'The keeper of America’s political conscience' Tributes in Scotland to Jimmy Carter

The former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has joined political figures around the world in paying tribute to Jimmy Carter, describing him as the “keeper of America’s political conscience.”

The 39th president of the US, who became a leading advocate for global health and human rights issues after leaving the White House, died at his home in Georgia on Sunday, two months after celebrating his 100th birthday.

Amid an outpouring of accolades, Mr Murphy said he believed that Mr Carter continually overcame the odds throughout his life, having been underestimated before his presidential campaign, and unfairly criticised in its aftermath.

Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100. Picture: Getty | Getty Images

“He’s the first president I remember as a child growing up, and undoubtedly, he had a remarkable life in politics and a long and very substantial life post-politics,” Mr Murphy told Times Radio. “I think that to some extent, he became the keeper of America’s political conscience and became a guiding light of where a sense of truth, justice, and peace would be.

“We underrate his achievements as a president simply because he was a one-term president and because he did so much after his presidency. Ironically, he has died in the last few weeks of the one term of Joe Biden. In terms of legacy, I think it means that there can be a career after politics.”

Mr Murphy, a former secretary of state for Scotland, said there were other echoes between the Biden and Carter presidencies, adding: ““I think he was caricatured as a peanut farmer and he was not taken seriously by the elites in both parties. He surprised many by coming from nowhere to win the presidency, a bit like Biden - Biden has always been belittled by what he perceived to be bicoastal elites in the Democratic Party.

“If anyone wants to study politics, look at the example of how Carter came literally from nowhere - a town of less than 1,000 people - and managed to become the most powerful man on the planet.”

Jimmy Carter in 1976. Picture: Consolidated News Pictures/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images | Getty

He added: “His time in office was belittled by difficulty, such as inflation and the hostages in Iran, and because he was only a one term president, people believe him to have been a failure. I’ve never believed that, and I don’t believe that now. I think his reputation was strong in its own terms in his own time.”

Like several other US presidents, Mr Carter could trace his Scottish ancestry back centuries; on his father’s side, his great-great-great-great grandparents, Andrew Clinkscales and Mary Preston, hailed from Glasgow.

Mr Carter was an occasional visitor to these shores. He was especially fond of Loch Lomond, where a suite at the Lodge on Loch Lomond Hotel in Luss is named in his honour. As a lifelong fan of soul, country, and jazz music, he also visited Edinburgh several times during the festival season. During the 1995 Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, he surprised audience members by talking to the stage at St Giles Cathedral to introduce jazz pianist, Dick Hyman, and the singer, Topsy Chapman.

Gordon Brown said Jimmy Carter had “great achievements” but the former prime minister remembered him “more for his personal qualities”.

He said: “He was modest, he was unassuming. He and his wife Rosalynn, who was his closest adviser, lived very frugal lives. He refused to take any money personally for speeches and everything he did after he became president. And he was incredibly humble. I mean, when I met him, he would be praising other people rather than acknowledging his own achievements, which were massive, both in his presidency, but also perhaps more so in his post-presidential years.”

Mr Brown added that Mr Carter “treated everyone equally” which is why he “became so admired and was called on in every part of the world to be a negotiator for peace”.

Put to him that Mr Carter created a model for life after office that many have followed, Mr Brown said: “I think, to me and to many other people.”

He added: “I think he’s a model for us, and in these very uncertain times, I think he stands for the importance of the rule of law, which I think America must not forget, the importance of morality and integrity in office.

“He never saw public office as a platform for private gain or for making money, and I think that’s very important to the reputation of politics. And I think he showed it’s possible for anybody to be president, and that must be a signal to young people everywhere, that if you work hard, if you’ve got an idea of what you might want to do and achieve, you can reach the kind of office that can make a difference. But of course, his post-presidential years, which actually lasted for 44 years more than anybody else, are probably the most remarkable of all.”