Jimmy Reid
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Jimmy Reid’s funeral in 2010 was attended by Gordon Brown the former Prime Minister, Alex Salmond the First Minister and other leading politicians. Eulogies were given by his friends Sir Alex Ferguson and Billy Connolly. Crowds lined the streets for the funeral cortege. The Daily Telegraph described Reid as the `greatest MP Scotland never had’ in its obituary.
Yet to date there has been no biography of the man who was an iconic figure in Scotland and hugely popular both as a politician and then as a TV and media commentator. Written with the approval and input of his family and friends it provides an insight into the man and his life.
MacAskill’s biography describes Jimmy Reid’s rich and varied life from his upbringing in Govan, a senior full time official for the Communist Party of Great Britain, as well as his role in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilder’s work-in which ran for 16 months from June 1971 to October 1972. He was active in the trade union movement, and his political career took him from the CPGB to the Labour Party and eventually to the SNP and the cause of Scottish independence. The biography also covers his later career in the media as an acclaimed newspaper and magazine columnist and gifted television presenter.
Underpinning the personal story is Scotland’s changing political landscape, transforming a land of council housing and manufacturing industry to owner occupied and financial services.
Kenny MacAskill was, until 2016, a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern, and former Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish government. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh and was a senior partner in an Edinburgh law firm before being elected as an MSP in 1999. He is the author of the acclaimed 'The Lockerbie Bombing: The search for Justice' (ISBN 9781785900723).