A mAn of Three pArTies buT one cleAr vision

Jimmy Reid was a member of three political parties but never elected to parliament.

Kenny MacAskill, the former SNP justice secretary who has written a new biography of the Clydeside firebrand, believes that was the making of him.

Reid’s core beliefs remained constant throughout his early life as a Communist, his period as a Labour candidate in the 1970s, and when he finally joined the SNP in 2005, according to the former SNP Justice Secretary.

Mr MacAskill said: “Jimmy’s socialism was more rooted in morality than Marx. It was Christian socialism without the Christianity. He changed parties but not his fundamental values.

The biographer said that Jimmy, who died in 2010, was able to “rise above the battle because he was not narrow, partisan or self-seeking.”

And the former minister turned journalist and author said being in the Commons would not have suited the Govan-born man.

“In many ways he was fortunate he was never elected to parliament,” Mr MacAskill said.

“Had he been, he would probably have been unhappy, a backbencher who would have made some remarkable speeches but who would not have achieved what he did.”

Mr MacAskill decided to write the biography because he thought it was “rather shameful” there was no public chronicle of Jimmy’s life, which took in politics, trade unionism and journalism.

He said Reid’s passion and politics still resonate today: “He was a visionary in many ways.”