WINNIE Ewing’s role in the anti-poll tax campaign is often understated. Here are two examples from around 1988 in the run-up to its introduction.
The scene is an SNP National Council on a cold February day in the Pleasance in Edinburgh. By my reckoning around 90-odd were in attendance.
Winnie was ending her report as MEP. Her closing words were (with, of course, her characteristic flick of the shoulder: “As your president I shall not being paying the poll tax.”
The impact of these few words over coming months were profound.
The other scene is the tearoom of the Eden Court Theatre at a subsequent SNP conference in Inverness. Kirsty Wark walks in with camera crew in tow. She scans the room and her eye settles on a group of SNP matrons at the next table to ours. She approaches said table and says: “Excuse me ladies, could I interview you about the poll tax.”
They agree. The group at our table look at each other with sinking hearts.
Cameras roll Wark asks if they will be paying the poll tax. One of the women replies: “As Winnie our president isn’t paying, neither shall we.” Needless to say the mood of the group at the next table was somewhat ecstatic though we endeavoured not to show it.
Bill Ramsay
via email
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