Document
Reference:
HL/PO/PU/1/1998/c46
By
permission of the Parliamentary
Archives
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The
Scotland Act 1998 made real the aspiration that ‘There shall be a
Scottish Parliament’.
Through long years, those words were first a hope, then a belief, then
a promise. Now they are a reality.
The Parliament the Act created made this a moment anchored in our
history.
Through the Scotland Act 1998, the nation reached back through the long
haul to win the Parliament, through the struggles of those who brought
democracy to Scotland, to that other undemocratic Parliament dissolved
in controversy nearly three centuries ago. This Act was a turning
point: the catalyst for democracy being renewed in Scotland and when
Scotland revitalised our place in this our United Kingdom.
This Act was about more than our politics or our laws. This was about
who we are as a nation. The Act created a new voice in the land, the
voice of a democratic Parliament. A voice now shaping Scotland today
and into the future.
For any Scot, the passage of the Scotland Act was a proud moment: a new
stage on a journey begun long ago. The Parliament the Act created was
not an end but a means to greater ends.
The power of the Act was its determination to do right by the people of
Scotland; to create a democratic institution to respect their
priorities; to better their lot; and to contribute their commonweal.
From this time on, throughout Scottish history as yet unwritten, the
chamber of Scotland’s democratic parliament will sound with debate,
argument and passion. Men and women from all over Scotland now meet to
craft the nation’s future.
It is a rare privilege in an old nation to create a new Parliament. On
St. Andrews Day we should celebrate the principles, the traditions, and
the democratic imperatives embodied in the Scotland Act which have
brought us to this point and will sustain us into the future.
Wendy Alexander, MSP
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Photograph of Wendy
Alexander
MSP
taken from the Scottish Parliament website © Scottish
Parliamentary
copyright. Reproduced with the permission of the Queen’s Printer for
Scotland
on behalf of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.
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Wendy Alexander is MSP
for Paisley North. A graduate of Glasgow & Warwick Universities,
she holds an MBA from INSEAD and previously worked for Booz, Allen
& Hamilton. She has served as Special Adviser to Donald Dewar and
also in the Cabinets of all three First Ministers. She is currently a
member of the Parliament’s Finance and Education Committees and a
Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University. Recent publications
include Chasing the Tartan Tiger (2003); New Wealth for Old Nations
(2005) and Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first First Minister (2005).
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