Donald Gorrie - Second Term

Second Term

As time passed, and particularly after he was re-elected for a second term as MSP in 2003, he mellowed, however, and - confined to the backbenches with no hope of ministerial appointment - he concentrated on campaigning on a number of particular themes which interested him. His boldness and eye for publicity endeared him to a media corps that was often starved of stories by the cautious and tightly-controlled party machines that operated at Holyrood, and he became associated with a number of individual causes, like the spiralling cost and mismanagement of the Holyrood building project, and later his campaign against the sectarianism that plagued Scottish society. Though controversial at first, this latter campaign raised the profile of the issue until eventually it was taken up by First Minister Jack McConnell, who instigated a series of legislative attempts to deal with the issue.

Disliked by some (mainly those in what he would term 'the establishment') for the uncompromising stances he has taken, Donald Gorrie is nevertheless widely respected for his consistency of principle and his long record of service to liberal politics and public life in general. He retired from the Scottish Parliament at the 2007 elections. He upset the party leadership in during the campaign by saying the Lib Dems should 'never say never' to an independence referendum - as that would resign them to another coalition with the Labour Party.