Throughout the 1980s, one of his roles was as Scottish football correspondent of the Guardian, which led to him being invited to write the official history of Celtic FC, the team he had supported from childhood.
Wilson was part of a group known as the "Highland Luxemburgists" (that included Margaret Hope MacPherson and Allan Campbell McLean), who attempted each year at the party conference to pass a resolution to bring the crofts back into common ownership.
In opposition, Wilson was spokesperson on election planning (1996–1997), trade and industry (1994–1995), transport (1992–1994 and 1995–1996)—where he was recognised as an effective Parliamentary opponent of rail privatisation— and on Scottish affairs (1988–1992).
In his first ministerial role, as Scottish Office Minister for Education and Industry, he had responsibility for the Highlands and Islands which allowed him to deliver on some of the issues he had campaigned for over a long period.
Along with the Irish President, Mary Robinson, he launched Iomairt Cholm Cille in an effort to bring closer together the Gaelic-speaking communities of Scotland and Ireland.
According to one's point of view, he is either credited or blamed for doing more than any other politician to "keep the nuclear option open" through the early years of the Labour government,[6] when many of his colleagues were determined to kill it off once and for all in Britain.
[citation needed] As Energy Minister, Wilson always advocated what he termed a "balanced" power generation policy—including nuclear, coal pollution mitigation, natural gas and renewables—which eventually became the catch-phrase of government after his departure.
Speaking at the Institution of Civil Engineers in June 2008, he joked if he had remained in politics, he would have been "knocked down in the rush" as his former foes on the nuclear issue—including the likes of Gordon Brown and Margaret Beckett—adopted the same position.
Writing in The Guardian about Castro's decision to step down as Cuban President, Wilson said he had "outwitted the United States and its 50-year obsession one last time" by ensuring an orderly transition in government while he was still alive.
Wilson holds directorships in a number of businesses and continues to publicly comment on British Government energy policy, particularly on the subject of nuclear power, of which he is a supporter,[6] and has written opinion pieces in national newspapers as well as appearing on television news programmes to air his views.
Up until July 2015, he wrote regular columns for the West Highland Free Press, which had been sold to its employees by the founders in 2008, and of which he had been the founding editor, but was controversially sacked[7] when he defended fellow columnist Donald Macleod, who had written a piece about the spread of Islam in the UK.
Wilson took an active role in opposing a "Yes" vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and spoke at many rallies of the "Just Say Naw" campaign alongside George Galloway.
Eoin has Down's Syndrome and Wilson has spoken out and written strongly against "the assumption" testing to identify the condition in pregnancy is "an undisputed good", particularly when it is not accompanied by balanced advice on options thereafter.