- Colin Fox
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This article is about the Scottish politician. For the Canadian actor, see Colin Fox (actor).
Colin Fox SSP joint national spokesperson Incumbent Assumed office
13 February 2005Member of the Scottish Parliament
for LothiansIn office
1 May 2003 – 3 May 2007Personal details Born 17 June 1959
Motherwell, ScotlandPolitical party Scottish Socialist Party Colin Fox (born 17 June 1959, Motherwell) is the national spokesperson of the Scottish Socialist Party, and a former member for Lothian in the Scottish Parliament. He lives in the Inch, Edinburgh, with his partner Zillah and their two children.
Fox studied mathematics at Strathclyde University for a year before switching to Bell’s College, Hamilton, where he trained to be an accountant.[1]
Contents
Political history
Fox describes Tony Benn as "one of my heroes", and says that it was after attending a talk given by Benn at Glasgow University that he was inspired to get involved in politics.[2]
He was a leading activist in the struggle against the poll tax in Edinburgh[3] as a member of Labour Party Young Socialists, and became Lothian regional organiser of the SSP. He was selected as its no. 1 candidate in Lothian region for the Scottish Parliament election of 2003, and was elected.[4] He lost his seat in the 2007 election.
On 28 November 2004 he announced his candidature for Convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party after the resignation of Tommy Sheridan. At the SSP conference on 13 February 2005 Fox was elected with 252 votes against 154 for Alan McCombes.[5] He was re-elected unopposed at the February 2006, October 2006 and October 2007 conferences. In the March 2008 conference the position of convenor was abolished and replaced by two national spokespersons, a man and a woman. Fox is currently the sole spokesperson after Frances Curran stood down at the April 2011 conference.
He was the SSP's no. 1 candidate at the European Parliament election, 2009 and against Alastair Darling in Edinburgh South West at the United Kingdom general election, 2010.
The SSP selected him as the no. 1 candidate in Lothian region in the Scottish Parliament election, 2011.
Campaigning
He is the justice spokesman for the SSP, and has campaigned for the abolition of prescription charges, including putting a Bill to that effect before parliament.[6]
In June 2005 he took part in a peaceful protest, interrupting Question Time in the Scottish Parliament, along with three other SSP MSPs, to highlight their claim that parliament had failed to secure the right to demonstrate outside the Gleneagles Hotel where the G8 were meeting. As a consequence, he was suspended from the Scottish Parliament for the whole of September and the salaries of the four MSPs and their staff were stopped.[7]
In 2007 he supported Greenpeace on board their ship Arctic Sunrise in their campaign against the replacement of the UK's nuclear weapons.[8] He had previously visited a nuclear power station on the grounds that ""I am a convinced opponent of nuclear power but an opponent who wants to conduct the debate about new nuclear capacity and our energy needs on the basis of facts. My visit to Torness is at my own request."[9] In the same year he championed the cause of affordable access to housing with his support of Midlothian Council's investment in providing housing.[10]
In 2008 he wrote to the First Minister Alex Salmond seeking an assurance that any future meetings with members of the Northern Ireland Assembly would raise the issue of attitudes towards Lesbian and Gay rights by its ministers.[11] This after 'Ian Paisely Jnr, then the Minister for Equality, had said “lesbians and gay men harm society” and that he is “repulsed” by them.'
More recently he has also been involved in opposing community education cuts,[12] and has marched against cuts to public services.[2]
Other issues he has campaigned around are Climate Change,[13] AIDs, [14] Peace,[15] Education[12] and animal welfare.[16]
In response to proposed tuition fee increases, Fox commented that previous student politicians, such as Jack Straw and Charles Clarke, "were only able to be active in student politics because they didn’t have 10,000 of debt hanging round their neck and they didn’t have to rush off to work in McDonald’s".[1]
Other activities
He co-organises the Edinburgh Mayday Festival and re-founded the Edinburgh People's Festival, which aims to "advance education in the arts in Edinburgh and the Lothians"[17] in 2002.[18] He is also on the editorial board of the Scottish Left Review.
He was one of several SSP members who gave evidence in both the Sheridan defamation case[19] and the subsequent trial for perjury.
In October 2008 Fox stood for Rector at St Andrews University.[20] He came second, losing to Kevin Dunion.[21] He was asked to run for the position by members of St Andrews based student run groups such as Stop The War, Lower Rents Now among others, this due to his previous experience with the pro-peace and social justice movements as well as attending debates at the university.[22] Despite losing in 2008, he has remained active and keenly maintains his links with the university. [23] He stood again in the 2011 election, this time finishing third behind Lord Michael Forsyth and successful candidate Alistair Moffat.
