Nicola Sturgeon said staff in this Glasgow pub wouldn't serve her
In 1989, there was a by-election in Glasgow Central, which saw a young Nicola Sturgeon campaigning for Alex Neil, who was hoping to win the seat from Labour, whose candidate was Mike Watson.
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Labour held the seat fairly comfortably by 14,480 to the SNP's 8018.
She wrote that the highlight of that campaign for her was a 'nightly 'protest'' she and her friend, and later to be cabinet colleague, Shona Robison, staged.
The SNP campaign office was next door to The Laurieston, which she said: 'was and still is a very traditional, much loved Glasgow pub'.
However, Sturgeon said not everyone was treated equally by some of the staff.
She wrote: 'There were a couple of bartenders who refused point blank to serve Shona or me, always pretending not to see us as they took orders from men behind us in the queue.
She said she doubted it was official pub policy not to serve women and suspected they were 'trying to put a couple of uppity university students in their place'.
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Sturgeon said: 'Every night after campaigning, we would perch ourselves on bar stools and loudly demand to be served, usually to no avail, leaving us to drink pints bought for us by our male friends instead.'
Sturgeon said at that time she was involved in both national and student politics, campaigning for the Glasgow University Student Nationalist Association to elect Hue and Cry singer Pat Kane as Rector up against Labour candidate Tony Benn.
She said that was a 'big step up', giving her experience not just as a 'foot soldier' but 'where I found the confidence to put forward ideas and shape how we ran the campaign'.
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