Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Video on Politics)

There was a video on Scottish politics showing at the National Museum of Scotland, covering primarily television coverage of major political events from over the last few decades. It seemed fair in its reporting, although it didn’t have all the politicians that I would have hoped it would have done.

It’d have been hard to make a video about Scottish politics without mentioning John Smith, one of the best respected politicians from the country who sadly died mid-career.

The community charge was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales in 1990. The idea to start the tax earlier in the country was at the behest of George Younger, the then Secretary of State for Scotland. Although the plan was more to trail-blaze the tax to show it worked, this didn’t prove to be the best of ideas…..

Donald Dewar, the first holder of the First Minister of Scotland role, and I’ll imagine he’ll go down in history as one of the fathers of the nation.

And Margaret Thatcher, when she gave a speech to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988. It was controversial to say the least, although that was probably its intention, and it sought to make the Christian case for capitalism and the importance of the market economy.