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Times Scottish editor Angus Macleod dies: ‘Scotland has lost one of the most distinctive and authoritative voices’

By William Turvill and Press Association

Leading figures from the fields of politics and media have paid tribute to Angus Macleod, the Times Scottish editor, who died yesterday after a short illness.

Macleod, 63, was being treated for cancer at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow.

He was an award-winning writer and well-known broadcaster who regularly contributed to BBC political programmes.

His death has been described as a "huge loss to journalism".

An article in The Times today described Macleod as a "hugely respected journalist" and "one of the most acute observers of the Scottish and UK political scenes".

It said: "He was loved by his staff as a fair-minded and enthusiastic editor with an extraordinary gift for identifying the heart of any news story.

"His unfailing generosity and encouragement inspired scores of colleagues and young journalists."

It added: "His loss to journalism and to Scottish society will be keenly felt."

Here are some tributes to Macleod from Twitter today:

Jim Cassidy, former editor of the Sunday Mail, sent Press Gazette the following tribute:

Scotland has lost one of the most distinctive and authoritative voices and British journalism has lost one of the greatest communicators of his generation. He never lost his enthusiasm for journalism or his resolve to source the truth.

“He used to burst into my room and with his Hebridean lilt announce, ‘I have a howitzer, a real howitzer that will blow the rest of them out the water.’ The truth was, his exclusive after exclusive did often blow the other newspapers out of the water and more often than not the ‘howitzer’ set the Scottish news agenda for the week.

“When he conveyed to me recently about his illness I told him I was just back from Stornoway and had been struck by the sense of pride the people in the islands had of him. People who had been at school with Angus, people who knew his family or just knew him through radio and newspapers talked in glowing terms of Angus Macleod.

“In reality, thousands of people throughout Scotland had that same sense of pride, they were proud of Angus Macleod."

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