Simon Mackay, Baron Tanlaw

Simon Brooke Mackay, Baron Tanlaw (born 30 March 1934) is a crossbench member of the House of Lords.

Family and business interests

Tanlaw is the third son of the 2nd Earl of Inchcape. His mother, the earl's second wife, was Leonora Margaret Brooke, daughter of Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, the final White Rajah of Sarawak, and his wife the Ranee Sylvia.

Simon Mackay served as second lieutenant with the XII Royal Lancers in Malaya between 1952 and 1954. He married Joanna Susan Hirsch in 1959 and they had two sons, James Brooke and Joshua Alexander, and two daughters, Iona Heloise and Rebecca Alexandra. Mackay and Hirsch later divorced.

He married his second wife, Malaysian Rina Siew Yong, in 1974. They have a son, Brooke Brooke, and a daughter, Asia Brooke. Tanlaw has four grandchildren.

Tanlaw takes a particular interest in south-east Asia, in particular Malaysia. He was a director of the family firm, Inchcape plc, with many business interests in the region from 1967 to the mid-1990s, at which point Mackay family involvement in the company ceased. The business was subsequently restructured into an Auto only company. Tanlaw currently owns Fandstan Electric Group Ltd, a railway and engineering company.

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Tanlaw and his family were ranked equal 1259th, with an estimated fortune of £60 million.

Lord Tanlaw is a patron of the University of Buckingham. He has served as both president and treasurer of the Sarawak Association and is a member of the Oriental Club, London. He was a member of the executive committee of the Great Britain-China Centre between 1981 and 1988.

Political life

Simon Mackay was created a life peer in 1971 as Baron Tanlaw, of Tanlawhill in the County of Dumfries. Lord Tanlaw sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher. He attends the chamber and votes regularly, and takes a particular interest in debates concerning energy conservation, global warming and the environment.

Lighter Evenings Bill

A keen amateur horologist, Lord Tanlaw is a Fellow of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Horological Institute. In 2005, he introduced the Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill, which would move the United Kingdom's time zone forward by one hour, to UTC+1 in the winter and UTC+2 in the summer, for a trial period of three years. Lord Tanlaw claims that this would reduce accidents in the winter as the evenings would be lighter, and has the backing of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Opponents fear that it would have an adverse effect on people living in Scotland and northern England, where the mornings would be much darker. A similar experiment, known as British Standard Time, was trialled between 1968 and 1971 before being abandoned. The bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on 24 March 2006. The government had already rejected the proposal the previous year.

Lord Tanlaw persists in pressing his case for a change of time zone. Most of his recent appearances in the House of Lords have been to argue for lighter evenings, which he does when there is only the most tenuous link to the topic being debated in the chamber. Such has his reputation become that other Lords are able to predict when the issue will be raised by Lord Tanlaw's appearance in his usual seat on the cross-benches. [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2006-12-14a.1617.0&s=speaker%3A13207#g1617.5]

References

* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/lord_tanlaw Lord Tanlaw] – TheyWorkForYou.com
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4834108.stm Peer fights for longer daytimes – BBC News]
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldbills/048/2006048.htm Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill]
* [http://www.parliament.uk/directories/house_of_lords_information_office/alphabetical_list_of_members.cfm#T Biography at the House of Lords]
* [http://4dw.net/royalark/Malaysia/sarawak5.htm Sarawak Geneaology]
* [http://www.kessler.co.uk/dtwt/articles/Richard_v._Mackay.html Richard & Others v. The Hon AB Mackay & Others] "Trust Law International", vol. 11 (1997)
* [http://dfeatures.thirdlight.com/viewpicture.tlx?pictureid=1094047 Photo of Lord Tanlaw and his family] (scroll down and agree to terms and conditions to view image)
* [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/rich_list/article3806337.ece Lord Tanlaw and family] , Sunday Times Rich List, 27 April 2008
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldreg/reg23.htm Register of Lords' Interests] , House of Lords