DONALD DEWAR (July 1st 1999):         There shall be a Scottish 
Parliament - I like that.

IAIN WATSON:                Donald Dewar was Scotland's 
first ever First Minister. His dream of devolution fulfilled when the new 
Parliament officially opened its doors in the last year of the last century. 
But he was determined to ensure this achievement wasn't an end in itself. 
He wanted to see a Parliament with a purpose, embodying attributes he himself 
had in abundance.

DONALD DEWAR:                  Wisdom, justice, compassion, 
integrity, timeless values, honorable aspirations for this new forum of 
democracy born on the cusp of a new century.

WATSON:                    He first argued for devolution 
at Glasgow University, more than forty years ago, alongside John Smith, 
who was to become not just Labour's leader, but a lifelong friend.  Donald 
Dewar was elected to Parliament in 1966 for South Aberdeen, but lost out 
four years later, returning to Westminster at the Glasgow Garscadden by-election 
in 1978.  Years later he would campaign with the SNP to set up a Scottish 
Parliament - but he was always wanted  a devolved  Scotland to remain within 
the UK. 

DONALD DEWAR:                 What we want people to do 
is to stand and think, will your jobs be safer if England is just another 
foreign country.

WATSON:                    Donald Dewar may not have 
looked like the model of a Labour moderniser, but during his long years 
in opposition, he stood up for the substance of the New Labour project 
- even before Tony Blair had arrived on the scene to put a name to it. 
 He was in favour of co-operation with the Liberal Democrats; the seeds 
of their coalition agreement in Scotland were sown ten years before, when, 
as Shadow Scottish Secretary he took his party into the constitutional 
convention, the body which drew up the blueprint for a Scottish Parliament.

                              As John Smith's 
Shadow Social Security Secretary, he argued that the rights of the unemployed 
should be matched by their responsibilities.

DONALD DEWAR:                I expect people who are unemployed 
and who are drawing benefit, I expect them to respond to opportunities 
that are given to them.  If there is a menu of choice, if there is a chance, 
then I expect them to respond to it.
 
WATSON:                    And later, as Chief Whip, 
he kept a parliamentary party, with its competing egos, well disciplined 
in the run up to the crucial 1997 General Election. He was seen as a safe 
pair of hands by Tony Blair and would always defend the party line.

DONALD DEWAR:                We have set out what we're 
going to do, we've set out our policy and we're going to hold to it. I 
want to make that, underline that very, very heavily, indeed.

WATSON:                    But he was also a politician 
with 'hinterland'.  In 1989, On The Record filmed him indulging three of 
his great passions all in one evening: the arts, politics and Scottish 
history, as he took in a performance by Wildcat, a left-wing theatre group.

                        But it was as the Scottish 
Secretary, after Labour's 1997 election win, that he came to fulfil his 
life's work.  He campaigned with the SNP in September 1997 to persuade 
Scots to vote for a devolved parliament, and to give it tax-raising powers. 
 And when his boss dropped in to congratulate him, in his own, understated 
way, he reported his success.

DONALD DEWAR:                Satisfactory I think.

TONY BLAIR:                Very satisfactory and well 
done.

WATSON:                    But the last year of his 
life wasn't easy.  The new Parliament was put under the microscope by the 
Scottish media and his administration was buffeted by bad news stories 
on education, on health and on the abolition of Section 28, the law which 
prevented local authorities from promoting homosexuality. 

DONALD DEWAR:                It has been a sharp learning 
curve for all of us, indeed so sharp that it has at times been the political 
equivalent of abseiling. 

WATSON:                    Despite the difficulties, 
he drew on his ability to deflect criticism with humour, not hubris. 

JOHN HUMPHRYS (ON THE RECORD):When George Galloway, another of your supporters, 
although not necessarily your personal supporter, when he says that you 
should stand aside for a younger man, for a different man, your message 
to him is pretty simple? 

DONALD DEWAR:                 Garn!

HUMPHRYS:                 For the benefit of our English 
speaking listeners you'd better translate that message that you want delivered 
to him. 

DONALD DEWAR:                 (Laughter) I think I'll 
leave it, I'll leave it as it is.