David Maddox: Going to the wall for women

Many of you will have read today about the search to find a new quotation to put on the Scottish Parliament's Canongate Wall, not least in today's Scotsman.

There are 24 quotes on the wall, mainly celebrating scottish writers and famous sayings. However, amazingly, there are no quotes from women.

This point has not been lost on some of Scotland's resident feminists who have launched a campaign to have a Scottish woman added.

The campaign is based on a facebook page created by Jeane Freeman and Susan Stewart of Glasgow.

One contributor on the site has put forward the Edinburgh author Muriel Spark's (pictured left) name. Perhaps the quote should be from her most character, Miss Jean Brodie, famously played by Maggie Smith (pictured right in the role), although maybe not one of her devotions to the Fascist leader Mussolini. Here are some suggestions:

"Deep in most of us is the potential for greatness or the potential to inspire greatness" - may actually inspire some of our MSPs.

"P-E-T-R-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N. Petrification! I do not intend to devote my prime to petrification" - may serve as a warning to our MSPs who too often seem to be more interested in meaningless, point scoring subject debates rather than doing something to change Scotland for the better.

"Safety does not come first. Goodness, truth, and beauty come first" - may encourage some of Holyrood's more radical thinkers (if there are any).

"I am a teacher! First, last, always!" - Could act as a reminder to politicians that there are hundreds of teachers unable to get a job thanks to the mismanagement of resources.