Scottish Parliament's Founding Mothers and Fathers spoke passionately about its potential. Would they be proud 25 years on? – Paul Wilson

The current toxicity of Holyrood is far removed from vision painted by Winnie Ewing and Donald Dewar when it was ‘hereby reconvened’ and parliamentary reform is desperately needed

Sunday will mark 25 years since Winnie Ewing uttered the words that heralded a new era in Scotland’s history. “The Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on 25 March 1707, is hereby reconvened,” she told the newly sworn-in MSPs in the General Assembly Hall on the Mound in Edinburgh.

Ewing, dubbed “Madame Ecosse” for tirelessly advocating Scotland’s interests as an SNP MP, MEP and MSP, then gave an inspiring speech on her hopes for the future. “On behalf of my party, I pledge to make this Parliament work”, she said. “All of us here can make it work – and make it a showcase of modern democracy.” She concluded: “It was said that 1707 was the end of an auld sang. All of us here can begin to write together a new Scottish song, and I urge all of you to sing it in harmony – fortissimo.”

Her passion was largely shared across the political spectrum, not least by the Scottish Labour leader Donald Dewar – Scotland’s first First Minister. In an equally stirring speech at the Parliament’s official opening a few weeks later, Dewar said: “This is about more than our politics and our laws. This is about who we are, how we carry ourselves.”

The late SNP MP, MEP and MSP Winnie Ewing with the party's first and second First Ministers Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon in 2005 (Picture: Ian Rutherford)

READ MORE: Holyrood's 25th birthday brings food for thought for SNP – Scotsman comment

‘A voice to shape Scotland’

He spoke of the “echoes from the past” that might be heard “in the quiet moments of today”: the shout of the welder in the din of the great Clyde shipyards; the Enlightenment “when Edinburgh and Glasgow were a light held to the intellectual life of Europe”; the battles of Bruce and Wallace; and “the wild cry of the great pipes”. “The past is part of us,” Dewar said. “But today there is a new voice in the land, the voice of a democratic Parliament. A voice to shape Scotland, a voice for the future.”

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Dewar died in office in 2001 and Ewing died aged 93 last June. What would these founding parents make of what the Scottish Parliament has become? Surely not even Holyrood’s staunchest defenders could conclude it has lived up to their noble aspirations.

In his final speech as First Minister on Tuesday, Humza Yousaf spoke of the “toxic nature of our political debate” and the “entrenched tribalism that feels difficult to free ourselves from”. Meanwhile, Henry McLeish, Scotland’s second First Minister, told a committee of MPs that Scotland “is more divided than it has been in 25 years”.

Scottish Government accused of being 'power hoarder' as Holyrood marks 25-year anniversary

John Swinney has now become Scotland’s seventh First Minister – and the SNP’s fourth – and yet not even he seems able to muster much enthusiasm for the state of our national discourse. After he was voted in, he said the Parliament was “intensely polarised”.

“I accept my part in creating that environment, whether that is by shouting put-downs from the front bench or heckling from a sedentary position,” he said. “I do promise, Presiding Officer, that that will all stop. I have changed.”

Yesterday’s man 20 years ago

Well, that’s what they all say. Who is he trying to kid? It’s doubtful even John Swinney believes John Swinney is the right person to detoxify Scottish politics. It was only last year he ruled himself out of the race to succeed Sturgeon, revealing he had been trying to leave the frontline since 2016. He was the past, not the future.

Swinney was yesterday’s man 20 years ago, when Alex Salmond took over the party leadership from him. No wonder many believe his coronation was a stitch-up by the Sturgeonite party machine to stop Kate Forbes getting the job.

Nationalism and consensus-building do not go easily together. It is divisive by its nature – you’re either with us or against us. Swinney has been at the heart of the SNP’s spectacularly successful strategy of conflating Scotland with party, demonising opponents or saying nothing while others did so.

The real reason he and his colleagues have discovered an enthusiasm for finding common ground with erstwhile enemies is because they can no longer rely on the support of the Scottish Greens. Yousaf was right to end the Bute House Agreement – the Greens hold extreme positions that are wildly unpopular with voters – but the clumsy way he did so has left the SNP isolated. Swinney readily concedes he now needs to build bridges to get anything done. He leads a minority government.

Pay MSPs more?

Sturgeon forged the power-sharing deal after failing to secure a majority in 2021 and the collapse of the agreement highlights the continuing decline of the SNP from a once seemingly unassailable position. Swinney – the unelected continuity candidate who succeeds another unelected continuity candidate who succeeded Sturgeon – finds himself managing this decline and seeking to reverse it.

Meaningful Holyrood reform may fall to Labour – the main architects of devolution – if Anas Sarwar’s party can wrest control from the SNP in 2026 and end a previously unthinkable 19 years of nationalist rule. Devolution has indeed been good for the SNP.

Constitutional expert Professor James Mitchell said this week the party had hoarded power and undermined local government. This, he said, was “one of the worst things that has happened post devolution”. He argued there should be fewer ministers and more MSPs to reflect how Holyrood’s powers and responsibilities have grown over the past 25 years – a call echoed by Liberal Democrat peer and former deputy first minister Jim Wallace.

There is perhaps an equally unpopular case to be made for paying MSPs more to improve the talent pool. Holyrood’s committee system needs to be strengthened. And a second chamber would add an obviously much-needed extra layer of scrutiny for proposed legislation.

Holyrood reform should be somewhere near the top of an incoming Labour First Minister’s in-tray. Otherwise, the precious dream cherished by Ewing and Dewar of a shining beacon of parliamentary democracy at the foot of the Royal Mile might remain just that – a dream.