Parliamentary News Release

070/2003

Monday 1 December 2003

SCOTTISH POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

In his remarks at the Herald/Zurich awards ceremony at Prestonfield House in Edinburgh on 28 November 2003, George Reid MSP, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament said:

'I am somewhat surprised but personally very touched and honoured by this award.

It is an honour not just for me, but for colleagues on the Corporate Body and the Bureau who have worked with me to reconcile this rainbow parliament.

It is an honour too for parliamentary staff – and for my Private Office staff in particular – who have laboured long and hard to bring a sense of urgency and focus to the issues which we have to address.

The main issue, of course, is Holyrood – and the shadow which it has cast across the whole devolution project.

We are now building confidence that we are getting a grip on Holyrood. The consultants’ fees have been capped and £5M clawed back.

We are building confidence that we are almost there, that the end is in sight. The MSP offices are now finished. Queensberry House will be finished next month, Towers I and II in January, Towers III and IV in February, and the rest of the campus by summer next year.

We are building confidence that we have a parliament of international quality, in which visitors say, as they do when they tour the complex – “Just Look at That!”

We need now to have confidence that the Fraser Inquiry will be a cathartic and cleansing process.

We must then put the past behind us. We must rise to the occasion and grasp the challenge that we work in a world class building, on a World Heritage Site. We must raise our game to match that – in our vision for Scotland, in the quality and range of our debate and, as John McAllion put it earlier tonight, in our sheer daring for our country.

We can do it. We shall do it.'

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