Royal honour for man who ran Holyrood

THE former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament is to be unveiled as the Lord Lieutenant of Clackmannanshire on Monday, The Scotsman has learned.

George Reid will become the Queen's personal representative in a part of Scotland where he was born and later represented as an MP and then MSP.

The honour is meant to reflect around four decades of public service by the 71-year-old, who was first elected to Westminster in 1974 when he won the Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire seat for the SNP.

While Mr Reid was unable to comment on his appointment as Lord Lieutenant before it is officially announced on Monday, friends said he is "delighted to be returning to serve a community so close to his heart".

A spokesman for the First Minister, Alex Salmond, also welcomed the appointment.

He said: "George Reid has a long and distinguished record of public service both in his beloved Clackmannanshire and internationally. This honour is thoroughly merited."

Mr Reid, who was born in Tullibody in Clackmannanshire, started his career as a trainee newspaper reporter in Glasgow but later went on to work in broadcast journalism for ITV and the BBC. His work included producing the Emmy award-winning documentary Contract 736. He made his break in politics when he was one of 11 SNP MPs elected to Westminster in 1974, but he was to lose the seat in 1979 after the SNP voted with the Tories led by Margaret Thatcher to bring down Labour because of their anger over the way Jim Callaghan's government had treated the devolution referendum.

After a brief return to journalism, where he was the producer of Michael Buerke's famous coverage of the Ethopian famine, he was head-hunted by the Red Cross as its director in public affairs, working in conflict and disaster zones.

He returned to frontline politics in 1999 when he was elected as a list MSP for the Scottish Parliament again representing the SNP.

He became Deputy Presiding Officer in the first parliament, serving with former Liberal leader Lord David Steel and then succeeded him as Presiding Officer in the second parliament, where he also represented the constituency of Ochil. During his term of office he famously suspended the Scottish Socialist Party members and was twice elected Scottish Politician of the Year.

Since retiring from Holyrood in 2007 he has been appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and was chairman of the Scottish Press Awards for four years.