Jackie Baillie MSP says damehood honour should be shared with community

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Jackie Baillie has told how she thought someone was “pulling her leg” after receiving a letter telling her she would be made a dame – saying she will accept her top honour on behalf of the communities she serves.The Dumbarton constituency MSP receives the damehood in the King’s first Birthday Honours in recognition of her political and public service.The veteran MSP has represented Dumbarton since the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999.She is understood to be the first sitting MSP at Holyrood to either be knighted or be given a damehood – the female equivalent of a knighthood.Speaking to the Lennox Herald, the Scottish Labour deputy leader said the honour was “totally unexpected” and told of the “surreal” moment she found out.She said: “I didn’t think it was real at first.

It felt really surreal.“It was a letter and I thought that somebody was pulling my leg so I waited for a bit but no one admitted to pulling my leg!“It is incredibly humbling.”With recipients of honours sworn to secrecy about their awards ahead of the honours list being made public, the politician told just two people about the award – her daughter and the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar.She said she was pleased she no longer had to keep it under wraps, telling how she has received an “incredible” number of phonecalls and emails from well-wishers since the honour was made public on Friday night.And she insisted the award would not change her.She laughed: “I was out campaigning in Castlehill yesterday and I got my leg pulled quite a bit.“Nothing about me has changed whatsoever.”Ms Baillie is one of only three MSPs at Holyrood who have represented the same constituency for the lifetime of the Parliament – the others being former deputy first