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

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. He is the senior life peer.

Family and business interests

Tanlaw is the fourth son of Kenneth Mackay, 2nd Earl of Inchcape. His mother, the 2nd Earl's second wife, was Leonora Margaret Brooke, daughter of Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, the final White Rajah of

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

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

in Malaya 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. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

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 corporation, multinational automotive distribution, retail and services company headquartered in London, England. An outgrowth of Calcutta-based Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, Inchcape has operations in 3 ...

, 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 The University of Buckingham (UB) is a non-profit private university#United Kingdom, private university in Buckingham, England, and the oldest of the country's six private universities. It was founded as the University College at Buckingham (U ...

. 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 and is a member of the Oriental Club, 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 London's oldest club and therefore the oldest private members' club in the world. It moved to its current premises on St James's St ...

, 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 candidate for

Galloway Galloway ( ; ; ) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the counties of Scotland, historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council areas of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Gallow ...

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. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

on 21 May 1971 as Baron Tanlaw, ''of Tanlawhill in the County of Dumfries''. Lord Tanlaw sat in the

as a Conservative after many years as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is a minor party or independent member of some legislatures, such as the Parliament of Australia. In the British House of Lords the term refers to members of the parliamentary group of non-political peers. They take their name fr ...

. 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 and better sources of energy for continuous service) or changing one's behavi ...

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

and the environment. He retired from the House on 3 November 2017.

Lighter Evenings Bill

A keen amateur horologist, Lord Tanlaw is a Fellow of both the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

and the

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

. 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

+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 Charitable organization, charity that aims to save lives and prevent life-changing injuries which occur as a result of accidents. In the past, it has successfully campaigne ...

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

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

northern England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...

, 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 eveni ...

, 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
Parliament.uk

Parliament.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanlaw, Simon Mackay, Baron 1934 births Living people Nobility from Dumfries and Galloway Crossbench life peers Conservative Party (UK) life peers People educated at Eton College Mackay, Simon 12th Royal Lancers officers Mackay People associated with the University of Buckingham Life peers created by Elizabeth II Mackay Simon Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 20th-century British Army personnel