The Scottish Parliament: - History

Dr Winnie Ewing, as oldest qualified Member, chairs the meeting, "I have the opportunity to make a short speech and I want to begin with the words that I have always wanted either to say or to hear someone else say: the Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on 25 March 1707, is hereby reconvened."
Experienced politicians from the major parties were joined by the Green Party's first UK parliamentarian.
	Left to right: MSPs waiting to enter the Chamber; Donald Dewar (Labour); Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party); Robin Harper (Green Party).
	Left to right: Denis Canavan (Member for Falkirk West); Tommy Sheridan (Scottish Socialist Party); Nora Radcliffe (Liberal Democrat); Jim Wallace (Liberal Democrat).
	Left to right: David McLetchie (Conservative); Elaine Murray (Labour); Sylvia Jackson (Labour); Winnie Ewing and Margaret Ewing (Scottish National Party).

The two candidates for the post of Presiding Officer (Sir David Steel and George Reid) await the outcome of the secret ballot.	The two successful candidates for the post of Deputy Presiding Officer (Patricia Ferguson and George Reid) congratulate each other.
	The Presiding Officer (Sir David Steel): I thank members for the honour and the responsibility which I have been given. I undertake to set aside party affiliation and to be the servant of the whole Parliament. Last week, William McIlvanney, in a poem, talked about the Scottish lion becoming a kitten again, which must be cherished. We must cherish this Parliament. This is the start of a new sang.
At the conclusion of the first meeting of the Parliament on 12 May, a group portrait was taken by photographers Robin Gillanders and Chris Hall. This was officially unveiled on 10 June 1999 at a reception at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The photograph was commissioned by the National Galleries of Scotland. The inspiration of the picture was a painting by David Octavius Hill of the 150 ministers at the first General Assembly of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland to take place after the dissenting churchmen split from the Church of Scotland in 1843. The painting, which took 17 years to complete, features the ministers standing in the same chamber as the MSPs.