THE sad demise of Speaker Betty Boothroyd ("Tributes to ‘one of a kind’ as first female Speaker Betty dies at 93", The Herald, February 28) reminds me of the time when the Labour Party hierarchy refused to consider me as a suitable candidate for the Scottish Parliament, despite the fact that I had been MP for part of the Falkirk area for a quarter of a century and I had the support of 97% of Labour Party members in my constituency who wanted me to be on the approved list of candidates for th
