David Ford

For other uses, see David Ford (disambiguation).

David Ford MLA
Minister of Justice
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 April 2010
First Minister	Peter Robinson
Preceded by	New Creation
Leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 2001
Preceded by	Séan Neeson
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Antrim
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 June 1998
Preceded by	New Creation
Personal details
Born	24 February 1951 (1951-02-24) (age 60)
Political party	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Spouse(s)	Anne Ford
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast
Religion	Presbyterian
Website	http://www.davidford.org/

David Ford (born 24 February 1951) is a politician who is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Ford has been leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland since 2001 and has been Northern Ireland Minister of Justice since April 2010.

Early life

Ford was born on 24 February 1951 to Northern Irish and Welsh parents and grew up in Orpington, Kent, England. Ford was educated at Warren Road Primary School, Orpington and Dulwich College, London. He spent summer holidays on his uncle's farm in Gortin, County Tyrone, and moved to Northern Ireland permanently in 1969 when he went to study Economics at Queen's University Belfast. There he joined the university's student Alliance Party grouping. After graduating, Ford took a year out to work as a volunteer at the ecumenical Corrymeela Community in Ballycastle, County Antrim, before starting work as a social worker in 1973.

Political career

Ford stood unsuccessfully for Antrim Borough Council in 1989, and entered politics full-time when be became general secretary of the Alliance Party. In that role, he was best known as a strong supporter of the then-leader John Alderdice and an advocate of better political organisation and community politics. He was elected to Antrim Borough Council in 1993, 1997 and - after leaving the Council in 2001 to concentrate on Assembly business - again in 2005.

In 1996, Ford stood unsuccessfully for election to the Northern Ireland Forum in South Antrim, but was a key member^{[citation needed]} of Alliance's team to the talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement. In 1997, he obtained 12% of the vote in the British General Election in South Antrim, and in 1998 was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the constituency of the same name. He fought South Antrim again in the 2000 by-election and in the 2001 and 2005 general elections.

Alliance Party leadership

In 2001, Séan Neeson resigned from the Party leadership following poor election results. David Ford won the leadership election on 6 October by 86 votes to 45, ahead of Eileen Bell. Ford was identified^{[by whom?]} with the more Liberal, internationalist wing of Alliance, while Bell was a more traditionalist, bridge-building, candidate.^{[citation needed]} Notably, Ford was also the only Alliance MLA to be also a member of the Liberal Democrats at the time.

Ford outlined his internationalist view point in his speech at the leadership selection when he said:

I am keen to co-operate with other non-sectarian groups in Northern Ireland, including political parties that will stand against the tribal divide. Our links to the South are not as good as they should be, either with the PDs or with Fine Gael, where we have many natural allies. We must also recognise that Northern Ireland is not unique in the world. Our stand is not different in substance from those who work for peace and reconciliation in Cyprus, Palestine or Bosnia. We should learn from friends abroad. To suggest that 'our wee province' is unique is to do a disservice. There is little more objectionable than the sight of the political begging bowl being dragged out by sectional politicians.

Ford gave Alliance a stability which it had lacked since the departure of John Alderdice, but the Party had declined seriously in the late 1990s and all Ford could do was stabilise the situation. Within a month of taking over the leadership, however, Ford had a chance to establish Alliance's relevancy in the post-Good Friday Agreement environment - on 6 November 2001, the Northern Ireland Executive was to be re-established. However, due to defections within his own Ulster Unionist Party, First Minister David Trimble, had insufficient support within the Unionist bloc in the Assembly to be re-elected to his post. Ford and two of his five colleagues re-designated as Unionist, for just 22 minutes, in order to secure Trimble's position, and thereby enabled the devolved institutions to operate for another year. However, Alliance failed to make any political gains from their move, and the UUP and Sinn Féin failed to reach agreement on the decommissioning issue, ensuring that the institutions collapsed again in October 2002.

In the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections of 2003, Ford's seat in the Assembly was perceived to be under severe threat from Sinn Féin's Martin Meehan, with many commentators expecting him to lose it. However, Ford's expertise in nuts and bolts electioneering stood him in good stead. Although Alliance's vote almost halved, Ford's own vote in South Antrim increased from 8.6% to 9.1%. Meehan's vote increased dramatically, from 7.3% to 11.5%, and he started the election count ahead. However Ford had much greater transfer appeal and finished 180 votes ahead of Meehan at the end of a dramatic three-way fight for the last two seats, with the SDLP's Thomas Burns just 14 votes ahead of Ford. Despite the dramatic fall in vote, Alliance, almost miraculously, held on to its six seats in the Assembly, which remained suspended.^[1]

In 2004, Ford made good his leadership election pledge to work with other parties, as Alliance joined with the Workers' Party, Northern Ireland Conservatives and elements of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition to support Independent candidate John Gilliland^[2] in the European elections, achieving the best result for the centre ground for 25 years.

Ford's greatest triumph came in the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, when the party achieved its highest vote share since Alderdice's departure and picked up a seat in what was an otherwise poor election for the moderates. Despite media predictions once again of his demise, Ford himself was elected third in South Antrim, with over 13% of the poll. In the 2011 Assembly elections, the Alliance Party managed to increase their vote by 50% gaining an extra seat in East Belfast and surpassing the Ulster Unionist Party in Belfast.

Northern Ireland Justice Minister

On 12 April 2010, Ford was chosen by the Assembly to become Northern Ireland's first Justice Minister in 38 years. Ford was supported in the Assembly by the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party, the Green Party and the Progressive Unionist Party. Separate candidates for the position were put forward by both the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP, being Danny Kennedy and Alban McGuinness respectively.

Personal life

David Ford is married to Anne, has four grown-up children and lives in rural County Antrim. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

See also

• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

References

1. ^ http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/03sa.htm
2. ^ http://www.gilliland1.org

External links

• Official site
• Alliance Party official site

Party political offices
Preceded by Eileen Bell	General Secretary of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 1990–1998	Succeeded by Richard Good
Preceded by Sean Neeson	Leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 2001–present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by New creation	MLA for Antrim South 1998 -	Succeeded by Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by New creation	Minister of Justice 2010 - present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Ford, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	24 February 1951
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death