Dewar ranks higher than inventors....

azzuri · Dewar ranks higher than inventors....

see - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4881574.stm

Dewar ranks higher than inventors....

Former first minister Donald Dewar has been ranked a greater Scot than the inventors of the telephone and penicillin, according to a new poll.
In the survey for Stirling University and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, William Wallace came first, with 36% of 1,000 votes.

Robert Burns, ranked next with 16% of votes, then Robert the Bruce, with 12%.

More than one in ten people in Scotland could not think of any great Scottish historical figure to nominate.

Dewar, the first person to take the post of first minister, made it into fourth place, with 4% of votes.

The politician, who died of a brain haemorrhage in 2000, narrowly beat Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin.

John Logie Baird and Alexander Graham Bell, who respectively invented the television and telephone, won 2% of votes each, as did Mary Queen of Scots.

'Patriotic hero'

Another Labour leader, John Smith, who asked died prematurely of a heart attack in 1994, attracted 1% of votes.

King James I, the Reformation figure John Knox, Rob Roy MacGregor, Bonnie Prince Charlie, economist Adam Smith and industrialist Andrew Carnegie also mustered 1% of the vote.

Dr Michael Penman, of the university's history department, said: "By identifying those figures whom Scots choose to celebrate at any given time we can learn a lot about changes in Scottish politics, culture and identity.

"For example, the project has looked at how William Wallace has become Scotland's ultimate patriotic hero but also a champion of the working class, overshadowing the royal figure of Robert the Bruce."

The findings have inspired an exhibition, Great Scot, which will open on Friday at the Scottish Portrait Gallery.

This article shows just how bad our nation's knowledge of their history really is. Dewar above Rob Roy MacGregor, Adam Smith and Andrew Carnegie? Don't make me laugh.

Carnegie is celebrated and is seen as a champion of the working man in New York City, a guy who encompassess the American Dream and philanthropy to the highest degree. I can't even believe Dewar made it onto this list. Just because the Daily Record put up a cheap statue of him outside Buchanan Galleries doesn't make him a hero or a 'Greatest Scot'.

I imagine a few folk answered Dewar because they didn't know anyone else - a shocking state of affairs indeed.

Wolf of Badenoch

I thoucht the exact same as ye when i saw this,how Dewar can come onywhaur near a list ae great Scots is beyond me.
As for BPC,whit wis he daeing in there?He wisnae Scottish and if being responsible for bringing aboot the brutal destruction o a way ae life an being an arrogant drunk passes as great then there`s something far wrang somewhaurs.

Rinty · j

Carnegie a champion of the working man? aye right!

Dewar was a fake, the statue in Buchanan Street turns my stomach.

While he stood against privatisation of the public utilities he secretly bought shares in all of them, leaving a tidy sum from the profits.

azzuri

OK, maybe not so a champion of the working man, but certainly a well-liked philanthropist.

Just because you're rich doesn't make you greedy or selfish.

Agreed about Dewar however.

Lothian Sky

Donald Dewar gives me the dry boke. No disrespect, he was not a bad guy. Any Labour figurehead who snuffs it these days, instantly becomes some sort of deity, and that's what makes me sick. What exactly did he do? Carry out his instructions. Or the will of the people, whatever way you want to look at it. In other words, HIS JOB. I didn't hear him mentioning devolution much before labour got into power.

SLG

We'll see where Dewar is in a few decades. I'd like to see James Clerk Maxwell in there as well. Consistently voted the 3rd greatest scientist in the world, and we do almost nothing to recognise him. He should be a household name here the same as Newton and Einstein.

Katie1984

Didn't Donald Dewar help to lie about the oil revenues? If so he was not 'a good guy' at all - and his statue should be torn down when we win independence.

parkhead_rfb

john mclean or james connolly for me.

Lothian Sky

I never said he was a good guy.
I said he wasn't a bad guy, but that's hardly a compliment.

He was a tosspot of the highest calibre.
Especially for the way he treated Sean Connery.
He wasn't even a good politician.

frank rizzo

Dewar was a fraud, a hypocrite and did indeed lie about how successful an independent Scotland could be.

Neil

It shows considerable historical ignorance on the part of Scots that Dewar is even on the list,It like saying the best film of all time is V for Vendetta because you can't remember last month's films & have never heard of any current one that wasn't publicised.