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Russell Brown (British Politician)
Russell Leslie Brown (born 17 September 1951) is a Scottish Labour Party politician. He is a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Dumfriesshire (1997–2005) and Dumfries and Galloway (2005–2015). He lost his seat at the 2015 general election to Richard Arkless of the Scottish National Party. * Early years Russell Brown was born in Annan, Scotland, and attended the local Annan Academy. In 1974 he began work as a plant operative at ICI and remained with the company until his election to Westminster. Political history He was elected as a branch chairman within the Transport and General Workers Union 1979–1985. In 1986, Brown was elected as a councillor to the Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council, and was the Labour Group Leader 1995–97. Between 1988 and 1996 he also served as a councillor on the Annandale and Eskdale District Council. He was selected to contest the seemingly safe Conservative and Unionist seat of Dumfries at the 1997 UK General Election. The MP of 3 ...
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Scotland Office
The Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland ( gd, Oifis Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba), often referred to as, and formerly officially called, the Scotland Office, is a department of His Majesty's Government headed by the Secretary of State for Scotland and responsible for Scottish affairs that lie within HM Government's responsibility. The department evolved from the Scottish Office which was formed in 1885. It was renamed the Scotland Office in 1999 following devolution in Scotland, where the majority of its responsibilities were transferred to the Scottish Executive (since renamed the Scottish Government). Role The office is responsible for the representation of Scotland and Scottish affairs in the UK Government, facilitating the smooth operation of devolution, liaising between the central Government and the Scottish Government at Edinburgh and the administering of certain reserved matters of government relating to Scotland. The department sponsors one non-departmen ...
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Annan Academy
Annan Academy is a secondary school in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Annan, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The present school is the result of an amalgamation in 1921 of the original Annan Academy and Greenknowe Public School, although its history goes back to the 17th century. Behind the buildings are the school's sports playing fields which additionally play host to local fairs and other outdoor functions such as the annual national pipe band competition. Adjacent to the school's main car and coach park, which is situated at the front of the buildings, lies the Annan public swimming baths and associated car park. History The original Annan Academy, founded in 1802, was housed in a building in the town's Port St until 1820, when the council built new school premises in Ednam St. From there it moved to further new buildings in Greenknowe in 1840, and these were later replaced by larger ones with a distinctive bell-tower in 1895, which are still in use today and house the sch ...
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Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the House of Commons. PPSs are junior to Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State, a ministerial post salaried by one or more departments. Duties and powers of a PPS Although not paid other than their salary as an MP, PPSs help the government to track backbench opinion in Parliament. They are subject to some restrictions as outlined in the Ministerial Code of the British government but are not members of the Government. A PPS can sit on select committees but must avoid "associating themselves with recommendations critical of, or embarrassing to the Government", and must not make statements or ask questions on matters affecting the minister's department. In particular, the PPS in the Department for Communities and Local Government may not ...
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2001 United Kingdom General Election
The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party was re-elected to serve a second term in government with another landslide victory with a 167 majority, returning 413 members of Parliament versus 419 from the 1997 general election, a net loss of six seats, though with a significantly lower turnout than before—59.4%, compared to 71.6% at the previous election. The number of votes Labour received fell by nearly three million. Tony Blair went on to become the only Labour Prime Minister to serve two consecutive full terms in office. As Labour retained almost all of their seats won in the 1997 landslide victory, the media dubbed the 2001 election "the quiet landslide". There was little change outside Northern Ireland, with 620 out of the 641 seats in Great Britain electing candidates from the same party as they did in 1997. Fa ...
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Select Committee (United Kingdom)
In British politics, parliamentary select committees can be appointed from the House of Commons, like the Foreign Affairs Select Committee; from the House of Lords, like the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee; or as a joint committee of Parliament drawn from both, such as the Joint Committee on Human Rights. Committees may exist as "sessional" committees – i.e. be near-permanent – or as "ad-hoc" committees with a specific deadline by which to complete their work, after which they cease to exist, such as the Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change. The Commons select committees are generally responsible for overseeing the work of government departments and agencies, whereas those of the Lords look at general issues, such as the constitution, considered by the Constitution Committee, or the economy, considered by the Economic Affairs Committee. Both houses have their own committees to review drafts of European Union directives: the Eur ...
