Donald Dewar's spokesman David Whitton based his reading at the funeral on Equality by RH Tawney. His reading also included reaction from Mr Dewar.
''Well, I wonder what Donald would have made of all of this? I think I know. But I know too what he valued as most important and that was people. The people here to remember him, the people outside who thought well of him, the people who wrote about him.
But most importantly the people whose causes and whose communities he fought for all his life. So for this celebration event, Marion and Ian can think of nothing better than one of Donald's own favourite texts, Equality by RH Tawney.
Typically Dewaresque, he described it as 'old fashioned but relevant'. It seems to be about tadpoles but it is really about everything that Donald believed in. Which is that everyone - no matter their background - should get an equal chance in life.
It says: 'It is possible that intelligent tadpoles reconcile themselves to the inconvenience of their position that, though most of them will live and die as tadpoles and nothing more, the more fortunate of the species will one day shed their tails, distend their mouths and stomach, hop nimbly on to dry land and croak addresses to their former friends on the virtues by means of which tadpoles of character and capacity rise to be frogs.
This conception of society may be described perhaps as the tadpole philosophy since the consolation which it offers for social evils consists in the statement that exceptional individuals can succeed in evading them.
Donald then said: 'If we look at our society, the tadpole philosophy is a very, very real threat, and I can see it, indeed, in parts of my constituency where people of real capacity don't make it simply because hope and expectation is snuffed out, and if there is one theme which I think ought to be the mark of any Government in this day and age it should be the fight against social exclusion and I hope that would be a benchmark against which people would measure policy.'
Donald's commitment to Social Justice remains at the heart of our policy and that is the real legacy he leaves behind.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article