Name Dorothy-Grace Elder Role Journalist | ||
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Political party Scottish National Party | ||
Dorothy-Grace Elder (born 11 August 1942) is a Scottish journalist and former Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow region 1999–2003. She sat as an Independent MSP 2002–2003, having first sat as a SNP member from 1999 until she left the party in 2002. She was awarded the 1995 British Reporter of the Year.
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Journalism
She first came to the public eye in the 1970s as a television journalist, on BBC Scotland's news programme Reporting Scotland. She also worked on the ill-fated cooperatively run Scottish Daily News.
Elder worked at Scottish Television for a period, working on the documentary series, Paramedics.
In 2007 she was appointed to an honorary professorship from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. She lectures in investigative journalism to honours year students of the University.
Political career
She is also a former Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association candidate for the post of rector of the University of Glasgow, losing to the actor Richard Wilson in 1996. She was known for her campaigning abilities.
In June 1998, she was announced as a SNP candidate for the newly-formed Scottish Parliament in the elections that would take place the following year.
In the 1999 election she stood in the Glasgow Baillieston constituency and although unsuccessful in that seat, she was elected to Parliament as a Scottish National Party (SNP) representative for Glasgow region. She was a member of the Health and Community Care Committee and a member of the Public Petitions Committee. A left-winger, she supported Alex Neil in the SNP leadership election of 2000. She became dissatisfied with the way in which the SNP was being run and in May 2002 she resigned from the SNP, from that point sat in the Parliament as an independent MSP. She did not stand for re-election at the 2003 election, returning to journalism instead.
Elder initiated a cross party group to look at chronic pain In 2001, and in February 2002 led a member's debate on the issue. Elder continued to be involved with the cross-party group, more than a decade after her term as MSP finished.
Awards and honours
She was awarded 1995 Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards.