The politician Winifred Ewing, who has died aged 93, was the most remarkable vote-winner in modern Scottish politics. Her triumph at the Hamilton byelection in 1967 heralded the breakthrough of the Scottish National party as a serious electoral force; later in her career she retired undefeated from the European parliament after four terms as MEP for the Highlands and Islands.
She then concluded a unique treble by becoming a founding member of the devolved Scottish parliament when it was established in 1999 and indeed, as the oldest MSP, took the chair at its first session before a presiding officer had been elected. She drew on her experience to call for the new body to “follow the more consensual style of the European parliament and say goodbye to the badgering and backbiting that one associates with Westminster”.
