David Gibson was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Gibson joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and at the 1935 general election was its candidate in Stirling East and Clackmannan. He was elected to

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of the S ...

, and he stood unsuccessfully in the

1947 Liverpool Edge Hill by-election The 1947 Liverpool Edge Hill by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in England to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the British House of Commons constituency of Liverpool Edge Hill on 11 September 1947. The seat became vacan ...

. In 1948, Gibson succeeded Robert Edwards as chairman of the ILP. As chairman, he focussed on opposing war, and feared that the North Atlantic Treaty would lead to a Third World War. Gibson was succeeded as chairman by Fred Barton in 1951, and focussed on his role as chair of the Glasgow Corporation's Housing sub-Committee on Sites and Buildings, working to build

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

in the city as rapidly as possible. At the 1951 general election, Gibson was selected as the party's candidate for Glasgow Shettleston, but he withdrew shortly before the election, to the disappointment of the party. In 1953, he resigned from the ILP and joined the Labour Party. By 1961, Gibson was the baillie - most senior

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

- of Glasgow and was active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament."CND March in Glasgow", ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 16 October 1961

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, David Year of birth missing Year of death missing Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members Politicians from Glasgow Scottish socialists