His involvement in the St Andrews University Debating Society in 2005 was commented on in Holyrood. Named in the program as "the Rt Hon Sir Colin Fox MSP", it was remarked the event had impacted on his approach to his parliamentary work, attending in more formal attire. He is quoted as having said of the event "Once a lord, always a lord. But for me, once a knight is quite enough."[24]
References
- ^ a b Published on Mon Jan 19 00:00:00 GMT 2004. "Socialist MSP talks his way into Oxford - Politics". Scotsman.com. http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/politics/socialist_msp_talks_his_way_into_oxford_1_920086. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ a b Colin (2011-10-08). "Colin Fox: Me and Tony Benn in Glasgow Again". Sspcolinfox.blogspot.com. http://sspcolinfox.blogspot.com/2011/10/me-and-tony-benn-in-glasgow-again.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "Profile: SSP leadership hopefuls". BBC News. 2005-01-25. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4204811.stm. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "Colin Fox, SSP Candidates, Lothians Region 2003". Gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk. http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/aspect/aspect2003/soc/a03socxre.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "Fox elected as new leader of SSP". BBC News. 2005-02-13. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4260813.stm. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "MSPs support free prescriptions". BBC News. 2006-01-11. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4600678.stm. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "MSPs suspended after G8 protest". BBC News. 2005-06-30. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4635959.stm. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Colin (2007-02-12). "Colin Fox: Speaking from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise". Sspcolinfox.blogspot.com. http://sspcolinfox.blogspot.com/2007/02/speaking-from-greenpeace-ship-arctic.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Published on Sat Dec 02 12:28:36 GMT 2006. "Socialist Fox on 'power to the people' trip - Around the Capital". Scotsman.com. http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/edinburgh/around-the-capital/socialist_fox_on_power_to_the_people_trip_1_1187336. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Colin Fox MSP (2007-03-12). "VOTE Scottish Socialist Party - Colin Fox: 1st Council house in quarter of a century". Colinfoxmsp.blogspot.com. http://colinfoxmsp.blogspot.com/2007/03/1st-council-house-in-quarter-of-century.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "SSP - NI minister’s homophobic comments". Scottishsocialistparty.org. 2008-02-23. http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/stories/NIminister_homophobic.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ a b Colin (2010-03-11). "Colin Fox: Campaigners step up opposition to comunity education cuts in Edinburgh". Sspcolinfox.blogspot.com. http://sspcolinfox.blogspot.com/2010/03/campaigners-step-up-opposition-to.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "Edinburgh Students Lobby MPs and MSPs to stop Climate Chaos | People & Planet". Peopleandplanet.org. http://peopleandplanet.org/navid3211. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Colin (2006-12-06). "Colin Fox: World AIDS Day". Sspcolinfox.blogspot.com. http://sspcolinfox.blogspot.com/2006/12/world-aids-day.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "Socialist Appeal - Glasgow students discuss the Afghan war". Socialist.net. 2010-02-04. http://www.socialist.net/glasgow-students-discuss-the-afghan-war.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Published on Sat May 28 12:14:51 BST 2005. "Fox calls for ban on animal circus acts - Scotland". Scotsman.com. http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/scotland/fox_calls_for_ban_on_animal_circus_acts_1_1056157. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "Edinburgh Peoples Festival Home Page". Edinburghpeoplesfestival.org. 2010-01-23. http://www.edinburghpeoplesfestival.org/. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Colin (2011-07-06). "Colin Fox: Edinburgh People's Festival Programme Unveiled". Sspcolinfox.blogspot.com. http://sspcolinfox.blogspot.com/2011/07/edinburgh-peoples-festival-programme.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Published on Mon Oct 02 00:13:06 BST 2006. "Battle looms on 'Sheridan confession'". Thescotsman.scotsman.com. http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1455002006. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "2008 | University of St Andrews". St-andrews.ac.uk. 2008-10-24. http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/archive/2008/Title,25312,en.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ "Blog Archive » Colin Fox second". Dundee SSP. 2008-11-01. http://dundeessp.org/blog/2008/11/01/colin-fox-second/. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Published on Mon Oct 10 01:53:35 BST 2005. "The link between Old Boney and Auld Reekie - News". Scotsman.com. http://www.scotsman.com/news/the_link_between_old_boney_and_auld_reekie_1_1099691. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Colin (2009-03-04). "Colin Fox: Viva La Revolution St Andrews". Sspcolinfox.blogspot.com. http://sspcolinfox.blogspot.com/2009/03/viva-la-revolution-st-andrews.html. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
- ^ Published on Thu Oct 13 02:01:21 BST 2005. "Connery gets the nod from the Caledonian Club - News". Scotsman.com. http://www.scotsman.com/news/connery_gets_the_nod_from_the_caledonian_club_1_1100117. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
External links
Progenitors: Scottish Socialist Alliance (SSA) · Scottish Militant Labour · Socialist Workers Party
Platforms: International Socialist Movement · International Socialists · Scottish Republican Socialist Movement · Scottish Socialist Party United Left · Supportive: Communist Party of Scotland
Sheridan crisis and 2006 Solidarity split: Sheridan v News International · HM Advocate v Sheridan and SheridanPeople Leaders: Sheridan (convenor 1998-2004) · Fox/Curran (joint spokespersons)
Former MSPs: Rosemary Byrne · Frances Curran · Colin Fox · Rosie Kane · Carolyn Leckie · Tommy Sheridan
Other notable members: Jim Bollan · Ron Brown · Catriona Grant · Hugh Kerr · John McAllion · Alan McCombes · Lloyd Quinan · Derrick White · Kevin WilliamsonAssociated publications Affiliated organisations Related articles Scottish Service Tax · Referendum on Scottish independenceCategories:- 1959 births
- Living people
- British Trotskyists
- Leaders of political parties in Scotland
- People from Motherwell
- Scottish Socialist Party MSPs
- Militant tendency supporters
- Spokespersons
- Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007
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