John MacDougall M.P dies

[Harry Hayfield]

Scottish Labour MP John MacDougall has died after a long illness.  The MP for Glenrothes, first elected to the Commons in 2001, had been suffering from Mesothelioma.  Mr MacDougall, a former convenor of Fife Council, held the constituency neighbouring that of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  Mr MacDougall, who was known as a strong pro-European politician, was also a former vice-president of the Assembly of the European Regions.

Note from your friendly neighbourhood dictator; several posts have been deleted and the opening post modified. If a little respect is too hard to manage these days, a little humanity would be nice. Mesothelioma is a horrible disease. ---boardbashi

[Silent Hunter]

Rest In Peace.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Expected but upsetting anyway. Not a nice way to go. RIP.

[afleitch]

Oh no Rest in peace. Comments on where that now leaves Glenrothes can wait.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

The moderator called  my previous comments "in poor taste" be sure no offense was intended, I saw this news off the BBC, and another site where speculation had started minutes after the news broke. The chest reference had nothing to do with John MacDougall, everyone take it easy before coming down from on high on people.

[Silent Hunter]

Yeah, the BBC did start on the speculation. As soon as they did, I switched channels.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Yeah, the BBC did start on the speculation. As soon as they did, I switched channels.

Not to mention this thread is in International Elections.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I saw this news off the BBC, and another site where speculation had started minutes after the news broke.

The media might have lost whatever humanity it may once have thought it might have had, but that doesn't mean that everyone else must follow them.

[afleitch]

A relative of mine died of the same thing. Used to work in Ravenscraig like my grandfather who himself was a very lucky man.

[minionofmidas]

I saw this news off the BBC, and another site where speculation had started minutes after the news broke.

The media might have lost whatever humanity it may once have thought it might have had, but that doesn't mean that everyone else must follow them.

Meh, I remember nothing whatsoever about the man (although I presumably had come across the name before), associate no face etc; how can I be expected to feel anything about his death? And this is, indeed, in elections, not discussion - it should be about the by-election.

[Silent Hunter]

Meh, I remember nothing whatsoever about the man (although I presumably had come across the name before), associate no face etc; how can I be expected to feel anything about his death? And this is, indeed, in elections, not discussion - it should be about the by-election.

Yes, but not just yet. Not just after he's died.

[afleitch]

For the record, the closest match for this seat in Holyrood if of course Fife Central. Fife Central was targeted as part of the SNP 'New Town' strategy (alongside Cumbernauld, Cunninghame South, Livingstone and East Kilbride) and alongside Livingstone was the only success.
 
The town of Glenrothes was Scotland's second New Town built to service a new deep cast coal mine that closed after just 4 years of production. As such, the town attracted Lanarkshire miners as the mines there began to wind down and while firmly established as a major town in Fife still has a slight west of Scotland mentality.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

how can I be expected to feel anything about his death?

You shouldn't be expected to; indifference is, of course, perfectly acceptable. That's not really my point; it's more that there's something noxious about people being almost gleeful about someone dying in such an awful way. That's the normal attitude taken by the media and its spin offs of course (the fact that MacDougall was about to die was not-so-very-subtly hinted at by a wide range of people in media-and-blogland for months), but I'd rather it not become common here.

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Meh, I should probably have moved the thread. I might do later, but it's probably a bit late now.

[Peter]

I think we have previously followed a simple rule of thumb - we wait until a writ is moved in Parliament before we begin actively discussing a by-election on the boards. Whilst I feel little at the Member's death, it is at least respectful to give some peace to the family and wait for the formal by-electoral process to begin.

[Хahar 🤔]

RIP. Mesothelioma is indeed a horrible disease.

[Silent Hunter]

I think we have previously followed a simple rule of thumb - we wait until a writ is moved in Parliament before we begin actively discussing a by-election on the boards. Whilst I feel little at the Member's death, it is at least respectful to give some peace to the family and wait for the formal by-electoral process to begin.

[Rural Radical]

R.I.P.