David Maddox: Those were the days

There is a fascinating piece by David Torrance in today's Scotsman (page 42) on the 79 Group, set up largely by young firebrands such as Alex Salmond, Kenny MacAskill, Stewart Stevenson and Roseanna Cunningham in the SNP to promote the idea of a Scottish Socialist Republic.
Of course its historical importance is that it modernised the SNP and provided the core of its future leadership. All the above are after all now ministers and Wee Eck is ensconced in Bute House.
But the above picture dug up by Torrance has provided much amusement in the media tower at Holyrood. It has Stewart Stevenson and Kenny MacAskill leading a conference walkout in 1982 because the party was not socialist enough. If you look carefully current Highland MSP Rob Gibson is there too, fifth down the line.
As we can also see those when the days of kilts and Scotland football shirts were still de rigueur in the unreconstructed SNP.
But the amusement was provided by the fashion of Mr Stevenson who depending on which hack you talk to looks like a hired hand for a Colombian drug baron (what was in that brief case?), an also-ran in the 1982 Scottish Che Guevara look alike competition or, rather cruelly, Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire Ripper), pictured right.
Anybody who knows what was in that brief case please get in touch.