Farewell to Midlothian South SNP MSP Christine Grahame after 27 years in Scottish Parliament
After 27 years in the Scottish Parliament, Christine Grahame, 81, has decided to stand down at this election.
Right from the start of the Scottish Parliament, Christine Grahame has been a strong advocate for her constituents and a determined campaigner for her chosen causes.
And despite never holding ministerial office, she has become one of the most visible figures in the parliament because every week at First Minister's Questions she makes sure she gets the second-row seat which is always in camera shot.
Her prime spot also allowed her to show off her collection of big brooches.
But at the age of 81, after 27 years as an MSP, Ms Grahame has decided to stand down at this election.
She is proud of what the Scottish Parliament has achieved. "I think it's sensational in the difference it's made to people's lives in Scotland," she said. And she cited the Borders Railway, minimum unit pricing of alcohol and the smoking ban as examples.
"We've gone for taxation - even though most people in Scotland pay less tax than they would in England - and you get so many other things, like we got rid of prescriptions."
Ms Grahame had already had two careers - as a teacher and a lawyer - before she was elected as one of the original MSPs at the start of devolution in 1999.
"Most of us were geenhorns," she said. "One or two had been MPs and they shone - you could see they'd got the style and they knew how to do things.
“I was a lawyer, so when I came in I spoke like a lawyer, I behaved like a lawyer, I didn't tell anybody what I was doing because lawyers don't tell anybody. And after about six months I thought, how are these other people getting into the papers? So I met editors and by the end I was doing eight columns, including one for the Evening News every month."
She also made a priority of her relationship with constituents. "For the past decade, I've done my surgeries in supermarkets, right beside the check-outs. I would never have visited a politician's surgery about anything and I'm like most people, so I thought: just be there casually. I got my messages and I sat there. People would come and chat to me. I think that made me approachable, which is very important, because the people that really need help are the ones that don't come to you, they stumble across you."
She served as a committee convener four times and also as Deputy Presiding Officer (DPO), chairing full meetings of the parliament.
"I had been a secondary teacher and all that DNA came flooding back, so I laid down rules as I would have done for any class. There were some usual suspects and I knew as soon as they stood up we were going to get the story of their life before we get to the question so I stopped them in their tracks.
"I didn't allow spurious points of order. And I was famous for lifting my pen up, which meant they had one minute left, because I didn't want to interrupt their speech to tell them."
Ms Grahame is a republican and boycotted the Queen's visit to Holyrood in 2009, marking the parliament's 10th anniversary. But she was happy to welcome the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh when she was DPO. "It was different because I wasn't being me, I was representing the parliament."
Throughout her time as an MSP, Ms Grahame has represented part of both Midlothian and the Borders and she was heavily involved in the reopening of the Borders Railway from Edinburgh, through Midlothian to Tweedbank. She was delighted when it was launched in 2015. “That was one of the biggest things - promise kept.”
Now she wants to see the line reopened all the way to Carlisle and is convinced it will happen. "It's proved itself now, it has earned itself support because of the numbers using it."
Animal rights have been another passion - and she has succeeded in getting two Bills passed. The 2010 Control of Dogs Act gave councils the power to impose dog control notices on dog owner, focusing on "the deed not the breed" to prevent attacks.
And the 2025 Welfare of Dogs Act is designed to promote responsible pet ownership. Ms Grahame said: “There is a huge issue of puppy farming in Ireland - they're bred like battery hens and sold for up to £3,000 each. I couldn't legislate for Ireland, so I thought: who can help stop this from happening? The people who want a puppy. So it’s saying to them ‘Before you do this, think about these things’ - there's a list of things and you print out a certificate at the end saying you’ve read and understood it.”
She also took up the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, arguing his conviction for the Lockerbie bombing was a miscarriage of justice. “I read up all the stuff and I thought this man's not guilty.” She met him in prison three times and argued with both Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill about the conviction.
Ms Grahame says her love of big brooches is down to another prominent nationalist figure, the late Lothian MSP Margo MacDonald. “She gave me a lovely sparkly brooch with two cats. After that I thought I'd get another one and I became an addict.”
The brooches were quickly noticed. “One lady emailed and said she was very ill in the last stages of cancer, but would I take one of her brooches. She had this brooch of a teddy bear with legs that moved. It was when I was DPO and I said 'I'll wear it when I'm in the chair and you'll see your brooch in parliament' and I got an email from her saying how happy she was to have seen it.”
And Ms Grahame said she learned the trick of sitting behind the First Minister at FMQs from the late Andrew Welsh, former SNP MSP for Angus. To be sure of securing the seat, she would go to the chamber by 11am and work on emails while she waited.
The rest of the time, she usually sat in a corner seat on the back row - another strategic position, where she could nab ministers on their way out.
But for FMQs and the farewells on the last day of parliament, Ms Grahame gave up her special second-row seat for former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who was also standing down. Humza Yousaf, another departing former First Minister, sat across the aisle. “It was right and proper,” said Ms Grahame.