite news|title=SNP shock for Labour in Govan|date=9 November 1973|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald}}

She has alleged that her election to the House of Commons was followed by KGB and CIA agents taking her for lunch while posing as journalists, and believed the SNP was infiltrated during the 1970s by MI5 agents worried booming North Sea oil revenues could lead to independence.{{cite news|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/mi5-spies-told-stay-out-of-referendum.21143916|title=MI5 spies told: stay out of referendum |work=Herald (Glasgow) |date=9 June 2013|access-date=5 April 2014}}

She failed to retain her seat in the following general election of February 1974, but became Deputy Leader of the SNP that year. At a December 1974 National Council meeting, MacDonald criticised the SNP for failing to win seats from Labour in industrial Scotland and urged the party to move to the left to compete. She had already been selected as the SNP candidate in Hamilton when the death of the MP led to the 1978 Hamilton by-election, which she lost.{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogrGQBPPcRI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/ogrGQBPPcRI| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=report on Hamilton 1978 by election |publisher=Thames TV |date=1 June 1978 |access-date=23 March 2017}}{{cbignore}} At the 1979 general election she was an unsuccessful candidate in Glasgow Shettleston.

A staunch left-winger, she was one of three prominent spokespersons for the socialist 79 Group, which ultimately resulted in her failure to be re-elected as Deputy Leader at the party's 1979 conference. In 1982, Margo resigned from the SNP in protest of the 79 Group's proscription. She began to establish herself as a forceful and respected presenter of various radio and television programmes,{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26854930|title=Margo MacDonald: The life and times of a political 'blonde bombshell'| work=BBC News |date=4 April 2014|access-date=4 April 2014}} including the short-lived Colour Supplement for Radio 4 in the mid-1980s. She contributed {{Clarify|date=April 2014}} regularly to Scottish newspapers including the Edinburgh Evening News near the end of her life.

By the mid-1990s, she had returned to the SNP and in 1999 she was elected to the Scottish Parliament, representing the Lothians. She earned a high media profile by her outspoken views on a number of issues, including sex workers' rights and MSPs' salaries.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2280235.stm|title=What future for rebel Margo? |work=BBC News|date=25 September 2002|access-date=4 April 2014}} She quickly established herself as a rebel within the party, and was disciplined in 2000 for missing a parliamentary vote without permission and briefing a Sunday newspaper against party policy.{{cite news|website=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/792584.stm|title=Warning for MSP Margo|date=15 June 2000|access-date=4 April 2014}} Meanwhile, she lost influence with the party leadership, firstly under Alex Salmond and then John Swinney, for being in the SNP Fundamentalist mould{{cite news|website=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/454758.stm|title=Maverick Margo pulls no punches|date=22 September 1999|access-date=4 April 2014}} and having supported Alex Neil in the party leadership election in 2000.

In 2002, MacDonald was ranked fifth on the SNP list for Lothians for the 2003 Parliament election, effectively ending her chances of being re-elected as an SNP MSP.{{cite news|website=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2050537.stm|title=SNP row over election plans|date=18 June 2002|access-date=4 April 2014}} In response, there were a spate of resignations from the party,{{cite news|website=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2134279.stm|title=Nationalists quit in Margo protest|date=17 July 2002|access-date=4 April 2014}} and MacDonald decided to instead stand as an independent. For this, she was officially expelled from the SNP on 28 January 2003.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2701077.stm |title=Margo expelled from SNP|work=BBC News|date=28 January 2003|access-date=6 May 2011}} Her diagnosis with Parkinson's disease became public knowledge at this time, ostensibly in an effort to diminish her electoral prospects. MacDonald, who had known about the diagnosis for six years,{{cite news |title=Margo has Parkinson's |newspaper=The Scotsman|date=11 July 2002|url=http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=296&id=748782002|access-date=23 October 2011}} said it had been leaked to the press by "forces of darkness" in the SNP, but a spokesperson insisted that the leak did not come from within the party.{{cite news|website=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2121813.stm|title=Margo attacks 'forces of darkness'|date=11 July 2002|access-date=4 April 2014}}

She was re-elected as an independent MSP at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, and again in 2007 and 2011. After her 2007 re-election MacDonald stood to become Presiding Officer, but lost the ballot to Alex Fergusson. During her time in parliament as an independent politician, she championed controversial causes, including the legalisation of assisted suicide.{{cite news|website=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8471553.stm|title=Assisted suicide bill published by MSP Margo MacDonald|date=21 January 2010|access-date=4 April 2014}}

In the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, MacDonald asked the UK's Security Service for assurances they would not interfere in the referendum process, suggesting that the security services "have people in the SNP".

Death

MacDonald died at her home in Edinburgh on 4 April 2014, aged 70.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/margo-macdonald-dies-tributes-pour-in-for-veteran-scottish-politician-9239694.html|title=Margo MacDonald dies: Tributes pour in for 'brightest light' veteran Scottish politician|last=Gander|first=Kashmira|work=The Independent|date=5 April 2014}} As she was elected as an independent regional MSP, according to the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998, her seat was left vacant until the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26883278|title=Independent MSP Margo MacDonald dies|work=bbc.co.uk|date=4 April 2014|access-date=4 April 2014}} Shortly after her death, it was confirmed that political leaders would pay tribute to her at a special session of the parliament.{{cite news|last=MacNab |first=Scott |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/special-holyrood-session-to-pay-tribute-to-margo-1-3366505 |title=Special Holyrood session to pay tribute to Margo |publisher=Johnston Press |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=5 April 2014 |access-date=5 April 2014}}

''My Right to Die''

In July 2008, MacDonald co-operated with BBC Scotland in the making of a documentary about assisted dying. As someone with Parkinson's, MacDonald had long been a campaigner for assisted dying, saying that {{blockquote|"As someone with a degenerative condition – Parkinson's – this debate is not a theory with me. The possibility of having the worst form of the disease at the end of life has made me think about unpleasant things. I feel strongly that, in the event of losing my dignity or being faced with the prospect of a painful or protracted death, I should have the right to choose to curtail my own, and my family's, suffering."{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7507486.stm|title=BBC Scotland, 15 July 2008|work=BBC News|date=15 July 2008|access-date=6 May 2011}}}}

In the programme, MacDonald travelled around Scotland and met fellow "sufferers" and investigated the pros and cons of assisted dying, later stating that {{blockquote|"Online, euthanasia campaigners show viewers how to make an 'exit hood' to end your life, and I know people with terminal illnesses now make the awful trip to Mexico to buy lethal doses of drugs to take their own lives, all because of our current laws. I am in no doubt that our legal system must change."}}

References

External links

{{SP-MSP}}
{{Hansard-contribs|mrs-margo-macdonald|Margo MacDonald}}

=Obituaries=

[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/04/scottish-politician-margo-maconald-dies-70-parkinsons Scottish politician Margo MacDonald dies of Parkinson's]; The Guardian
[http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/live-reaction-death-margo-macdonald-3375224 Reaction to the death of Margo MacDonald]; The Daily Record

{{succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for Glasgow Govan

| years = 1973–Feb 1974

| before = John Rankin

| after = Harry Selby

}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothian
{{small|Lothians (1999–2011)}}|years=1999–2014}}

{{succession box|title=Scottish National Party Vice Chairman (Policy)|years=1972–1974|before=Gordon Murray|after=Arthur Donaldson}}

{{succession box|title=Senior Vice-Chairman (Depute Leader) of the Scottish National Party|years=1974–79|before=Gordon Wilson|after=Douglas Henderson}}

Category:1943 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in the United Kingdom