Donald Gorrie

Donald Gorrie
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland (1 of 7 Regional MSPs)
In office 6 May 1999 – 2 April 2007
Preceded by	New Parliament
Succeeded by	Hugh O'Donnell
Member of Parliament for Edinburgh West
In office 1 May 1997 – 14 May 2001
Preceded by	Lord James Douglas-Hamilton
Succeeded by	John Barrett
Personal details
Born	Donald Cameron Easterbrook Gorrie (1933-04-02)2 April 1933 India
Died	25 August 2012(2012-08-25) (aged 79) Edinburgh, Scotland
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Democrat
Spouse	Astrid Gorrie

Donald Cameron Easterbrook Gorrie

His son Robert Gorrie was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Haringey, London, 2006–2014 and was Leader of the Opposition 2008–2011. He also stood for the Scottish Parliament seat of Airdrie and Shotts in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.

Early career

After starting his professional career as a schoolteacher, he was Secretary of the

But his lifelong passion in politics was to see the establishment of a Scottish Parliament, and sit as a Member of it. So when the Scottish Parliament was established by the referendum of 1997, he announced he would retire from Westminster after just one term as an MP to stand for the new Scottish Parliament. He was therefore elected in 1999, as Liberal Democrat MSP for the Central Scotland region (retiring from Westminster at the next General Election in 2001).

Opponents

A feisty and independent-minded politician, he was always fiercely loyal to his liberal instincts, and had a particular mistrust of the

Gorrie disliked his characterisation as a rebel, pointing to the fact that (unlike the pro-coalition MSPs) he was merely sticking to the Liberal Democrats' manifesto commitments.

Second term

As time passed, and particularly after he was re-elected for a second term as MSP in 2003, he mellowed, however, and – confined to the backbenches with no hope of ministerial appointment – he concentrated on campaigning on a number of particular themes which interested him. His boldness and eye for publicity endeared him to a media corps that was often starved of stories by the cautious and tightly-controlled party machines that operated at Holyrood, and he became associated with a number of individual causes, like the spiralling cost and mismanagement of the Holyrood building project, and later his campaign against the sectarianism that plagued Scottish society. Though controversial at first, this latter campaign raised the profile of the issue until eventually it was taken up by First Minister Jack McConnell, who instigated a series of legislative attempts to deal with the issue.

Disliked by some (mainly those in what he would term 'the establishment') for the uncompromising stances he has taken, Donald Gorrie is nevertheless widely respected for his consistency of principle and his long record of service to liberal politics and public life in general.^{[citation needed]} He retired from the Scottish Parliament at the 2007 elections. He upset the party leadership during the campaign by saying the Lib Dems should 'never say never' to an independence referendum – as that would resign them to another coalition with the Labour Party.^[5]

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Donald Gorrie
• Scottish Parliament profiles of MSPs: Donald Gorrie