1 EAGLETON NOTES: Donald Dewar

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Monday 15 September 2008

Donald Dewar

Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was the first First Minister of Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000. He was the first person to hold the position of First Minister following the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

In May 2002, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair unveiled a statue of Dewar at the top of Glasgow's Buchanan Street — and in keeping with his famous unkempt appearance, it showed Dewar wearing a slightly crushed jacket. The statue was taken down in October 2005 to be cleaned and was re-erected on 6-foot (1.8 m) high plinth in December of the same year in an effort to protect it. Not from malicious vandalism but a glaswegian cultural trend of putting orange traffic cones on the statues head, one such attempt damaging the statue's glasses, Ironically it is considered a gesture of respect by many in the city as most of the cities statues have found themselves wearing the familiar orange cones, On the base of the statue were inscribed the opening words of the Scotland Act: "There Shall Be A Scottish Parliament", a phrase to which Dewar himself famously said, "I Like That!".

1 comment:

  1. I thought this was going to be a boastful blog posting about how you have awoken to see sunshine - how disappointing!!!
    pxioabib (that's just to prove I'm human)

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