User:Ralbegen/sandbox

Early life
Patricia Ferguson was born on 24 September 1958 in Glasgow. Her family "was one of the first to move into 10 Red Road Court" in Glasgow's Red Road Flats in 1966 and lived there until 1977.

Before entering elected politics, Ferguson worked in administration for the National Health Service, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party.

Ferguson was one of two inaugral deputy presiding officers of the Scottish Parliament.

Ferguson served as "campaign officer" to Jack McConnell's leadership campaign in 2001, which he won unopposed. McConnell appointed Ferguson as minister for parliamentary business. She managed the Labour campaign in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election.

In 2004, McConnell appointed Ferguson as minister for tourism, culture and sport. In that year, she led a delegation to UNESCO which resulted in Edinburgh becoming the first City of Literature and announced the appointments of the leaders of the new Architecture and Design Scotland body.

In the lead-up to the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, Ferguson promised to buy a Screen Machine mobile cinema for Dumfries and Galloway. Labour lost the election. Ferguson was appointed as shadow minister for Europe, external affairs and culture before McConnell resigned. In the subsequent 2008 Scottish Labour leadership election, Ferguson supported Cathy Jamieson. Jamieson came second with 42.2% of the vote. She nominated Bill Butler for deputy leader, who lost to Johann Lamont. She supported Lamont in the 2011 Scottish Labour leadership election and Anas Sarwar in the concurrent deputy leadership election, both of whom succeeded.

Ferguson was serving as external affairs spokesperson for Scottish Labour in 2014.