Calum MacDonald | |
---|---|
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland | |
In office 11 December 1997 –29 July 1999 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Malcolm Chisholm |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Member of Parliament for Western Isles | |
In office 11 June 1987 –11 April 2005 | |
Preceded by | Donald Stewart |
Succeeded by | Angus MacNeil |
Personal details | |
Born | Calum Alistair MacDonald 7 May 1956 Stornoway,Scotland |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh,University of California,Los Angeles |
Calum Alistair MacDonald (Scottish Gaelic :Calum Alasdair Dòmhnallach; [1] born 7 May 1956) is a Scottish former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Western Isles from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Labour Party,he was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997 to 1999.
MacDonald was born on 7 May 1956 and grew up on the Isle of Lewis,Scotland. Educated at the Bayble School in Point,Outer Hebrides and Nicolson Institute,Stornoway,he went on to graduate from the University of Edinburgh with MA Honours in History and Politics.
During the 1980s,MacDonald was a Teaching Fellow at the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA) for three years where he also gained his PhD in Political Philosophy. He returned to the UK to help out with the family kitchen and bathroom fittings business.
His political interests are wide-ranging. MacDonald's published journalism ( The Independent , The Daily Telegraph ,the Glasgow Herald and the New Statesman ) include articles on:Northern Ireland;the Balkans;Russia;links between Labour and the Liberal Democrats;Voting Reform;the Debate on Clause IV,etc. He was an early advocate of European defence co-operation,in "A New Model Army" (Fabian Discussion Paper,1991) and "European Security at the Crossroads" (in B Crawford and P Schulze,Ed,European Dilemmas after Maastricht,Centre for German and European Studies UC Berkeley,1993).
In 1990,he co-founded the Future of Europe Trust,which acted as a forum for young politicians across Eastern and Western Europe to progress their views on Europe. Between 1988 and 1992 he served on the Commons Select Committee on Agriculture. In 1991,he piloted his own Private Members Bill through the House of Commons,the Crofter Forestry Act,which has since led to the planting of mixed woodland by crofter communities in the Highlands and Islands.
Between 1991 and 1995,he was a leading campaigner for Western military intervention in the former Yugoslavia and a persistent critic of the-then Government's policy.
Between 1992 and 1997,[ citation needed ] he was Chair of Labour Initiative on Co-operation (LINC),a Labour Party pressure group promoting co-operation with the Liberal Democrats. [2]
MacDonald was first elected as MP for Western Isles at the 1987 general election.
A europhile,he was one of only five Labour MPs to vote for the Third Reading of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993,defying his party Whip to abstain. [3]
In May 1997,he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Between December 1997 and July 1999,he was Minister for Housing,Planning and European Affairs at the Scottish Office. Between July 1998 and July 1999,he had additional responsibilities for Transport,Highlands and Islands and Gaelic. In his capacity as Minister for Gaelic,he gave the 1998 Sabhal Mòr Lecture.
MacDonald is a former Chair of the Fabian Society,the Labour Party's senior think-tank. He is an Honorary Fellow of the European Economics and Financial Centre.
MacDonald was defeated by Angus MacNeil of the Scottish National Party at the 2005 general election.
On 1 April 2006 he was appointed as a non-executive Commissioner for Scotland for the Forestry Commission for a three-year term. [4]
The Hebrides are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups,based on their proximity to the mainland:the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
North Uist is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
Donald James Stewart was Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1987 for the Western Isles. He also served as President of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 1982 to 1987. He was a councillor in Stornoway for many years and twice served as the town's provost.
The Maastricht Rebels were British Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to the then governing Conservative Party who refused to support the government of Prime Minister John Major in a series of votes in the House of Commons on the issue of the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty in British law.
Brian David Henderson Wilson is a former Scottish Labour Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Cunninghame North from 1987 until 2005 and served as a Minister of State from 1997 to 2003.
The first Highland Land League emerged as a distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s,with its power base in the country's Highlands and Islands. It was known also as the Highland Land Law Reform Association and the Crofters' Party. It was consciously modelled on the Irish Land League.
John Farquhar Munro was a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Ross,Skye and Inverness West from 1999 until his retirement in 2011.
The West Highland Free Press was founded in the Scottish Highlands in 1972 as a left-wing weekly newspaper,but with the principal objective of providing its immediate circulation area with the service which a local paper is expected to provide. It is based at Broadford on the Isle of Skye,covering Skye,Wester Ross and the Outer Hebrides.
Angus Brendan MacNeil is a Scottish politician serving as the independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Na h-Eileanan an Iar covering the Outer Hebrides. He was elected as the Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate in 2005. He was re-elected for the party at the subsequent four elections,but was suspended for one week from the party's Parliamentary group in July 2023,after which he decided not to rejoin,leading to his suspension and later expulsion from the party.
The Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created legal definitions of crofting parish and crofter,granted security of land tenure to crofters and produced the first Crofters Commission,a land court which ruled on disputes between landlords and crofters. The same court ruled on whether parishes were or were not crofting parishes. In many respects the Act was modelled on the Irish Land Acts of 1870 and 1881. By granting the crofters security of tenure,the Act put an end to the Highland Clearances.
The Napier Commission,officially the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands was a royal commission and public inquiry into the condition of crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
The Crofters' Party was the parliamentary arm of the Highland Land League. It managed to elect five MPs in the 1885 general election and a sixth the following year.
Tarskavaig is a crofting village on the west coast of Sleat on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It sits in a glen which meets Tarskavaig Bay and lies opposite the Isles of Eigg,Rum and Canna. It is often said that Tarskavaig has the best view of the Cuillin in Skye.
The Sabhal Mòr Lectures are a series of annual televised lectures held at the college Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Skye,Scotland. The lectures are held in English,but focus on topics related to the Scottish Gaelic language,often with emphasis on related economic or cultural issues. The invited lecturers are sometimes very prominent personalities,and a number of the lectures have been seen as landmarks in the development of Scottish Gaelic policy. The lectures are sponsored and broadcast by STV. Notable speakers over the years have included Mary Robinson,Gordon Brown,Donald Dewar and Jack McConnell.
Sir John MacLeod TD was a British army officer,tweed designer,and politician who was a Member of Parliament in the Scottish highlands for 19 years.
Calum MacDonald is a musician who was a founder member of,and percussionist in,the Scottish Celtic rock band Runrig,as well as their primary songwriter with his older brother,Rory MacDonald from 1973 to 2018. Generally,Rory wrote the melodies,and Calum the lyrics.
The Isle of Skye,or simply Skye,is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin,the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. Although Sgitheanach has been suggested to describe a winged shape,no definitive agreement exists as to the name's origins.
Glendale is a community-owned estate on the north-western coastline of the Duirinish peninsula on the island of Skye and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. The estate encompasses the small crofting townships of Skinidin,Colbost,Fasach,Glasphein,Holmisdale,Lephin,Hamaraverin,Borrodale,Milovaig,Waterstein,Feriniquarrie,Totaig,Hamara,and others.
Calum is a given name. It is a variation of the name Callum,which is a Scottish Gaelic name that commemorates the Latin name Columba,meaning "dove".
John Murdoch was a Scottish newspaper owner and editor and land reform campaigner who played a significant part in the campaign for crofters rights in the late 19th century