Politician

Politician

Born: September 28, 1939; Died: September 19, 2014.

Iain MacCormick, who has died aged 74, was from an influential political family whose members were active in Scottish public life for much of the post-war era.

His father 'King' John MacCormick was a founder member of the Scottish National Party and later a charismatic leader of the Covenant movement, while Iain's brother Neil was an eminent constitutional lawyer and an SNP member of the European Parliament.

Iain Somerled MacDonald ­MacCormick was born on 28 September 1939, the eldest son of John MacDonald MacCormick and his wife Margaret. After attending Glasgow High School he studied at the city's university, g­raduating with an MA and later a BSc.

From 1957-67, MacCormick served with the Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry with the rank of captain, during which he married for the first time, Micky Trefusis Elsom, with whom he had two sons and three daughters.

At the 1970 general election, he contested the Conservative-held seat of Argyll, but failed to unseat the former Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Noble.

MacCormick succeeded, however, at his second attempt in February 1974 (he liked Noble, who had helped him as his local MP), and was one of seven SNP members returned as the party broke through as a major political force for the first time.

His maiden speech focused on the recent report of the Harold Wilson-appointed Kilbrandon Commission, which had been tasked with considering the governance of the United Kingdom, a delayed response to Winnie Ewing's stunning by-election victory in Hamilton in 1967.

He regarded its report, which r­ecommended a devolved Scottish assembly, as both vitally important and also a first step in constitutional terms.

MacCormick was a gradualist in nationalist terms, a believer in pursuing incremental steps towards independence rather than a big bang approach.

Emphasising that the SNP was a responsible party, he was confident that having begun with the Kilbrandon proposals then over the years the people of Scotland would, in his words, naturally demand more powers, "and who knows at what stage they will say that that is enough? When the Scots people say that it is enough," he told the House, "it will be enough for me as well."

He also assured MPs, most of whom were staunch unionists, that the SNP would quite definitely play a major part in the running of such an assembly, within its rules. "We will show that Scotland can produce people who are prepared, able and willing to take part in responsible government in Scotland or, for that matter, outside of Scotland in this House."

Ideologically, MacCormick was centre left or a social democrat, an identity which at that point in the 1970s the SNP was keen to acquire. Re-elected to represent Argyll in the second General Election of 1974, he was now one of an 11-strong '­football team' of nationalist MPs. In 1976 he introduced a private member's bill dealing with divorce law in Scotland.

At the 1979 General Election, however, MacCormick was defeated by the Conservative candidate John MacKay and, after a spell as a local councillor, he actually quit his party to become a founder member of the breakaway Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981, a natural extension of his own political beliefs and understandable in the context of an SNP busy tearing itself apart on ideological grounds.

Out of Parliament, MacCormick worked as a major account manager and later a liaison manager for British Telecom and, between 1993-95, as a trade consultant for a firm called Bartering.

In the first decade of the 21st century he was also an agent for DataLocator and then a database and IT controller for Nationwide Trade Hospitality. He also taught for a time at Oban High School.

Oban was also his base, although towards the end of his life MacCormick and his third wife Riona (nee MacInnes) spent a lot of time in France. Other leisure pursuits included rugby football, sailing and local history, while he was a member of the Glasgow Art Club.

Having rejoined the SNP followed his membership of the SDP, one of the last things MacCormick did before his death was vote Yes in last Thursday's independence referendum.

As the SNP MSP Mike Russell has written, it was "a measure of his passion for change and his extraordinary, determined character that despite being ill and in hospital until the end of last week, he insisted on going in person to vote".

Russell also recalled speaking at a Yes meeting in Oban earlier this year where he "remained a fine orator whose keen mind got to the very heart of any issue".

MacCormick passed away on Friday evening.