At the 2005 General Election the people of West Lothian entered a new era. For the first time in 43 years there were facing the fact that for the first time in 43 years none of them would be represented by Tam Dalyell.
At that election I was selected to stand in the parts of his former West Lothian constituency that lay to the north, including his ancestral home the House of the Binns. When he first posed the West Lothian question, as it became known, about the role of MPs of devolved parts of the UK, I don’t think he thought he’d still be waiting for the definitive answer 40 years later when he died.
He dedicated his autobiography “The Importance of Being Awkward” to
the men and women of West Lothian – Labour, SNP, Conservative, Liberal, Communist – who, whatever their political opinions, were kind to me in all sorts of ways over 43 years as their representative in the House of Commons.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
How Joan Aiken fought to defend the wolves of Willoughby Chase
Like Trump, Farage cannot understand democracy
Labour government needs to give universities a break
Jana 
Judy Abel 
Tristan Ward 
John Hann 