Simon Brooke Mackay, Baron Tanlaw (born 30 March 1934) is a former member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Family and business interests

Tanlaw is the fourth son of

Kenneth Mackay, 2nd Earl of Inchcape Kenneth Mackay, 2nd Earl of Inchcape (25 December 1887 – 21 June 1939) was a barrister, a businessman and an earl in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He became Earl of Inchcape on 23 May 1932 after the death of his father, James Mackay, 1s ...

. His mother, the 2nd Earl's second wife, was Leonora Margaret Brooke, daughter of Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, the final

White Rajah The White Rajahs were a dynastic monarchy of the British Brooke family, who founded and ruled the Raj of Sarawak, located on the north west coast of the island of Borneo, from 1841 to 1946. The first ruler was Briton James Brooke. As a reward f ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

, and his wife the Ranee Sylvia. Simon Mackay served as

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

with the

12th Royal Lancers The 12th (Prince of Wales's) Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army first formed in 1715. It saw service for three centuries, including the First World War and the Second World War. The regiment survived the immediate post-war ...

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

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,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n Rina Siew Yong, in 1974. They have a son, Brooke Brooke, and a daughter, Asia Brooke who is married to Andrew Trotter, founder and CEO of Global lingo, a multinational translation company. Tanlaw has eight grandchildren. Tanlaw takes a particular interest in the Far East, in particular

. He was a director of the family firm,

Inchcape plc Inchcape plc is a British multinational automotive distribution, retail and services company headquartered in London. An outgrowth of Calcutta-based Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, Inchcape has operations in 32 countries across Asia, Australia, ...

, 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 automotive only company. Tanlaw currently owns Fandstan Electric Group Ltd, a railway and engineering company. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2012, Tanlaw and his family were ranked equal 63rd in Scotland, with an estimated fortune of £85 million. Lord Tanlaw was the Chancellor of the

University of Buckingham , mottoeng = Flying on Our Own Wings , established = 1973; as university college1983; as university , type = Private , endowment = , administrative_staff = 97 academic, 103 support , chance ...

. He was appointed in April 2010, in succession to Sir Martin Jacomb, before stepping down in 2013, when he was succeeded by The Hon. Lady Keswick. Tanlaw has served as both president and treasurer of the

Sarawak Association Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, K ...

and is a member of the

Oriental Club The Oriental Club in London is an exclusive Private Members’ Club established in 1824 Charles Graves describes it as fine in quality as White's but with the space of infinitely larger clubs. It is located in Stratford Place, near Oxford S ...

, London and

White's White's is a gentlemen's club in St James's, London. Founded in 1693 as a hot chocolate shop in Mayfair, it is the oldest gentleman's club in London. It moved to its current premises on St James's Street in 1778. Status White's is the oldes ...

, London. He was a member of the executive committee of the Great Britain-China Centre between 1981 and 1988.

Political life

Simon Mackay was the unsuccessful

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate for

Galloway Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. A native or i ...

in 1959, and by the late 1960s was joint Treasurer of the Scottish Liberal Party. He was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

on 21 May 1971 as Baron Tanlaw, ''of Tanlawhill in the

County of Dumfries A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

''. Lord Tanlaw sat in the

as a Conservative after many years as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

. He attended the chamber and voted regularly, and took a particular interest in debates concerning

energy conservation Energy conservation is the effort to reduce wasteful energy consumption by using fewer energy services. This can be done by using energy more effectively (using less energy for continuous service) or changing one's behavior to use less service (f ...

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

. He retired from the House on 3 November 2017.

Lighter Evenings Bill

A keen amateur

horologist Horology (; related to Latin '; ; , interfix ''-o-'', and suffix ''-logy''), . is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clo ...

, Lord Tanlaw is a Fellow of both the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

and the

British Horological Institute The British Horological Institute (BHI) is the representative body of the horological industry in the United Kingdom. It was founded by a group of clockmakers in 1858, and has its current premises at Upton Hall in Nottinghamshire, which includes ...

. In 2005, he introduced the Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill, which would move the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...

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 The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is a British charity that aims to save lives and prevent life-changing injuries which occur as a result of accidents. In the past, it has successfully campaigned on issues of road safet ...

. Opponents fear that it would have an adverse effect on people living in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

, where the mornings would be much darker. A similar experiment, known as

British Standard Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and ...

, 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 last appearances in the House of Lords was to argue for lighter evenings, which he did when there was only the most tenuous link to the topic being debated in the chamber. Such did his reputation become that other Lords were able to predict when the issue was to be raised by Lord Tanlaw's appearance in his usual seat on the cross-benches.

Arms

References

External links

Lord Tanlaw
– TheyWorkForYou.com
Biography at the House of LordsPhoto of Lord Tanlaw and his family
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House of Lords {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanlaw, Baron 1934 births Crossbench life peers Conservative Party (UK) life peers People educated at Eton College Living people Mackay, Simon 12th Royal Lancers officers People associated with the University of Buckingham Life peers created by Elizabeth II

Mackay Mackay may refer to: *Clan Mackay, the Scottish clan from which the surname "MacKay" derives Mackay may also refer to: Places Australia * Mackay Region, a local government area ** Mackay, Queensland, a city in the above region *** Mackay Airpor ...