Margo Symington MacDonald (''née'' Aitken; 19 April 1943 – 4 April 2014) was a Scottish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

and broadcaster. She was the Scottish National Party (SNP)

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Glasgow Govan from 1973 to 1974 and was Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party from 1974 to 1979. She later served as an SNP and then

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Lothian from 1999 until her death.

Background

Margo Symington Aitken was born in

Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Hamilton ( sco, Hamiltoun; gd, Baile Hamaltan ) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits south-east of Glasgow, south-west of Edinburgh and no ...

, and grew up in and around

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

, one of three siblings. Her mother, Jean, was a nurse, and her father, Robert, was described as a "very cruel" man from whom her mother separated when Margo was 12 years old. She was educated at

Hamilton Academy Hamilton Academy was a school in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The school was described as "one of the finest schools in Scotland" in the Cambridge University Press County Biography of 1910, and was featured in a 1950 Scottish Seconda ...

, and trained as a teacher of

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

at Dunfermline College of Physical Education immediately after leaving school.

Family

She married her first husband, Peter MacDonald, in 1965, and they ran a

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

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 James Sillars (born 4 October 1937) is a Scottish politician and campaigner for Scottish independence. Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976. He founded and led the pro- Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Par ...

, whom she married in 1981. Sillars went on to win the

1988 Glasgow Govan by-election The Glasgow Govan by-election, for the House of Commons constituency of Glasgow Govan, Scotland, was held on 10 November 1988. It was caused by the resignation of Bruce Millan as Member of Parliament for the constituency following his appointme ...

for the SNP. Petra MacDonald married Craig Reid of

the Proclaimers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

; the Reids have four children.

Parliamentary career

A committed and vocal supporter of Scottish independence, MacDonald entered parliamentary politics by winning the

1973 Glasgow Govan by-election The Glasgow Govan by-election was held on 8 November 1973,
''alba.org.uk'' following the death of Labour stronghold. Her election, during the last months of the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Heath government Edward Heath of the Conservative Party formed the Heath ministry and was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II on 19 June 1970, following the 18 June general election. Heath's ministry ended after the February 19 ...

, "overturned the theory that the SNP can thrive only ..when a Labour Government is in office". She has alleged that her election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

was followed by

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

and

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

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 North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea ...

revenues could lead to independence. She failed to retain her seat in the following general election of

February 1974 The following events occurred in February 1974: February 1, 1974 (Friday) *Joelma fire, A fire killed 177 people and injured 293 others in the 23-story Joelma Building at São Paulo in Brazil. Another 11 later died of their injuries. The bl ...

, but became Deputy Leader of the SNP that year. At a December 1974 National Council meeting, Margo 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 Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

when the death of the MP led to the

1978 Hamilton by-election There was a by-election for the United Kingdom House of Commons in Hamilton on Wednesday 31 May 1978. It was caused by the death of the incumbent Labour Party Member of Parliament Alex Wilson on 23 March of that year. Within days of Wilson's d ...

, which she lost. 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 The 79 Group was a faction within the Scottish National Party (SNP), named after its year of formation, 1979. The group sought to persuade the SNP to take an active left-wing stance, arguing that it would win more support, and were highly critic ...

, 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, including the short-lived ''Colour Supplement'' for Radio 4 in the mid-1980s. She contributed regularly to Scottish newspapers including the ''

Edinburgh Evening News The ''Edinburgh Evening News'' is a daily newspaper and website based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded by John Wilson (1844–1909) and first published in 1873. It is printed daily, except on Sundays. It is owned by JPIMedia, which also ...

'' near the end of her life. By the mid-1990s, she had returned to the SNP and in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

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 worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work i ...

s' rights and MSPs' salaries. 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. Meanwhile, she lost influence with the party leadership, firstly under

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...

and then John Swinney, for being in the SNP Fundamentalist mould and having supported Alex Neil in the party leadership election in 2000. She placed fifth on the SNP list for Lothians for the 2003 Parliament election, effectively ending her chances of being re-elected as an SNP MSP. In response, there were a spate of resignations from the party, and MacDonald decided to stand as an independent. For this, she was officially expelled from the SNP on 28 January 2003. Her diagnosis with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

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, 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. 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. 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 Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

on 4 April 2014, aged 70. As she was elected as an independent regional MSP, according to the provisions of the

Scotland Act 1998 The Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which legislated for the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament with tax varying powers and the Scottish Government (then Scottish Executive). It was o ...

, her seat was left vacant until the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. Shortly after her death, it was confirmed that political leaders would pay tribute to her at a special session of the parliament.

''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

"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."

In the programme, MacDonald travelled around Scotland and met fellow "sufferers" and investigated the pros and cons of assisted dying, later stating that

"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

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Obituaries

Scottish politician Margo MacDonald dies of Parkinson's
The Guardian
Reaction to the death of Margo MacDonald
The Daily Record {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Margo 1943 births 2014 deaths Deaths from Parkinson's disease Neurological disease deaths in Scotland Euthanasia activists Euthanasia in the United Kingdom Independent MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2011–2016 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies People educated at Hamilton Academy Politicians from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire British politicians with disabilities Scottish columnists Scottish journalists Scottish National Party MPs Scottish National Party MSPs Scottish republicans Scottish schoolteachers Scottish television presenters UK MPs 1970–1974 Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Female members of the Scottish Parliament 20th-century Scottish women politicians Scottish women columnists