Iain Macwhirter (born 24 September 1952) is a Scottish political journalist. He is a

political commentator A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

for several newspapers, an author and documentary film and radio presenter and a former Rector of Edinburgh University. He has worked at both the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

and

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

, presenting the

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

programmes '' Westminster Live'', ''Scrutiny'' and, from 1999, the

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

programme ''Holyrood Live'' from the Scottish Parliament. In 2013, he published ''Road to Referendum'', which accompanied a three-part television series of the same name on STV and ITV. Following the Scottish independence referendum, he published ''Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won A Referendum But Lost Scotland'', a retrospective on his experiences as a journalist documenting the campaign. In 2015, his book ''Tsunami'', about the SNP's victory in the 2015 general election, was published by Freight Books.

Education

Macwhirter was educated at

George Heriot's School George Heriot's School is a private primary and secondary day school on Lauriston Place in the Lauriston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. In the early 21st century, it has more than 1600 pupils, 155 teaching staff, and 80 non-teaching staff. It was ...

, a grant-aided

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland, followed by the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, where he graduated with an honours degree in politics.

Life and career

In his ''Road to Referendum'' Macwhirter recounts rejecting his parents' nationalism in the 1970s. He worked for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

for almost 20 years, first as a researcher and then as a current affairs reporter, before becoming Scottish political

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

in 1987. From 1989, he was a member of the Westminster press contingent, as part of ''Westminster Live''. In 1999, he presented ''Politics Scotland'' and ''Holyrood Live'' until both were axed in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

Current journalism

Macwhirter writes weekly columns for ''The Herald'', ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' and ''

Scotland on Sunday ''Scotland on Sunday'' is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by National World and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate ''The Scotsman''. It was originally printed in broadsheet format but in ...

'', all morning papers. He returned to Scotland to help launch the ''Sunday Herald'' in 1999, and has presented the

magazine programme ''Holyrood Live''. He also writes for ''Public Finance'' and other publications. Macwhirter's columns were suspended by ''The Herald'' in September 2022, after allegations he posted an offensive tweet about members of

Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth da ...

's cabinet.

Rector of The University of Edinburgh

Macwhirter announced that he was standing for

Rector of the University of Edinburgh The Lord Rector of The University of Edinburgh is elected every three years by the students and staff at The University of Edinburgh. Seldom referred to as ''Lord Rector'', the incumbent is more commonly known just as the ''Rector''. Role T ...

on 12 January 2009, and was backed by

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer. He has been leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded it in 2019, and is a former leader of the Respect Party. Until 2003, he was a member ...

following the latter's withdrawal as a candidate for the post. He was elected Rector on 13 February 2009, winning by 4,822 votes to 2,182 (69% to 31%). succeeding the former

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

MSP Mark Ballard.

Bibliography

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References