ONE of the main functions of this newspaper is to report on and scrutinise the governance of this nation, and to hold the executive to account. This we do without fear and favour. We will criticise and condemn where necessary; but it is our happy task also to praise, encourage and give credit where credit is due.
This we are able to do through the medium of the Scottish Politician of the Year awards, which we again launch today.
The awards, now firmly established as a highlight of the political calendar, are in their 17th year. When we look back at the inaugural event, and at subsequent years, we can see that Scotland has been fortunate to have been served by some extraordinary political talent. In 1999, the first Scottish Politician of the Year was the late Donald Dewar; the One to Watch was Tricia Marwick, who is now Presiding Office of the Scottish Parliament.
The awards have widened in scope since then to include categories such as Local Politician of the Year, Community MSP of the Year and Campaigner of the Year.
We are happy to play a part in honouring those who best serve the public life of the nation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here