Rebel returns with popular cause
FOR someone so vocal, Carolyn Leckie had been quiet for a while.
But the former Socialist MSP, who set up the petition opposing the demolition of the Red Road flats, has now found herself back in the limelight with a new cause.
The divorced mother of two from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, ‘quietly drifted away’ from the Scottish Socialist Party two years ago.
Known for being thrown out of Holyrood, arrested at Faslane and refusing to lie for Tommy Sheridan, she is now simply a law student in her final year at Strathclyde University.
However, she has ruled out a return to public life, stating last night: ‘I am just a Glaswegian who was annoyed by this demolition plan and wanted to set up a petition.’
The 49-year-old has come a long way since her first job at Danny’s Donuts in Glasgow’s Barras. The daughter of a shipyard worker, she drifted into politics after becoming a midwife and then a Unison union leader who represented thousands of hospital workers in strikes against low pay.
Elected to the Scottish parliament in 2003, she became the first MSP made to leave the debating chamber following a row with Presiding Officer George Reid.
It came when Miss Leckie tried to raise a point of order on a nursery nurses’ strike. When asked to wait until later, she protested and was asked by Mr Reid to stand and apologise.
She stayed seated and when asked to leave the chamber, refused to do so. Only after the sitting was suspended did she get up and leave, cheered by more than 50 nurses outside Holyrood and stating: ‘I am not prepared to wait.’ Two years later she hit the headlines again as a protester in a demonstration against nuclear weapons at Faslane naval base.
Arrested and convicted of a breach of the peace, she refused to pay her fine and was jailed for seven days for non-payment.
She spent one night at Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling and emerged vowing to improve conditions for women prisoners after having her clothes and possessions confiscated.
Miss Leckie was arrested again during an antinuclear protest at Faslane in January 2007.
She was not charged, although her previous conviction raised the possibility of her being removed from the register of midwives. However, the disciplinary action was dropped.
Her petition against the demolition plan has put her back in the public eye, but this time on the side of more mainstream opinion.