Margo Macdonald - Brilliant 1977 Interview

[ErsatzThistle]

Doubt many will have seen this before. An interview from July 1977 with Margo MacDonald. Great insight into the era for those of us who weren't around to experience it.

What a great pity she was only ever Glasgow Govan's MP for just a few months.

*If you are pro-independence and have high blood pressure, you definitely should not watch the second half of this video !

Half way through they introduce a right wing, anti-Scottish, English Tory journalist called Alan Watkins and a Scottish journalist. The latter is Robert Carvel (died 1990) who was then a big wig at the London Evening Standard. Now, just listen to the sheer, utter contempt Carvel has for his country, it's people and the way he dismisses our potential ability to rule themselves. What a fecking horrid wee self loathing Carvel must have been.

However, Margo takes them both on and does not take any prisoners

[Flora MaDonald]

God, Margo was bloody good.

Even in those days it was 'gang-up on the nationalist' - two against one.

I won't even say anything about Carvel, as I'll be banned from here.

[Scunnered]

Her heyday was before my time, but it's easy to see why she was called the Blonde bombshell. The way the SNP treated her at the end was rather disgusting particularly by arch Tory Swinney. I reckon if she was still with us she'd have kept Sillars in line and he wouldn't have made his damaging Day of Reckoning speech.

[aaid]

Her heyday was before my time, but it's easy to see why she was called the Blonde bombshell. The way the SNP treated her at the end was rather disgusting particularly by arch Tory Swinney. I reckon if she was still with us she'd have kept Sillars in line and he wouldn't have made his damaging Day of Reckoning speech.

If Margo was still with us and healthy you probably wouldn't have heard much from Sillars at all. Being pretty brutal about it, in the last twenty years or so, Sillars was better known as Mr. Margo.

She would have made a great figurehead of the Yes campaign. She was someone who had almost universal respect across the country and there wouldn't have been the same marmite effect that there was with Salmond.

[ErsatzThistle]

I won't even say anything about Carvel, as I'll be banned from here.

Don't worry Robert Carvel's been dead for going on twenty five years now. He can't sue you !

What's also interesting about this is how Carvel and Watkins react to a "lady politician" as they were then called. I think that there were only about 20-30 female MPs at this time in parliament. It's interesting to see how society has changed.

At the start Carvel and Alan Watkins it's clear, expect Margo to be some sort of shrieking, single issue, "free ma bonnie Scotia fae Sassenach colonialism" type and treat her in a patronising, half amused manner.

Then it becomes clear to them that she clearly knows her stuff and will not be patronised by a couple of middle aged Tory "gentlemen". They both become quite annoyed at this (how dare a woman tell them that their wrong) and attack her more strongly. She swats them away easily and Watkins (who looks and sounds as though he can't be arsed being there anyway) drifts out of the conversation leaving Margo and Carvel to it.

Towards the end when Margo refuses to give way on any point a visibly irritated Carvel loses it altogether, gets angry (he's obviously not used to being told he's wrong, least of all by a woman) and repeatedly interrupts almost every point Margo (who remained as calm as can be expected) has to make. Game, set and match to the "Blonde Bombshell".

Now just what would Mhairi Black have done to the pair of them !

I've heard and read that the SNP Westminster leader from the 1970s and 1980s, Donald Stewart, was also an excellent, respected political debater and a wee bit of a wit into the bargain but I can't find any video or audio of him "in action".

[Flora MaDonald]

Don't worry Robert Carvel's been dead for going on twenty five years now.

I've heard and read that the SNP Westminster leader from the 1970s and 1980s, Donald Stewart, was also an excellent, respected political debater and a wee bit of a wit into the bargain but I can't find any video or audio of him "in action".

Good.

My Grandfaither knew Donald Stewart. Apparently a great laugh, but highly, highly astute. I recall a story he had to help my Grandfaither out a bath when he concked oot after excessive dram intake.

[ErsatzThistle]

Good.

My Grandfaither knew Donald Stewart. Apparently a great laugh, but highly, highly astute. I recall a story he had to help my Grandfaither out a bath when he concked oot after excessive dram intake.

Aye, seems that Donald Stewart was loved by all who knew him, and even many Labour politicians had a great respect for him. He had been active in the SNP as far back as the late 1930s and continued even whilst serving in the Royal Navy during the war.

According to Winnie Ewing, the powers that be offered Stewart a life peerage when he retired from the Commons in 1987. He immediately threw it right back in their faces.