About
I was born in Stockport, which is part of Greater Manchester, in July 1952. My father was a bricklayer and my mother worked in a biscuit factory. I have two younger sisters. After attending St Winifred’s primary and St Bede’s, the diocesan catholic grammar school in Manchester, I studied social sciences at York University, graduating in 1974 and then became a postgraduate research student at Glasgow University.
After University, I began work as a lecturer in sociology at Glasgow College of Technology in 1978, specialising in industrial and political sociology. I become a senior lecturer in 1989 and Head of Sociology in 1990. I was seconded to manage the integration of Nursing education into what had then become Glasgow Caledonian University in 1994 and subsequently was appointed as the University’s Head of Strategic Planning in 1997.
My wife and I have two sons, born in 1987 and 1989. At the time they were born I was Secretary of Strathclyde Regional Labour Party and National President of my Trade Union EIS-ALSCI in a voluntary capacity. In 1990 I stood down from my union positions, having been elected to Strathclyde regional council to represent the Clydebank North (Kilpatrick) ward. During my time as a Strathclyde Councillor I played a leading role in campaigning against the poll-tax. I subsequently led the campaign against the Tory local government re-organisation, the highpoint of which was the successful Strathclyde Water Referendum.
I was elected to represent the Summerston ward on Glasgow City Council in 1995. I was secretary of the Labour Group and given responsibility for taking forward partnership work with the key agencies in the city, also becoming a member of Greater Glasgow Health Board. In 1998 I was selected to contest the Clydebank and Milngavie constituency in the Scottish Parliament election. I was one of the 129 successful candidates in the first democratic Scottish Parliament elections in 1999 and have been subsequently re-elected by the people of Clydebank and Milngavie in 2003 and 2007.
Since being elected to Parliament I have pursued my interests in finance, transport, social justice and environment issues, serving for brief periods as Housing and Planning Minister in 2002-03 and 2006-07. I was a member of the Parliament’s Corporate Body from the inception of the Parliament in 1999 until 2001 and then served for four and a half years as Convenor of the Parliament’s powerful Finance committee. Until recently I was Labour’s spokesperson on Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, leading for Labour on Transport and Planning matters and in the scrutiny of the Scottish Climate Change Bill, which I helped significantly strengthen during its passage through Parliament.
In October 2009 I was appointed by Iain Gray, Labour leader at Holyrood, as shadow cabinet secretary for Education. My tasks are to develop Labour’s education policy in the run-up to the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections and to highlight the failures of the SNP, who have failed to keep any of the promises they made on class sizes, teacher numbers, new schools or student debt.
My Constituency Office is in Clydebank Central Library, staffed by Lesley and Jackie. I hold regular surgeries in my office, in community centres and in local supermarkets where I am delighted to speak individually to constituents. I have a particular interest in global poverty, debt and environment issues and was involved with both Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History in 2005. Along with the former Presiding Officer George Reid, I was the founder of the Cross Party group on International Development, which is the largest and arguably the most successful of the Parliament’s cross party groups.
Since 1995 I have been a member of the Board of the Wise Group, a Scottish-based third sector organisation which assists people excluded from the labour market to obtain and hold down jobs. I was chair of Glasgow’s 1999 Festival of Architecture and Design and have served as a member of the Board of several cultural organisations including the Tron theatre.
Because Clydebank has the highest incidence of asbestos related disease in Scotland, I have taken a strong interest in the problems faced by sufferers from conditions such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, working closely with the Clydebank Asbestos Group, Clydeside Action on Asbestos and the Trade Unions, as well as with my Westminster colleagues, Tony Worthington MP (until his retirement from politics in 2005) and John McFall MP.
My proudest achievement as a Parliamentarian is getting the Damages Scotland (Rights of Relatives) Bill, which I had initiated, enacted in 2007. This legislation will benefit not just my constituents but any family in Scotland where a family member gets cancer of the lining of their lungs as a result of exposure to asbestos dust. The profile of asbestos issues has been kept high through a successful campaign for access to drug treatment for mesothelioma sufferers and recently the Parliament approved further legislation restoring the right to compensation for those with pleural plaques.
Follow this link to see the Clydebank and Milngavie 2007 Scottish Parliament Election result.
Click here to see the election results for 1999 and 2003
Summary of Biographical details:
Date of Birth:
28th July 1952
Education:
St Bede’s College, Manchester 1963-1970
University of York 1970-74
University of Glasgow 1974-77
Employment:
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Head of Sociology 1977 -1997
Head of Strategic Planning Glasgow Caledonian University 1997-1999
Parliamentary Activities:
MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie 1999 -
Member, Scottish Parliament Corporate Body 199-2001
Convenor, Finance Committee 2001-2002
Deputy Minister for Social Justice 2002-2003
Convenor, Finance Committee 2003-2006
Deputy Minister for Communities 2006-2007
Labour spokesperson for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change 2007-2009
Labour Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education 2009 – present
