Scottish Parliament
Brankin was Deputy Minister for Culture and Sport in the Scottish Executive from 1999–2000 and Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development from 2000-2001. In October 2004 she was appointed Deputy Minister for Health and Community care, returning to the Environment and Rural Development portfolio in June 2005. In January 2007 she was promoted to Minister for Communities after the resignation of Malcolm Chisholm. Following Labour's defeat at the hands of the SNP at the May 2007 election, Brankin became shadow Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning.
Prior to the 2011 elections, Brankin announced her decision not to stand for re-election, retiring from Holyrood after 12 years. The Midlothian constituency underwent boundary changes, and the two new constituencies created, Midlothian North and Musselburgh, and Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, were won by the SNP.
Read more about this topic: Rhona Brankin
Famous quotes containing the words scottish and/or parliament:
“We’ll never know the worth of water till the well go dry.”
—18th-century Scottish proverb, collected in James Kelly, Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs, no. 351 (1721)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)