as being focussed on tackling poverty, women's rights and disability issues. She credits Curran, and the work of author Erin Pizzey for helping to broaden her understanding of women's issues. On 12 March 2014, she led a Scottish Parliament debate in which she discussed the increased opportunities available for women in Scotland, whilst highlighting issues she felt still needed to be addressed. At First Minister's Questions, she often highlighted personal stories of members of the public, believing them to bring an element of real life into the Parliament. Along with Holyrood's other opposition leaders, Lamont signed the Equality Network's Equal Marriage Pledge in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in January 2012, and voted in favour of the Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill on 4 February 2014. As someone with a Gaelic background, she has spoken of her belief in the importance of providing support for the language, feeling it has an economic benefit for Scotland. On the death of 95-year-old Nelson Mandela in December 2013, Lamont joined other public figures in paying tribute to him, describing the former South African President as "the towering figure of my life since I became politically aware". Lamont has said that Labour lost the 2011 Scottish Parliament election because the party lost its direction, and that having failed to recognise the 2007 result as a defeat, it picked up the wrong signals from the 2010 general election that saw a strong Scottish Labour vote at Westminster. In February 2012, she told the Times Educational Supplement, "We misread the 2010 (general) election, thinking it was confirmation that Scotland was a Labour country – it was probably confirmation that Scotland was still anti-Tory. There's an issue about rebuilding trust, and our confidence in the values that brought us into politics." She told delegates at the 2012 Scottish Labour Party conference that it was time for them to stop apologising for past mistakes. "We know what happened last May – we looked tired and complacent and we got the kind of beating we deserved. But now, we need to start building the kind of Scottish Labour Party which Scotland deserves and which Scotland needs." In an interview with Scotland on Sunday in September 2013, Lamont signalled her support for the creation of a land tax as part of reforms to local taxation, suggesting that the council tax freeze introduced by the SNP had resulted in a funding