A biography for Johann Lamonthasn’t been written yet.
“As a youngster, I travelled every year across the sea to Tiree. On occasion, we ventured to Skye on the Kyleakin-Kyle of Lochalsh ferry, where there is now a bridge.”
“Scotland has chosen to remain in partnership with our neighbours in the U.K. But Scotland is distinct, and colleagues must recognise that.”
“The Scottish Labour Party should work as equal partners with the U.K. party, just as Scotland is an equal partner in the United Kingdom. Scotland has chosen home rule - not London rule.”
“The test is can you do something, rather than have a theoretical argument - can you make a difference?”
“I will not promise what I cannot deliver. And I will never hide the cost of what I propose.”
“We do students a great disservice by implying that one set of students is more important than another.”
“I want to change Scotland, but the only way we can change Scotland is by changing the Scottish Labour Party.”
“I've got a very deep and abiding passion about education being far more than buildings and textbooks; it's what children bring into school with them.”
“I don't agree with the Tories on most things.”
“I've taught fifth-year Christmas leavers last thing on a Friday afternoon. Basically, if you can face that you can face anything.”
“With the emergence of the Internet, it has become possible for creative and bold people with focus and determination to establish businesses in some of our remotest communities. But these will not work if they do not have reliable transport routes responding to the impatient modern customer.”
“I used to go to a Gaelic class on a Saturday morning, but I never felt myself that I could speak it properly.”
“I'd always step up to the mark to serve the people of the country.”
“The job of the Scottish Labour Party is to represent working people and represent Scotland.”
“The Scottish Labour Party, while I have breath in my body, will listen to the views of trade unionists.”
“There is a presumption made among nationalists that constitutional change is the answer to all the questions that are problematic in our communities, and my job is to talk about what is happening in the real world.”
“I remember going to see Billy Graham in a cinema in Glasgow, and he was down in London. I used to go and hear preachers, and then we always went to church and Sunday school. That mattered a lot to me.”
“The big issues, the things that scar Scotland - the least of them is whether we should have a border at Gretna Green or not.”
“The idea that an independent Scotland - having separated assets and liabilities from the rest of the U.K. - would expect the rest of the U.K. to be a lender of last resort, and of course be kind to them, doesn't make any sense.”
“My uncle was skipper on the old Claymore sailing out from Oban to the Inner Hebrides. My father worked for MacBraynes all his life, on freight boats and then on ferries crossing to Skye, Barra, Uist, the small isles and Iona.”