Ill health and back-stabbing that plagued final months of Dewar’s life
he was revered as the father of the nation, and the shock with which Donald Dewar’s untimely death in 2000 was greeted can be measured in newly-released Scottish Government papers.
Struggling to deal with the enormity of the news, his stunned Cabinet colleagues recorded a brief expression of their ‘profound shock and grief at the death of the First Minister’.
But, while the public expressions of sympathy and support for a great man were almost universal, the secret Cabinet papers released under the 15-year rule today show that Mr Dewar’s turbulent final months in charge were plagued with political and public unrest as well as a personal battle with ill health.
he was forced to take months off work to recuperate from a heart operation, while his administration was beset by rows over the repeal of Section 28 on teaching in schools about gay sex and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) inaccurate exam results fiasco, while blockades over fuel prices threatened to bring the nation to its knees.
his death came as the result of a fall on the steps of his official edinburgh residence, Bute house, on the afternoon of october 10, 2000. he never left hospital after the bang on his head turned into a fatal bleed on the brain. At 12.18pm on october 11, Mr Dewar was pronounced dead after his life-support machine was switched off.
Although the suddenness of his death came as a shock, his health had been the subject of speculation for months after he was whisked away for secret tests having complained of heart problems around easter.
The complaint came to light following a particularly stressful period after his administration had become embroiled in a spate of scandals involving policy advisers. Amid fears Mr Dewar was losing his grip, Minister for Parliament, Tom McCabe, had already felt it necessary to warn ministers against damaging back stairs briefings.
The Cabinet papers reveal a ‘sense of frustration was building up’ among backbench MSPs because of the number of unattributed media comments on sensitive issues from ‘senior Scottish executive sources’.
Mr Dewar had also been incensed by a newspaper report suggesting he sought to conceal the true cost of the new parliament. In February, he told Cabinet the increases were down to decisions made after the project was handed over to the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body.
Ministers voiced frustration the executive was ‘clearly being blamed for something which was not its responsibility’.
But by April, the headlines were all about the First Minister’s health.
Deputy First Minister Jim Wal- lace told the Cabinet on April 25 the First Minister had gone into hospital for tests at Glasgow Royal Infirmary’s Cardiac unit.
Despite efforts to play down the situation, it was clear Mr Dewar needed an urgent operation and on May 8 he had surgery to replace a leaking aortic valve.
While he was off work, the furore over the executive’s botched handling of the repeal of legislation over the teaching of gay sex in schools, the so-called Section 28 or 2A law, was settled amid great acrimony.
But when Mr Dewar finally returned to his desk in July, it was at the height of the crisis engulfing the SQA, which had been forced to admit that inaccurate or incomplete higher Grade exam results had been sent out to 150,000 candidates, while 5 per cent of school did not receive any results .
This was followed by the fuel protests and by the time these ebbed away, following measures to alleviate price rises announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown on November 8, Mr Dewar’s funeral service had been held at Glasgow Cathedral and his ashes scattered at Lochgilphead in Argyll.
‘Damaging back stairs briefings’