Scots election anniversary marked

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A total of 140 bills have been passed at Holyrood in 10 years

By Andrew Black
Political Reporter, BBC Scotland news website

Scottish Parliament veterans have been recalling their memories over the past 10 years of devolution.

Wednesday 6 May marks the 10th anniversary of the first Holyrood election polling day, before parliament gained its full powers on 1 July, 1999.

MSPs have since passed 140 wide-ranging pieces of legislation.

They include the landmark public smoking ban, free personal care for the elderly and "the right to roam" Scotland's countryside.

Labour emerged as the largest party after the first Holyrood elections, serving two terms in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, until the SNP's victory in 2007 resulted in the Nationalists setting up the first minority Scottish Government.

Once you've been with the big boys at Westminster, I just got the sense that maybe this was going to be the second division Sam Galbraith Former MP and MSP Read Brian Taylor's blog What's devolution done for you?

Also among the first intake of 129 MSPs to the devolved parliament - which won public support in the 1997 referendum - were Green politician Robin Harper, Scottish Socialist Tommy Sheridan and independent Dennis Canavan, a former Labour MP.

Another former MP - and MSP - Sam Galbraith, said he looked back on devolution with a great sense of excitement and achievement - but admitted to having his doubts about the 1999 election campaign.

"There were never any great big issues being discussed," he said.

"It was always the smaller, trivial fighting over the number of policemen or, 'if you spend that much, I'll spend a bit more'.

"Once you've been with the big boys at Westminster, I just got the sense that maybe this was going to be the second division."

But Mr Galbraith added: "If you never take a step until you're absolutely certain about everything, then you never do anything."

Culture Minister Mike Russell, who oversaw the SNP campaign in 1999, described it as a rollercoaster event.

"At some stages we were very optimistic, at some stages we were despairing," he told BBC Scotland.

"Opinion polls put us down and then put us up. It was a marathon election campaign - it was also the first one for the Scottish Parliament so we didn't know that to expect."

Mr Russell went on: "It was, I think, probably the dirtiest campaign Scotland has ever seen in terms of the negativity of the message that came from south of the border. 'Divorce is an expensive businesses', was the slogan."

SCOTTISH DEVOLUTION FACTS 140 pieces of legislation passed Parliament building cost £414m 3,479 sitting hours in the chamber More than 4m visitors since 1999

The maiden Holyrood election campaign brought different challenges for the Conservatives.

Ben Wallace, the former Tory MSP, now the MP for Lancaster and Wyre, said: "We'd been the party that had campaigned against devolution.

"In a very short period of time, we had to reverse that and say, 'we accept the will of the Scottish people, now we have to make ourselves relevant to Scotland today and our role in the Scottish Parliament'."

Mr Wallace, who gave devolution six marks out of 10, said the Scottish Parliament had found a role for itself - adding that it could probably teach Westminster a thing or two about governing and politics.

In its first legislative act, the young Scottish Parliament backed emergency laws to close a legal loophole which led to the release of mentally-ill killer Noel Ruddle.

He had been let out of the state hospital at Carstairs, after arguing its treatment programmes were no longer of benefit to him.

Political veteran and ex-MP Sir David Steel, who came out of retirement to stand as a Lib Dem MSP, said the Scottish Parliament had succeeded in bringing government closer to the people, following some expected teething problems - and after the initial hype about the institution had died down.

The public smoking ban counts among the Scottish Parliament's achievments

Drawing parallels with his time in South Africa, Sir David said: "People thought that, with the end of apartheid, there would be milk and honey flowing in the streets and, of course, it didn't happen and I think the same was true of the Scottish Parliament."

Sir David - who gave Scottish devolution eight-and-a-half marks out of 10 - also described a "tremendous feeling of elation and emotion" after he ended up becoming Holyrood's first presiding officer.

"I can remember, as a student, making debating speeches in the student union in Edinburgh about the restoration of a Scottish Parliament and I never for a second imagined I would live to see it and actually live to be chairing it," he said.

Under devolution, Scotland became the first part of the UK to ban smoking in public places.

MSPs also passed historic land reform legislation, giving ramblers statutory access rights and creating opportunities for community land ownership.

Holyrood unanimously voted to abolish personal care charges for people cared for in their own homes, providing free nursing care for those who needed it.

And one of the earliest bills to be backed by parliament brought in a ban on hunting with dogs.

One of the biggest early controversies of the past 10 years was the cost of the £414m Scottish Parliament building - which opened three years late, at 10 times the original estimated cost.

MSPs had spent their first five years sitting at the building on The Mound, in Edinburgh.

Lord Fraser, who conducted the inquiry into the building fiasco, later said there was no single "villain of the piece" when it came to the problems and spiralling costs which plagued the project.

The building has since won a total of nine major architectural awards.