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Scottish Affairs Committee
The Scottish Affairs Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland (and prior to that, the Scottish Office), and relations with the Scottish Parliament. It also looks at the administration and expenditure of the Advocate General for Scotland. Unlike the Scottish Grand Committee, MPs from constituencies outside Scotland can, and do, sit on the Scottish Affairs Committee. Membership Following the 2019 general election, the House of Commons appointed the members of the Scottish Affairs committee on 4 May 2020. As of November 2022 the membership is as follows: Changes since 2019 2017-2019 Parliament The election of the chair took place on 12 July 2017, with the members of the committee being announced on 11 September 2017. Changes 2017-2019 2015-2017 Parliament The chair was elec ...
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Maiden Speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention that maiden speeches should be relatively uncontroversial, often consisting of a general statement of the politician's beliefs and background rather than a partisan comment on a current topic. This convention is not always followed, however. For example, the maiden speeches of Pauline Hanson in the Australian House of Representatives in 1996, and Richard Nixon in the United States House of Representatives in 1947, broke the tradition. Margaret Thatcher's maiden speech in the House of Commons in 1959 included the successful introduction of the bill which became the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed members of the p ...
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Struan Stevenson
Struan John Stirton Stevenson (born 4 April 1948) is a Scottish politician. He was the Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 1999 to 2014 and chair and Vice Chair of the Committee on Fisheries, in addition to which he was a member of the Executive of the Scottish Conservative party. He was President of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq and President of the Friends of Free Iran Intergroup (FoFI). Stevenson is President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) and Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change. He is a columnist with '' The Herald'' and an international lecturer on human rights. He is CEO of Scottish Business UK (SBUK), a pro-Union business group. He was educated at the independent Strathallan School and the West of Scotland Agricultural College. Political career Stevenson served his early political career as a local councillor for 22 years, sitting on South Ayrshire Council and its predecessor body ...
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1997 United Kingdom General Election
The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179 seat majority. The political backdrop of campaigning focused on public opinion towards a change in government. Blair, as Labour Leader, focused on transforming his party through a more centrist policy platform, entitled 'New Labour', with promises of devolution referendums for Scotland and Wales, fiscal responsibility, and a decision to nominate more female politicians for election through the use of all-women shortlists from which to choose candidates. Major sought to rebuild public trust in the Conservatives following a series of scandals, including the events of Black Wednesday in 1992, through campaigning on the strength of the economic recovery following the early 1990s recession, but faced divisions within the party over the UK's membership of the Eur ...
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Scottish Conservative And Unionist Party
The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party ( gd, Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Tory an Unionist Pairty), often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories, is a centre-right political party in Scotland. It is the second-largest party in the Scottish Parliament and the third-largest in Scottish local government. The party has the second-largest number of Scottish MPs in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and the seventh overall. The Leader of the party is Douglas Ross. He replaced Jackson Carlaw, who briefly served from February to July 2020; Carlaw had in turn taken over from Ruth Davidson, who held the post from 2011 to 2019. The party has no Chief Whip at Westminster, which is instead represented by the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party in England. In the 2017 UK general election, the party increased its number of MPs to 13 on 28.6 percent of the popular vote – its best performance since 1983 and in terms ...
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Annandale And Eskdale
Annandale and Eskdale is a committee area in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It covers the areas of Annandale and Eskdale, the straths of the River Annan and the River Esk respectively. From 1975 until 1996 it was a local government district. History The two straths of Eskdale and Annandale had each been medieval provinces of Scotland, with Annandale being a stewartry and Eskdale a lordship. The provinces were gradually eclipsed in importance by the shires as the main unit of local administration, with Annandale and Eskdale coming to be seen as two of the three divisions of Dumfriesshire, the other being Nithsdale. Dumfriesshire was administered by commissioners of supply from 1667 and by a county council from 1890. The hereditary jurisdictions of Eskdale and Annandale ended with the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746. A local government district called Annandale and Eskdale was created on 16 May 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which established ...
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Dumfries And Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Wigtownshire, the latter two of which are collectively known as Galloway. The administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Dumfries. The second largest town is Stranraer, on the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel coast, some to the west of Dumfries. Following the 1975 reorganisation of local government in Scotland, the three counties were joined to form a single regions and districts of Scotland, region of Dumfries and Galloway, with four districts within it. The districts were abolished in 1996, since when Dumfries and Galloway has been a unitary local authority. For lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy purposes, the area is divided into three lieutenancy a ...
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