- George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock
Infobox MSP
honorific-prefix =
name = George Foulkes
honorific-suffix = MSP
imagesize =
caption =
constituency_MP = Lothians
parliament = Scottish
majority =
term_start =3 May 2007
term_end =
predecessor =
successor =
constituency_MP2 = Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley
South Ayrshire (1979–1983)
parliament2 = Parliament of the United Kingdom!UK
majority2 =
term_start2 =3 May 1979
term_end2 =5 May 2005
predecessor2 =Jim Sillars
successor2 = "constituency abolished"
birth_date = Birth date and age|1942|01|21|df=yes
birth_place =Oswestry ,Shropshire
death_date =
death_place =
birthname =
nationality =
party =Labour Co-operative
spouse =
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =University of Edinburgh
occupation =
profession =
cabinet =
committees =
religion =
website =
footnotes =George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, PC (born
21 January ,1942 inOswestry ,Shropshire ) is a politician in theUnited Kingdom . He is one of only a handful of people (others includeDavid Steel , James Douglas-Hamilton andMike Watson ) to have been a member of the House of Commons, theHouse of Lords and theScottish Parliament . He is currently a member of both the Lords and the Scottish Parliament.Foulkes is a passionate supporter of Scottish
devolution and wrote a few chapters in 'A Claim of Right for Scotland ' in 1988.Foulkes was
chairman of Hearts football club from April 2004 until his resignation onOctober 31 2005 . Foulkes resigned in protest at the majority shareholderVladimir Romanov deciding to dismiss the Hearts chief executivePhil Anderton [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/4395230.stm BBC Sport] ] .Early life
Foulkes attended
Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School , a private school. His political career began in 1963, when he became Senior President of theStudents' Representative Council at theUniversity of Edinburgh . He later moved on to become full time President of theScottish Union of Students (which later incorporated into the UK National Union of Students).House of Commons
Foulkes was first elected in the 1979 general election, as Labour and Co-operative
Member of Parliament for South Ayrshire. After that constituency's abolition in boundary changes, he was elected in the 1983 general election for the new constituency of Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley.As an MP, Foulkes introduced the first-ever proposals for a
smoking ban in public places in 1982, and legislation againstage discrimination in 1985, both throughPrivate Member’s Bill s.After serving on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and the
Council of Europe , he was appointed to the OppositionFront Bench as an opposition spokesperson on Foreign Affairs from 1983-92, then for Defence from 1992-93. He lost that job after he pled guilty to a charge of assault and of being drunk and disorderly after spending a night in police custody following a reception hosted by the Scotch Whisky Association, resulting in a fine of £1,050 [ [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article2175035.ece The Independent] ] . He then served as Joan Lestor’s deputy at Overseas Development from 1994-97.When Labour won the election in 1997 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the
Department for International Development , where he wasClare Short ’s deputy until February 2001, when he was appointedMinister of State for Scotland until the May 2002reshuffle . From June 2003 to May 2005 he was a UK delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe and the Assembly of theWestern European Union . Foulkes was made a member of thePrivy Council in 2002, and stepped down from office at the 2005 general election.House of Lords
On
May 13 2005 it was announced that Foulkes was to be created alife peer . In June 2005 the peerage was gazetted as Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, ofCumnock inEast Ayrshire .He now represents the Labour Party on the Executive of the
Socialist International , member of the Executive Committee of theInterparliamentary Union and Member of the Board of Governors of theWestminster Foundation for Democracy . He is a member of theIntelligence and Security Committee in theCabinet Office since 2007.Lord Foulkes is very active on
Caribbean matters. He serves as President of the Caribbean Britain Business Council, Chair of theDominican Republic All-Party Parliamentary Group , Chair of theBelize All-Party Parliamentary Group, Vice Chair of theTrinidad and Tobago All-Party Parliamentary Group and Vice Chair of the British -Central America All-Party Parliamentary Group.cottish Parliament
Foulkes returned to electoral politics in 2007 when he led the
Scottish Labour Party 's Lothian List in theScottish Parliament election, 2007 , and was vice-chairman of Labour's Holyrood election campaign. Lord Foulkes was elected as aMember of the Scottish Parliament on3 May 2007 .Since his election to the Scottish Parliament, and as the most time-served politician currently serving in Holyrood, Foulkes has been spearheading Labour’s attacks against the minority SNP Executive. For that he has been a regular target of personal attacks by SNP bloggers, whom he branded “CyberNats”. He regularly tables Parliamentary Questions scrutinising the
Scottish Government ’s conduct, and managed to expose several irregularities, including the entertaining of wealthy SNP backers at Bute House at the expense of the taxpayer [ [http://www.journal-online.co.uk/articles/show/2686 The Journal » Salmond under scrutiny for costly dinners ] ] , and the preferential treatment given toStagecoach , whose co-founderBrian Souter gave £500,000 to the SNP, in the Forth hovercraft project [ [http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/02/20/row-after-forth-hovercraft-plan-shelved-86908-20325090/ Row After Forth Hovercraft Plan Shelved - The Daily Record ] ] .Foulkes has also been part of a campaign for presumed consent on
organ donation [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7166900.stm BBC NEWS | Scotland | Call for organ donation opt-out ] ] [ [http://news.scotsman.com/organdonation/SNP-can-lead-UK-in.3476936.jp SNP 'can lead UK in opt-out organ donation' - Scotsman.com News ] ] .Foulkes became embroiled in accusations of racism after referring to the
Scottish National Party (SNP) of acting in a "xenophobic way" [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm BBC News] ] . The formerScottish Labour Party leaderHenry McLeish called on Foulkes to apologise for the SNP 'racism' claim [ [http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1436002007 The Scotsman] ] .References
External links
* [http://www.lordfoulkes.com Official Lords website]
* [http://www.yourlothiansmsp.com/home George Foulkes MSP website]
* [http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/george_foulkes/index.htm George Foulkes MSP] Scottish Parliament biography
Lothians MSPs
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