Early Life
Educated at Dunoon Grammar School, the University of Dundee and University College, Cardiff, Brian Wilson was the founding editor and publisher of the West Highland Free Press which he established along with three friends from Dundee University. Founded in 1971, the newspaper was initially based at Kyleakin, on the isle of Skye, and continues to be published from Broadford, Skye. Its uniqueness lay in the radicalism of its political content, particularly on matters relating to the ownership of land, and its role as a local newspaper. It is credited with having exerted a strong influence over political debate in the Highlands and Islands, and—along with other concurrent initiatives such as the 7.84 production, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil and publication of John MacEwen's book Who Owns Scotland?—restoring the land question to a place of prominence in Scottish politics. For his early work on the West Highland Free Press, Wilson was made the first recipient of the Nicholas Tomalin Memorial Award. He also wrote widely for national newspapers and, in 1977–78 he was involved in Seven Days, a political weekly in Scotland which folded after a few months.
He was a member of the Scottish National Party for a short time in his teens, but shortly after the formation of the West Highland Free Press in 1971 joined the Labour Party and was soon invited to stand as its candidate in Ross and Cromarty which he contested in October 1974. He stood in two other Highlands and Islands constituencies—Inverness-shire and the Western Isles—in 1979 and 1983 respectively. An opponent of devolution, which he believed would work to the disadvantage of Scotland's more peripheral areas, in 1978 he was chairman of the "Labour Vote No Campaign", which called for a "no" vote in the Scottish devolution referendum, 1979 on whether to have a Scottish Assembly.
Read more about this topic: Brian Wilson (Labour Politician)
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