Jim Wallace Obituary: 'If Donald Dewar was father of the nation, Jim Wallace was the favourite uncle'

In the recent history of Scottish politics, Jim Wallace was a major player.

He was a pioneer of devolution and he fought hard for it. He co-chaired the Constitutional Convention long before there was any prospect of this place becoming a reality.

That showed he could think beyond his own party and work with others, something that would stand him in good stead for what was to come in his political career. He campaigned vigorously alongside Donald Dewar and Alex Salmond for a Yes-Yes vote in the 1997 referendum to establish the Scottish Parliament. The first Yes vote was to establish a Scottish Parliament and the second was to give it tax varying powers.

In 1999 he led his party into coalition with Labour – it was the first time the Liberals, now Liberal Democrats, had been in Government since the Second World War. And it was far from straightforward – the Lib-Dems were a diverse group and at times it was like herding cats, but he managed it. Labour’s parliament minister and chief whip went along to one of the Lib-Dem group meetings and said to Jim Wallace afterwards, I don’t know how you keep them in line on anything.

Jim Wallace stood in as acting first minister three times in the first Scottish Parliament; following the death of Donald Dewar, following the resignation of Henry McLeish and for a brief period when Jack McConnell was unwell. He used his experience of coalition Government to great effect in 2010. By then he was a Lib-Dem member of the House of Lords. Conservative leader David Cameron and Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg were in talks to form a coalition government at Westminster. Nick Clegg called on Lord Wallace of Tankerness to advise him in negotiations, then in Government made him Advocate General for Scotland.

I remember Jim Wallace fondly. He was a nice man, no airs or graces – I first met him when I was a young journalist working at Radio Orkney. The programme was at 7.30am in the morning and I was in the studio on my own, but it was a big day with some big announcement, on funding for ferries I think. Jim Wallace was my first interviewee and he let himself in to do the interview live on the programme, as he was well used to doing. Afterwards, and seeing how harassed I was, he hung around letting the other guests into the studio and making them cups of tea – including the then Conservative Scottish environment minister Lord Lindsay, who mistook him for the cleaner!

In 2000, very early in the life of the new Scottish Parliament Jim Wallace, as deputy first minister and justice secretary, was updating family law and removing the word “illegitimate”. It meant that from then on, all children born in Scotland would be considered “legitimate” in the eyes of Scots Law. I was working for Radio Forth, Clyde, Tay, Border, Westsound and Moray Firth in those days and I remember interviewing him about it at the time. My opening question was “So deputy first minister, there will be no bastards in the new Scotland?”. With a glint in his eye and a smile on his face, he said “no there will be no bastards in the new Scotland” and carried on with a much more detailed and legalistic explanation. I knew he had been desperate to say it in Parliament but had been advised against it, but he was bursting to say it.

He was a decent man, you can see that from tributes from all over the political spectrum. He could be very witty and was in great demand as a Burns Supper speaker, but above all he was an incredible public servant in three Parliaments, most significantly here in the Scottish Parliament where he passed the first devolved legislation.

In those early years of devolution, if Donald Dewar was considered the father of the nation then Jim Wallace was the favourite uncle.