WINNIE Ewing’s portrait looms large in Holyrood, as will her enduring influence on pro-independence MSPs who followed in her footsteps.
Ewing, who sadly passed away aged 93 on Thursday, was the SNP’s first female parliamentarian, in the days before the phrase “gender-balanced” was even discussed in politics.
Undoubtedly a trailblazer, Ewing’s influence on women interested in politics, and role sustaining the independence movement, was at the forefront of MSPs' minds as the news broke inside the Parliament.
The trio of flags outside - the Saltire, EU and Union Jack - were lowered to half-mast in the afternoon, as emotional MSPs paid tribute to the original “mother of the Parliament”.
“I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Winnie Ewing,” Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone told MSPs as the Chamber reconvened just after 2pm.
“Winnie was an inspiring and hugely influential politician and of course she was memorably the first person to chair the reconvened Scottish Parliament in 1999.”
Earlier, SNP Cabinet Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville gave an emotional tribute to Winnie Ewing in Holyrood. "I still have the card she sent me when I was first elected in my office, and I looked at it before I came down the stairs, hence why I think I'm so emotional..." pic.twitter.com/wFwLZRtLRm
— Abbi Garton-Crosbie (@agc_reports) June 22, 2023
Johnstone paid condolences to Fergus and Annabelle Ewing, both MSPs, and the rest of the Ewing family.
But it wasn’t just her children that Ewing inspired to engage in politics. Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, fought back tears as she paid tribute to Ewing in the chamber.
"I still have the card she sent me when I was first elected in my office, and I looked at it before I came down the stairs, hence why I think I'm so emotional,” she said.
“She was a trailblazer for women, particularly in my party, but not just for the SNP. There will be much that will be said about her role in the SNP and independence, but I hope today that the whole parliament today can join with me to pay tribute to Winnie, a life well lived.
Earlier, SNP Cabinet Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville gave an emotional tribute to Winnie Ewing in Holyrood. "I still have the card she sent me when I was first elected in my office, and I looked at it before I came down the stairs, hence why I think I'm so emotional..." pic.twitter.com/wFwLZRtLRm
— Abbi Garton-Crosbie (@agc_reports) June 22, 2023
“Her contribution to public life in Scotland is hard for us to measure.”
Other SNP MSPs were quick to point out that Ewing played a crucial role in keeping independence and the SNP in the news during difficult times for the party in the 1980s, following the devolution referendum.
“If she had not been an MEP, she could be proud of the fact that she was on the European stage and thus on the news, keeping things alive, when there wasn’t anybody else,” Christine Grahame, SNP MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, said.
Flags flying at half mast outside of the Scottish Parliament on Thursday
“She kept independence alive.”
Michelle Thomson, SNP MSP for Falkirk East, recalled campaigning for Ewing as a student during a European election alongside John Swinney, travelling around the Highlands and Islands with a bus and a megaphone distributing leaflets, for over a week.
She told The National: “She was definitely a trailblazer and an inspirational leader.
“I remember Winnie describing when she was elected in 1967 to the House of Commons, having been there myself, when you get to go out of the benches, they are quite tight.
“When she squeezed and said excuse me to go past, the men in the seats used to kick her in the legs. I remember her telling me that.”
MSPs had plenty of stories to tell of Ewing brandishing a megaphone on the campaign trail, how she galvanised them into action, and that her influence on Scottish politics and the independence movement will not be easily forgotten.
