Statue of Donald Dewar
A statue of the Scottish politician Donald Dewar stands on Buchanan Street in Glasgow city centre. The statue was unveiled on 7 May 2002 by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair.[1] It was sculpted by Kenny Mackay.[2] The statue is 9 feet in height. Dewar is depicted wearing spectacles and his "characteristic stoop and crumpled suit".[2]
The statue was unveiled on 7 May 2002 by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair in front of a crowd of several hundred people.[2]
At the unveiling of the statue Blair said that Dewar's " ... compassion, his fundamental decency and his deep sense of social justice defined his entire approach as a politician" and described him as a "transforming moderate".[1] The former leader of Scottish Labour, Wendy Alexander, said that the statue was " ... magnificent, the setting and the angle of it ...It's wonderful but it's not what he was when he was at his most exhausted".[2]
The statue was taken down in October 2005 to be cleaned, and was re-erected on 6-foot (1.8 m) high plinth in December in an effort to protect it from vandalism.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Russell Leadbetter (5 August 2020). "Those were the days - 2002: Tony Blair unveils the Donald Dewar statue". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Blair unveils Dewar memorial". BBC News. 7 May 2002. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
